Bears Bites and Insights

Monarchs Crown Bears 1.21.12

2012-01-21T23:03:00.000-05:00

The Manchester Monarchs proved to be a royal pain for the Hershey Bears on Saturday night at Giant Center before a sellout crowd of better than 10,000 patrons and twice overcame one-goal deficits to escape with a narrow 5-4 victory.

Keith Aucoin, the AHL’s leading point producer gave the Bears their first lead of the night at 3:26 of the opening period, but that early bulge lasted a mere ten seconds before Justin Azevedo slid a backhander under Hershey netminder Dany Sabourin at 3:36.

The Monarchs took their first lead of the game 1:05 into the middle frame when Linden Vey’s goal off of a faceoff win against Aucoin ricocheted off Bears’ defenseman Dany Richmond and beyond Sabourin.

The Bears tied the game and quickly took the lead later in the stanza when Jacob Micflikier and then captain Boyd Kane converted for goals with a span of twenty-four seconds, but again the Monarchs responded quickly and tied the game when Jordan Nolan, son of former NHL coach Ted Nolan, tied the game at 9:13 just forty-six seconds after Kane’s caper.

With the teams entering the final frame of regulation time knotted at three, the Monarchs quickly took a 4-3 lead when Cam Paddock, with an assist from Nolan, padded his goal-scoring stats by netting his second goal of the season. However, the battling Bears once again tied the game at four when Micflikier struck on the power play at 14:23. Micflikier’s goal, his 18th of the season, marked the first time that he had scored more than a single goal in any game.

Just over a minute after Micflikier’s marker, the Bears had a chance to possibly put the game away when they were presented with another power play opportunity, but the Monarchs managed to survive that scenario and clinched the victory on a goal by Marc-Andre Cliche at 17:56.

Bears Shoot Down Phantoms 1.7.12

2012-01-08T00:44:00.001-05:00

Who knows what the cause was of the Chocolate and White sharpshooters firing wide of the target with great regularity early in the Hershey Bears’ rematch with the Adirondack Phantoms on Saturday night at Giant Center.

Perhaps it was a case of “Outdoor Classic hangover” from the previous night. Maybe it was simply a case of bad marksmanship, but whatever the reason, they eventually started hitting the bull’s-eye and attained a 5-2 win in a game that turned ugly late in the contest.

In an eerie twist, the Phantoms’ first goal of the game found the inside of the Bears’ net in the same manner as their opening strike in Fridays’ game- off a Hershey defenseman. But unlike Friday’s goal that went in off of Zach Miskovic, tonight’s tally bounced off of Miskovic’s partner Danny Richmond at 8:13.

Late in the first frame, with the Bears still scoreless on the evening, it looked like the visitors would enter the first intermission with no less than a one-goal lead when Ryan Potulny was sent to the penalty box for slashing at 18:49 by referee Ryan Hersey. However, Hershey’s terrific New England native twosome of Keith Aucoin and Chris Bourque combined for a shorthanded goal at 19:27.

The sequence started innocently enough with the Phantoms controlling the puck in the neutral zone, but then Aucoin separated a Phantom from the puck right in front of the official scorers’ table and then dished off a short pass to Bourque who took flight into their defensive zone. Bourque then proceeded to the inside of the left wing faceoff circle before buzzing a shot between the wickets of netminder Michael Leighton.

Early in the second period, the Bears took a 2-1 lead when Boyd Kane craftily deflected a Patrick McNeill point shot by Leighton at 2:29, but their lead lasted less than two minutes thanks to some brilliant work from Tyler Brown and Jason Akeson.

Brown and Akeson, after gaining entry into the Hershey zone, combined to execute a football-like crisscross pass maneuver that seemed to temporarily paralyze the home club, resulting in Brown receiving a pretty no-look pass from Akeson which he promptly put into the Hershey net at 3:57.

Seventy-two ticks of the scoreboard clock into the third period, Cullen Eddy tripped up Jacob Micflikier just inside the Phantoms’ blueline, which put the Bears’ league-leading power play unit into action, and fittingly it was Micflikier who found the back of net only six seconds into the manpower advantage to give the Bears a lead that they would not relinquish. Micflikier’s marker, his 13th of the season, broke a three-game goalless drought for the 5’8” native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, who earlier in the game confronted 6’5” Phantoms’ forward Tom Sestito after he took a run at one of his Hershey teammates.

After the Micflikier goal, defensemen Julien Brouillette and Patrick McNeill dented the armor of Leighton within a two minute span to give the Bears their eventual 5-2 margin of victory.

However, like many of the 172 previous meetings between the clubs, this one was not going to end quietly. With 3:30 left in the game a bevy of bouts broke out on the ice, with some even on the bench. Featured among the mayhem was an encounter between Hershey enforcer Joel Rechlicz and Sestito, who was on the Adirondack bench at the time of the altercation. Sestito, who minutes earlier had turned down a chance to dance with Rechlicz after being slammed into the boards by the bruising winger, was willing to engage him on this occasion from the sanctuary of the bench.

When all the dust had settled from the fracas, referee Hersey had handed out 108 penalty minutes and game misconducts to Rechlicz and Sestito, as well as Richmond and Eddy.

Notes- Bourque’s goal was his 20th of the season and marked the fifth time in his career he has reached the 20-goal plateau.

Outdoor Classic: Bears vs. Phantoms 1.6.12

2012-01-06T22:30:00.003-05:00

Friday night’s game between the Adirondack Phantoms and Hershey Bears at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia was billed as an “Outdoor Classic”. While it may not have had the artistic beauty of a classic contest, it certainly was full of drama as the Phantoms fought back from a late third period deficit to steal a 4-3 overtime win over the Bears before an announced crowd of 45,653.

In falling to their former bitter rivals, the Bears wasted a fine outing from Braden Holtby who entered the game on a four-game winning streak. Holtby, who finished with 40 saves, was stellar throughout the contest, particularly in the second period when he stopped all 17 shots he faced.

The Bears wasted little time in jumping out to an early lead 1-0 lead when Chris Bourque converted the rebound of Keith Aucoin’s shot into his 19th goal of the season only 28 seconds into the contest. Bourque’s goal was his 125th as a Bear.
Mike Testwuide tied the game up at 12:03 by banking a shot off of the body of Zach Miskovic which gave Holtby no chance of stopping the redirection. Miskovic, who was a healthy scratch in the previous seven games, was appearing in his 13th game of the season.

The second period was scoreless until the final two minutes when Kyle Greentree, a former Phantom who scored 26 goals in his two seasons with the club, gave the Bears a 2-1 lead at 18:37. Greentree gathered in the rebound of a Cody Eakin shot and slithered a rebound shot past prone Phantoms’ netminder Michael Leighton to pick up his third goal of the season.

The Bears carried their one-goal cushion into the third period, and it held up until the 7:03 mark when Luke Pither potted his second goal of the season. Pither, after an icing call to the Bears, outdueled Bears centerman Christian Hanson on the ensuing faceoff. After the faceoff win, the Phantoms, persistent in their pursuit to tie the game, kept the puck in the Bears’ zone with Pither finishing off the sequence himself.

With the game on the line in the third period, Hershey’s usually lethal power play which is ranked first in the league entering the contest, had a chance to shine and did just that when Graham Mink, the league’s leader in power play strikes, finished off a beautiful three way sequence involving fellow forwards Bourque and Aucoin by blasting a shot past Leighton at 12:53.

However, the feisty Phantoms tied the game with 20.8 seconds left in regulation when Ben Holmstrom tallied his 10th goal of the season with Leighton on the bench in favor of an extra attacker.

The Phantoms needed less than a minute of the overtime to send the Bears to their fourth overtime setback of the season when Shane Harper fought off Bourque’s back checking effort and backhanded the biscuit by Holtby at 58 seconds.

Notes:

With their multi-point efforts, Aucoin and Bourque each increased their totals in that category to 16 and 13 respectively.

The Bears roster featured just two players who were in their lineup in the last regular season AHL game played in Philadelphia on April 10, 2009: Chris Bourque and Patrick McNeill. Current Bears’ captain Boyd Kane also skated in that game, but he was captaining the Phantoms in that encounter.

Phantoms’ head coach Joe Paterson is a former Bear who played for the club in the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons.

Hershey scratched Matt Pope, Joel Rechlicz, D.J. King and Danny Richmond (veteran).

The Bears’ record this season for fastest goal from the start of the game is 18 seconds, set by Bourque on November 23rd against the Providence Bruins at Giant Center.

Bears’ defenseman Patrick Wellar left the playing surface at 14:44 of the first period favoring his left leg and did not return to the game.

Walker and Pens Waddle by Bears 12.28.11

2011-12-28T22:36:00.001-05:00

Although the logo on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ uniforms is a penguin, the Baby Pens are apparently living a cat’s life as the visitors overcame a two-goal third period deficit and emerged with a 6-5 shootout win over the Hershey Bears at Giant Center on Wednesday night.

The win by the Penguins was their ninth straight triumph at Giant Center, a streak that dates back to last season.

After a scoreless first period, the Penguins tallied the first goal of the game when Eric Tangradi tickled the twine 1:21 into the second period.

Hershey’s Graham Mink (power play) and Cody Eakin countered Tangradi’s goal to give the Bears their first lead of the game, but a goal by Geoff Walker with just over a minute after Eakin’s marker tied it up at two entering the last minute of the second period.

In the eventful last minute, WBS’s Zach Sill struck with his club in shorthanded mode, but a power play goal by Hershey’s Tomas Kundratek at 19:38 sent the game into the third period tied at three.

Power play goals seventy-five seconds apart by Chris Bourque (4-on-3) and Ryan Potulny gave the Bears a 5-3 lead less than eight minutes into the third period, but the pesky Pens sent the game into overtime and eventually the shootout when Tangradi (at 11:02) and Nick Petersen (at 18:07) put pucks behind Bears’ netminder, Dany Sabourin.

Ironically, the shootout went nine rounds and ended with Walker beating Sabourin on the Pens ninth attempt.

Notes-Potulny has a point in each of the five games he has played this season against WBS.

The game drew a sellout crowd of 10,801 and improved Hershey’s average through 17 home dates to 9,250 which is nearly double the average AHL home attendance (5,023).

Bears Pound Pens 12.27.11

2011-12-27T21:55:00.001-05:00

The Hershey Bears scored early and then often against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Tuesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza and pounded the Pens 6-0.

In their first action after the Christmas break, the Bears blitzed out to a 1-0 lead only 2:35 into the game when defenseman Tomas Kundratek was left all alone in front of WBS netminder Brad Thiessen and converted a centering pass from Matt Ford into his 5th goal of the season.

Before the first stanza was over, Kundratek’s fellow defensemen Julien Brouillette and Patrick McNeill also found the back of the net to give the Bears a 3-0 after twenty minutes of play.

In the middle frame, the Pens outshot the Bears by a 3-to-1 ratio (9-3), but thanks to some stellar work from the goalposts and from Bears’ backstoppper Braden Holtby, the Bears carried a 3-0 lead into the third period.

Jacob Micflikier’s power play strike 6:26 into the third period was followed by a pair of capers by Cody Eakin and gave the Bears the final 6-0 margin of victory, increasing their lead to four points over the Penguins and the Norfolk Admirals for first place in the AHL’s East Division.

Notes-The Bears have outscored their opponents in the first period this season, 47-23.

The Bears have not allowed a first period goal to the Pens in the last three games between the clubs.

Tonight’s game marked the seventh time this season that the Bears have received goals from at least five different players in a game.

Hershey’s six-goal margin of victory was their second of the season (7-1 win over Portland at Giant Center on December 3rd).

Bears Singe Sound Tigers 12.17.11

2011-12-18T09:52:00.002-05:00

No Graham Mink? No problem.

The Hershey Bears, skating without Mink, one of the league’s premier power play performers, still managed to pot three power play goals and cruised to a 5-0 shutout win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Saturday night at Giant Center.

Christian Hanson started the scoring for the Bears by netting his first goal in 20 games to stake the home club to a 1-0 lead at 8:56 of the first period with his fourth goal of the season, a power play marker.

“I was getting my chances, but the puck just wasn’t going in,” said Hanson of his struggles. “It was nice to contribute and hopefully I will continue to be able to do that going forward.”

Hanson’s goal came after he received a crisp pass from Chris Bourque, Hershey’s power play quarterback, who was at his customary point position. Hanson knocked the puck down with his stick and then sailed a shot by Bridgeport netminder Kevin Poulin.

“The one-timer wasn’t possible because it was coming across body from (Chris) Bourque, but he made a nice play to find me in the seam. I knew Kane was in front, and I just wanted to get it on net as quickly as possible, and Kaner made a nice play on the screen and the goalie didn’t see it,” said Hanson.

Later in the period, Hershey captain Boyd Kane, who sat out of his club’s previous two games with a minor injury, turned diligent defensive work into offensive output when he netted his 9th goal of the season at 10:54 and beat Poulin on a breakaway after blocking Ty Wishart’s shot at the Bridgeport blueline.

In the middle frame, Bridgeport came out buzzing and outshot the Bears 5-0 in the early going, and 16-7 overall, but they could not beat Hershey netminder Dany Sabourin. Sabourin, who remained stellar all night long, made his best save of the night in the seventh minute of play when he snuffed out Casey Cizikas’ backhand bid on a semi-breakaway.

Matt Ford tacked on a late period goal to give the Bears a 3-0 lead after forty minutes of action. The sequence started with a faceoff in the Bridgeport zone between Ryan Potulny and Bridgeport’s Trevor Frischmon.

Frischmon controlled the draw in the faceoff circle and then whirled around and erroneously fired a perfect pass behind his own net right onto the stick of a surprised Bear, Jacob Micflikier. Micflikier drifted slightly to his left and then threaded a pass to Matt Ford in the crease area; Ford subsequently proceeded to push the puck into the net behind Poulin who seemed incensed that Ford had completed his mission while surrounded by three Bridgeport defenders.

Ryan Potulny then put the Sound Tigers on ice in the third period with a pair of power play strikes in the first half of the final frame which gave the Bears three power play goal on six opportunities on the evening. Counting tonight’s impressive showing with the extra man (3-for-6), the Bears are a combined and 8-for-25 (32.0%) in their six games and post a 4-1-1-0 record without Mink’s services.

“It’s pretty much the same personnel,” said Bourque when explaining the reason for the success. “Mink’s a big body in front, and he’s so good at tipping pucks and making screens; but we’ve got other guys who fill in that spot, and tonight they were able to get some good lanes for shots from the point. I thought Jake (Micflikier) did a great job of getting in the goalie’s eyes and taking away his vision on the shots from the point.”

Notes- Sabourin, who stopped the last 20 shots he faced against the Portland Pirates on December 3rd at Giant Center, has now stopped 52 straight shots at the venue.

Hershey scratches were Graham Mink (veteran), Kyle Greentree (injured), and Maxime Lacroix, Zach Miskovic, and Patrick Wellar (all healthy).

The Bears now lead the league in wins (12) when leading after two periods.
Bourque and Keith Aucoin, who garnered an assist on Potulny’s first goal, have now each tallied at least a point in 23 of the Bears’ 28 outings.

Hershey’s seven game-winning goals this season at Giant Center have been scored by seven different players (Hanson, Bourque, Kane, Micflikier, Mink, Dimitri Orlov, and Potulny).

The Bears have outscored their opponents 24-11 in first period at GC on the season.
Kane’s goal was the Bears 100th of the season.

The Bears three largest margins of victory have occurred with Sabourin in net: tonight’s game, a six-goal verdict over Portland on December 3rd, and a seven-goal verdict over Syracuse on October 23rd.

Pens Put Bears' Win Streak on Ice 12.10.11

2011-12-11T00:33:00.001-05:00

There’s a reason that hockey games are played on the ice and not on paper, and Saturday night’s matchup between Keystone state rivals Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hershey Bears at Giant Center was a good testament to that.

The baby Pens entered the game without the services of Jason Williams who had been recalled to Pittsburgh prior to the game, as well as a couple of other key cogs to their engine who were also recently recalled. Additionally, backup goaltender Scott Munroe was tending the twine. While the Bears entered the game on a four-game winning streak and have recently been playing some of their best hockey of the season, it was the baby Pens who prevailed with a 4-2 win.

After a scoreless first period in which the Bears decisively outplayed and also outshot the visitors 15-10, the teams entered the first intermission with neither team able to put a goal on their side of the scoreboard.

In the middle stanza, it was the Bears who lit the lamp for the first goal of the game with their solid second line combination of Matt Ford, Andrew Carroll, and Ryan Potulny all factoring into the goal, with Potulny doing the goal-scoring honors and garnering his 7th goal of the season in the process at 7:38. The sequence started seconds before the Potulny put-away when Carroll craftily redirected a centering pass from Ford in the direction of Munroe and the puck then slithered toward the goal line before defenseman Carl Sneep steered it away. However, the Bears kept the puck in the WBS zone with Ford eventually gathering it in along the back boards. Ford then proceeded to backhand a pass to Potulny who buzzed a shot by Munroe, with Carroll providing a strong screen in front of Munroe to help in the effort.

Hershey’s lead lasted just over four minutes before the pesky Pens tied the game when Ben Street found an open avenue on the blocker side of Bears’ backstoppper Braden Holtby and squeezed a shot by him at 11:48, just 14 seconds after the Bears had successfully killed off WBS’ third power play of the game.

Within the first four minutes of the final frame, the Pens scored on two of their first three shots to essentially put the game out of reach for the Bears. First, it was Eric Tangradi who tickled the twine on a soft backhander from the bottom of the faceoff circle only 46 seconds in, and then it was a Bryan Lerg one-time laser from between the faceoff circles that did the damage.

The Bears pulled Holtby in the final three minutes of regulation, but it was all for naught when the Pens were awarded an empty net goal at 17:55 when referee David Banfield correctly ruled that Hershey’s Graham Mink had intentionally knocked the net off its moorings.

The Bears added a goal by defenseman Tomas Kundratek in the final minute of a play, which extended his scoring streak to five straight games and also gave rough-and-tumble forward Joel Rechlicz his first point of the season, but it was too little too late for the Bears who fell to 13-7-3-2 in suffering the setback.

Notes- Hershey’s scoreless first period was only the second such occurrence on Giant Center ice this season; the other occasion was also a loss against the baby Pens on October 22nd.

The Bears outscored their opponents 19-7 overall during their four-game winning streak, including 10-0 during the second periods of those four outings.

The game marked the first time this season that Potulny only scored one goal in a game. In three previous games, he scored two in each game.

The Bears scratched injured forwards D.J. King and Kyle Greentree, in addition to healthy scratches Garrett Mitchell, Danny Richmond (veteran), and Zach Miskovic (for the sixth straight game).

Washington Capitals’ coach Dale Hunter and his assistant coach Jim Johnson, the former head coach of the Norfolk Admirals, watched the game from the Bears’ suite along with Bears’ President and GM, Doug Yingst.

Bears Slip by Sound Tigers 12.4.11

2011-12-04T19:15:00.001-05:00

The Hershey Bears finished off a perfect three-game weekend on Sunday evening in Bridgeport, Connecticut at Webster Bank Arena by edging the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 3-2.

The win by the Bears, their 12th of the season, marked their first three-game winning streak since the first three games of the campaign, and move them into a three-way tie with the Norfolk Admirals and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for first place in the AHL’s East Division, but Hershey has one game in hand of each of those rivals.

Bridgeport’s Trevor Frischmon scored the only goal of the first period, but early in the second period, Hershey’s Keith Aucoin took charge and wrested the control of the game to the Bears’ side.

Aucoin, who led the league in points (34) and assists (30) entering the game, netted his 5th goal of the season at 2:50 of the middle frame and then added a shorthanded strike less than three minutes later to give his club a 2-1 lead.

Aucoin’s first goal broke his streak of sixteen consecutive assists, and his shorthanded salvo was the Bears’ first since October 7th when they notched two “shorties” against the Binghamton Senators in their season opener.

Before the buzzer sounded to end the second period, the Bears had increased their lead to 3-1 when Jacob Micflikier beat Bridgeport backstoppper Kevin Poulin from a tough angle. Micflikier’s goal, his 9th of the season, broke a seven-game goal scoring drought for the native of Winnipeg, Manitoba who scored 29 goals for the Charlotte Checkers last season.

In the third period, the Bears survived a late 5-on-3 Bridgeport power play and eventually yielded another goal by Frischmon, but hung on to claim their 7th road triumph of the year.

Bears Pounce on Pirates 12.3.11

2011-12-03T22:05:00.001-05:00

The Portland Pirates, not landlubbers and obviously not teddy bear lovers after tonight’s game, fell 7-1 in a ferocious Hershey Bears attack Saturday night at Giant Center thanks in large part to the 10,000-plus teddy bears that were flung onto the ice on the Bears’ annual Teddy Bear Toss night.

After a tentative start by the Bears which included yielding the first goal of the game for only the fifth time this season and the first time in 10 games, a goal by Portland’s Ryan Duncan, the Bears evened the contest up when former Pirate Graham Mink gave the home fans the opportunity to unleash the bears. Mink buzzed a shot by the blocker of Portland goaltender Jason Pogge at 16:28 with the Bears on a power play. Mink’s marker was his 9th of the season, eight of which have been struck at Giant Center.

After the avalanche of bears that were thrown onto the ice after Mink’s goal, the officials elected to send the clubs to their respective dressing rooms while the stuffed animals were collected, and the ice was then resurfaced before the teams resumed play with 3:32 left on the scoreboard clock for the first period.

After the teams returned to the ice, neither team was able to score as the 3:32 ticked away, but 6:28 into the second stanza, thanks in large part to veteran Ryan Potulny, the Bears grabbed back the lead that they had earlier relinquished. Potulny skillfully utilized his veteran guile to garner his 3rd goal of the season.

Potulny’s linemate Jacob Micflikier started the sequence by carrying the puck just inside the Portland blueline where he slammed on the brakes. After coming to the sudden stop, Micflikier saucered a centering pass to Potulny who was cruising down the slot, where he looked to have a play on the puck, but wisely elected to let it go to winger Matt Ford who put a perfect pass on the tape of Potulny who had outraced a Portland defender to the crease area.

Following Potulny’s plundering of Pogge, the Bears added second period goals from Matt Pope, Julien Brouilliette and Mink, and third period strikes from Matthew Ford and another from Potulny to cruise to their 11th win of the season.

Notes- Hershey scratches were defensemen Danny Richmond (veteran) and Zach Miskovic (healthy), and forwards D.J. King (injury), Garrett Mitchell (healthy), and Kyle Greentree (injury).

Former Capital and current goaltending coach of the organization Olaf Kolzig attended the game.

Mink has scored the Bears’ first goal of the game six times this season at Giant Center.

Bears Best Bruins 11.23.11

2011-11-23T22:38:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday night at Giant Center, the Providence Bruins finally ventured out of New England for the first time this season, and the Hershey Bears, who also beat the Bruins on Thanksgiving Eve in 2009 were thankful for that as they defeated the Bruins 4-3 to break a four-game winless streak.

The Bears, who had scored the first goal in 12 of their 16 games prior to tonight, allowed just 18 seconds to elapse off the Giant Center scoreboard before they lit it up with a goal by Chris Bourque. Bourque combined with fellow New Englander Keith Aucoin and one-timed a shot by Providence netminder Anton Khudobin, who entered the game leading the AHL in saves, to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. Bourque, on his off wing, one-timed a pass from Aucoin, but did not get all of the puck which created a changeup-like effect on his shot, a factor that played heavily in his strike.

“It came a little funny off my blade,” said Bourque. “I didn’t expect it to go in, but those are the bounces you need to get to win games and it was a pretty good start for us. It was nice to be able to build off that.”

Later in the stanza, Hershey goaltender Dany Sabourin allowed a soft shot from David Warsofsky that emanated from halfway up the right wing wall.

“It was one you have to stop. I was drifting back and worried about the guy driving the net, but I really had to play the shot,” Sabourin said.

Rookie defenseman Brett Flemming gave the Bears the 2-1 lead that they carried into the first intermission when his shot from the blueline eluded Khudobin.

Ryan Potulny, playing in his first game since October 8th and his first ever game at Giant Center wearing the Chocolate and White, started the sequence by winning a faceoff in the Providence zone. After the faceoff win, winger Jacob Micflikier gained control of the puck and sent it back to Flemming at the point. Flemming then drifted along the blueline to the boards where he launched a wrist shot that evaded Khudobin thanks to the other winger on the line, Graham Mink, who was coasting through the slot as the shot trickled through.

In the second period, the P-Bruins had a magnificent chance to tie the game right off the opening faceoff, but Sabourin spoiled that bid by snaring Kyle MacKinnon’s shot with his glove hand. The Bears held the Bruins to only five shots in the second period, but Sabourin recovered from his first period misplay and stopped another quality bid by MacKinnon later in the period.

“I bounced back and felt good at the beginning of the game, too, then that goal came,” said Sabourin. “You have to just live with it and move on. The guys played a great game in front of me.”

The Bears enjoyed an 8-3 shot advantage throughout the first 16:43 of the second stanza, but despite that advantage they were unable to lengthen their lead. Then Providence defenseman Ryan Button was sent to the “sin bin” for slashing, giving the home team their first full power play of the night. On the advantage, the Bears peppered Khudobin with four shots before defenseman Patrick McNeill, who kept the puck alive in the Providence zone seconds earlier with a nice keep-in, potted his first goal of the season at 17:35.

“It was kind of a lucky rebound,” said McNeill, who scored on his 25th shot of the season. “Aucoin threw it across to Graham Mink who got a good whack at it. The puck came out of the high slot and I just happened to cruise in from the blue line at that time. I got a couple whacks at it and I even hit it with my skate and I finally willed it in.”

Bears’ captain Boyd Kane gave his club some breathing room 34 seconds into the third period, but the Bruins answered with a goal by Josh Hennessy to make it a one-goal game again at 4-3. However, the Bears never relinquished that lead and came away with the win, which was their first since a November 9th shutout win over Binghamton at Giant Center.

“It’s huge to get out of that rut we were in there,” said Bourque. We were getting one point, but had not been able to get those two points to have a regulation win. Now we want to get some points and catch up in the standings.”

Notes:

The Bears have scored at least one PPG in all nine of their home contests.

Zach Hamill, the P-Bruins’ second leading scorer this season (6g, 7a), sat out the game to serve a one-game suspension.

Hershey scratched injured players Sean Collins and Kyle Greentree, while the healthy scratches were Danny Richmond, D.J. King, Matt Pope, and Garrett Mitchell.

Devils Down Bears in Shootout 11.19.11

2011-11-20T00:23:00.003-05:00

The Hershey Bears continued their recent struggles on Saturday night at Giant Center by dropping their second straight shootout loss in as many games, a 6-5 decision to the Albany Devils. With the loss, the Bears stretched their winless streak to four games (0-1-1-2) and now find themselves five points behind the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the division lead in the AHL’s East Division.

Things started well for the Bears when Graham Mink garnered the first goal of the contest at 4:11 by masterfully deflecting Patrick McNeill’s point shot by Albany’s keeper, Keith Kinkaid. Mink’s marker was his fourth of the season and incidentally, all four of his tallies have occurred at Giant Center, on the power play, and in the first period.

The home team stretched their lead to 2-0 when defenseman Dmitry Orlov lit the lamp at 11:08 of the opening frame. Orlov, after gathering in the puck behind the Hershey net, went nearly the full length of the ice and evaded three defenders in the process before launching a low laser from just inside the Albany blue line that buzzed by the glove hand of Kinkaid.

The dastardly Devils clawed their way back into the contest later in the session and registered a goal from Nathan Perkovich off a pretty feed from former Bear, Chad Wiseman. They then received a late- period gift from Hershey netminder Braden Holtby in the final ten seconds to tie the game at one after 20 minutes of play.

Midway through the middle frame, Eric Gelinas’ power play strike gave the Devils their first lead of the game, but Chris Bourque’s (4-on-3) power play response sent the game into the final frame knotted at three.

Albany took their second one-goal lead of the game early in the third period, but again, it was another power play goal by Bourque at 7:51 that evened things up. Later in the stanza, Albany’s Tim Sestito gave the visitors another one-goal lead, but once again the Bears responded. This time however, it was Boyd Kane who canned the goal with assistance from Bourque and Orlov to send the game into overtime, and eventually into the shootout.

In the shootout, the Bears took a 1-0 lead after the first round when Jacob Micflikier beat Kinkaid and Holtby halted Wiseman’s bid. However, Kinkaid stopped Hershey’s next three shooters and Holtby allowed three successive Albany shooters to tickle the twine to give the Devils the shootout win.

Notes- Keith Aucoin, who collected an assist on Bourque’s first power play goal, shares the AHL lead in power play assists and currently sits one helper behind Peoria’s T.J. Hensick for the overall league-lead in assists.

Graham Mink has now managed at least one point in six of the seven home games in which he has played this season (4g, 6a).

Mark Howe, the former Philadelphia Flyers great who was recently inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, attended the game as a scout for the Detroit Red Wings.

Defenseman Danny Richmond and forward Matt Pope were Hershey’s healthy scratches, while defenseman Sean Collins and Tomas Kundratek and forwards Ryan Potulny, Matt Ford, and Kyle Greentree were the injury scratches.

The Bears have scored the first goal of the game in 12 of the 15 games that they have scored a goal.

Bears Crush Crunch

2011-10-23T23:06:00.002-04:00

In their illustrious seventy-four year history in the American Hockey League, the Hershey Bears have won over 2,500 regular season games. However, it’s a pretty safe bet that not many of those triumphs were attained largely as a result of a seemingly insignificant faceoff in the neutral zone, particularly when the draw occurred in that zone at the faceoff dot that was furthest away from the net that the Bears were attacking.

Sunday night at Giant Center brought those exact circumstances as the Bears rode the momentum from that rare goal to a 7-0 drubbing of the Syracuse Crunch and handed the visitors their first regulation setback of the season, which gave the Bears their first home victory of the young season.

Prior to the game-changing strike, even while building a 1-0 first period lead on Dmitry Orlov’s first goal of the season, the Bears appeared a bit tentative on the attack, which is not surprising considering how they played in a 3-1 loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins the previous night in Hershey.

“I thought we came out a little, not hesitant I would say, but a little tentative knowing that the way we played last night wasn’t the way we wanted to play,” said Jacob Micflikier. “We knew we had to step up and make a big statement tonight, but you never expect to blow out a team like that in this league. When you look at the final score, it’s not really indicative of the way the game was.”

But late in the period with thirteen seconds remaining in the frame, Bears’ fans had little idea that the next ten seconds would be eventful. With an impending neutral zone draw, Hershey coach Mark French elected to make a late line change and took of the line centered by Keith Aucoin, in favor of the line centered by Cody Eakin.

Eakin and AHL veteran Nathan Smith dueled on the faceoff, and the immediate result was a stalemate with the puck lying in the faceoff dot. At that point, Smith swept the puck back into his own zone and seemingly made the safe play, but the puck ended up along the wall in his own zone on the stick of defenseman Mat Clark. Clark, a 6’3” 200-plus pound defenseman, was pressured by the 5’8” 180-pound Micflikier, with the ultimate result being Micflikier’s third goal of the season with 3.1 seconds remaining in the stanza.

“We were going to try and create a play of the faceoff. Obviously it wasn’t the one that unfolded, but one where I was going to get the puck and go in on a rush,” explained Micflikier. “Their D got the puck but didn’t have real good control, so I just went in hard on the forecheck trying to separate him and the puck. He got rid of it quick and (Boyd) Kane made a great play to throw it on the net and right to a place where I could post up."

The Bears then reeled off four power play goals in the remaining forty minutes of action, with Micflikier collecting a helper on one of those tallies. With their power play success on the evening (4-for-6), the Bears find themselves in the upper echelon of the league in that category.

“You hope to be pretty successful out there. We’ve had a bunch of games where we’ve gone 4-for 5 or something like that, which causes the numbers to get a little skewed, but we’ve also had nights where we didn’t produce. It’s early in the year and things tend to even out, but it’s good for everybody on that unit to get some confidence by having the success we’ve had,” Micflikier said.

Notes- In last year’s six-game series between the Crunch and the Bears, the visiting team won all six contests.

The Crunch entered the game with an unblemished record in regulation (3-0-1-1).

Before the game, the Bears reassigned goaltender Philipp Grubauer to the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL. Grubauer, a nineteen-year-old rookie from Germany, has yet to see action in the crease for the Bears this season.

The Bears scratched defenseman Danny Richmond and Brett Flemming and forwards Joel Rechlicz, Graham Mink, Ryan Potulny and Kyle Greentree.

Dany Sabourin collected the shut-out by stopping all 36 Syracuse salvos. This was Sabourin’s third shutout as a Bear, his first at Giant Center and incidentally, his second against Syracuse.

Pens Prey on Bears

2011-10-22T23:29:00.002-04:00

When one considers the proximity between their respective cities, it’s not much of a surprise that the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have made Giant Center their unofficial home away from home. On Saturday night at the aforementioned venue, the visitors continued their recent mastery over the Hershey Bears and skated away with a convincing 3-1 win.

The Penguins, who with this victory have now won six straight outings against their Keystone State neighbors to the north, improved to 3-2-1-1 on the season while the Bears, who are a perfect 4-0 on the road, slipped to 0-1-1-0 at home with the setback.

Brian Gibbons, who scored the baby Pens’ first goal in their 3-2 loss to the Bears earlier in the season at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in the only prior meeting between the clubs on this young season, replicated that feat at 3:36 of the first period by deflecting a Jason Williams point shot by Hershey goaltender Braden Holtby while the visitors were on a power play.

The first period foretold the futility that the Bears would endure in this encounter as they failed to establish a prolonged presence in the Pens’ zone despite their 17 shots on net; Hershey also short-circuited one of their two extra-man advantages by taking a penalty of their own.

Holtby, who had a shaky outing in the Bears’ home opener a week ago, kept his club in the game in the first period by stopping 13 shots, including close-range bids from Gibbons (right pad save) and Colin McDonald (left pad, shorthanded) in the latter stages of the stanza.

Early in the second period, the Pens were pestering Holtby again, but he was up to the challenge and made a couple of early saves with some help from defenseman Patrick McNeill, who swept a puck out of danger when Holtby left a rebound in his crease.

However, the pesky Pens eventually doubled their lead when Penguins’ defenseman Simon Despres made it 2-0 at 7:19. Despres’ dart, which occurred with the teams skating at four aside, came only 29 seconds after Graham Mink derailed a Bears’ power play by committing a tripping infraction.

Bryan Lerg lengthened the Pens lead to 3-0 at 10:45 of the second period when he finished off a picturesque give-and-go sequence with Paul Thompson.

Hershey captain Boyd Kane thwarted Brad Thiessen’s bid for a shutout late in the third period by canning his second goal in as many days to make it 3-1 with a power play marker, but Kane’s caper would be all of the offense his club could muster on the evening.

Notes- Thiessen pitched a 26-save shutout on Friday night in Springfield against the Falcons.

With Dany Sabourin still on recall to the Washington Capitals, Holtby made his third straight start for the Bears.

The Bears scratched defensemen Danny Richmond and Brett Fleming and forwards Maxime Lacroix, Joel Rechlicz, Ryan Potulny and Kyle Greentree.

The Bears have now given up the first goal of the game in their last two games after scoring the game-opening goals in the prior four contests.

Hershey’s first period blanking was the first time season they failed to score in the first period and also marked the first time this season that they faced a deficit after 20 minutes of play.

Chris Bourque, who leads the league in shots on goal, registered only a single shot on net in this game, but did extend his point streak to six games with an assist on Kane’s goal, while his linemate Keith Aucoin saw his five-game point streak come to an end.

2011-10-20T12:49:00.005-04:00

During his playing career, including the 200 games spent with the Hershey Bears, Louis Robitaille was a master at getting under the skin of his opponents and goaded numerous victims into taking penalties that they ordinarily would not take. Robitaille’s unique riling talents were not limited to the ice-- he often drew the ire of his own coaches for his tactics, including current Washington Capitals head coach, Bruce Boudreau, when he and Robitaille were both with the Bears.

Boudreau, in fact, was once quoted as saying, “Louis is a guy that you hate when he’s on the other team, but hate him a little less when he’s on yours.” So it probably came as a bit of a surprise to Boudreau and a few of Robitaille’s other bench bosses when over the summer, after playing in an AHL career low 50 games with the Albany Devils last season, he decided to retire as a player and become a head coach.

"It was always in mind that I wanted to be a coach when my career was over, and last year was a difficult one for me with me being an AHL veteran,” said Robitaille, who coaches the Valleyfield Braves, a Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League club.

“With my son now being three and a half, I thought it was the right time for me to start a new career. I’m still at a relatively young age (29), and I still have the passion for the game and I miss playing, but after going through a couple of interviews over the summer and talking it over with my family, I thought it was the right thing to do."

Currently, very early in his rookie season guiding the Braves, Robitaille’s charges are off to a wonderful 6-1-1 start. It should be of no surprise to fans of the Bears and Capitals who Robitaille revealed which of his former coaches influenced him the most.

“I would say the two coaches that I try to model are Bruce (Boudreau) and John MacLean. I was involved with Bruce for three years in Hershey and with me staying in Hershey over the summer; I could tell how dedicated he always was to his job. Bruce was also a player’s coach and he never looked at is as how many hours it was he was putting into doing his job, but he put in whatever time that it took to make himself a well prepared coach.”

“I’m still learning, but that’s the way I’m doing this job. I’m putting a lot of hours into it to make it work, and if you look at our team right now, we basically play the same system that Washington does.”

Throughout his Hershey career, Robitaille was often criticized for his reluctance to drop the gloves by his frustrated foes, but if stats be the judge, they say that Robitaille accepted many more invitations than he denied.

“I had so many fights during my time there, whether I was getting jumped or going after a guy,” said Robitaille, who was officially credited with 938 PIM’s and 83 fights in his three years in Hershey. “To judge if it’s a really good fight you not only have to think whether you did well, but you also have to look at it to see if it was at the right time.”

He continued, “I think one of my best fights was against Brennan Evens (Binghamton) in my first year in Hershey. That was a toe-to-toe battle at Giant Center. I also had a really good one against Eric Meloche in the 2006 playoffs (game four) against Norfolk that I thought changed the momentum of that game in our favor.”

Perhaps the biggest occupational hazard of any hockey players, particularly those who play with the reckless abandon that Robitaille played with is the risk of injury--particularly head injuries. Over the course of this past summer, the hockey world suffered a number of deaths to players that were at least in some way attributed to concussions and other symptoms related to head blows. That is a subject with which Robitaille is very familiar, and he has a seemingly plausible explanation of the spike in head injuries over the last few years in hockey.

“I’d say that I had about three or four of them that the doctors told me that I had to stop playing for a bit, and I probably had a couple more than that but I never said anything and I kept playing,” confessed Robitaille. “It’s like a little headache here and there, but you keep going because every hockey player suffers mild concussions here and there. You have the mentality that you don’t want to sit a game.”

“Back in the days when I first came into the AHL, you were still allowed to clutch and grab a little bit. But after they changed the rules, my style of game was when I had the puck between the blue and the red lines that I was going to softly chip the puck in and go in on the defenseman on the forecheck because they were not allowed to hold you up. The guys are in such good shape now and going 100 miles an hour and the defenseman in particular have no time to react and because of that, their heads are very exposed. So I think the new rules have a lot to do with the many head injuries.”

Last season at Giant Center, in what turned out to be his next to last appearance as a player in that venue, Robitaille was at the center of controversy when he collided with Hershey netminder Dany Sabourin behind the net. The hit earned him a game misconduct and a major penalty for charging Sabourin, and it essentially ended Sabourin’s season. Even now, however, as he did on that night, Robitaille maintains his innocence in the incident.

“It was definitely not intentional,” he said. “It was my first shift of the game and I was coming straight off the bench on the forecheck. My emotion was running high and I was excited to play and my intent was to go hard on the d-man. (Brian) Fahey had the puck behind the net and I know Dany stopped the puck and I thought he was getting out of there quicker. I think he stayed there to slow me down on the forecheck and I never stopped.”

“It was just a bad accident,” explained Robitaille. “If I had wanted to intentionally hit him, I would have hit him right in the number. If you look at the video, I caught his right leg and it was because I was trying to move out of the way because I realized I was kind of close. It’s one of those moments where you go out on the forecheck and you don’t realize what’s going on.”

Robitaille rates the 2005-06 Calder Cup winning season as the best of his career. In that campaign, he received his first and only NHL call-up, scored a career high of seven goals, and along with Joey Tenute and the combination of Eric Fehr and Jakub Klepis, played on a ferocious fourth line that would have been a first line combination in many clubs. In fact, Robitaille collected the sole assist on Tenute’s goal two minutes into the Cup-clinching game in Milwaukee, a game in which the Bears never looked back after that great start and cruised to a 5-1 victory.

There is no doubt that fans throughout the AHL all have lasting memories, whether they are positive or negative, of Robitaille who always seemed to be in the spotlight. But how does he want to be remembered by the fans?

“Oh, they’re gonna remember me as one of the premier pests in the AHL,” Robitaille chuckled. But really I want to be remembered as a guy who never backed down from anybody and as a guy who was always there for my teammates. I did take some bad penalties sometimes, but I was always a guy that had our team in mind first and I always worked hard for them. If it was something that would give a spark to my team, I would do it. Lastly, I was someone who always worked hard when I was on the ice. I was not the most talented guy on the ice, but to play eight years in the AHL and to play in the NHL and win the Calder Cup was to live my dream.”

At the conclusion of my conversation with the former number 24, Robitaille made a specific request that I include this message to the Hershey fans:

“Make sure you tell them that I’ll be at some games at Giant Center this year, and that I want to say thank you to all of the fans for their great support. They were always extremely nice to me and my family.”

Ads Sink Bears in OT 10.15.11

2011-10-15T22:49:00.001-04:00

For Jacob Micflikier and the rest of his Hershey Bears teammates, it was a game of give and take in their home opener on Saturday night at Giant Center as the Bears gave up a two-goal second period lead, then rebounded to tie the game on a Micflikier power play goal late in regulation, only to lose in overtime to the Norfolk Admirals, 6-5.

Things started out well for the Bears as Graham Mink struck on the power play at 6:42 to give his team a 1-0 goal lead over the Ads and their goaltender Jaroslav Janus who made the start for the visitors after making a relief appearance on Friday night in Norfolk.

Then the defenseman took over the scoring with Norfolk’s Radko Gudas racking up a pair of goals within a six-minute span against Hershey goaltender Braden Holtby before Sean Collins capped off the period for the Bears, blasting a buzzer beating shot by Janus at 19:46.

The Bears regained the lead again on the power play at 6:01 of the second when a determined Keith Aucoin authored a beautiful pass to Chris Bourque, who found the back of the net for his fourth tally of the season. Aucoin’s helper was his 500th in the AHL.

“They were complaining all night about me in the draws, and then their guy was complaining to the refs, and I was standing there for about 20 seconds and I had enough,” said Aucoin. “So I went for a brief skate because I started to cramp up a little bit. I really wanted to win the draw after all of that and Mink helped me out and got it to Wellar, who gave it to me and I passed it as quick as I could to Bourque.”

The Bears doubled their lead midway through the period, but the Admirals then ran off three straight goals to take a 5-4 lead 8:59 in the final frame of regulation. But the “Battlin’ Bears” bounced back to tie the game on a power play goal by Micflikier at 13:15.

“We didn’t get as many good looks tonight as we wanted, especially compared to last night. Coiner made a good play to the net and Mink did what he is so good at, creating some space in front, and I was able to bang in the rebound in the far side,” Micflikier said.

However, Micflikier’s miscue in overtime, which the Admirals converted into the game-winning goal, doomed the Bears and sent the Admirals out of Giant Center with a fiercely-contested triumph.

“I got it by the first guy with control, and then I tried to slow it down a little bit to our d-man, but I misplayed it right into a turnover to their guy and their second guy came in for support and he cashed it in,” explained a somber Micflikier.

Notes- The Bears are 5-2-0-3 in their 10 season opening games at Giant Center, including a 1-1-0-1 record against Norfolk.

The Bears scratched defensemen Dmirty Orlov (illness), Brett Flemming (injury), Ryan Potulny (injury) and Francois Bouchard (healthy), and defenseman Zach Miskovic made his season debut.

Mink was returned to Giant Center for the first time since June 9, 2009. In that encounter, he scored the Bears’ first goal in a 3-2 loss to the Manitoba Moose in the Calder Cup Finals.

The eleven combined goals established a new Giant Center record for goals scored in a Bears’ home opener, erasing the previous high of eight set in Hershey’s 7-1 victory over the Syracuse Crunch in the 2008-2009 season.

The Bears have scored the first goal in each of their four games.

Steve Yzerman, Vice President and General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning which is Norfolk’s parent team, attended the game.

Bears Navigate by Norfolk

2011-10-14T22:56:00.003-04:00

It may not have been a perfect effort from head coach Mark French’s crew, but it was an effective one as the Hershey Bears outdueled to Norfolk Admirals in Norfolk on Friday night, 7-5, improving their record to a perfect 3-0 on the campaign.

The Bears, who had not allowed more than twelve shots in a period entering the game, permitted 22 in the first period, but still entered the first intermission in good shape considering the lopsided shot totals, deadlocked at two, on the strength of a Chris Bourque power play goal and an even-strength strike from rookie defenseman Brett Fleming (first as a pro).

At the end of the first period, the Admirals took a penalty in the Bears’ zone and put the visitors on a power play to start the second stanza and although they technically failed on the endeavor, they ultimately succeeded on scoring the go-ahead goal, with Cody Eakin authoring the marker with a one-time laser that was launched from the top of the faceoff circle at 2:02.

Then Bourque and Mark Barberio traded goals eighty-five seconds apart before Jacob Micflikier put the exclamation point on a three-goal middle stanza for the Bears by netting a power play goal for his first tally wearing the Chocolate and White.

Eakin added another goal at 2:07 of the final frame, a long-range wrister that eluded Dustin Tokarski and spelled the end of his night in net for Norfolk. Tokarski was replaced by Jaroslav Janus.

Former WBS Penguins’ forward Michel Ouellet gave the Ads a shot of adrenaline shortly after the goaltending change, beating Hershey netminder Dany Sabourin at 2:25. However, Keith Aucoin curtailed any momentum the home team gathered from the Ouellet goal by netting his second goal in as many games at 6:06.

Norfolk added another late goal from Richard Panik at 16:26, but the Bears did not panic, and Sabourin and his mates held on for the win without allowing another tally.

Notes: In their last visit to Norfolk last season, the Bears stormed back from a 4-1 first period deficit with a four-goal second period to capsize the Admirals, 5-4.

Norfolk’s 22-shot first period total was just shy of the Bears average for shots against in a game entering the contest (27).

Patrick McNeill, who made his AHL debut for the Bears at Scope Arena on November 7, 2007, when he collected an assist on a goal by Joe Motzko, collected three assists tonight.

The Bears were 6-1-0-1 in eight outings against Norfolk last season.

Graham Mink, who left the Bears after their 2009 Calder Cup season, assisted on Micflikier’s goal to post his first point as a Bear since a March 28, 2009 game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at Giant Center.

Tonight’s game was Kyle Greentree’s 300th AHL game.

Bourque had three multi-goal games in his last season with the Bears in 2009-10, including a pair against the Admirals.

The Bears and Admirals continue their home-and-home weekend series tomorrow night at Giant Center.

Bears Bounce by Pens

2011-10-09T00:33:00.003-04:00

Longtime fans of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins already know what Hershey Bears’ goaltender Dany Sabourin is capable of, having witnessed his 30-win season in 2005-06when his outstanding work tending the twine for the baby Pens earned him the Baz Bastien award as the best goaltender in the AHL. On Saturday night, they were eyewitness to some more of his solid work as he backstopped the Bears to a 3-2 road win over the Penguins.

Sabourin got off to a rough start last season in his first season as a Bear, but eventually regained his form and finished with a solid 14-9 record. However, he struggled in two losing outings against his former club, including an October 30th outing at Giant Center where he only lasted 9:51 when he yielded way to backup goalie Todd Ford after allowing three goals on only seven shots.

“Those types of things are always there a little bit, but I came into this year thinking it doesn’t matter which team we’re playing. I knew they beat me last year, but that’s in the past. I’m just focused on looking forward, and I was pretty happy with my performance tonight. It was a team win where everybody played well and showed up,” said Sabourin, who finished with 23 saves and made his best save of the night in the first period when he beat down Bryan Lerg's shorthanded breakaway attempt.

In keeping with the night long “bounce theme”, the Bears benefitted from a fortuitous bounce in attaining the game’s first goal at 11:27 of the first period. With the puck high along the boards and just inside the blueline, WBS’ Eric Tangradi attempted to clear his zone, but Christian Hanson was able to get his puck on the attempt and the puck found its way to Kyle Greentree, who was stationed at the top of WBS goaltender Brad Thiessen’s crease. With little room to operate, Greentree stickhandled in a phone booth and skillfully slid a backhand shot behind Thiessen.

The Bears lead lasted exactly four minutes until the Pens’ Brian Gibbons went coast-to-coast with his team in shorthanded mode to knot the contest at one with an unassisted goal, but the visitors quickly regained their one-goal lead only twenty seconds after the Gibbons goal when Matt Ford intercepted a clearing attempt high in the WBS zone and then fluttered a shot on net that bounced off a stunned Thiessen and into the net.

The Pesky Penguins knotted the game at two when veteran Niko Dimitrakos, making his WBS debut, dented the twine 1:06 into the middle frame, converting a nice centering pass from Colin McDonald into his first goal as a baby Pen.

Things quieted down after Dimitrakos’ goal, but the Bears were presented with a glorious opportunity to take command of the affair just past the midway point of the session when they earned a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:09. Before the Bears went to work on their mission, head coach Mark French, with his team mired in a 0-for-6 power drought in this young season, called a timeout to talk strategy with his troops. However, despite the chalkboard talk from their coaches, the Bears squandered the opportunity, mostly as a result of excessive passing and minimal shooting (unofficially three shots on goal during the sequence).

“It’s one of those things that early in the year where you haven’t had a lot of time to practice,” said French. “So I thought it was good to use your timeout to make sure that everybody knew what their responsibilities were. I thought we had some pretty good chances to score on the 5-on-3 but the bottom line is that it didn’t go in. Oftentimes when you don’t score on those opportunities it comes back to bite you, but fortunately today it didn’t."

Christian Hanson, who scored his first goal as a Bear (shorthanded) in Binghamton on Friday, had a splendid chance at his second of the season in the fifteenth minute of the frame, but his breakaway forehand attempt was gloved by Thiessen and the game remained tied entering the third period.

Early in the final frame of regulation, the Bears finally put a positive number on their power play stats with Keith Aucoin doing the goal-scoring honors. Aucoin, after taking a pass from Ryan Potulny down low, had an option to pass to Matt Ford, but decided against that option and buzzed a blast by the glove of Thiessen at 3:33.

“The 5-on-3 was pretty frustrating. We had a couple of good opportunities, but the rebounds bounced to the side and to them. We stayed confident in ourselves and remained upbeat because we knew we’d get another chance, and we capitalized. It was kind of 2-on-1 and I saw him there, but the d-man actually played it really well. My last option is always to shoot, and knew I had to get it up and I was able to get it up over his glove,” said Aucoin.

Notes- The Bears scratched defenseman Zach Miskovic and Brett Flemming and forwards Joel Rechlicz and Graham Mink (veteran scratch).

The Bears have only allowed a thrifty 13 shots against in the first period of their two games this season.

Hershey defenseman Patrick McNeill left for the dressing room area in the first period after absorbing a hard hit, but later returned to the game.

Penguins forward Zach Sill missed the game, serving a suspension for illegal hit to the head that he laid on Miskovic at Giant Center in a pre-season game on October 1st.

Bears Spoils Party, Best B-Sens in Season Opener

2011-10-08T00:27:00.007-04:00

It started as a night of celebration for the Binghamton Senators who commemorated their capturing of last season’s Calder Cup, but the Hershey Bears, perhaps feeling a bit “shorthanded” without the hardware in hand from the previous two seasons, scored a pair of shorthanded goals and escaped the Broome County Veterans Memorial Coliseum with a narrow 3-2 victory on Friday night.

The Bears, who were forced to cool their heels for fifteen minutes before the puck officially dropped at 7:20 instead of the scheduled 7:05 start, stormed out of the gate with head coach Mark French’s starting forward line of Kyle Greentree, Matt Ford, and Mattias Sjogren putting a couple of shots on Binghamton backstoppper Robin Lehner before eventually drawing an early power play.

“We talked about keeping our focus, but I attribute it to the veterans in our room who are able to handle things like that, where as a younger team in that kind of situation might cause some distractions,” said French.

“That’s what you want them to do. If you get the honor of being the first line on the ice, especially with a team like ours when we can roll four lines, they need to do that and they did, drawing the penalty and giving us momentum right away.”

After squandering the initial power play as well as a subsequent advantage, the game remained scoreless when the B-Sens went on their first power play at 6:57; however, only 23 seconds into the power play, Hershey newcomer Christian Hanson corralled a loose puck at center ice and then beat Lehner by lofting a shot over his glove hand.

With just over seven minutes remaining in the opening frame, the Bears held a 10-1 shot advantage and their starting goaltender Braden Holtby had about as major of a work load as the Maytag repairman. But that situation changed rather suddenly as the B-Sens found an offensive groove and peppered Holtby with some quality chances, one off of the stick of Jim O’Brien that Holtby halted by making a splendid sprawling save, and another by Pat Cannone that Holtby brilliantly thwarted with a well placed poke check.

“The two preseason games that I played, I had the same situation, but I was able to get a few shots in at the end that got me moving and into it,” said Holtby. “Those are saves that I should make; there were a few more that I made that were things that I was working on, so I was actually more proud of them. I saw the puck well tonight and the forwards and defenseman did a great job all night of fronting everyone and clearing things out in front of the net.”

Also, in the latter stages of the first frame, French did some line juggling by mixing and matching combinations, a scenario that was necessitated by all of the special teams’ play in the opening period.

“We had the power plays early and then some penalty kills, and one thing we wanted to do tonight was to get everybody involved and not have guys sitting. So it was out of necessity rather than trying to get guys going and changing things up. We’re still trying to find chemistry, and those types of situations sometimes allow you to find some natural fits,” said French.

In the second stanza, special teams were in the spotlight again when Chris Bourque scored a shorthanded goal by combining with fellow New England native Keith Aucoin on the strike, and with Binghamton answering Bourque’s tally with a power play goal.

In the latter stages of the stanza, the Bears regained their two-goal cushion when defenseman Patrick Wellar wandered down from his point position to penetrate the Senators’ defense and then deftly deposited a shot by Lerner at 13:46.

“We were told to be really aggressive tonight so I pinched in and was able to keep the play alive,” said Wellar, who scored three goals last season. “As soon as Greentree got the puck, I knew he was going to shoot it. I knew we had numbers so I went to the net. I got kind of lucky because the goalie was already moving and I was able to make a quick move and throw it on net.”

Before the buzzer sounded to signify the end of the second period, Wellar was again in the spotlight. This time, he was in the defensive zone, and due to Holtby being caught wandering behind the net, Wellar got to try out his best goaltender impersonation by stopping a shot that was ticketed for the back of the net.

“Things happen so fast in this small rink; the puck popped loose and we had a little miscommunication,” Wellar said. “Actually, I didn’t see it, but I felt it hit my skate. Sometimes you get lucky and you get to cover up for a miscue, but those are rare.”

The Senators looked to have cut the Bears bulge on a power play in the early stages of the third period during a goalmouth scramble, but after some initial confusion, the officials conferred with the goal judge and an apparent Senators goal was nullified.

“I’m not sure,” said Holtby when asked what happened on the play. “The puck went behind the net and I slid back and he shot it. It went past my first pad, but hit the end of my other pad. I don’t know if I slid into the net with it or not, but I didn’t think there was any evidence that it went in.”

The Senators eventually got their second goal at 16:03 of the third period when veteran Mark Parrish potted a goal from between the circles after receiving a perfect setup from Corey Locke, but Holtby and the Bears held on for the victory.

Notes- The Bears scratched defenseman Danny Richmond and Zach Miskovic and forwards Francois Bouchard and Andrew Carroll.

The conclusion: Winds of change bring Stuccio to Hershey

2011-10-07T07:08:00.002-04:00

While Stuccio says that the Hershey job is a dream come true, he also is fully aware of the huge challenge of replacing Walton, who enjoyed amazing popularity while doing the Bears’ games. Though Stuccio gained experience when he replaced Grace, and prior to that by replacing popular meteorologists Berry Bird and Barry Finn in the Scranton area, he said that experience never makes the task of replacing popular personalities any less daunting.

“It doesn’t get an easier, to be quite honest, and it’s no fun at all. You have a target on your back, and you’re under the microscope or whatever cliché you want to use. I realize that’s what it’s going to be like for me in the beginning in Hershey, especially for a guy like me who tries to please as many people as possible and who tries to listen to people’s suggestions about things that I should or shouldn’t do. I love to meet the fans and come to know them on a name basis. With my demanding schedule that can be tough to do, but that’s just the kind of person that I am.”

“John’s been the only broadcaster the team has had since they’ve been in Giant Center, but I consider it an unbelievable honor to be in the long line of famed Bears’ broadcasters. Although I fully anticipate getting some negative press right off the bat because that’s just human nature, I can’t and won’t let that cloud my plans of the way I do games and bring the excitement to the fans with the broadcast.”

So, what should fans expect from Stuccio’s broadcast? Will it be similar to Walton’s, or will it be different? Will he have a signature call like Walton’s familiar, “Good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight!”, or will he wing it on his goal calls?

“I’m just going to come in and broadcast the games to the best of my ability,” said Stuccio. “I’m not going to be a guy who comes in and says ‘I want this going here and that going there.’ John had a format that was very successful and I’m going to stick to that formula. Now as far as the social media aspect, John had no peers in this league and that is even more incredible since he did it by himself. However, I’m going to give it my best effort to try to maintain a high standard of excellence in that category.”

“As far as goal calls, I’ve never really had a signature one, but I have had one or two players that Wilkes-Barre had that when they scored a goal, something came out off the top of my head. As far as John’s calls and what he said, that stuff was awesome; but as far as if I’m going into this with a preconceived call? No, it will be a totally on the fly thing because my philosophy is that’s the way to do play-by-play, adlib and fresh.”

“I try to bring every detail of the game to the listener, and sometimes I go into such great detail that I tire myself out doing so. I’ve learned to dial back on doing that a little so that I can have enough energy to finish the game with the same enthusiasm that I started with. I get very excited calling the action, particularly when it’s a good moment for my team, but I can also get as equally excited when the opposition makes a good play.”

Winds of change bring Stuccio to Hershey

2011-10-06T11:00:00.005-04:00

It has been 10 years since a memorable trade has been consummated by the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins organizations, and that exchange was a significant one for both clubs as the Pens shipped Jaromir Jagr and another player to the Caps for a trio of players which included Kris Beech.

But over the summer, the clubs essentially created another transaction when Scott Stuccio was named the play-by-play voice of the Hershey Bears, replacing John Walton who was elevated to the position of the radio voice of the Washington Capitals of the NHL.

Stuccio, 38, a lifelong resident of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area who will reside in Derry Township for his initial season of calling the action for the Bears, did not have an AHL team to cheer for while he was growing up as the baby Pens did not join the league until the 1999-2000 season.

“On our cable system, we used to get the Flyers games out of Philly on PRISM and we also got the New York Rangers games out of New York on WWOR. I have three older brothers and because of WWOR showing the Rangers’ games, they all became fans of the Rangers. But I’m eight years behind my youngest brother and WWOR eventually started showing a few New York Islanders games as well. I decided to be different and root for the Islanders and ironically, the first hockey game that I ever saw in person was the Islanders and Rangers in Madison Square Garden.”

Undaunted by the prospect of having no local team to support, Stuccio, despite cell phones being years away from becoming a staple of society, became a bit of a revolutionary by rallying local neighborhood troops for some impromptu pick-up games to fill the void between games on the tube.

“We didn’t have many kids around where I lived who were into hockey, but when the Mylec company started to come out with more street hockey equipment, I started to buy it. Some friends and I would often get games going in the driveway, so I guess you can say I started hockey in our neighborhood. “

After graduating from high school, Stuccio journeyed off to Penn State University where he graduated with a degree in meteorology in 1995. He had his eye on a local job that was attractive to him, but Mother Nature had other ideas and opened up the door to the entertainment field.

“Compared to today, getting a job as a meteorologist was relatively easy back then because there were a lot of jobs open at that time. The National Weather Service still had an office at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport and that’s where I wanted to go. TV was the last thing that I wanted to do, but after the big blizzard in 1996, the government shut down the airport and relocated it to Binghamton and various other places.”

Stuccio continued, “So, in the spring of 1996, I was working at the only other job I’ve ever had that wasn’t in TV and radio, at the Wilkes-Barre golf club in Bear Creek, when I was approached by some people at WYOU about the meteorologist job. Keep in mind that this was when the internet was only two years old and I have no idea how they found out my information, but somehow they did. After they twisted my arm several times to come in and try the job out in front of the weather wall, I finally went in and did it, and they liked what I did and offered me the job, and that’s where I stayed for twelve and a half years.”

During the first couple of years of his employment with WYOU, Stuccio and a few of his meteorologist buddies from Penn State took up a rather daring pursuit in the summer months and racked up a plethora of miles on the odometer by storm chasing around America’s heartland in pursuit of tornadoes, all in the name of science.

“Me and a couple of my classmates from Penn State who went to Oklahoma University to get their masters and their doctorates decided to give it a try. We were pretty confined to Oklahoma and Kansas for much of the first year that we did it, but unfortunately there was not much going on that year storm- wise, so we just basically sat around and enjoyed the summer there, which was burning hot.”

“The last year we were up in Minnesota and South Dakota for most of that time, but we ventured down through Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and a lot of Texas. We ended up driving 8,118 miles in two weeks through 21 states and saw three tornadoes.”

During the latter years of his stint at WYOU, Stuccio became involved with the WBS Penguins, first as an off-ice official, and then he eventually found his way into the broadcast booth.

“I actually started doing color when I was still at WYOU, and I was also an off-ice official for the Penguins. After doing a couple of the Penguins’ games in the color role, I started thinking to myself what it might be like to call a game myself. However, because of dabbling in the color role, I couldn’t do the off-ice official job anymore due to the possibility of bias which you are not supposed to have as an off-ice official.”

Then, his big break in hockey broadcasting came late in the 2006-2007 season when the Pens’ play-by-play man Tom Grace was sidelined with back woes, and the door was opened for Stuccio to live out a childhood fantasy, a pursuit that his TV gig prepared him well for.

“Weather is the only segment of TV news broadcast that is not scripted; it’s totally ad lib on the part of the meteorologist unless the weather person has no knowledge of the science. Otherwise, it’s all off the cuff and it’s filling or stretching time or getting out quickly depending on what somebody is telling you in your ear. I never thought there would be a tie in, but there is.”

“When I was a kid and we were watching the Rangers or Flyers on TV, I would often mute the sound and call the game myself; when I filled in for Tom for those games, I told myself that I could get used to this.”

When Grace left the Pens to pursue other interests at the start of the 2007-08 season, Stuccio assumed the play-by-play position first on an interim basis and then eventually on a full-time basis. However, Grace eventually returned to the club prior to last season, and Stuccio kept his foot in the broadcasting door by serving as Grace’s color commentator for all home games and a handful of road games. He also took on the new job of Director of Communications for the Pens which was a position that he was content to stay in had he not been named to his new position with the Bears.

“That job was a lot of fun, and it also allowed me to do color. So, I can honestly say that I would have been happy to stay there in that job, because I would still be able to do color in that position, and there was always a chance of possibly doing play-by-play again somewhere down the road.”

To be continued tomorrow.......

Winds of change bring Stuccio to Hershey

2011-10-06T10:25:00.005-04:00

It has been 10 years since a memorable trade has been consummated by the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins organizations, and that exchange was a significant one for both clubs as the Pens shipped Jaromir Jagr and another player to the Caps for a trio of players which included former Herhsey Bear Kris Beech.

But over the summer, the clubs essentially created another transaction when Scott Stuccio was named the play-by-play voice of the Hershey Bears, replacing John Walton who was elevated to the position of the radio voice of the Washington Capitals of the NHL.

Stuccio, 38, a lifelong resident of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area who will reside in Derry Township for his initial season of calling the action for the Bears, did not have an AHL team to cheer for while he was growing up as the baby Pens did not join the league until the 1999-2000 season.

“On our cable system, we used to get the Flyers games out of Philly on PRISM and we also got the New York Rangers games out of New York on WWOR. I have three older brothers and because of WWOR showing the Rangers’ games, they all became fans of the Rangers. But I’m eight years behind my youngest brother and WWOR eventually started showing a few New York Islanders games as well. I decided to be different and root for the Islanders and ironically, the first hockey game that I ever saw in person was the Islanders and Rangers in Madison Square Garden.”

Undaunted by the prospect of having no local team to support, Stuccio, despite cell phones being years away from becoming a staple of society, became a bit of a revolutionary by rallying local neighborhood troops for some impromptu pick-up games to fill the void between games on the tube.

“We didn’t have many kids around where I lived who were into hockey, but when the Mylec company started to come out with more street hockey equipment, I started to buy it. Some friends and I would often get games going in the driveway, so I guess you can say I started hockey in our neighborhood. “

After graduating from high school, Stuccio journeyed off to Penn State University where he graduated with a degree in meteorology in 1995. He had his eye on a local job that was attractive to him, but Mother Nature had other ideas and opened up the door to the entertainment field.

“Compared to today, getting a job as a meteorologist was relatively easy back then because there were a lot of jobs open at that time. The National Weather Service still had an office at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport and that’s where I wanted to go. TV was the last thing that I wanted to do, but after the big blizzard in 1996, the government shut down the airport and relocated it to Binghamton and various other places.”

Stuccio continued, “So, in the spring of 1996, I was working at the only other job I’ve ever had that wasn’t in TV and radio, at the Wilkes-Barre golf club in Bear Creek, when I was approached by some people at WYOU about the meteorologist job. Keep in mind that this was when the internet was only two years old and I have no idea how they found out my information, but somehow they did. After they twisted my arm several times to come in and try the job out in front of the weather wall, I finally went in and did it, and they liked what I did and offered me the job, and that’s where I stayed for twelve and a half years.”

During the first couple of years of his employment with WYOU, Stuccio and a few of his meteorologist buddies from Penn State took up a rather daring pursuit in the summer months and racked up a plethora of miles on the odometer by storm chasing around America’s heartland in pursuit of tornadoes, all in the name of science .

“Me and a couple of my classmates from Penn State who went to Oklahoma University to get their masters and their doctorates decided to give it a try. We were pretty confined to Oklahoma and Kansas for much of the first year that we did it, but unfortunately there was not much going on that year storm-wise, so we just basically sat around and enjoyed the summer there, which was burning hot.”

“The last year we were up in Minnesota and South Dakota for most of that time, but we ventured down through Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and a lot of Texas. We ended up driving 8,118 miles in two weeks through 21 states and saw three tornadoes.”

During the latter years of his stint at WYOU, Stuccio became involved with the WBS Penguins, first as an off-ice official, and then he eventually found his way into the broadcast booth.

“I actually started doing color when I was still at WYOU, and I was also an off-ice official for the Penguins. After doing a couple of the Penguins’ games in the color role, I started thinking to myself what it might be like to call a game myself. However, because of dabbling in the color role, I couldn’t do the off-ice official job anymore due to the possibility of bias which you are not supposed to have as an off-ice official.”

Then, his big break in hockey broadcasting came late in the 2006-2007 season when the Pens’ play-by-play man Tom Grace was sidelined with back woes, and the door was opened for Stuccio to live out a childhood fantasy, a pursuit that his TV gig prepared him well for.

“Weather is the only segment of TV news broadcast that is not scripted; it’s totally ad lib on the part of the meteorologist unless the weather person has no knowledge of the science. Otherwise, its all off the cuff and it’s filling or stretching time or getting out quickly depending on what somebody is telling you in your ear. I never thought there would be a tie in, but there is.”

“When I was a kid and we were watching the Rangers or Flyers on TV, I would often mute the sound and call the game myself; when I filled in for Tom for those games, I told myself that I could get used to this.”

When Grace left the Pens to pursue other interests at the beginning of the 2007-08 season, Stuccio assumed the play-by-play position first on an interim basis and then eventually on a full-time basis. However, Grace eventually returned to the club prior to last season, and Stuccio kept his foot in the broadcasting door by serving as Grace’s color commentator for all home games and a handful of road games. He also took on the new job of Director of Communications for the Pens which was a position that he was content to stay in had he not been named to his new position with the Bears.

“That job was a lot of fun, and it also allowed me to do color. So, I can honestly say that I would have been happy to stay there and continue to do that job because I would have still be on the air, doing color, and there was always a chance of possibly doing play-by-play again somewhere down the road.”

Pens slide by Bears

2011-10-02T00:16:00.001-04:00

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, despite the efforts of Hershey goaltender Dany Sabourin who was outstanding in net for a second consecutive game, swept their two-game weekend exhibition series over the Hershey Bears and downed the home team at Giant Center on Saturday night, 2-1.

Hershey was making their pre-season home debut and roared out of the gate; they mustered the first six shots of the game against Pens’ netminder Scott Munroe and garnered a 1-0 lead on a pretty backhanded shot by Matt Pope only 1:31 into the contest. Pope’s goal was assisted by his linemates, Keith Aucoin and Graham Mink.

Immediately after Pope’s potting, the Penguins made huge strides in closing the shot differential by notching eight consecutive shots on Sabourin. Included among those eight salvos was a penalty shot attempt by WBS’ Chris Barton at 13:56 that was snuffed out by Sabourin, who repelled the bid by kicking it out in a razor like fashion with his right pad. Sabourin stopped all eight shots he faced in the first period as the Bears took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

The second period was more of the same for the Bears in the early going, minus the goal, as the home club registered the first five shots on net before Barton stemmed that tide by putting a point blank shot on Sabourin, who squashed Barton’s bid. Barton was the catalyst of another Penguins quality chance later in the stanza when he spearheaded a two-on-one break with Brian Gibbons. Gibbons took the shot on net only to have Sabourin make a sparkling save to preserve Hershey’s one-goal lead heading into the third period.

Altering their strategy in the early going of the final frame, the Pens tied the game at one when Ben Street came down the center avenue and then proceeded to skillfully slide a puck between Sabourin’s right pad and the right post.

With less than three minutes left in regulation, Gibbons went solo into the Bears’ zone and backhanded a shot by the glove of Sabourin at 16:39 to give the Penguins the win.

Notes: The Columbus Blue Jackets have placed AHL sniper Alexandre Giroux on waivers, but it’s highly unlikely that the Bears/Caps will have any interest in the former Bear, primarily due to their already abundant supply of veterans.

Hershey defenseman Zach Miskovic was injured midway through the second period on a hit by Zach Sill that drew blood from the facial area. Miskovic never returned to the game and Sill was given a match penalty for deliberate attempt to injure by referee Ryan Fraser for the hit.

Munroe, who played his college hockey at the University of Alabama-Huntsville and has been the losing goaltender in playoff series against the Bears while patrolling the pipes for the Philadelphia Phantoms and Bridgeport Sound Tigers, finished the game with 34 saves while Sabourin finished with 23 stops.

Pope was among a group of Bears who was assigned to their ECHL affiliate, The South Carolina Stingrays after the game.

Predators Plod Past Capitals

2011-09-20T23:35:00.006-04:00

There was a nostalgic feeling at Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena last night as professional hockey returned to “Charm City” for the first time since 1997, with the Washington Capitals falling to the Nashville Predators 2-0 in the Capitals’ exhibition opener. Adding to the nostalgia, the notoriously bad ice at Baltimore’s arena also returned and made sustained play on either team’s part nearly impossible.

There were few bright spots for the Capitals on this night, particularly in the first period, but one of them was defenseman, Sean Collins, who registered a solid body belt on Nashville’s Martin Erat on his first shift of the game. He also registered a couple of shots on goal in the frame and has skated in 19 contests for the Caps over the last two seasons.

“Everyone’s really excited to get back into it,” said Collins, who is trying to earn his spot on Washington’s opening night roster. “It’s one of those games that it’s not really hard to get up for. I was excited to get out there and try to make some plays. As the game went on, the ice got a little bit chippier, and it was a little bit tougher to make those plays. It was nice to get a good start.”

“It’s always nice to play with someone you’re comfortable with,” said Collins when asked how much his pairing with Patrick McNeill helped his performance. “I played last year with Patrick for quite a while and we’ve played together for four years. He helped out a lot.”

Although he admitted the ice conditions presented a huge challenge for the players, Collins refused to say the surface was the worst that he has ever skated on.

“It forces you to play a quick puck moving, dump-and-chase kind of game. It seemed like a lot of our passes were bouncing off sticks. It’s hard to handle a puck out there. The conditions made a difference, but both teams were playing on it.”

The Predators struck for their first goal of the game at 17:31 of the second period, with Chris Mueller doing to the honors.

Nashville tacked on another goal in the third period when Colin Wilson was able to slide the puck past goaltender Michal Neuvirth and sprawling defenseman, Patrick Wellar, but Collins provided a bit of comic relief in the frame by getting his stick stuck in the door in the Caps zone, with efforts to remove it proving futile. Eventually, Collins threw in the towel and skated away, sans stick.

“I was trying to go stick-on-puck with that guy and kind of flush it up the boards, and it got stuck in the Zamboni door. I tried to pull on it and it wouldn’t come out. I couldn’t just sit in the corner and yank on it,” he laughed.

Notes: Former Capitals and Hershey Bears defenseman, Tyler Sloan, who signed with the Predators over the summer after being bought out of the remainder of his contract by the Capitals, skated in the contest, as did Kyle Wilson, who spent four years with the Capitals organization before signing with the Columbus Blue Jackets last season.

Capitals’ coach Bruce Boudreau has a bit of Baltimore hockey history in his past, having skated in 17 late season games for the Baltimore Skipjacks in the 1984-85 season, when he joined the club after the culmination of his season in Germany. Nashville head coach Barry Trotz also has a Baltimore hockey background, having served as an assistant coach and head coach with the Skipjacks.

Capitals head athletic trainer, Greg Smith, also served in the same capacity for the Baltimore Bandits in the 1996-97 AHL season when they were the top minor league affiliate of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Nashville netminder, Pekka Rinne, who started the game before yielding way to Jeremy Smith in the second half of the second period, was bested by the Bears in the 2006 Calder Cup Finals when he patrolled the pipes for the Milwaukee Admirals.

The Capitals continue their exhibition season tomorrow night, when they travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets.

Bears Bounce Back to Even Series

2011-04-18T13:49:00.001-04:00

The bounces and the breaks, which were both pivotal factors in the Hershey Bears’ loss to the Charlotte Checkers in game one of the series on Thursday night at Giant Center, went the way of the home club on Sunday evening at the same venue, as the Bears evened their East Division Semifinals series against the Charlotte Checkers with a 4-2 win.

In the first period, it was the bounces that were featured as the Checkers’ Jon Matsumoto and Chris Terry both pinged shots off the post behind Hershey netminder Braden Holtby, but it was the Bears who netted the only goal of the frame when defenseman Patrick McNeill’s backhanded shot bounced off the catching equipment of Charlotte netminder Justin Pogge at 12:02.

Fast forward to the second period and it was Bears gathering in their first two-goal lead of the contest, with Andrew Kozek authoring his first playoff goal at 4:25 after a nice keep-in by defenseman Dimitry Orlov, who earned the sole helper on Kozek’s caper.

The two-goal lead quickly wilted down to a single goal when Zac Dalpe dented the twine for the second time in as many games against the Bears, but Brian Willsie willed the Bears back to another two-goal lead at 7:08. Willsie’s initial attempt was blocked by Checkers’ forward Jacob Micflikier, but he then gathered in the loose biscuit and blazed a wrist shot by the glove hand of Pogge.

Dalpe was at it again later in the frame and fired a shot by Holtby with the Checkers on the power play while the Bears’ keeper was apparently distracted by Matsumoto lying in his crease; but the Bears once again bounced back, building their third and final two-goal lead of the game at 17:05, with defenseman Sheldon Souray doing the honors with the Bears in shorthanded mode. Souray, on an odd man jaunt onto the Checkers’ zone, took a short pass from Steve Pinizzotto and then fired a missile by the helpless Pogge, who futilely waved his glove hand at Souray’s salvo.

In the third period, the Checkers picked up their offensive pace, and apparently scored a goal in the final minute of play, but after a consultation among the officials, the goal was waved off due to coincidental minor penalties assessed to Dalpe and Souray.

The series locale switches to the Tarheel State this week, with games scheduled Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte.

Stuck Helps Bears Keep Eyes on the Prize

2011-04-15T13:45:00.016-04:00

When the calendar flips to April after a long winter and an even longer American Hockey League season, it signifies that the start of the Calder Cup Playoffs is right around the corner. For longtime Hershey Bears’ trainer, Dan “Beaker” Stuck, who is entrusted with the care of the players whose every shift, good or bad, potentially turns the course of a series, it also means a lot more.

In addition to his duties with the Bears, Stuck, who has been the Bears’ trainer for the last 27 years, is also the head trainer for all of the entertainment shows at HERSHEYPARK.

Seemingly, that would cause a scheduling conflict with his Bears’ duties, due to the club going to the Calder Cup Finals in four of the past five seasons, but just like every other detail, Stuck has it covered.

“I communicate with Jim Paul, who is the entertainment manger at the park, and if by chance something pops up that needs my attention, I’ll setup my schedule so that I can go over and meet with the performers,” said Stuck. “Hopefully, it’s during an off time over here so that I can go over there and see them and make it back here before it interferes with something over here. If I’m not here, there will definitely be coverage for me.”

Stuck’s duties at HERSHEYPARK are much like his responsibilities with the Bears as he tends to whatever physical aliments need his attention, but over the years, his area of expertise has also evolved into other areas pertaining to medical treatment.

“I take care of any injuries the performers may suffer, so if they get hurt during a show or they need any assistance as far as stretching or getting something taped up, I’m there. It’s not always sports-related stuff, but it may also be something else such as personal issues that may need attention.”

“Just like a lot of the players here in the hockey club who are very young, a lot of the performers are also very young, and some of them are even high school kids getting ready to go into college,” he explained. Sometimes, I wish I’d taken some classes in psychology, because sports psychology is what I do with the hockey team where I’m like a den mother, giving the kids a little of the direction that they need, and it’s also a lot like that over at the park.”

The Bears, who have enjoyed unparalleled success since reuniting with the Capitals prior to the 2005-06 season, capturing three Calder Cup Championship in five seasons, failed to reach playoffs in their final two seasons prior to their Capital affiliation, and Stuck, who has unique insight into the matter, offers up his points of view on the reasons for the Bears’ recent success, as well as for the failures in the final years of the Colorado days.

"I don’t know whether there were more Europeans or more younger guys in the last couple years with Colorado, but maybe their motivations were different than the Washington guys. These guys that come here now, maybe we’re so close to Washington and we’ve had such huge success that I think it rubs off. After not having too much success in the minors with Colorado, I think it hurt them a little bit, but they were such a great organization up top, but maybe it just didn’t flow to us at the bottom.”

This season, the Bears were beset by a bevy of injuries, which often found Stuck in the locker room tending to an existing injury while another injury occurred on the ice. In those cases, Bears’ equipment manager, Justin Kullman, made an ice call to the wounded Bears’ player.

“This is what happens: there’s only one Beaker,” joked Stuck. "The normal thing is to have the other trainer go out to tend to an injury if I’m busy, but the advantage of having Justin go out is that he is someone the players know. We’ve had a lot of injuries this year; it was a tough year. So, if someone goes down and I’m off with somebody, he goes out. If I have injured guys back here I want to follow up with and I’m taking care of someone, I might get out to the bench late, but I always tell the boys that even though I’m not there right away, I’m right in the back so I’m quicker than Life Lion.”

The grind of the regular season guarantees its share of events, like winning and losing streaks, and 40 home dates; likewise, Stuck says he can pretty much know when a particular player is going to come into his office, and what he’s going to need, with a “Groundhog Day” feeling prevailing. However, in the playoffs, Stuck says it’s a totally different animal.

“During the playoffs, I have more responsibilities to make sure there aren’t any excuses. There are things that the players do not need to worry about when it comes to the game time; when they come to the rink, they can be totally focused on the game and they don’t need to worry about anything else.”

A big part of that “no worries” mentally for the players in the playoffs is Stuck’s attention to detail in the spread that is laid out for the players on game days during the playoffs. I can personally attest to the spread consisting of fruit bars, bagels with toppings, as well as a bountiful variety of fruits with an assortment of sports drinks and water.

However, don’t be fooled into thinking the way the Bears organization goes to great lengths to keep their players nourished during the playoffs is the norm around the league. Stuck says that he has had more than a few players with prior AHL playoff experience be in total awe when they see what the Bears do since some other organizations only offer water, and maybe a fruit bar during their other stops.

“They are really catered to here,” said Stuck, who added that the team even goes the extra step to provide a toaster for the bagels. “As much as I’m the trainer, sometimes I feel like I’m the concierge at the Ritz or at the Hotel Hershey. I’m that person that makes sure they have nothing to worry about but the game. I try to make sure everything is exactly the same for them in the playoffs, whether it’s a home game or an away game.”

On the eve of his 22^nd playoff season as the Bears’ trainer, Stuck still seems to be enjoying his job as his constant smile and cheery demeanor certainly attest to, and according to him, retirement is still a number of years away.

“I’ve been fortunate to win so many Cups (five),” said Stuck, who jokingly added, “When we win, it’s all because of the trainers, when we lose, I pity the coaching staff, it’s all them.”

“I look back and think what a great career it’s been, but it’s not over and my candle is burning as bright as it was before. On the day that people come by and look at me and I’m not smiling and enjoying myself, that’s when I’ll know it’s enough. I still love this life every day and I love what I do here, and I want to keep doing it, and age for me is only a number.”

“I’m in my mid-40s, and to be around these younger guys is great because I have to come down to their level and be relaxed and talk about anything that goes on in their lives. I look at it as an opportunity to help them out in life, not just in hockey. I’m still having a good time and looking forward to things to come."

Eventually, Stuck conceded that he knows that someday down the road he will hang up his trusty fanny pack full of medical supplies and make way for someone else to take over his position, and quite possibly his replacement could have a very familiar last name, if the price is right.

“Just like when anybody else who has been in a job a long time goes to retire, there’s always somebody willing and ready to take over. In fact, my son, Dustin, is graduating high school this year and he’s taking his athletic training and then he’ll go to PT school, that’s his goal.”

“I told him it’s great, so I’ll only have a couple more years to wait for you. Then he told me that he doesn’t want my job, but Greg Smith’s job (Washington Capitals’ trainer). He said he wants to make more money.”

Photos Courtesty of JustSports Photography

Pirates Pilfer Overtime Win From Bears

2011-03-19T22:50:00.001-04:00

Despite potting a couple of power play markers, it was a couple of golden extra man advantages gone by the wayside that figured prominently into the Hershey Bears’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Portland Pirates on Saturday night at Giant Center.

After opening the score on an early goal by Andrew Joudrey at 1:34, the Pirates tied the game at one on a power play goal by Matt Ellis only to see the Bears regain their lead when Patrick McNeill cashed in on the Bears’ first power play of the contest.

Later in the period, the Bears offered little offense and few shots on Portland netminder David Leggio during a full five minute power play, and also added to their frustrations early in the second period when they failed to capitalize on an extended 5-on-3 situation.

However, the Bears did garner another power play goal later in the second period when Andrew Gordon, who returned to Giant Center ice for the first time in over a month due to injury, lofted a rebound into the upper portion of the net.

However, the pesky Pirates scored the next two goals in regulation and potted the game winner in overtime when Mark Parrish pounced upon a rebound and backhanded a shot behind Bears netminder Braden Holtby who had been returned to the Bears earlier in the day by the Washington Capitals.

Bears Tame Tigers

2011-02-20T10:22:00.002-05:00

Bears Mangle Moose

2011-02-06T19:47:00.001-05:00

The Hershey Bears, who blew a three-goal lead to the Manitoba Moose the night before and eventually fell in a shootout, avenged that setback by marching over the Moose on Sunday afternoon, 5-1.

With the win, the Bears improved to 17-8-0-2 on home ice, and 31-14-1-3 overall, moving within six points of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the top spot in the AHL’s East Division with a date with the baby Pens on the schedule slated for next Sunday.

In a tightly contested opening period, which featured each team registering only 5 shots on net, neither team was able to find the back of the net. With high-scoring forward, Andrew Gordon, out of the lineup, the Bears only managed one shot on net from a forward, with that shot coming from Keith Aucoin at the two minute mark.

In the first minute of the second period, Aucoin drew a hooking penalty against Yann Sauve, putting the Bears, who were blanked in four forays on the power play on Saturday, on their first of the game.

Only 20 seconds into the Sauve sentence, the Bears struck with the extra man when Brian Willsie drifted down from his point position and then wristed a “wicked wrister” by Manitoba netminder, Tyler Weiman, at 1:08, with Aucoin and Patrick McNeill gathering the helpers on the goal.

Shortly after Willsie’s goal, the Moose went on their second power play of the game, but were denied by the Bears and goaltender, Todd Ford, and preserved Hershey’s 1-0 lead. Ford, starting his third consecutive game, made an outstanding glove save on Evan Oberg during the sequence, denying Oberg his sixth goal of the season.

The visitors from Manitoba persisted after their failed power play excursion, eventually getting tying the goal at 5:43 when Bill Sweatt took advantage of a defensive zone turnover by the Bears, converting it into his 13th goal of the season.

Entering the final frame deadlocked at one, the Bears jumped out to an early 4-0 shot lead, and then took the lead for good when Boyd Kane converted from close range at 7:13. Kane’s caper, the Bears’ 100th goal on home ice this season and was registered with each team skating a man short, was the eventual game-winning goal.

Zach Miskovic, Kyle Greentree (PPG), and Ashton Rome tacked on insurance goals for the Bears, giving Ford, who stopped 16 shots, his 15th career AHL win.

After Barren Start, Giroux Back In All-Star Form

2010-12-27T08:16:00.000-05:00

In the history of professional sports, there have been many famous duos. In baseball, it was Joe Morgan and Dave Concepcion, in football, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, and in basketball there was Karl Malone and John Stockton. More recently, in the fabled history of the Hershey Bears franchise, no two names are quite as synonymous as the prolific scoring duo of Keith Aucoin and Alexandre Giroux.

In their two years together in the Chocolate and White, this dynamic duo, along with their able-bodied third linemate, tore up the American Hockey League and resided at the top of the AHL scoring list in both campaigns. Yet, despite all that success, even Giroux is still somewhat mystified about why it all clicked with Aucoin.

“I don’t really know, but it all started from the first game together; we just gelled right from the start,” said Giroux, who along with Aucoin and Mink combined for 13 points in their first game together. “Obviously, he’s a very smart player and finds guys when they get open. That made it very easy for me because all I had to do was find the open spot and he would get the puck to me. Also, you can’t forget Andrew Gordon and Graham Mink’s part in it. They were both hard-working guys who would get Keith the puck, and Keith would get it to me and I was the finisher. It turned out to be a good system.”

Giroux, who went to the Calder Cup Finals with the Bears in his first season with the club in 2006-07 where he lit the lamp 42 times, shattered that mark in the 2008-09 and 2009-2010 seasons by scoring 60 and 50 goals respectively in those seasons, and earned back-to-back Calder Cup titles to boot.

“Those were two amazing years in Hershey, and to win two championships in a row, that’s something exceptional,” he said. “We all saw each other at Keith Aucoin’s wedding a month after we won, and we all talked about how fun it was to be together those years and win the Cup each year, especially winning it at home last year.”

However, like those famous combinations mentioned earlier, each of whom were eventually separated after enjoying success together, Giroux and Aucoin’s last official act together in Chocolatetown was winning the Calder Cup last June at Giant Center, as Giroux opted to leave the Hershey/Washington Capitals fold for the Edmonton Oilers even though he said the Caps did make a bid to retain his services.

“I did get a good offer from them, but I also got a lot of good offers from a lot of other teams, and I was also looking at some offers from Europe,” said Giroux. “I decided to stay over here and try to make it in the NHL. It wasn’t about the money in Washington or Edmonton. I made my decision to sign with Edmonton because I knew they were rebuilding and I was just trying to find a team that had a spot for me in the NHL, and I thought Edmonton was the best fit.”

Despite what Giroux thought was a decent training camp, in which he scored one goal in four exhibition outings, he found himself back in the minors to start the current season, skating for the expansion Oklahoma City Barons.

“They decided to go with the younger guys, but it’s not like the guys they kept didn’t deserve to be there. I was hoping for a better result for myself, and I thought it was one of the best camps that I’ve ever had. I wish the outcome would have been a little better for me, but I don’t regret making that decision. I think it was a good decision to try to make the NHL with another organization. I wish I was in the NHL by now, but that’s how life goes sometimes.”

After spending most of the previous four seasons with either the Bears or the Capitals, whose systems mirror each other, Giroux was forced to not only undergo geographical and systemic changes with the move to the Edmonton organization which employs a different attack and defend scheme, but he also found himself in a new role.

“It’s not so much a difference in systems; it’s just what I was used to in Hershey,” explained Giroux. “Keith and I knew what to do, and the coaches knew what to expect from us. Out here, they split the ice time up a lot more. We’re a younger team and they’re trying to build up the younger players, and the way to do that is give them more ice time. That makes it a little harder to produce as much as I did in Hershey, but it also gives me a chance to play a different role than I did in Hershey.”

Another new role that the Quebec-born Giroux found himself in this season in OKC was that of being a frustrated goal scorer, as he endured a 14-game span during which he was unable to net even a single goal, which doubled his longest dry spell with the Bears in the previous two seasons.

“Nothing close to that has happened to me in a long, long time, and it was tough; it was for sure the toughest part of my career,” said Giroux, who managed 10 helpers during the 14 games, and recently became only the 44th player in the 75 year history of the AHL to reach the 600-point milestone. “I tried to stay positive because in a lot of those games I had some good chances, but couldn’t get any goals.”

Giroux, who was never one to make excuses during his Hershey tenures and always made himself available to the media after a game, whether it be an exciting victory or a disappointing defeat, shoulders the blame for his 14 games of futility, despite the fact that the Barons do not have an setup man of Aucoin’s ilk to set the table for him.

“Here, I get a little less ice time than I did in Hershey. In Hershey, Keith and I played a lot of minutes and that obviously helps your goal totals. Here, I don’t get as many good chances, and when I get those chances I have to put those in. In Hershey, it seemed that Keith put the puck on my stick for one or two shots a game where I had a pretty easy shot to score, so I could have a bad game and still get a goal at the end of the night. Obviously, during that streak, I wasn’t scoring goals, but fortunately, I busted out of it and I’m looking to stay on track for the rest of the season.”

For Giroux, one of the benefits of playing for the Barons is that he gets to fly to a good portion of their road games, for the most part escaping the usual mode of transportation in the AHL, the “iron lung” or bus. However, if during some down time in the terminal or on the tarmac, Giroux gets a sudden urge to talk Hershey Bears hockey, he won’t have to look very far as the Barons’ bench boss, Todd Nelson, as well as his assistant coach, Rocky Thompson, are both former Bears.

“Rocky’s a really good assistant coach. He played in this league a long time and he knows what it takes to be successful. We travel a lot by plane, so we have a lot of time to talk about old stories about the old barn in Hershey,” said Giroux. “I actually played against Rocky when he played for the Bears when I first broke into the AHL.”

Although the Barons and Bears are not slated to face each other this season, Giroux will be returning to Hershey in February as the captain of the Western Conference all-stars after recently being bestowed with that honor by the league’s president and CEO, Dave Andrews. Giroux’s all-star appearance will mark the third straight season he has been named to the affair, and his fourth overall appearance in the classic.

“It’s awesome,” said Giroux when asked about the honor. “I knew the game was in Hershey, but that was something I really didn’t expect. I guess you can look at it two ways: I’m old and in this league and not the NHL, or at the same time, you look at it as quite an honor to be named the captain of the all-star team, and especially since I’m going back to Hershey for that honor with all of the success I’ve had there. It’s going to be a fun time.”

No one knows what the future holds for Giroux. Will he get an eventual call up to Edmonton and find a steady place in the NHL? Will he spend the rest of the season in OKC with the Barons? Or, will he be acquired by Bears President/GM, Doug Yingst and the Capitals in an in-season deal, repeating a similar scenario from the 2007-08 season? While all of those scenarios are possible, and Giroux would certainly prefer the NHL to the other possibilities, he wouldn’t mind an eventual return to the scene of his greatest triumphs.

“You never say never in this business. The last two years have been my best years in hockey, and I have a lot of good friends in Hershey. Everyone treated me really well there, and it was a great fit for me. If the chance ever arises for me to go back, without hesitation I would.”

Shyiak Goes Back To School To Learn Caps' Ways

2010-08-05T08:49:00.003-04:00

Anchorage, Alaska is a beautiful place any time of the year, whether it’s in the winter when the average snowfall of 70 inches covers the beautiful landscape, or in the summer where the average temperature is a rather mild 68 degrees.

With factors like that, it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to leave the “The City of Lights”, University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves head hockey coach, Dave Shyiak, recently did just that; but only for a week, venturing 3,000-plus miles to steamy Arlington, Virginia for the Washington Capitals’ rookie camp.

“I know a couple of guys in the organization and they gave me a call last year to ask me if I’d be interested in coming in as a guest coach to find out how they run things and build a network with the organization.”

As the native of Brandon, Manitoba sees it, the arrangement was a win-win situation for both him and the Washington organization.

“Being here, I get to know how they run their organization, which is nothing but first class. They have great facilities with outstanding people with the big club and the affiliate in Hershey. It’s given me a unique look at how things are done at the professional level, and I’m certainly appreciative of the opportunity they gave me,” said Shyiak.

“From my personal perspective, I look at it as a form of personal growth and development. I asked a bunch of questions about how they did different things, like special teams, forechecking or what have you, and they took the time to answer my questions. This was a great setup for me for personal growth as a coach to be able to work with professional coaches to see how they do things.”

“For them, now they’ve got a college coach who now knows how they operate in case they need to look at some college free agents out west down the road who knows that league well.”

Shyiak played his college hockey at Northern Michigan University, where he learned a thing or two about overcoming adversity, most notably during the 1991 NCAA championship game where as a senior and co-captain of the Wildcats, his club upset the highly favored Boston University Terriers in the decisive game in triple overtime even though the Terriers’ lineup featured future NHL stalwarts, Tony Amonte, Shawn McEachern, and Keith Tkachuk.

After a year of professional hockey overseas, Shyiak returned to his alma mater in the 1995-96 season where he spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach before being named to skipper the Seawolves on June 14, 2005.

Shyiak’s tenure in Anchorage coincided with the arrival of a name that has become synonymous to fans of the Hershey Bears and Capitals for overcoming long odds, Jay Beagle.

“I was not a part of recruiting him to U-of-A, but at my previous school, I had identified him and liked him as a player,” said Shyiak of the only player from his tenure in Anchorage who has skated in the NHL. “It’s funny how it worked out, because we had used up all of scholarship money and couldn’t get him, and he went to U-of-A, and I ended up being very fortunate to coach him for two years.”

Ironically, it was at Washington’s rookie camp in the summer of 2007 that Beagle was first afforded the chances to show his wares to the Capitals’ brass, and obviously, as evidenced by his recently inked two-year pact, they liked what they saw.

“He was a guy who was a free agent coming out of college and spent a little time in the ECHL, which got him noticed and eventually got him an invite to this very camp a few years ago. From there, he impressed them enough for them to sign him, and he’s worked very hard for that.”

Shyiak continued, “He’s the kind of kid who got better and better as he aged, a typical late-bloomer type of player. The thing about him is, he works so darn hard, all of the time. He was an impact type player with us his second year as a sophomore. In that second year, in addition to being a great teammate and locker room leader, Jay was a dominant player down low as well as being an outstanding penalty killer and good faceoff guy.”

By virtue of being the sole NHL skater from Shyiak’s tenure in Anchorage, Beagle now finds himself the poster boy for the Seawolves’ recruitment efforts, a reminder to newcomer recruits that all is possible with hard work.

“In the years Jay played with us, I thought he was our best pro product, and I’m so glad it worked out well for him; he certainly deserves it and has earned every opportunity that he has been given.”

“We use him a lot as an example as to what’s possible. Not only wasn’t he a high draft pick, he wasn’t even drafted and look where he is now. He wasn’t a big numbers guy at the collegiate level either; all it was about him was his work ethic and work habits. He played with passion, played hard, and played with an edge, and that’s what got him here. We talk a lot about him and his story, and hopefully some other guys who come through our program will be able to achieve the goals that he has.”

Although Beagle probably gets top billing in most of the sales pitches that the Seawolves employ trying to entice students indoors to their campus, the many outdoor activities available in Anchorage give him a run for his money in that category. In fact, Beagle has acknowledged in the past that those outdoor activities were a big factor in getting him to commit to UAA, as he signed on the dotted line only three days after his first visit to the campus.

“I call Anchorage the Eighth Wonder of the World when I try to sell our school and program to recruits,” said Shyiak. “A lot of people, when they hear about Alaska, say they want to go there, but to get the opportunity to actually live there like myself, and play there like Jay did, is amazing.”

“You’ve got world-class hunting and fishing, and the skiing is great too. The scenery is beautiful, and Anchorage is a great city. You’ve got the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. So, you’ve got those things outdoors, and indoors at our school, players have an opportunity to play in the WCHA which is probably the strongest collegiate league in the U.S.”

One of the few potential downsides for students looking to skate with the Seawolves can be the taxing travel the team is forced to endure due to the geographic location, and the travel factor played a big part in accelerating Beagle’s move to the pro ranks despite having remaining college eligibility.

“I really didn’t have much choice but to turn pro,” said Beagle. “I was struggling in school just to make the grades to stay eligible; to travel that much and to play hockey, it’s difficult.”

Shyaik, who was an outstanding student during his time spent in Marquette, garnering All-Academic Team honors, was quick to realize the travel problems that plagued Beagle, so he, along with his staff, has taken the necessary steps to make the road more travel-friendly for his charges.

“You just have to get used to the travel,” he said. “We have a pretty strict regimen that we follow as far as conditioning. Just as the Capitals and Bruce here strongly believe in conditioning, we do also. We tell our guys to make sure they always get a lot of rest and eat properly, but we also monitor them on and off the ice to make sure they are prepared for the demanding travel and schedule that we have. Honestly, though, the travel factor has not been an issue the last few years because the guys have followed the training program closely; we’ve been able to take that factor out of the equation.”

Shyiak and company, after finishing the 2009-10 season with nine conference wins and 20 in-conference points, face the 2010-11 season with holes to fill both on the ice, where both goaltenders have departed, and also behind the bench where the assistant coach’s position is now open due to former assistant coach, Regg Simon, taking a head-coaching position in the USHL.

With so many question marks presenting themselves, it would be easy for Shyiak to sulk and wallow, but he has opted to take a more optimistic approach to the huge challenges ahead for his club.

“We’ve got a young team; in fact we are going to be the youngest team in the league because we lost ten guys and also both goaltenders. I think for us to take a jump in our league, our goaltending has to be very strong. I have confidence that the two guys coming in will be able to stabilize that position for us,” he said assertively.

“It’s going to be an ongoing work in progress this season, but I think we should be able to finish in the top six. This team looks like it’s going to be a young, hungry, quicker team, and who knows what can happen when you combine all of those things?”

Holtby Keeps Rolling With The Changes

2010-07-26T21:05:00.005-04:00

By: John Sparenberg

If Braden Holtby is going to top his outstanding rookie season of 2009-10 with the Hershey Bears, it’s going to take some changes from top-to-bottom.

Those changes will not necessarily be in his game, which was very fundamentally sound and resulted in 25 regular season wins with the Bears and included a pair of overtime wins in the playoffs, but in his equipment.

In an effort to increase scoring, the powers that be have mandated that the size of goaltender’s pads be shrunk again this season; however, those changes are not a concern for Holtby, who was still sporting his old duds at Washington’s rookie camp last week. He even still has a little room to grow in his padding.

“I won’t get the new ones until fall camp so I’m still using my old ones,” he said. “I actually have no clue if mine will even change. I don’t use the max size right now, so I doubt if I will even need to change mine-at least I hope not, but we’ll see. It seems like in the last few years we’re getting a new type of pad or size of glove or something. It’s just one of those things you have to adapt to. Everyone is on the same playing field, so it’s not that big of an issue.”

Holtby, a native of Saskatchewan, will also enter the 2011-12 with a new mask, but before he receives delivery of his new head armor, he will have to make a choice of which he will don.

“I’m actually working on two new ones right now with a new painter out of Sweden. They will be two different ones that are kind of similar. One is a Caps one and one is a Bears one. We’ll see how they turn out, and hopefully the fans will like them.”

With the rookie camp now history, Holtby is now focusing on phase two of his off-season training, and he plans to alter his approach from last season’s formula which led to such a successful rookie campaign.

“I think you have to change every year. There are different things that you feel, especially with a different schedule,” said Holtby. “You learn something different every year about what you need to work on. That’s why they have the trainers here to do research on it every year and you learn from them.”

He continued, “I’m learning a bit more of what to do on my own and what not to do. I’m learning how much I can handle and how much I can’t. It’s always a learning process in the gym and hopefully I come into the main camp in shape and we’ll go from there.”

After appearing in 37 regular season contests for the Bears, as well 13 games for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, Holtby started game one of the Bears playoff opening series against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers as Michal Neuvirth healed from an injury.

However, after Neuvirth was 100 percent healthy, Holtby was relegated to the bench for the final 13 games of the playoff run. That prolonged period of inactivity was a first for Holtby, who, in addition to his busy 2009-10 regular season, had averaged just under 60 appearances in his three full seasons of junior hockey.

“Coming into last season, I thought I might have to sit on the bench a little more than I was used to, but I was fortunate enough to play quite a bit in South Carolina and with injuries, I was able to play quite a few games in Hershey. It’s definitely fun to be part of the team when we’re winning and being successful like we were this last year, but it’s still not the same when you’re sitting on the bench and not playing, like I did in the playoffs.”

“Sitting for that long was something I’ve never really experienced before. I play hockey to play, not to sit on the bench and cheer. It’s definitely fuel in the fire for me to improve some things and make sure that I’m in a playing situation next year in the playoffs,” Holtby said.

A little over a month after the Bears tossed aside the Texas Stars to capture their 11^th Calder Cup, the humble Holtby has not had a chance to take the Cup home to celebrate with family and friends, but instead insists that others get their day in the sun before he does.

“I don’t even know if I’m getting it,” he explained. “I haven’t heard anything yet, and I’m not too worried about it, because the summer is pretty short this year. I’d like to see the main guys who were a huge part of it get it first, and if there is time, I guess I would take it back and share it with my family and friends back home, but I would definitely make sure they got it first.”

After Briefly Celebrating Championship, French Eager To Repeat Feat

2010-07-22T07:41:00.008-04:00

By John Sparenberg jsheynow
@comcast.net

It’s been just over a month since the Hershey Bears, under the leadership of bench boss, Mark French, captured the franchise’s 11th Calder Cup Championship; while he was able to briefly rest on his laurels, the Washington Capitals’ recently concluded rookie camp signaled it was time to move ahead and start focusing on going for a three-peat.

“It seems like it’s been the blink of an eye, but it’s been good to enjoy it for a month. The rookie camp is kind of the official opening of the hockey season again for us. All you need is just a little bit of time off and then you’re ready to get it going again.”

With French behind the bench, the Bears have captured back-to-back Calder Cup titles in his two full seasons behind the pine, the first in 2009 as head coach Bob Woods’ assistant and the second in the recently concluded playoffs as the bench boss himself.

For French, whose previous head coaching experience was with the Wichita Thunder of the Central Hockey League, playoff success was not something he was familiar with prior to coming to Central Pennsylvania, as he had never guided the Thunder beyond the first round in two playoff outings.

Entering the 2009-10 season as a rookie head coach in the AHL, French had big shoes to fill trying to follow-up upon Woods successful act, but he thrived upon the pressure.

“Everything’s more highlighted and more intense at this level, and the quality of play is the highest I’ve ever coached at,” he said. “There’s a pressure to win from the organization, and from the fans here, but you find out that’s a really good thing because the organization does an excellent job of providing the players that you need to allow you to win.”

In the past, when faced with the same situation French encountered this season-being an assistant coach with a club one year and then ascending to the head coaching position the next-others have had difficulty making the transition. One of the great challenges of the switch in roles could be the scenario of having to call out a player for sub-par play whom they had to coddle when they were in the assistant’s position; however, thanks to his predecessor, someone who had experience making the same move, French’s transition seemed to be rather seamless.

“No, I don’t think there was (a period of adjustment), but the players might be the ones to ask,” chuckled French. “You do find that the losses probably hit you a lit bit harder when you are the guy making the final decisions, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable moving positions, and I give a lot of credit for that to Bob Woods for giving me so much responsibility when I was his assistant.”

Just as French’s move behind the bench went off rather smoothly, his new assistant, Troy Mann, managed to find comfort quickly behind the Hershey bench, with the two gentlemen rapidly finding a rapport with each other although they had never had a face-to-face meeting prior to the 2009-10 season.

“It’s funny because there wasn’t (an adjustment period),” commented French. “We had talked to each other on the phone before about hockey-related matters, but our paths had never really crossed. You take the recommendations of Bruce (Boudreau) and Bob (Woods) and they both thought that we would have good chemistry together and they were right. It didn’t take long for us to develop a good relationship and I thought he did an outstanding job this season.”

At Washington’s training camp prior to the beginning of the 2009-10 season, French told me, “You find out a lot about yourself in adverse situations. Everybody’s a good coach when things are going well and you have great players, but you truly find out a lot about your character and intestinal fortitude when things don’t go well.”

Those words certainly proved prophetic in the Bears’ Calder Cup matchup with the Texas Stars when the heavily favored Bears trailed the series, 2-0, after dropping a pair of home games at Giant Center where they had been practically invincible all season.

“ I had never seen our dressing room as low as it was after the second game, but it was a different mood the next morning where we met quietly as a group before leaving for Texas,” revealed French. “After that meeting, everything was positive and we were feeling very good about our chances of winning the series.”

After arriving in Texas, French said the players took it upon themselves to have a meeting of their own, with no coaches allowed, and although he did not name the player responsible for organizing the get together or what was said in it, French liked the ensuing results of the gathering.

“I don’t know what was said in that meeting, but I do know who held it, and he was the right person to do it. I believe a lot of the right things were said at that meeting, because there were a lot of things that changed after that point in time.”

In game three in Texas, even with the meetings that came after game two, the Bears found themselves trailing 3-1 midway through the game. At that point, French made what turned out to be a brilliant decision by dropping Alexander Giroux off the top line and onto a line with Jay Beagle and Mathieu Perreault, and elevating Chris Bourque to Giroux’s spot on the top line with Keith Aucoin and Andrew Gordon.

Those line changes had a dual effect, alleviating some of the pressure from Giroux’s shoulders, and also spreading out the Stars’ defense which had been so effective up until that point of shutting down the top line. The Stars defense never fully adjusted after the line juggling, and Giroux went on to score goals in each of the next two outings in the Lone Star State, including the overtime winner in game five, but in true French fashion, he refused to take all of the credit.

“I thought there was more than one turning point in the series; certainly the meetings played a part, but you could also say when we were down 3-1 in game three. Even as dire as the situation looked, you could not feel a sense of panic on the bench. When we came back in that game, we really gained a lot of confidence. If I had to pinpoint one thing, it would be battling back from that adversity of being down 3-1.”

If the Bears are to three-peat in the 2010-11 season, it will be without at least eight players, including goaltender, Michal Neuvirth, who were in the lineup for the clincher against Texas. However, French is quick to realize that for the most part, the player personnel decisions are out of his hands and in the very capable hands of the Bears/Capitals brain trust, who have made some quality additions to organization to compensate for the players that have moved on.

“Doug Yingst deserves a lot of credit, but honestly also guys like Brian MacLellan, the assistant GM in Washington and George McPhee (Washington’s GM), also do a great job of evaluating players. I think everybody knew that there would be a sizable transition of players this year, but it’s nice to see that we have gotten some quality individuals as well.”

“As a coach, we don’t get too involved in the player acquisition part of it. Other people do that, so as a coach you can refresh. You’ve got mixed emotions with some of the guys who are leaving, but also very motivated to do it again with another bunch of guys.”

Playoff Numbers Breakdown

2010-07-13T20:52:00.003-04:00

99-Combined points total for Aucoin (25), Bourque (27), Giroux (27) and Gordon (20).

94-shots on goal by Chris Bourque (LL).

82-number of combined third period and overtime shots faced by Neuvirth in the Texas series after allowing the game-winning goal late in the third period of game two (81 saves).

75-number of goals scored by Bears.

41-number of multi-point games registered by Bears players.

20-different players registered at least a point (Alzner, Amadio, Aucoin, Beagle, Bouchard, Bourque, Carlson, Collins, Giroux, Gordon, Helmer, Joudrey, Kane, McNeill, Miskovic, Perreault, Pinizzotto, Rome, Wellar, Wilson).

22-number of overtime shots faced by Neuvirth (21 saves).

23-players who finished with an even or better +/- rating (Alzner +7, Amadio +4, Aucoin +1, Beagle +6, Bouchard +9, Bourque +7, Carlson +7, Collins +2, Eakin E, Giroux +2, Gordon +2, Helmer +12, Joudrey +2, Kane +5, Kroll E, McNeill +4, Miskovic, Perreault +14, Pinizzotto +6, Rome +1, Wellar, Wilson +9, Yeo +2).

20-goal differential for Bears in third period and overtime combined (38-18).

17-number of players who scored at least one goal (Alzner, Aucoin, Beagle, Bouchard, Bourque, Carlson, Collins, Giroux, Gordon, Joudrey, Kane, McNeill, Miskovic, Perreault, Pinizzotto, Rome, Wilson).

16-number of players who scored at least a goal at GC (Alzner, Aucoin, Bouchard, Bourque, Carlson, Collins, Giroux, Gordon, Joudrey, Kane, McNeill, Miskovic, Perreault, Pinizzotto, Rome, Wilson).

14-number of goals scored by Alexandre Giroux (tied for LL) & +/- number for Mathieu Perreault (LL).

12-number of games the Bears allowed two or less goals against.

11-number of Bears players that earned first star honors (Beagle, Bouchard, Bourque, Carlson, Giroux, Gordon, Joudrey, Kane, Neuvirth, Pinizzotto, Wilson).

10-number of PPAs registered by Chris Bourque (LL).

9-number of different players who scored the 11 first goals of the game (Alzner, Aucoin, Bouchard, Bourque, Carlson, Collins, Giroux, Gordon,Rome) & 9 different players scored the 9 GWGs at GC.

8-number of different players who earned first star honors in the nine wins at GC (Bourque, Giroux, Gordon, Joudrey, Kane, Neuvirth, Pinizzotto,Wilson-2.

6-number of PPGs scored by both Alexandre Giroux and Andrew Gordon (tied for LL) & number of different players who scored the GWG in the 7 road wins.

2-Penalty minutes for Keith Aucoin in the 21 playoff games & number of GWGs scored by John Carlson in Calder Cup Finals.

1-Number of Bears who scored at least one goal, but did not light the lamp at GC (Beagle).

0-number of games the Bears yielded more than one PPG against at GC.

Bears Beneficiaries of Neuvirth's Net Gains

2010-07-05T15:02:00.004-04:00

If there is one word to describe the career of goaltender, Michal Neuvirth, it would be resilient. Seemingly in one situation after another, he has been able to bounce back into his game, even after facing long odds.

In fact, one can trace the beginning of the pattern back to his junior career when he played for three teams in two years, and ironically, was once traded for a guy with the same name as one who is known for his bouncing abilities, Michal Jordan.

Selected by the Washington Capitals with the 34th pick in the 2006 draft, eleven slots behind Semyon Varlamov, Neuvirth has had to battle for ice time with the Capitals ever since. Though Varlamov has played more games in the show than Neuvirth, and has also appeared in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Neuvy has spent the majority of his time backstopping the Hershey Bears to back-to-back Calder Cup championships.

With the Caps unsettled goaltending situation heading into next season, Neuvirth seems poised to give Varlomov a run for his money to be the number one man in the district to start the 2010-11 season.

“You never know because it’s a crazy business,” he said. “I don’t really know what’s going to happen, but I have nothing left to prove in this league. My goal is to play in the NHL and that’s where I want to play next year. I’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”

Neuvirth continued, “I feel good about my game, but maybe I can improve something. I definitely want to get stronger. I’m feeling exhausted right now, and if I want to play 60 or 70 games in a season, I have to get stronger and get in better shape. I’m going to take a few weeks off and then start working out and getting ready for next season and hopefully I’ll be in the NHL.”

Heading into the playoffs as the reigning MVP of the Calder Cup playoffs where he had set an AHL record with a glittering 1.92 GAA, Neuvirth shouldered the pressure gracefully and rose to the occasion.

“I was coming back from a tough injury during the regular season and I was just coming back from that,” said Neuvirth. “I had the good playoffs last year, so I didn’t think about the pressure. I knew that I had already done it last year, and I was just focused on playing my game.”

After giving up a soft game-winning goal in the closing moments of game two on home ice against the Texas Stars, Neuvirth buckled down through the rest of the series and stopped all 46 shots he faced in the third periods and overtime, and allowed only six goals through the remainder of the playoffs.

“It was just a lucky bounce; crazy bounces happen all the time,” he said of allowing the game-two winner. “I felt bad we lost, but I still believed we were a better team than them. It was a huge win for them, but we came back and made sure we won three games on the road and clinched it at home, which was something special.”

At the Bears’ Calder Cup Championship celebration where the players saluted their fans on home ice, the Czech native couldn’t help but talk about his home.

“I haven’t seen my mom in 10 months, so I’m going to visit my family right when I get home. When I get home on Friday night and I’ll go downtown and see my buddies and hang out. I’m really pumped about going home.”

Photo courtesy of JUSTSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Another Banner Year for Helmer

2010-06-21T20:52:00.004-04:00

Hershey Bears captain, Bryan Helmer, may never see his name and number hanging from the rafters of Giant Center like Mike Nykoluk and Ralph Keller, each of whom captained the Bears to a Calder Cup Championship; but in his two year tenure at the helm, Helmer has accomplished something that neither of them will ever accomplish: leading his club to back-to-back titles.

With a strong cast from the 2009 Cup winning team returning for the 2009-10 season, the Bears were heavily favored to repeat, but Helmer said that he did not feel the heat to repeat, thanks to the returning players, and specifically to a player returning after a three-year absence, Boyd Kane.

“I didn’t feel the pressure at all," said Helmer. “When you bring in a guy like Kane, who is a proven winner, that obviously helps a whole bunch. Keith (Aucoin), Chris Bourque and Andrew Joudrey were all big helps too, because they are all good leaders in the dressing room. We had so many guys that stepped up as leaders and it made my job really easy.”

From the podium at Giant Center last week during Hershey’s championship celebration, Helmer also took the time to publicly thank some of his other helpers, the faithful fans who pack Giant Center every night, and who set another attendance record this
past season.

“One thing that we said all along every game is, ‘let’s do it for our fans’. Every single time we said that because you guys are unbelievable. Give yourselves a hand.”

Although he is the ultimate “team” player during the season, it didn’t take him long to snap into “selfish” mode after thanking the fans, repeating last year’s public lobbying to Bears President/GM Doug Yingst for another contract.

“Two years ago, Doug, I’m so glad you signed me," said Helmer. "I’m glad you signed me last year and I’d like to play here for one more year.”

The young-at-heart Helmer, who just completed his 17th professional season in fine fashion, finished the campaign with a +/- rating of +12, second in the league, but also finished the season with the warning light illuminated on his gas gauge.

“It’s funny, I was talking to Manner (Bears assistant coach, Troy Mann) on the bench there towards the end of the game of the game six. I told him I was very tired. I probably would have had enough energy left to play one more game, but I’m glad we got it over when we did.”

As a result of being involved in pro hockey for nearly two decades, Helmer has seen many changes on-ice with the advent of new equipment. Those changes also apply off of the ice, with new training methods always being sought by players looking to stay “a step ahead”, even those who will soon to be 38 years of age, like Helmer who will soon start training for what he hopes will be his 18th season in the pro ranks.

“When I was younger, I used to a lot of heavy lifting, and now I’m just trying to do a lot of quick feet stuff and keep myself going. I think as you get older, you tend to lose a step here and there, and I’m just trying to maintain it," he said. "I’ve been doing a skating treadmill for the past few years, and it’s helped me out a lot and I’ll do it again this summer.”

Retirement is in the not-too-distant future for Helmer, but if he has his way, he would like to postpone that thought for at least another year and pursue chance to attain a “three-peat” in the best city in the American Hockey League.

“It kinda hard to top that (back-to-back titles); maybe I should retire while I’m on top," joked Helmer. "But seriously, I’d love to play one more year and finish my career here. It’s a great hockey town. I’ve got some individual goals I’d like to reach and I’d love to have a chance to make it three in a row.”

**Photo courtesy of JUSTSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY**

Bears Shoot by Stars to Capture Crown

2010-06-15T23:30:00.003-04:00

For the Hershey Bears, it was all about defense on Monday night at Giant Center in game six of their Calder Cup Finals matchup against the Texas Stars.

After their defense, backstopped by Michal Neuvirth, weathered an early Texas Stars storm in the first minute of the game, the defense turned offensive, scoring all four goals as the Bears finished off the Stars and captured their league record 11th Calder Cup Championship by emerging with a 4-0 win.

The Bears, after surviving Texas’ initial surge, found their offensive groove and started pecking away at Texas’ starter in the cage, Brent Krahn,who was making his first start of the series.

Krahn, who had not played since game six of Texas’ West Division Finals matchup against the Chicago Wolves, a game in which he departed late in the first period after suffering a concussion resulting from a collision with a goalpost, was under a constant first period barrage of shots from the Bears after Boyd Kane put the first shot on net at 2:47.

Although Krahn was able to make several quality saves, the Bears eventually were able to cash in on the power play with their 13th shot on net which emanated from the stick of John Carlson, lighting the lamp at 12:29.

Carlson, who scored the game-winning goal in game four on the power play, had drifted down to from the point and stationed himself between the hashmarks where he converted the rebound of Alexandre Giroux’s shot for his second strike of the post-season.

“We wanted to keep the momentum that we were able to get by winning the three games down there. That was a huge goal for us, getting that first one,” said Carlson.

The Bears doubled their lead less than two minutes after Carlson’s caper, when Karl Alzner, Carlson’s companion on the blueline, authored home his third goal of the playoffs, beating Krahn low to the short side with a shot from high along the boards at 14:23.

“Those are tough shots to take when they come off of the wall because they usually have a lot of spin,” said Alzner. “There was also a guy coming in the shooting lane, so I just tried to get it by him. My stick felt good in warm-ups and it felt real good after that goal.”

The duo of Carlson and Alzner, both expected to contend for full-time duty with the Washington Capitals next season, were not only able to provide a combined eight points in the series against the Stars (4 goals, 4 assists), but were also able to shut down the Jamie Benn line, limiting Benn to only a pair of helpers in the series.

“We talked about shutting that line down throughout the series” said Alzner. “The guys were calling us “Karl and Sons” and that was our identity I guess you could say. Me and Carly split things up, he played most of the offense and I tried to play the defense. Carly did an unbelievable job of shutting him down on the right side, and I don’t think we could have done any better job than we did on his line.”

The Stars, who were substantially outshot in the first period, 17-10, evened those numbers up a bit in the second period, but in the latter stages of the frame, defenseman, Patrick McNeill, converted another Giroux shot for a goal at 14:47 giving the Bears a 3-0 lead.

“I saw an opportunity to jump in the play, and maybe create an odd-man rush,” McNeill said. “G made a smart play by throwing the puck on net and luckily, the rebound came right to me.”

A full period and five seconds after his second period goal, McNeill was at it again, launching a low laser of a wrist shot by a screened Krahn that gave the Bears a 4-0 lead and essentially squashed any hopes of a Texas comeback.

After the game, McNeill, who returned to the Hershey lineup late in the Manchester series after being felled by an injury in the Bears’ round one match-up with Albany, said from a personal standpoint, this year’s title triumph trumps the last one.

“Because I played a bigger role, and had to come back from an injury to do so, this one is definitely more special to me than last year.”

Bears pre-game skate notes from game six

2010-06-14T09:38:00.005-04:00

As the Bears make final preparations for tonight's potential Calder Cup winning game, here are a few notes from the pregame skate. The Bears had an upbeat, up-tempo skate that saw them take care of business, but also has some fun in the process. An example of the team having fun was defenseman, Sean Collins and Zach Miskovic engaging in a game of rock paper scissors while the team was taking a water break.

The forward lines (subject to change and my interpretation): Keith Aucoin centering Andrew Gordon and Chris Bourque; Mathieu Perreault centering Jay Beagle and Alexandre Giroux; Kyle Wilson centering Francois Bouchard and Cody Eakin/Ashton Rome; Andrew Joudrey centering Steve Pinizzotto and Boyd Kane

The defensive pairings (subject to change and my interpretation):Karl Alzner and John Carlson; Patrick McNeill and Bryan Helmer; Greg Amadio and Patrick Wellar; the spares were Sean Collins and Zach Miskovic

Giroux, commenting on the changes that the Bears made that resulted in success in Texas.

"They were playing a very disciplined system that clogged up the neutral zone, and it took us a couple of games to adjust. We had to figure out how they played, and adjust to the way we play. When we went down there, we made things a little simpler and in turn, made it easy on ourselves. Instead of trying to make the extra pass, we just puck the puck on net and got some rebounds, and it’s paid off so far."

Giroux, commenting on whether the line juggling by the Bears coaching staff, which saw him shifted to line with Jay Beagle and Mathieu Perreault, and Chris Bourque taking his spot on the line with Keith Aucoin and Andrew Gordon, removed some of the pressure put on him to produce.

"Not at all. It’s the same type of pressure, the change was made to give us a little more depth on each line. Bourqie can finish on his line and I can still finish on my new line. Gordo and Beagle both work really hard and go get the pucks, and Perry and Coiner can make the nice passes. It was just a case of sometimes things don’t click, and you try a different thing to give the team a spark. I think everyone has the same pressure to do their jobs, it’s just with different people.”

Helmer, on he and his teammates making the necessary changes in their game, the changes that head coach, Mark French, alluded to after game two, to reel off the three wins in Texas.

"Obviously, we got our game back down there by doing the little things that are so important. I think the last two games we’ve been at our best, but you've got to give them credit though, they’ve played us real tough."

Helmer, on the Bears, who failed to close out Manitoba last year on home ice when faced with a clinching game, using that to their advantage tonight.

"I’ve said this before to someone else, but, if you go back to game five last year in the finals when we had a chance to win it here and didn't, maybe our emotions got the better of us. Hopefully, tonight we can draw from that experience and keep our emotions in check, and do what we do best. The toughest thing to do in the playoffs is to close out a series, but if we we play the way we have been playing the last few games, we should be in good shape."

Telling Stats Against Texas

2010-06-06T18:35:00.007-04:00

After dropping the first two games of their Calder Cup Finals series at Giant Center against the Texas Stars, the Hershey Bears now must hit the road to continue the series, and if the Bears don’t reverse a few detrimental trends, they could very well meet their Waterloo in the capital city of Austin, Texas, which incidentally was originally named “Waterloo”.

Among the Bears’ disturbing data, the third period facts are the most telling.

•In the previous three series, the Bears had pulled out a victory in five contests in which they did not lead entering the third period. Both of Texas’ game-winning goals have been in the third period.

•Only four times in seventeen games have the Bears carried a lead into the third period.

•The Bears are in a 0-for-21 skid on the power play. They haven’t scored a power play goal since the third game of the Manchester series.

•Stumbling Starts: only three times in seventeen games have they carried a lead into the first intermission.

•Alexandre Giroux is pointless and only four shots on goal in the series.

•Keith Aucoin has notched just one assist and three shots on goal.

•Chris Bourque, who had eight points in the Manchester series, has failed to find the scoreboard, but not for lack of opportunity, registering eight shots on goal against Texas.

•John Carlson, expected to be the offensive catalyst on the Bears’ blue line has only two points (both assists) in nine games, and has not scored a goal in a Hershey uniform in 17 games, dating back to the regular season.

On the brighter side, there are signs of hope.

•Francois Bouchard, who was mired in a Texas-sized one goal in fourteen games goal scoring drought entering this series, has found the back of the net in each game.

•After missing four games due to injury, Andrew Gordon has managed eight shots on goal, including a third-period tally in game two.

•Bourque, Giroux and Gordon have each scored five goals away from the cozy confines of Giant Center, while Aucoin has chipped in with nine helpers.

•Bears’ PK has been stellar, allowing only one fluky goal in ten chances in the Texas series.

Bears Vexed By Texas Again on Home Ice

2010-06-06T12:50:00.001-04:00

The Hershey Bears have found themselves in a couple of trenches during this post-season, but if they are going to repeat as Calder Cup Champions, they are going to have to dig themselves out of a huge, Texas- sized hole after dropping their second straight home game to the Texas Stars at Giant Center on Saturday night, 4-3.

Facing the sizable 0-2 series deficit, the Bears must now win two of the next three games in the series, all slated to be contested in Cedar Park Center, the home of the Stars, if they are to bring the series back to Giant Center for another game.

With the vocal sellout crowd of 10,872 still settling into their seats, the Stars took a 1-0 lead only a minute into the contest when Aaron Gagnon’s breakaway bid slithered through the pads of Bears netminder, Michal Neuvirth.

In a repeat of game one’s first period performance in which they could only muster two shots on net, the Bears struggled in that department in the early portion of the period, only getting one shot on net before Steve Pinizzotto’s short-side, shorthanded slapshot buzzed by Stars’ stopper, Matt Climie, at 7:40 to knot the score at one.

Late in the first period, the Bears came within a whisker of taking a lead into the intermission, but Andrew Gordon’s rebound attempt of an Alexandre Giroux shot clanged off the post and stayed out of the net.

After Neuvirth foiled quality scoring chances by Francis Wathier and Raymond Sawada in the first half of the second frame, the wily Stars struck for their second goal of the game at 11:03 when Garrett Stafford’s weak power play point shot took on a chaotic life off its own, first bouncing off of Andrew Joudrey and then Bryan Helmer before finding a resting place in Hershey’s net at 11:03.

“I hit the puck, and then it went off of my shin pad and into the net,” explained Helmer. “It’s unfortunate and obviously I was peeved, but what can you do? The important thing is that we responded quickly to it.”

Francois Bouchard was the responder that Helmer spoke of, striking for his fourth goal of the playoffs from just inside the blueline at 11:49.

The Stars’ transition game, combined with some shoddy checking by the Bears’ defense, led to Texas regaining the lead in the opening stages of the third period, with former Bear, Mathier Beaudoin, doing the lamp-lighting honors at 3:18.

Beaudoin, who played seven games with the Bears in 07-08, had an easy tap-in to net his seventh goal of the post-season, after forward Perttu Lindgren, managed to elude a trio of Hershey defenders before putting a perfect pass on the stick of the unattended Beaudion.

According to Stars head coach, Glen Gulutzan, Texas’s transitional game, which has given the Bears fits thus far in the series, has not been such an asset all season long.

“We were anchored by our defense and goalie (earlier in the year), but as our forwards got a little more mature and some guys got an opportunity (like) Travis Morin, and Greg Rallo, guys who had played limited at this level got better, our forwards got better,” said Gulutzan after the game.

Facing third period deficits is nothing new to the Bears in this post-season, and they responded favorably to the task at 10:44, when Andrew Gordon whistled the rebound of a Patrick Wellar shot into the Texas cage at 10:44.

Just past the midway point of the third period, with Jamie Benn already in the penalty box serving his cross-checking sentence, Matt Stephenson clipped Giroux with a high-stick at 13:16, resulting in a four minute double minor penalty to Stephenson.

The Stars survived the five-on-three situation and just about all of the first half of Stephenson’ sentence before Bears’ alternate captain, Boyd Kane, was whistled off of the ice for a double minor spearing penalty at 15:03 which short circuited the Hershey power play.

“In playoff hockey, sometimes the emotions run high. Tonight, I thought our team kind of was on the officials too much. That has been a problem at times this year, but we have tended to get away with it in the regular season; but, in the playoffs it can be another story and we paid the price for it tonight,” said Helmer.

After Stephenson was released from the sin bin, the Bears’ penalty killing unit did their job and avoided giving up the game-winning goal on the power play, but just seconds after Kane was able to leave the penalty box, former Bear, Travis Morin, managed to chip a shot over Neuvirth and into the net at 19:-14 to give the visitors the win.

Helmer, who captained the Bears to the Calder Cup last season when they faced down the Manitoba Moose on foreign ice to capture the title, has faith that this year’s club can pull things together on the road and bring the series back to Giant Center.

“We’ve been through adversity before and responded favorably, so we know that we can do it. We have a lot of character on this team and we still believe in each other, but we have to play a team game to win.”

Stars Slide by Bears in Game One

2010-06-04T09:29:00.003-04:00

The “Texas two-step” is a popular dance in country/western circles in the state of Texas, and on Thursday night at Giant Center, the Texas Stars slowed down the normally high tempo Hershey Bears offense to a slow waltz and left the dance floor with a 1-0 series lead.

By virtue of their defeat, the Bears dropped their first game one of the 2010 playoffs, and now find themselves trailing in a series for the first time in this current post-season.

Coming off an elongated layoff after punching their ticket to the finals with a victory over the Manchester Monarchs on May 22, the Bears crawled out of the gate in the first period and registered only two shots against Texas goaltender, Matt Climie. The single-digit shot total in the first period marked the 26th regulation period that the Bears had failed to reach double digits, with 10 of those occurring in a first period of action.

“Especially in the first period, we seemed to get some opportunities where we brought the puck into scoring areas, but we tried to be too cute and make that one more pass, instead of one less pass and one more shot,” said Hershey coach, Mark French.

Hershey’s leading goal scorer, Alexandre Giroux, who recorded only two shots on goal in the game, and none in the first period, said the Bears anemic first period shot total was a combination of their own ineptness and the Stars’ defensive prowess.

“They play their system really well and they are really patient. We would have liked to come out a little harder, but they were blocking a lot of shots and when the shots weren’t going up, we tried to do some things that made it too hard, but we settled down and got it going later,” said Giroux.

Meanwhile at the other end of the ice, Hershey netminder, Michal Neuvirth, faced a dozen first period shots with the last one being the best of the bunch. Neuvirth, who is the league’s reigning playoff MVP, denied Jamie Benn’s point-blank bid in the final fifteen seconds of the frame. Benn, the AHL’s leading playoff point producer entering the contest, was sent in alone on Neuvirth by former Bear, Travis Morin, who intercepted Karl Alzner’s attempted clearing pass just inside the blueline late in Texas’ second power play of the game.

Early in the second period, Hershey’s sensational sophomores, Mathieu Perreault and Francois Bouchard, pooled their collective talents to give Hershey the first goal of the game at 4:23. Bouchard, after receiving a pretty pass from Perreault, who deftly threaded a pass between a pair of Texas defenders to get the puck on his stick, looked to be headed towards the corner with the biscuit, but banked hard to the left when he realized the Stars were giving him plenty of real estate to work with.

“Willie was crashing the net and Perry gave me a nice pass behind their defense. They gave me some room and I just cut hard to the net and slid it in the net,” said Bouchard.

Less than a minute after the Bouchard goal, Neuvirth made another high quality save, this one against Mathieu Beaudoin, but eventually yielded the tying goal at 9:57 when Greg Rallo rifled a wrist shot by his glove hand.

Although the two teams entered the third period deadlocked at one, Hershey’s chances didn’t look all that bad considering the fact that the Bears had outscored their opponents 13-3 in that frame at Giant Center in this playoff year; however, a costly Chris Bourque turnover early in the period culminated with the Stars getting the game-winning goal, an unassisted march by Scott McCulloch at 2:10.

“It was a bit of a high roll play with Chris Bourque and Sean Collins and it certainly didn’t work out the right way,” said French. “We gave them a break and he certainly made a nice play on the two-on-one.”

With the Bears facing the grim prospect of going down 2-0 in the series if they allow the Stars another victory in the next meeting between the clubs on Saturday night at Giant Center, Giroux says the key to not allowing that scenario to unfold is for his club to get out a fast start and then maintain that pace.

“We need to push the play for sixty minutes, not forty, and not beat ourselves. They play the same from the first minute to the last and they are very well coached. We need to throw more shots on net, and keep them on the defensive.”

With Captain Helmer at the Helm, Bears Continue Smooth Sailing

2010-06-02T13:51:00.005-04:00

BY JOHN SPARENBERG jsheynow@comcast.net

The Hershey Bears not only are the longest-tenured team in the American Hockey League, but they are also unquestionably the most successful, as they currently find themselves only four victories away from capturing their league record 11th Calder Cup.

One of the major factors in Hershey’s success throughout the years has been their ability to draw top-ranked talent to Chocolatetown, and mixed in among that “cream of the crop” talent has been a host of leaders.Current captain, Bryan Helmer, who also served in that role in last years Calder Cup winning season, has to be considered on of the best, as he is on the verge of leading the Bears to a second consecutive title.

“Hershey is the oldest franchise in the AHL so it’s got a lot of history and when you have that, it’s a good spot to play,” said Helmer. “The fan base here is unbelievable. The people support their team, and they expect a lot of their team. It’s good to have that little pressure on you.”

Although Hershey’s road to the finals has been a fairly smooth ride, they have had to overcome third period deficits on numerous occasions and have worked overtime to achieve seven of their triumphs, including Boyd Kane’s overtime winner against Manchester that propelled the Bears to the finals.

“It just shows how much character we have coming back in the third period like that. There wasn’t one guy in here after the second period tonight that thought we were going to lose,” said Helmer after the clinching game against Manchester. “We stay positive and it shows the character that we have in here, and it shows how much firepower we have in here.”

Boyd Kane, who returned to Hershey this season after departing for the Philadelphia Flyers organization after leading the Bears to the 2006 championship, has helped Helmer out in various ways this season, including a way that probably comes as a surprise to a majority of Bears’ fans.

“He leads by example, but he’s a vocal guy in the dressing room,” said Helmer of Kane. “He’s led two teams to the Calder Cup, and he has two rings to prove it. I always say there could be five or six guys on this team that could have the captaincy and he’s definitely one of them. He brings a lot and helps me a lot.”

It’s often said in sports, especially in hockey, that the toughest thing to do is not to win a championship, but to repeat as champions, and the Bears find themselves on the cusp of doing just that. According to Helmer, the key ingredient in that formula is the returning core of players from last season.

“If you look at the guys we have and the guys we got back, we got most of our team back from the Calder Cup team; when you can do that, you’re in pretty good shape. Things have worked out this season for us in the regular season and now in the playoffs. We’re right where we want to be, but we also know that we’ve got a little work ahead of us to accomplish that feat.”

Bears Annoint Themselves Kings of the East

2010-05-23T12:32:00.003-04:00

Throughout the course of history, many great leaders have motivated their troops with inspiring speeches as they go into battle, but in this current playoff season in which the Bears have overcome their adversaries seven times in overtime fashion, their head coach, Mark French, has employed a revolutionary “silent speech” tactic.

“…We play with a different swagger in overtime, and I don’t know quite what it is. I often go in between periods and give them a little bit of lip service for 30-40 seconds, but I don’t go in during the overtime intermission because I figure they know what they’re doing. They’ve proved me right…” said French of his strategy.

French’s charges, which by virtue of their record-setting seventh overtime triumph of the playoffs on Saturday night at Giant center, a 3-2 verdict, have advanced to the Calder Cup Finals for the fourth time in five years while flying under the flag of their parent club, the Washington Capitals.

Despite enjoying a big territorial advantage in the opening period, the Bears could only get five shots through on Manchester netminder, Jonathan Bernier. Bernier stopped four of the shots, and a fifth, a deflection by Boyd Kane, bounced off of the crossbar and away from the net.

“Some of the guys in the dressing room mentioned not to worry about the numbers on the shot clock because we were in their zone a lot, but just not getting the pucks on net,” said Alexandre Giroux, who gave the Monarchs credit for their ability to block so many shots in the series. “We knew we believed in ourselves, and if we kept getting shots, we would get some rebounds and have some luck.”

With less than a minute remaining in the first period, and just seconds after an apparent whistle resulting from Hershey defenseman’s Karl Alzner’s touch-up of an icing call was waved off, the Monarchs netted the only goal of the first period with 16.9 seconds left on the clock when John Zeiler struck.

The Bears had an excellent chance to tie the game less than a minute into the second period with Keith Aucoin had the puck on his stick right in front of Bernier, but Bernier was equal to the task, snuffing out Aucoin’s bid.

The Monarchs were also in offensive mode early in the second, and would have had the second goal of the game at 2:55, but were thwarted by Patrick McNeill’s sweeping effort which saved the day just as the puck was about to cross the goal line.

“Me and Helms were having a rough shift there and I just saw it sneaking through Neuvy’s five-hole, and I just happened to be the guy standing there,” said McNeill. “It was just a reaction play; anybody would have whacked it out of there, but luckily I was right there.”

Zeiler missed a golden opportunity in the latter stages of the second period, somehow missing an open net on a 2-on-1 foray into the Hershey zone with Bud Holloway, but the Monarchs managed to maintain puck possession in the Hershey zone after Zeiler’s misfire, with Joe Piskula eventually potting a rebound goal at 17:44 to give the Monarchs a 2-0 lead.

Entering the third period facing a familiar situation, trailing, the Bears started their climb back when Giroux backhanded home his 12th goal of the playoffs, pouncing upon an Aucoin rebound, after defenseman, John Carlson, had kept the play alive by intercepting a clearing attempt by the Monarchs.

“He’s such a good goalie, one of the best in the league,” said Giroux of Bernier. “It’s hard to beat him with a clean shot. We use traffic, and I think tonight we did a little better job getting rebounds and second chances, and that goal was a good indication of that.”

Patrick McNeill’s first career playoff goal as a Bear tied the game at two at 14:09. McNeill, after gathering in a Chris Bourque pass, drifted laterally along the blue line before launching a wrist shot that eluded Bernier.

“I just wanted to get more to the center of the ice just to give myself a better angle and give myself a little more time to see what was going on,” explained McNeill. “Once I saw that Perry and Bouch were creating traffic in front of the net, I put it on net.”

After neither team was able to get another puck into the back of the net in the final five minutes of regulation play, the teams headed to overtime for the fourth time in the series.

One essential key to Hershey’s success in overtime sessions has been their ability to not only outscore, but to outshoot their opponents, as evidenced by 51-18 shot advantage coming into this 7th overtime.

In the extra session, the Bears had the first quality opportunity to end the series, but Kane, after receiving a pass from Steve Pinizzotto, was denied by Bernier at the doorstep at 4:43. However, Kane would not be denied at 7:06, denting the twine for his first goal of the playoffs.

“Pinner made a great play coming down the wall (going low to avoid a tag-team effort by a pair of Monarchs), and got it back to me. I got it back to the point to P-Mac and he took a shot, and Willy picked it up behind the net. I was going to the net, and he put it right on my stick,” said Kane.

Although Kane has registered a modest six points in the playoffs (1 goal, 5 assists), he certainly has made the points count, counting four game-winners among his five helpers.

“We have a lot of guys who can score and we need everybody pitching in, but I have to be playing physical and grinding it out. If the points come for me, that’s a bonus,” said Kane, who became the eighth different Hershey player to score a game-winning goal at Giant Center this playoff season.

**Photo courtesy of JUSTSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY**

Bears Work Overtime to Dethrone Monarchs

2010-05-16T02:02:00.006-04:00

With the Hershey Bears playing their final home game before departing for New England where they will battle the Manchester Monarchs in three more games, Boston native, Chris Bourque, finally brought his traveling road show to Giant Center by leading the Bears to their 3-2 overtime win.

Bourque, who scored his only four goals of this season’s playoffs on the road in Albany, a pair of goals in two games, netted two home-ice goals, including the game-winner.

The Bears struck first when Bourque benefitted from Jay Beagle’s clean faceoff win against Manchesters’s Andrei Loktionov by quickly blitzing a shot by Manchester netminder, Jonathan Bernier at 3:07.

“That was a great play by Beags, and he drew that play up and he was going to win it to me,” said Bourque. “There’s a big screen there if he wins it cleanly. If it goes on net, there’s going to be a good chance it’ll go in, and it did.”

The Bears ran into penalty trouble later in the period when Andrew Joudrey was sent to the penalty box for high-sticking, and while he was serving his sentence, Bourque was whistled off the ice for delay of game after shooting the puck into the stands in the Bears defensive zone.

Although the Bears survived the five-on-three advantage unscathed, they eventually yielded the equalizing goal when Gabe Gautheir gathered in a loose puck and then beat Hershey goaltender, Michal Neuvirth, from close range.

The Monarchs took their first lead of the series early in the second period when Neuvirth allowed a long rebound of Drew Bagnall’s point shot, and the opportunistic Gautheir pounced upon the puck and potted his second goal of the game at 1:07. Gautheir’s goal proved to be the only tally in the second period.

Bernier, the winner of the Baz Bastein Award symbolic of the league’s best goaltender, was spectacular throughout the second frame, stopping all 17 shots that the Bears put on net, a handful of which were of the high-quality variety.

Steve Pinizzotto, who entered the post-season with only three goals in 26 games, potted his fourth goal of the 2010 playoffs at 3:35 of the third period. Pinizzotto finished off the sequence from the doorstep after converting a pretty pass from Francois Bouchard, who in turn had received a beautiful bank pass from Keith Aucoin that emanated from the Hershey defensive zone.

Aucoin, who has had a point in every game in the post-season, was paired with unlikely combinations throughout the game after Andrew Gordon’s injury incurred during the first period and said that he relished the challenge brought on by the line-shuffling.

“Anytime I can play a little more, I’m not going to complain,” said Aucoin. “I always think that when you play more, you get more into the game and you stay warm. I’m used to playing a lot anyway. The guys stepped up tonight with a little more ice time and we came up with a big win.”

After Pinizzotto’s goal, Neuvirth and Bernier shut their respective doors on any further goal-scoring attempts, sending thee game into overtime tied at two.

Just past the midway point of the first overtime period, Boyd Kane chipped the puck along the boards in the Bears’ defensive zone, springing Aucoin and Bourque on a 2-on-1, which concluded in Bourque’s game-winning goal from a difficult angle.

“I kind of had to settle it down because the ice wasn’t that good. Keith made a really nice pass, and I had to make sure I caught the puck first before shooting it. I just put it towards the net and it went in, and I’m pretty happy about it,” said Bourque, who became the 7th different player to score the game-winning goal at Giant Center in these playoffs.

Hershey’s victory gave them a 2-0 lead in the series against the Monarchs, with the next three games slated to be played at Verizon Wireless Arena on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

“It’s a tough barn to play in, but we play really good on the road. The key to our success on the road is we keep it simple. Hopefully, Gordo can play, but if not, somebody else will have to step in and do the job,” said Aucoin.

**Photos courtesy of JUSTSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY**

Hershey Races Past Manchester

2010-05-13T09:24:00.003-04:00

When describing the playing style of Hershey Bears’ defenseman, Sean Collins, one word that would likely be missing would be quick, but on Wednesday night at Giant Center, a quick goal by Collins only sixteen seconds into the Bears matchup with the Manchester Monarchs propelled his club to a 4-2 win and 1-0 series lead in the opening game of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Entering the contest, there were concerns about Hershey’s ability to shake off nearly two weeks of rust in the first game of the series against the Monarchs, who were only five days removed from their series against the Worcester Sharks; however, Collins’ goal quickly erased those concerns.

“It was huge,” said Chris Bourque. “We said before the game that we wanted to get things going right off the bat there and have a good start. We wanted to get the crowd into and get the boys into it. There’s nothing better to get everybody going than to a score a goal on your first shift to give everybody a positive feeling.”

Only eleven seconds after Collins’ goal, the Bears were afforded a power play and looked to have a glorious chance to extend their lead, but their anticipated sluggish start kicked in at that point as they squandered the opportunity, and managed only one more shot on Bernier for the next 8:27 of play before Bourque registered a wrist shot on net at 8:43, which turned momentum back in Hershey’s favor and narrowing the shot differential to 5-3, Manchester.

In the ninth minute of the period, the Bears went on their second power play of the contest, and judging by the early stages of it, it looked like it would end just like the first one when Manchester defenseman, Drew Bagnall, had the puck on his stick for an apparent easy chance to ice the puck the length of the ice.

However, Bourque shagged down Bagnall’s attempt at center ice and started a sequence that quickly culminated in Andrew Gordon converting the rebound of Alexandre Giroux’s shot into his 10th goal of the post-season and sixth on the power play at 10:02.

“The guy tried to clear it down and pretty much put it on my stick,” said Bourque. ” I skated backwards, and Gordon got open and I gave it to him. Coiner then made a nice play to Giroux, and it was kind of tic-tac-toe from there.”

The Monarchs came out strong in the early stages of the second period, enjoying a substantial territorial advantage, but only managing a couple harmless shots on goal despite their efforts, before Steve Pinizzotto’s unassisted goal at 7:25 gave the Bears a 3-0 lead.

Pinizzotto, know more for his ability to get under the opposition’s skin than his goal scoring abilities, showed a goal-scorer’s touch by putting a beautiful shot into the upper portion of the net after pick- pocketing Manchester defenseman, Viatcheslav Voynov, in the neutral zone.

“Whenever you can score, it’s definitely an upside,” said Pinizzotto, who has now scored a goal in every series of the playoffs. “We usually score pretty good goals here, and I just have to wait my turn and work hard every shift.”

After the Pinizzotto goal the only thing that stopped the Monarchs from getting a goal and cutting into the Bears lead was the goaltending heroics of Michal Neuvirth, who, within the space of about a minute, corralled Corey Elkins point-blank bid and then locked down Andrei Loktionov’s bid to beat him through the five-hole.

“I haven’t played in a while, but I have been practicing really hard. I got healthy over the break, and I want to keep getting better.” said Neuvirth.

Starting the third frame, Neuvirth had to be in top form once again to repel Oscar Moller’s breakaway attempt after the Manchester forward found a huge seam in the Bears’ defense and walked in all alone on him.

“That was a nice old-school save,” said Neuvirth, describing the stacking-the-pads strategy that he employed. “I don’t even know why I did it. I’ve never used that kind of move, but I saved it, which is the point.”

Neuvirth made another spectacular save later in the third period, denying another Manchester breakaway attempt, this one by Bud Holloway, before Loktionov finally found a way to beat him at 12:32, making it a 3-1 Hershey lead.

Less than two minutes after the Loktionov goal, Hershey defenseman, Karl Alzner, finished off a two-on-one sequence with Boyd Kane by netting his second goal of the playoffs at 14:18.

Alzner started the scoring sequence off in his own zone by stopping Holloway’s advance into Hershey territory and then turning on the jets and blowing by the Manchester defense through the neutral zone.

“It helped that I did get my stick on the puck because when I did, I stopped going backwards. I was in a good position to go forward. Kaner picked it up, and I took a quick look and saw that no one was around. I was at the beginning of my shift, so I had a lot of energy. Kaner put it right where I wanted it, and I was just lucky to slide it in,” said Alzner.

The Monarchs made it a little interesting in the latter stages of the period when Gabe Gauthier found himself all alone on Neuvirth’s doorstep and dented the twine for the fourth time in the playoffs to make it a 4-2 game at 16:10, but the Hershey defense drew a definitive line in the ice and shutdown the Monarchs for the final three plus minutes to skate away with the victory.

Gordon's Gameday Goals

2010-05-12T12:52:00.002-04:00

Hershey Bears' forward, Andrew Gordon, has no personal association with Manchester Monarchs goaltender, Jonathan Bernier, other than the limited time they spent hanging out at this year’s AHL All-Star event in Portland.

However, as the Bears and Monarchs prepare for to open up their Eastern Conference Finals series tonight, the the two figure to have more than ample opportunities to get to know each other, with Gordon taking up his customary spot in front of the net, particularly when the Bears are enjoying a power play.

“My game on the power play is pretty simple. I stand in front and the puck is eventually going to come there, and sometimes I’ll scoop up some rebounds or come in on the back door for a quick tap-in,” said Gordon, who led the league in power plays goals in the regular season.

“For the most part, I just try and stand my ground and create a little havoc in front of the crease. If that opens up Giroux or Aucoin or Carlson for a shot, that’s perfect, but if I get a rebound, that’ll work, too.”

Giroux, who along with a huge helping hand from linemate Keith Aucoin, has led the league in goals the last two seasons, says the key to Gordon’s glittering goal scoring count this season has been patience.

“He’s a little more patient playing on our line now. In the beginning of the year he was a little bit nervous to make plays with us. His style is so up and down the wing and he works so hard and that hard work helps get me and Coiner the puck. When he gets up the puck, the other team focuses on me and Coiner and that gives him a little more space to work with,” said Giroux.

Thanks to their second round sweep of the Albany River Rats and the Manchester-Worcester Sharks series going to six games, the Bears have not seen any game action for nearly two weeks, a fact that has some people worried, but according to Gordon, is a potential problem that was amply addressed by the Bears’ coaching staff.

“I think we did a pretty good job balancing that rest versus rust theory. Whenever you come to the rink, you have to remember there is going to be more hockey played and it is important hockey, and the later the season goes, each game gets more important. Tonight, we just have to keep mentally focused and work hard and not expect to turn it back on right away after the long layoff.”

Although he was a member of Hershey’s “Black Aces” squad in the 2007 Calder Cup Finals against the Hamilton Bulldogs and did not see any game action, Gordon notes the similarities between that matchup and this one against Manchester, and has learned a lot from the experience.

“It was great to see the team go that far, but it was heart-breaking to see them lose in the end. That’s a team who finished first all year and set records, and they deserved a better fate, but in the end, they played a good team with a good goaltender, and they ended up hitting a wall and losing.”

“Just to see the look on those guys’ faces and the emotion they displayed after the game was tough to see and something you don’t want to experience for yourself. We’re in a similar situation as a team that’s been rolling through pretty well all season, and you don’t want to end up with a frown on your face at the end of the season.”

News and Notes on Manchester Matchup

2010-05-11T10:50:00.005-04:00

Hershey players who lead the league in playoff scoring in particular categories:

Goals:Alexandre Giroux-10; Points:Alexandre Giroux- 17; Assists: Keith Aucoin-12; PP Assists: Chris Bourque-7; Shots: Chris Bourque-52

Streaking Bears: Giroux has at least a goal in three straight games (4). Aucoin has at least a point in all 9 of Hershey’s games, and Bourque has collected at least one assist in five straight games (8).

Manchester has averaged only 8.30 penalty minutes per game in the playoffs, the least amount of minutes per game in the league. Hershey meanwhile has averaged 17.44 minutes per game, the fifth highest total.

Both teams are undefeated when outshooting their opponents in the playoffs: Hershey is 7-0 and Manchester is 3-0. During the regular season, Hershey was 39-12-0-2 and Manchester was 13-10-1-2 under the same circumstances.

Hershey is third in the league on the power play in the playoffs (13-for-52, 25%) and Manchester is 12th on the PP (7-for-43, 16.3%). The Bears have scored at least one power play goal in seven of their nine playoff encounters, including three occasions when they have netted three extra man strikes in the same game. Andrew Gordon, who led the AHL in power play goals in the regular season with 19, is second in the post-season with five, one behind Chicago’s Anthony Stewart.

The Monarchs, who allowed 200 goals against in the regular season (2.5 per game), have allowed only 15 goals against in 10 games playoff action (1.5 per game), including six contests where they have limited their opponents to a goal or less (2 shutouts).

The Bears, who scored a league leading 342 goals in the regular season (4.3 per game), also lead the league in post-season goals with 40 (4.4 per game).Hershey allowed 198 goals against in the regular season (2.5 per game), have yielding 27 goals against in their 9 playoff outing (3.0 per game).

The Monarchs played five games in their series against Worcester that were decided by a goal, going 4-1 in those five contests, and have been involved in seven games in the playoffs that have been decided by a goal (5-2, including 3-0 in overtime).

The Bears played three games in their series against Albany that were decided by a goal, winning all three games in overtime. Overall, the Bears have been involved in five playoff games that have been decided by a goal, winning all five, including four in overtime.

Manchester netminder, Jonathan Bernier, who led the league in shutouts (9), saves (1,707), and save percentage (.936) in the regular season, has kept up his stellar play in the playoffs, leading the league in wins (8), shutouts (2), saves (296), goals against average (1.48), and save percentage (.952).

Michal Neuvirth, last year’s playoff MVP, who led the Bears to the title with a stellar post-season where he posted a sparkling numbers in the goals against (1.92) and save percentage categories (.932), has struggled to keep up that pace in those categories in the current playoffs. In the current playoffs, Neuvirth has posted a 2.42 goals against average and a .890 save percentage, yet despite those somewhat bloated numbers, the native of the Czech republic still sports an unblemished record (6-0) entering the matchup against Manchester.

The Monarchs leading regular season goal scorer was Corey Elkins, the rookie out of Ohio State. Elkins was a college teammate of Sean Collins and Johann Kroll with the Buckeyes.

Bud Holloway, the native of Wapella, Sask., the same hometown as former Bear, Brett Clark, was Manchester’s leading regular season point producer with 47 points (19g, 28a), including five game winners. Holloway has continued that trend into the post-season, leading the Monarchs with 11 points in 10 games (6+5), all six of his tallies have been game winning goals.

Bears Drown Rats in Third Period Flood

2010-04-25T23:42:00.002-04:00

The Hershey Bears took a commanding two games to none lead in their East Division Final matchup with the Albany River Rats on Sunday evening at Giant Center, rallying from an early third period deficit and leaving their den with a 6-3 win.

With the triumph, the Bears improved to 4-0 in the post-season at home, and combined with their regular season record, the Chocolate and White are an ultra-impressive 38-4-0-2 on home ice.

In the second minute of the opening period, the teams traded three quality scoring opportunities, with Albany’s Steve Goertzen and Hershey’s Andrew Gordon and Keith Aucoin all being denied on their efforts.

Those three early bids would be the only ones of the period until just past the midway point. Hershey’s Ashton Rome rifled home the first goal of the game at 10:48 by wristing a short side shot past Albany netminder, Justin Peters.

“It was just off the faceoff,” Rome said. “We had a good forecheck and Wilson came around the wall and read the play very well. I saw him look at Bouch, and I yelled at him and he slid it right under their defenseman’s stick. I just caught the goalie sliding away from the post.”

Drayson Bowman, who netted Albany’s first goal of the game on Saturday night after the Bears had skated out to a 1-0 lead, duplicated that feat again by converting a Hershey turnover behind the goal line into his second goal of the series at 15:37.

Albany’s power play unit, which emerged from a playoff-long slumber with an extra man marker on Saturday night, struck for another only seven seconds into a Mathieu Perreault penalty when Zac Dalpe’s impressive long distance tip from the high slot eluded Neuvirth at 3:35.

Albany’s lead lasted less than two minutes before Alexandre Giroux generated the red light behind Peters, gathering in his own rebound and backhanding his seventh goal of the post-season into the cage at 5:15.

After Albany’s Goertzen took an interference penalty at 19:40 of the second stanza, the Bears were presented a chance to take the lead early in the period with a power play strike, but those plans took a wrong turn when Nick Dodge’s shorthanded goal gave the Rats another lead at 3-2.

With his power play unit sputtering of late, and with Dodge’s strike fresh in his mind, Hershey coach, Mark French, considered dismantling his high powered group when Bryan Rodney was assessed a penalty at 2:15. However, he elected to ride it out and the unit responded in positive fashion, reeling off three consecutive power play goals.

“We were sort of frustrated as a power play unit,” admitted Gordon. “When we let that short-handed goal in, we felt like we let the boys down. I remember Giroux saying ‘we’ve got to get it done’.”

And get it done they did by simply, well, simplifying things.

“We started shooting the puck a little more than usual instead of looking for backdoor plays and tic tac toe stuff; it’s pretty simple when you get down to it with the power play situations. You have more guys than they do and you just need to shoot the puck,” said Gordon.

After the succession of power play goals, Hershey’s defensive corps, which was without the services of Greg Amadio and Sean Collins and consisted of relative newcomers Dylan Yeo and Johann Kroll, put the clamps on Albany’s offense, allowing Albany only three shots on net in the final half of the third period.

“It was definitely interesting. We found out they were both out late tonight and remembered that whatever happens in the playoffs, you have to be ready for it. Kroll and Yeo did a great job tonight. They didn’t miss a beat and they really contributed.” said Wellar who was teammates with Yeo earlier this season in South Carolina.

Wellar and Kroll also share a playing history that most likely made Sunday’s last minute changes a little bit smoother off a transition.

“Last year, we were D partners for the entire Kelly Cup winning playoffs, so there’s a lot of familiarity there. He’s a great player and it’s sad that he hasn’t been at this level all year because he’s a talent,” Wellar said.

Rome, a late season addition to the lineup from the ECHL, and whose brother, Aaron, won the Stanley Cup in 2007 with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, is giving everything he’s got with the chance he’s been given in Hershey.

“I’m just grateful for the opportunity; I just tried to work hard all year because I thought I might get an opportunity. I got a little bit of an opportunity up in Toronto, but then Hershey called me. They told me there might be a chance of staying for the season, so I’ve just worked hard and did what I do best.”

Bears Poison Rats in Overtime

2010-04-25T01:35:00.002-04:00

The Hershey Bears opened their East Division Finals series against the Albany River Rats on Saturday night at Giant Center in the same manner as they opened up their first round matchup against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, overcoming a third period deficit and then prevailing in overtime in dramatic fashion.

Hershey centerman, Andrew Joudrey, who scored the game-winner in overtime against Bridgeport, was once again at the forefront of the overtime heroics, this time picking up the primary assist on Kyle Wilson’s game-winning goal which gave the Bears the 4-3 overtime triumph.

Andrew Gordon struck for the first goal of the series when he guided Keith Aucoin’s centering pass behind Albany netminder, Justin Peters, at the four minute mark of the opening period.

“Their winger up high collapsed on me and that left Helmer open,” said Gordon. “Helmer rimmed it around Coiner, who was open behind the net. As is my habit, I curled right in front of the net and no one picked me up.”

The River Rats squared the score at 8:25 when Zac Dalpe bested Wilson on a Hershey defensive zone draw, and Drayson Bowman’s bad angle shot from the wall, which resulted from the faceoff win, eluded Bears backstopper, Michal Neuvirth.

Although the Bears only scored one goal in the first period, Gordon scored a knock down when he put Zach Boychuk on his backside with a solid body check.

“It was just a self-defense mechanism. If you have the opportunity to hit someone before they hit you, I’ll do that every time instead of taking a blow,” Gordon said.

A controversial double minor high-sticking infraction assessed to Hershey defenseman, Greg Amadio, for clipping Albany defenseman, Tim Conboy, at 5:06 of the second period, gave the visitors a chance to break their 0-for-22 playoff drought. That’s exactly what they did when Jerome Samson sizzled a shot by the glove of Neuvirth at 6:40.

Later in the period, with the Bears on a 5-on-3 power play, Mathieu Perreault’s slashing penalty cut the advantage down to a 4-on-3 and forced the Bears to take a faceoff in their own zone. Faced with that situation, Bears’ coach, Mark French, made the tactical decision to put four forwards on the ice that paid off handsomely, ultimately resulting in another Gordon goal at 15:47.

“It’s a bit of a risk, but we think to have Chris and Alex on the point gives us an opportunity,” said French. “It might hurt us defensively the odd time, but you’ve got to capitalize on those opportunities and it wasn’t traditional. It was off a bit of a broken faceoff, and a great play by Chris and Alex to get it to Gordo.”

The Bears started off the third period with a rush when the line of Bourque, Perreault, and Jay Beagle buzzed the Rats’ zone for an entire minute, putting three shots on net; however, Peters and his mates were able to weather that early storm.

The Bears kept up the pressure after that impressive shift by pelting Peters with four more shots, but Samson’s long range wrister on Albany’s first shot of the period at 7:13, found an opening and beat Neuvirth to give Albany another one goal lead at 3-2.

The former Rat, Keith Aucoin, who absorbed a bone-rattling neutral zone check from defenseman, Jamie McBian, midway through the frame, tied the game at 3-3 when he potted a rebound goal, his first tally of the post-season.

Aucoin’s goal turned out to be the last of regulation, and the Bears entered the overtime session with a 1:14 power play, courtesy of Jay Harrison’s hooking penalty incurred in the last minute of third period.

The River Rats were able to thwart Hershey’s power-play bid and nearly ended the game shortly after Harrison was released from his sentence. Luckily, Neuvirth saved his best work for the overtime session and repelled Bryan Rodney’s breakaway bid by kicking off his last pad to make a splendid save.

“I was not feeling really good about my play, and I told myself that I had to be better,” Neuvirth said. “That was a big save. I hope that when I made that big save on the breakaway that it gave the guys some confidence that I’m back.”

Wilson’s game-winning goal start with a simple dump-in by Wilson himself after the puck went behind the net. Boyd Kane’s impending body belt on Brett Bellemore forced the Albany defenseman to release the puck quickly. Bellemore’s clearing attempt was intercepted along the boards by Joudrey, who launched the puck in the direction of the net.

Joudrey’s shot was deflected by Kane, with Peters making the original save, but the wily Wilson who was waiting in the wings, pounced upon the rebound and the celebration ensued for the defending Calder Cup Champions.

“I was able to read the play and pick it up along the boards,” said Joudrey. “Kane always goes to the front of the net, so I just tried to put it in that direction. Kane made a great tip and Willy was in the right position.”

“In overtime, anything can happen when you keep it simple,” continued Joudrey. “I’m just trying to help the team out any way I can, and the only reason we won that game is that 20 guys were working at it.”

Bears Bring Down Curtain on Bridgeport

2010-04-22T00:28:00.003-04:00

The Hershey Bears saved their best for last in the East Division Semi-final matchup against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Wednesday night at Giant Center by totally taming the Tigers attack, allowing only seven shots on goal, and prevailing 4-1 and winning the series in the process.

After a disappointing loss in Bridgeport on Sunday, the Bears jumped out to a 1-0 lead 3:25 into the contest when Karl Alzner’s point shot caromed off the body of Bridgeport defenseman, Dustin Kohn, and then behind goaltender, Mikko Koskinen. Alzner’s goal was the first first-period goal that the Bears scored in the series, and was also his first professional playoff goal.

“I was wide open there. I’m not sure exactly where their forwards were, and Colly knew I was there and gave it to me,” Alzner said. “I was ready to shoot it and there were two guys coming in on me and I tried to get it between them, and I must have hit one of them. I don’t think I could pick a corner like that.”

Hershey’s defensive corps, which was shutout in the first four games of the series, while watching Bridgeport’s backliners light the lamp five times, netted another goal when Zach Miskovic rang a shot off the post and then behind Koskinen at 9:29.

“It’s tough to see the other team’s D men chipping in and with goals, even though they have an unbelievably talented defensive unit with guys who have played a lot of NHL games,” commented Alzner. “For us, we just want to help the team out. It doesn’t really matter what the other team is doing, but the teams who are successful are the teams who have everybody working together.”

Bridgeport, although limited to one shot in the opening frame, made it count when defenseman, Dylan Reese, converted Chris Bourque’s blueline giveaway into a shorthanded goal at 12:42.

Kyle Wilson quickly countered the Reese goal when he willed home his second goal of the series, beating Koskinen with an unassisted goal through the seven-hole at 14:51 to close out the first period scoring.

“Not a chance,” said Wilson on whether he was trying to put the shot under the goalie’s arm. “It was one of those things where you’ve got to screen because the defenseman stepped up on you. It gives you an opportunity to shoot through them, and you take it by picking a side of the net and shooting there and hoping that you got a quick shot off that the goalie wasn’t ready for.”

Only a dozen seconds into the second stanza, the Bears found themselves the recipients of a five-on-three power play when Bridgeport’s Robin Figren (late first period) and Andrew MacDonald took minor penalties.

Koskinen temporarily held the home team at bay in the early stages of the advantage, stopping Alexandre Giroux’s point blank attempt, and getting some help from the post on Mathieu Perreault’s shot before succumbing to Giroux’s one-time blast from the left faceoff dot at 1:32.

Bear’s goaltender, Michal Neuvirth, made a highlight reel save with just over two minutes left in the period with the Sound Tigers on a power play, diving across the crease to stick away Michael Davies’ slapshot.

“I wasn’t really in the game (because of lack of shots),” said Neuvirth, who has not allowed more than two goals in his last eight playoff outings. “I was trying to stay focused the whole game. I think I did my best and helped the guys win the hockey game.”

“That was unbelievable,” said Alzner of Neuvirth’s stellar stick save. “I’m happy he made it. I thought he was in front of the net, because as soon as the guy shot, I stepped out of the way. I thought he was standing there with no one in front of him, so the smart plan in that case is for the D man to get out of the way and let him have it. As soon as I turned and looked and he wasn’t in the net and I was sweating thinking ‘please make the save’. That’s Neuvy for you. He makes saves that you don’t know how he does it.”

Bears Send Tigers One Step Closer to Extinction

2010-04-17T22:39:00.007-04:00

After struggling in a pair of home victories against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at Giant Center, the Hershey Bears made themselves right at home in their first road outing of the playoffs on Saturday night at the Arena at Harbor Hard, soundly whipping the Tigers, 7-2.

With the victory, the Bears take a commanding 3-0 series lead and have a chance to close out the series on Sunday afternoon in Bridgeport.

After a first period in which they had no solid scoring chances and registered only five shots on goal against Bridgeport backstopper, Scott Munroe, the Bears netted the first goal of the game when Andrew Gordon scored his first goal of the playoffs at 5:19 of the middle frame. Gordon’s marker marked the first time in the series that the Bears tallied the first goal of the game.

Twenty-five seconds after his initial conquest of Munroe, Gordon converted from close range to make it 2-0, Hershey.

Midway through the second period, the rout was officially on when Alexandre Giroux, Gordon, and Steve Pinizzotto scored within a 2:12 span to make it 5-0 and end the night for Munroe who was replaced in net by Mikko Koskinen.

Giroux finished out the goal scoring in the second period, generating his second goal of the game, this one on the power play to give the Bears a 6-0 lead. Giroux’s goal established a new Hershey record for goals in a period with six, eclipsing the previous record of five set in the 1998 playoffs against the Kentucky Throughblades in Kentucky.

Bridgeport’s Greg Mauldin ruined Bears goltender, Michal Neuvirth’s, bid for his fifth career playoff shutout when he beat Neuvirth to the short side at 9:11 of the third period.

Hershey’s Kyle Wilson and Bridgeport’s Jeremy Reich exchanged goals late in the third period to finish out the scoring in the game. Wilson, who entered the game with no shots on goal in the series, now has 11 career playoff goals with the Chocolate and White over four playoff seasons.

Bears Trip Up Tigers Again

2010-04-17T02:09:00.006-04:00

Though the Hershey Bears had limited experience with coming back from behind in games in the regular season, they’ve handled the challenge like pros in the first two games of the series against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

With their 3-2 victory on Friday night at Giant Center, the Bears take the 2-0 lead in the playoff series to Bridgeport this weekend for games three and four.

Bridgeport broke free for the first goal of the game when defenseman, Dustin Kohn, canned the rebound of his own shot by Michal Neuvirth at 16:14.

Although Kohn’s goal was the only one to hit the back of the net during the first period, there were plenty of other hits to go around as the Bears bruised the Tigers with numerous bone-crunching hits, most notably Andrew Gordon’s wallop on Bridgeport’s Mark Flood.

“I wanted to make sure I had good contact,” explained Gordon. “He was trying to one-time the puck and it was the kind of hit they have been talking about in the NHL these days, so I wanted to make sure I kept my elbow down and kept it shoulder on shoulder.”

Hershey’s high scoring duo of Keith Aucoin and Alexandre Giroux, the league’s leading and second leading point producers in the regular season respectively, tagged up to tie the game 16:32 into the middle frame. The sequence actually started with the twosome doing yeoman’s work along the boards and culminated with Giroux cleanly beating Sound Tigers’ netminder, Nathan Lawson.

“We have to make sure we win battles along the wall, and that’s why I got that goal,” said Giroux. “We put it deep and got the forecheck and we got the goal.”

The Sound Tigers, as was the case in game one when Andrew MacDonald struck late in the second period with a goal at the 19:59 mark, received a fortuitous bounce to take the lead at 19:15, when Kohn’s backhanded attempted pass pinged off the stick of Bears’ defenseman, Patrick McNeill, and then trickled through the pads of Neuvirth.

Kohn’s marker was the first power play goal of the series after the two teams combined for 22 unsuccessful attempts.

Giroux tied the game at two just 1:32 into the third period with his 25th career playoff goal as a Bear, and his 3rd of the current playoff season.

With an ailing Aucoin on the bench, and Lawson in the dressing room due to injury, Aucoin’s replacement on the power play unit, Mathieu Perreault, beat Lawson’s replacement, Scott Munroe at 7:06 to give the Bears a lead they would never relinquish.

“The puck was bouncing a little bit and I was looking to go to Helmer back door,” Perreault said. “The lane wasn’t there, so I just pulled it back and shot it short side because the goalie was playing the back door.”

Neuvirth, making just his 7th appearance in seven weeks, preserved the lead by making a glittering glove save on Flood just shy of halfway through the final period.

“My glove was working good tonight; pretty much every shot, they were going high glove for some reason,” said Neuvirth.

Gordon who contributed two assists to the winning cause and was named the number three star of the game, attributed his team’s two comebacks to the confidence level of squad.

“We have a lot of belief in ourselves,” he said. “We’ve won a lot of games in the last couple years, and a majority of us have been around for most of it, so we’re a team that knows how to win and deficits don’t really bother us. Tonight was a good testament to that.”

**PHOTO COURTESY OF JUSTSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY**

Bears Turn Back Tigers in Series Opener

2010-04-15T00:43:00.005-04:00

In the first period of game one of their Calder Cup playoff matchup with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Hershey Bears’ usually ferocious attack was grounded, as they managed a scant three shots on net; however, aided by a controversial late third period goal by Mathieu Perreault, the defending champions left the Tigers feeling low by managing a 4-3 overtime win at Giant Center on Wednesday night.

The heavily-favored Bears, who established a new AHL regular season record by reeling off 60 wins, were realistically playing their first meaningful game in nearly a month, and it showed in the early stages of the contest.

The visitors struck for the first goal of the series at 5:40 of the opening period when Trevor Smith lit the lamp. Smith, after snagging Chris Bourque’s failed clearing attempt high in the Hershey zone, launched a shot that climbed first off of the blocker of Bears' goaltender, Braden Holtby, and then over his right shoulder, eventually finding a resting place in the net.

The Sound Tigers then stunned the Giant Center faithful by taking a 2-0 lead at 15:14, when Sean Bentivoglio stickhandled behind the Hershey net and then sandwiched a pass between a pair of Bears’ defenders to teammate Matt Martin in the crease area, with Martin then pushing the biscuit into a yawning cage.

The Bears came out energized in the middle frame, outshooting the Sound Tigers from the opening puck drop and getting their first goal of the series at 5:33, when Alexandre Giroux, the AHL’s leading goal scorer in the regular season, authored his first goal of the post-season by blasting a point shot through Bridgeport backstopper, Scott Munroe.

In the latter stages of the second period, seconds after the expiration of Hershey’s fourth unsuccessful power play of the stanza, Francois Bouchard was whistled off of the ice for a goaltender’s interference penalty, although he was clearly given some assistance by Bentivoglio.

Hershey survived Bouchard’s sentence without allowing a Bridgeport power play strike, but the boys from Bridgeport kept a presence in the Hershey’s zone after Bouchard was released and netted an even strength goal by defenseman Andrew MacDonald at the 19:59 mark to re-establish their two-goal lead heading into the second intermission.

“It wasn’t quite how I imagined it would go," said Hotby of his inaugural playoff outing. “I didn’t get off to a good start in the game, but I felt I played (stickhandled) the puck very well. I got caught by a couple of bad bounces that could probably be attributed to my nervousness.“

Bouchard cut the Bridgeport lead to a single goal at 14:14 of the third period by skillfully deflecting Patrick Wellar’s wrist shot from the point behind Bridgeport backstopper, Scott Munroe.

“It was a really good shot by Wellar,” said Bouchard. “It was just a little behind me, but I was able to reach it and get a stick on it. They say in the playoffs, good things happen when you go to the net, and that’s what happened on that goal.”

Bouchard, although not playing on a line with Mathieu Perreault at this early juncture in the playoffs, anticipates the duo pitching in with more offense in their second playoff run.

“Last year was our first year in the playoffs and we were learning from the big guys," said Bouchard. “I think this year we will have a bigger roll and score some big goals like we did tonight.”

Forty seconds after the Bouchard marker, the Sound Tigers’ Jesse Joensuu came within inches of giving them their two-goal cushion back, but his redirect slithered to a halt just before reaching the goal line, and Holtby, surprised to see the puck not in his grasp, quickly covered it.

“I was actually more surprised that it got through me, because it was a deflection that I felt in my armpit pretty solid and I thought it was still there,” Holtby explained. “Once I didn’t hear the whistle, I looked behind me and saw that the puck had stopped and jumped on it.”

With less than two minutes left in regulation time, Perreault batted an airborne puck behind to Munroe to seemingly tie the game. However, the Bears had to wait a few tense moments while the officials conferred before being able to officially celebrate the goal. Although a replay of the goal appeared to make it a very questionable one, Perreault, as could be expected, thought the goal call was the right one.

“The goalie was down and his head was about even with the crossbar,” said Perreault. “I think it was a good goal but it was a tough call for him (referee, Nygel Pelletier).”

Like Bouchard, Perrreault also envisions elevating his level of play in this year’s playoffs, alleviating some of the tremendous pressure this is placed on Hershey’s bigger guns.

“I think if we can give a hand to our top line by getting some goals, it will make them more comfortable and allow them to do what they do best, ” Perreault said.

Joensuu had another chance to salt the game away for the visitors in the last minute of regulation, but his breakaway bid was halted by Hershey defenseman, Karl Alzner, who despite stopping Joensuu’s advances, drew a penalty in the process.

When the Sound Tigers were unable to take advantage of their remaining regulation power play opportunity, the game went into overtime with the visitors starting out the session with more than a minute remaining on Alzner’s call.

Hershey’s penalty killers came up strong against the challenge, not only stopping the Sound Tigers from getting the game winner, but also by drawing a penalty on MacDonald while shorthanded to short circuit the charge.

Fittingly, it was a pair of the Chocolate and White’s premiere penalty killers who factored into the game winning goal, with Steve PInizzotto picking up the secondary assist, and Andrew Joudrey collecting the game-winner at 4:08 to send the home crowd home on a happy note.

“Wellsie was stepping left to right and their goalie is such a big guy; I thought he would be going the other way," said Joudrey. “I tried to go back against the grain, and get him to over commit.“

Wellar, who was a member of last year’s ECHL Kelly Cup winning South Carolina Stingrays, but did not see any playoff action with the Bears, gave a lot of credit to the Sound Tigers for their tenacious defense, but said that the biggest factor in helping the Bears pull out the come from behind win was their persistence.

“We weren’t getting much accomplished for most of the night because they were playing such good defense,” said Wellar, who collected a pair of assists in the win. “I was fortunate to get a few pucks through from the point and the guys did a great job with the deflections. We scored some pretty ugly goals tonight.”

It’s not often that you get to learn a valuable lesson in a win, but Joudrey thinks that is exactly was his club experienced in the series opener.

“It’s a testament to them; they were working hard,” said Joudrey, who knows a thing or two about hard work, "but your first and last minutes of a period, you want them to be good. That should be a lesson to us going forward, that we need to go whistle to whistle for the full twenty.”

Bears Reap Rewards of Holtby’s Bountiful Crop

2010-04-12T10:23:00.003-04:00

Warren Zevon’s hockey-themed song titled, “Hit Somebody” is about an enforcer whose skills are limited to fighting, but who grudgingly patrols the ice protecting his more talented teammates.

In that classic song, one of the often repeated lines is “What’s a Canadian farm boy to do?” and for Hershey Bears’ rookie goaltending phenom, Braden Holtby, a native of Saskatchewan, his answer is to patrol the crease with authority.

“I grew up on a farm and my parents are still farmers; I go back every summer,” said Holtby, in response to what part of his life would probably surprise his legion of fans. I really don’t know what I’m portrayed as out there on the ice, but I think a lot of people would be shocked that I’m a farmer.”

While he was in fact born in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, as listed in Hershey’s media guide, the Bears netminder is actually from a small town near Lloydminster, but for convenience sake, he tells people he’s from Lloydminster.

“Although I was born in Lloydminster, I’m actually from a little town called Marshall,” he explained. “I usually just say I’m from Lloydminster because nobody has ever heard of Marshall. Marshall is a town of about 600 people, and it’s not even big enough for a minor hockey team in Canada, which is kind of crazy.”

Faced with no options to play minor hockey in his home town, Holtby was forced to go up the road about ten minutes away to the town of Lashburn to start his journey to the pros.

“When I played there, I was fortunate enough to play in my age group as a forward and then the age group above that as a goaltender, so I got to play twice as much hockey which was great for my development; it was one of the benefits of being in a small town.”

Holtby’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when he stepped up the ladder to the next level, Bantams, playing for the Midwest Red Wings.

“I played one year there and we were a terrible team. We went like 1-and-23 and we folded after the year, so I had to find a new place to play the next year, and there was a new team coming into Lloydminster.”

It sounds easy enough to forget the memories of the painful season and go back to playing in the town you were born to continue your career; however, it turned out there were more barriers to overcome, more specifically, the border patrols.

“I had to go through a whole bunch of trouble to get across the border to play there because Lloydminster is a border city, but I finally got that worked out and from there I got drafted by the Saskatoon Blades (WHL).”

With living at home while playing with Saskatoon ruled out because of the two-hour drive, Holtby was forced to leave home as a 15-year-old to play with the Blades; fortunately for him and his parents, there were a couple of familiar faces there who saw to it that the teenager’s three-year stay there went smoothly without much incident.

“I was really fortunate that a couple of friends of my parents from high school, Ian and Karen Belyea, lived in Saskatoon, and I was able to move in with them. They were great people who had two younger boys just a little younger than me. My parents are very thankful for what they did for me, and obviously I am too. They were unbelievably good to me, and I consider them family, and realistically, they were the sole reasons that I was able to get through those years there.”

Holtby’s coach in Saskatoon was Lorne Molleken, a former goalie himself who played over 300 games in the minor leagues during his pro career.

During Holtby’s three years under Molleken’s tutelage, he never played less than 50 games in a season, and like a typical teenager who does not see their parents’ infinite wisdom during those formative years, Holtby now sees that Molleken knew exactly what he was doing.

“Lorne was great to me. He gave all the faith in the world to me, and trusted me by allowing me to play that many games; but that being said, other than myself, he was the toughest one on me in Saskatoon,” Holtby said.

“He expected a lot out of me, and looking back, it was pretty frustrating for me at the time because I was young and trying to figure out what was going on. Now, when I look back at it, he knew what he was doing with his own personal experience of being a goalie and was only doing what was best for me.”

After the conclusion of his junior career with the Blades at the end of the 2008-09 season, Holtby became a member of the Bears, dressed as a backup in one regular season game, and watched from the stands as the Bears captured their 10th Calder Cup.

Holtby began the current season in Chocolatetown and got off to a fast start by winning two of three decisions, including a shutout in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, before being sent to the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL to get some playing time because of the Bears’ logjam in the crease.

“It wasn’t as tough as you’d think,” said Holtby of getting sent down after the fast start. “Coming into the year, I kind of knew that the writing was on the wall and that I’d be down there a bit, but the most frustrating part was after those three games, knowing that I could play well at this league and knowing if I got my opportunity I would have done well with it.”

“Going down to South Carolina was tough, mentally and physically, too, with all the travel going back and forth, but in the overall picture, it turned out to be better for me. I got to play even more than I would have at the start of the year here, and I got to go through some emotional roller coasters that I probably wouldn’t have had to go through here just being a back up.”

Although there are many differences between the junior ranks and the pros, there is one thing that is the same in both leagues: the mode of transportation, the bus or “Iron Lung” as many players call it.

“I wouldn’t say the travel in either league is harder than the other, but it’s a different travel for sure. Obviously, the bus here in Hershey is a lot nicer than the one in junior, and the food here is a lot better. Also, here you tend to go on longer, more organized trips, where in junior, sometimes you went on 10 or 12 hour bus rides for just one game.”

Vision, which is a vital part of being a good goalie, has been a longtime struggle for Holtby, who wears glasses off of the ice; but thanks to the Blades, that problem seems to be under control now.

“I wear contacts and vision has been a huge problem for me the last few years. I’m very sensitive to some contacts, but I’ve been fortunate to hook up with a guy in Saskatoon who the Blades hooked me up with who has been a huge help to me and my family with our eye problems.”

“I guess you could say he’s the sole reason that I can see, because before he figured my problems out, I had tried about 30 different contacts over the last couple of years. Hopefully, over this upcoming summer, I’m getting the Lasik surgery with my dad, and I can’t wait for that.”

Looking at a goalie’s mask, you can get a pretty good idea of where or with whom his interests lie, and Holtby is no exception to that rule, but the design on his current mask was not his first choice.

“I was pretty happy with the one I got last year in the playoffs, but due to some legal reasons with HERCO (he had the familiar Hershey bar design, but with his last name on lettering instead of HERSHEY’S), I had to stop using that one. So, I had to come up with another design in about an hour with my current one.”

“I liked the Hershey/Washington theme that the other goalies before me had so I went with that on the front. The back of my mask is more personal, it has “carpe diem” on it, which means “seize the day” in Latin. That was the school motto back in high school in Lloydminster and I try to live my life by that, because I think that if you can live every day to its fullest, you are going to be successful.”

“I also have the Saskatchewan and Alberta flags on the back, to help me realize where I came from and to not get too ahead of myself.”

Holtby finished the recently concluded regular season with 24 wins for the Chocolate and White with an impressive number of victories for any goalie, much less a rookie who prior to the beginning of the season was not expected to play in Hershey.

“The only times I had seen him play before this season, were in development camps and those sort of situations,” said Hershey head coach, Mark French. “Washington’s plans were that he was going to spend the year in South Carolina and take the bulk of the work there, and then make the jump up here the next year. He got a little bit of good fortune early when Neuvy went down and he was able to step in and do the job. From that opportunity he has really grown and played exceptionally well. I think it’s easy to say that he’s played above our expectations for a first year guy.”

In seasons prior to the current one, Hershey’s goaltenders had the good fortune of having former Caps goaltending guru, Dave Prior, be a frequent visitor in town. However, this year, the Caps’ new goaltending coach, Arturs Irbe, has not been a frequent visitor to central Pennsylvania, which makes Holtby’s achievements even more remarkable.

“Mostly I’ve just stuck with my goalie coach back home, who is a sports psychologist, but Archie keeps in contact with me every little while, just to catch up on how things have been going; but it’s hard for him as a goalie coach to see what’s going on over the phone.”

“Goaltending is so much a visual thing as far as the technical aspects of the position. Hopefully, I can grow my relationship with Archie more in the coming years, because he is a fun guy to be around and tries to keep things on the light side.”

Holtby’s impressive season also resulted in him getting a couple of recalls to the show, but realistically those callups were based on convenience, with little chance of him seeing any game action. However, he still feels fortunate to have spent time in the show, and soaked up the experience for future use.

“Coming into the year, I didn’t think I’d get called up at all. I was more focusing on hopefully playing games in Hershey. Any time I can get up there and be around those guys in that atmosphere, I’ll take it. Being up there, I saw that there are still some holes in my game that I’m going to have to fine tune, but I think I can play when I get a chance up there.”

Although opponents have found few holes in Holtby’s armor while he manned the crease for the Bears, as evidenced by his single digit loss total (8), French said sometimes Holtby can be his own worst enemy.

“Braden is a very strong kid, mentally, but he’s very hard on himself. The one thing that we have talked to him about this year is that after each loss, he takes it to heart, which is a good thing, but at the same time when you play eighty games, if you get too emotional it will hurt your next performance. You need to learn from those losses, but let it go pretty quick. Because he cares so much, that can be a fault, but I think with maturity he will certainly be able to overcome that.”

With the high likelihood that he will see some substantial time in the upcoming playoffs for the Bears, Holtby is taking the wait and see approach, and not getting caught up in the hoopla.

“I have no clue how much I’ll play, or if I’ll play at all, or in every game. It’s up in the air, and I haven’t really been asking questions about it. Last year it was tough being in the stands, but even if I don’t play this year, it will be fun being in the locker room. It’s going to be a lot more fun to be a bigger part of it.”

Hopefully, for Bears’ fans, the “bigger part” will involve sipping the bubbly from the Calder Cup at the conclusion of the playoffs.

Caps Can Thrashers

2010-04-10T10:28:00.008-04:00

Down by a goal midway through the game on the night they were awarded the President’s Trophy, which recognizes the team with the best record in the NHL, the Washington Capitals, fueled by Alex Ovechkin and Niklas Backstrom achieving individual milestones, escaped Verizon Center on Friday night with a 5-2 victory over division rivals, the Atlanta Thrashers.

Ovechkin, Washington’s leading scorer, who entered the game with 48 goals, registered his 49th and 50th goals of the season, with Backstrom collecting his 100th point of the campaign on the 50th goal.

Backstrom banged home the only goal of the first period, depositing Ovechkin’s rebound behind Atlanta netminder, Ondrej Pavelec, at 14:44. Backstrom’s goal was his 32nd of the season, and 4th at Atlanta’s expense.

Despite Backstrom's goal, Washington’s tough as nails winger, Quintin Laing, had the best two opportunities of the first period, but had both of his quality bids were rejected by Pavelec.

“It would have been nice for them to go in," said Laing, who has only two goals on the season. "As a fourth liner, you don’t get many chances like that, at least I don’t usually. Whenever you get chances like that in tight, you want to put them in, but they didn’t go my way; I’ll just have to work harder on those in practice tomorrow.”

Laing, who has missed sizeable portions of the last two seasons in the District as a result of him sacrificing his body to block shots, knows that despite playing in seven of the last nine games, playoff time for him is anything but guaranteed.

“We’ll see; we have three extra forwards, and every game, three guys will have to sit out,” said Laing, who has never appeared in a Caps playoff game. “I’m going to be ready whatever my role is, and it’s just a matter of being ready and staying sharp and making the most of it when you get your opportunity.”

Backstrom’s goal stood as the only goal of the game until 11:15 of the second period, when former Bear, Evgeny Artyukhin, banked a shot off the skate of Washington forward, Brendan Morrison, to knot the affair at a goal each.

Less the two minutes after Artyukhin’s tally, and with the Caps on a power play, Clarke MacArthur stole Ovechkin’s point pass and then beat Washington goalie, Jose Theodore, on a breakaway attempt, depositing the biscuit high into the net to give the visitors a 2-1 lead at 13:07. MacArthur’s marker was reviewed by the off-ice officials, but the goal was allowed after the video review clearly showed the puck had entered and then exited the net.

Ovechkin, the league’s reigning Rocket Richard Trophy winner, symbolic of goal-scoring superiority, atoned for his power play slipup by sizzling a slapshot by Pavelec at 16:04 to tie the game. Ovechkin’s goal was his 49th of the season, and featured a sole assist to Alexander Semin who started the play in the neutral zone.

Theodore saved his best work for the third period, denying Maxim Afinogenov’s point-blank backhand bid and laying down the leather and gloving Bryan Little’s bid at 7:35 to keep the Thrashers from taking another lead.

Ovechkin was at it again just shy of the midway point of the final period, lasering a low missile by the stick side of Pavelec at 9:49 to give the Capitals a lead they would never relinquish.

Ovechkin’s goal was his 50th of the season, and was assisted by Backstrom and Semin. Backstrom’s helper was his 100th point of the season, and his coach, Bruce Boudreau, who has seen Backstrom develop into one of the premiere players in the league during his three seasons behind the Washington bench, couldn’t be happier for the 22-year old Swede.

“I’m just really proud of him,” said Boudreau. “You know he’s such a great young man. You like to see great people and good people succeed. I was sitting there going, 'Nicky just got his 100th and Alex just got his 5oth; whose picking up the puck'?”

Jason Chimera (7th goal as a Capital) and Backstrom struck later in the third frame within a 49 second span to finish out the scoring and give the Caps their 54th win of the season and their 30h home ice triumph.

Theodore, who stopped 29 Atlanta shots on the night to register his the 30th win of the season, has now accumulated 30 or more wins in four different seasons in the NHL, including the last two with Washington.

Bears Anchor Admirals to Add to Record

2010-04-04T23:37:00.004-04:00

The Hershey Bears added another chapter and another record to their storybook season on Sunday evening at Giant Center when they nipped the Norfolk Admirals, 3-2.

The Bears improved on the record they have already broken by registering their 59th overall win of the season, and their 34th home triumph, establishing a new league record for home wins.

Hershey scored the only goal of the first period at exactly eleven minutes when Mathieu Perreault shagged down Jay Beagle’s deflected shot that took a weird bounce of the rear boards and shoved the puck behind Norfolk’s sprawling netminder, Dustin Tokarski.

“I gave it wide to Beagle and he tried to throw the puck on net,” said Perreault. “Good things happen when you shoot the puck on net, and it bounced right to me and I put it in.”

Though the Admirals were outshot in the early stages of the first period, they came on strong in the latter part and if not for a brilliant save by Bears’ goaltender, Braden Holtby, on a breakaway attempt by Mitch Fadden, it would have been a tied game.

“I don’t know if it was a lucky save or not, but I wasn’t really sure if I had it,” said Holtby. “That’s one of tough things about breakaways-if they shoot five-hole, you want to hold your ground as long as you can. I just held it long enough to stop the puck.”

Hershey rookie forward, Cody Eakin, who made his AHL debut in Syracuse last week and netted his first pro goal in the contest, doubled his goal production when he skillfully skewered Patrick Wellar’s point shot past Tokarski at 12:53.

“Gus passed it off to Wellar and I thought I made eye contact with him, but he said he just buried his head and shot it,” said the youngster, Eakin, who was only a year old when the Binghamton Rangers established the previous record for most wins in a season. “I was able to get wide open in front of the net and I got a lucky tip on it.”

Though the Winnipeg native has been concentrating on his junior career, Eakin is fully aware of the rich tradition in Chocolatetown.

“I caught a couple of the games when they were playing the Moose, and I understand the history and recognize the team they have here; it’s an honor to be a part of it,” he said.

The AHL’s leading goal-getter, Alexandre Giroux, scored his 46th goal of the season to give the Bears a 3-0 lead at 4:45 of the third period, helped tremendously by Mathieu Perreault’s outstanding individual effort against seemingly insurmountable odds.

“I got the puck in the neutral zone and I saw it was Parrish playing D man, and I know he’s a forward so I thought I might as well take him one-on-one because he’s not a D man,” said Perreault, who faced a one-on-four situation when he entered the zone. “I beat him and Giroux was calling for the puck. It’s never a bad play to give the puck to Giroux in the slot.”

Perreault, who recently returned from a call up stint with the Washington Capitals where he has spent 21 games this season in the show, credits his newly found confidence for his decision to confront the overwhelming odds he faced that led to Giroux’s goal.

“I think the call ups helped my confidence a lot,” he said. “I would have probably just chipped it in and tried to go get it, but now that I have confidence, I skate it in and try to make some moves and I’m not afraid to commit a turnover.”

The never-say-die Admirals made a game of it when Fadden and former Bear, Ryan Craig, each scored within a 52 second span, cutting the Bears lead to 3-2. However, Holtby faced down the Ads’ last six shots to secure his 24th win of the campaign.

Bears Munch on Crunch to Set Record

2010-04-04T00:32:00.002-04:00

Though the seasons have changed in the six months since the Hershey Bears’ season-opening win on October 3rd, 2009, one thing has remained constant-their winning ways. On Saturday night, exactly six months to the day of the first win of this season, the home team made history by recording their 58th win of the season against the Syracuse Crunch at Giant Center, 6-1.

Hershey’s win was also their 33rd home triumph of the season, tying another AHL record that they have the opportunity to break by defeating the Norfolk Admirals on Sunday, the same team against which they picked up their first win.

Boyd Kane gave the Bears an early lead only 1:07 into the contest by redirecting a Patrick Wellar shot that trickled between the wickets of Syracuse’s starting goaltender, Kevin Lalande.

Less than a minute after Kane’s caper, the Bears’ Mathieu Perreault, who returned to Hershey after a recall to the Washington Capitals, failed on his penalty shot attempt, being foiled in his backhand attempt by the glove of Lalande.

Hershey’s penalty killing unit, which ranks first in the loop in PK proficiency, was responsible for the second goal, with Jay Beagle’s dogged determination on the forecheck which forced Lalande into a turnover that led to Beagle’s 15th goal of the season at 12:30.

“I knew that they had all their guys on one side of the ice,” Beagle said. “Their goalie was kind of left out to dry there, and I just tried to pressure him to cough up the puck. I don’t know if it hit my skate, but it just popped loose and I was able to grab it and put it on net.”

Beagle’s goal was the last of the period, but there was plenty of roughhousing in the latter stages of the period that excited the crowd. Hershey’s captain, Bryan Helmer, was in the middle of the melee, throwing an impressive looking uppercut intended for Syracuse’s Evan McGrath that connected with nothing but air.

“I thought Nygel (referee, Nygel Pelletier) did a good job and took care of most of the stuff. Guys stood up for each other, and that’s a team,” said Helmer. “That’s what a good team does, and probably why we have 58 wins.”

Continuing the successful first period formula, the Bears struck again early in the second period, this time on the power play, with Alexandre Giroux generating the red light by sizzling a shot by the stick side of Lalande for his 45th marker of the season.

“We had a lot of power plays tonight, and I think we tried to be a little too fancy,” Giroux said. “We do that play all the time; Coiner made a great pass and set me up perfectly for the one-timer.”

Giroux’s goal gave him 98 points on the season, tying last year’s point total and putting him within two points of reaching the century mark in Sunday’s home finale.
“It would be nice to do it at home. I’d like to beat my total points from last year, which was 98 and now if I can get a higher number, that will be another milestone. Hopefully I can do it in front of the home crowd,” he said.

Lalande atoned a bit for his first period stickhandling fiasco by lofting a pass to teammate Evan McGrath that culminated with McGrath beating Hershey netminder, Michal Neuvirth, on a breakaway foray at 8:56.

McGrath’s goal was the only real challenge faced by Neuvirth who was making his first appearance since the March 19th outing against the Albany River Rats when he lasted only one period before he was forced to leave the game with a lower body injury.

Sixty-eight seconds after the McGrath marker, the Bears quickly countered when Beagle collected his second bone of the game, beating Lalande from his doorstep after receiving a pretty setup from Perreault.

“As soon as Perre was going behind the net, I thought five-hole if he gives it to me just because the goalie was on our strong side,” said Beagle. “Perre made a great play because the goalie thought he was coming around the net with it. I had the whole short side open.”

Beagle’s goal celebration was unceremoniously halted when he received a cross check to the upper body from Syracuse defenseman, Nick Holden.
“I put my hands up to celebrate and exposed my ribs, and I got a cross check right to the ribs,” said Beagle, who sported an ice pack on his ribs after the game. “Right away, I cramped up and couldn’t breathe. I came in here and iced it and they did a couple quick things to me and loosened up my ribs so I was able to go back out and play.”

With a delayed penalty being signaled by referee Nygel Pelletier against the Crunch, Bears’ defenseman, Zach Miskovic’s, seeing-eye shot from the point eluded Lalande at 11:06, ending the second period scoring and Lalande’s night. Lalande departed the contest allowing five goals on 23 shots faced, and was replaced by Dan Taylor.

Karl Alzner netted the lone goal of the third period, cashing in on a 5-on-3 power play opportunity for his 3rd goal of the season which capped off the scoring.
After the record-breaking win, Helmer reflected on his team’s amazing accomplishments this season, but assured that his team has its eye on the ultimate prize.

“When you look at it, it’s really impressive. I’m pretty proud of the guys in our dressing room, from the new guys that came in to everyone that’s played this year. It hasn’t sunk in, and probably won’t sink in for a while. It’s my 17th year pro and this is probably one of the best teams I’ve ever played on. We’re definitely focused on one thing, and that’s winning the championship.”

Pinizzotto's Finally Found Niche

2010-03-30T23:24:00.003-04:00

When the Washington Capitals inked Steve Pinizzotto to a free agent contract in March 2007, the transaction created little buzz in Chocolatetown, partially due to the fact that the team was about to embark on a defense of their Calder Cup title.

Another reason for the lack of euphoria was the fact that Pinizzotto was not a high-profile hotshot out of the junior ranks, having played his college hockey at the Rochester Institute of Technology, an establishment that had never produced an NHL player.

Fast forward now to March 2010, and the Caps’ signing three years ago looks to be a steal since the pesky Pinizzotto is in the midst of his best offensive season and regularly raises the ire of the opposition with his abrasive style of play; he is also now classified as a fully legitimate NHL prospect, something that was a long time in the making.

Pinizzotto’s decision to go the American college route to RIT as opposed to the traditional Canadian junior route may seem like a peculiar one, but he had a valid reason for choosing that path.

“I went for what was the best opportunity for me, as far as hockey goes. Going to RIT, especially at my age at the time, may not have been the best decision, but I knew that I would get some quality playing time there,” he said.

While playing hockey at RIT, Pinizzotto also found time to hit the books, majoring in a field that doesn’t exactly jump out on a resume: Packing Science. While you may initially laugh at that major, it actually factors into lives every single day.

“Packing science is just about new and innovative ways to create new packages for things such as gum and a whole variety of other products and things,” Pinizzotto explained. “You don’t hear a lot about that major, but just about everything you buy is packaged. I haven’t graduated yet though, because it’s a five-year program, and I’m still a pretty good way from that.”

After his two-year stay at RIT where he averaged better than a point per game while also averaging exactly two penalty minutes per contest, the Missisuaga, Ontario, native elected to leave the college ranks and turn pro by signing with the Caps.

“I just figured that it was the right time to move on, especially with my age; I didn’t think that I could wait a lot longer. The earlier you start your pro career, the better. I had a great time at RIT, and I could have played there a couple more years because I still have two more years left on my scholarship.”

Debuting with the Bears against the Binghamton Senators on March 25, 2007, Pinizzotto played four more regular season games for the defending Calder Cup champions before taking a backseat and riding along with the “Black Aces” during the Bears’ eventual unsuccessful defense of their title against the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Pinizzotto split the 2007-08 season, his true rookie season, shuttling between the Bears and the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, with the majority of that time spent in the Low Country. However, that year’s first round playoff loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins was a coming out party for him, as he finally proved to himself that he could compete at the AHL level.

“The experience of playing in the playoffs really helps your confidence and that’s what happened with me in that series. I came to play every night and got a good bit of ice time, and also played on the PK with Jouds.”

“Jouds”, or Andrew Joudrey, is still Pinizzotto’s partner on the penalty kill. Together, the twosome is a major reason that the Bears own the top-rated penalty killing unit in the AHL this season.

“I agree with Pinner that it started coming together for both of us in that series, playing under playoff pressure,” said Joudrey. “Being in those situations, under those conditions, you get a real comfortable feeling playing with somebody. He plays the body really well, and if I can play my position well, he will force some pucks. He’s really aggressive pursuing the puck down ice on clears, and he causes the other team a lot of trouble with that approach.”

Typically, when you ask a player who is most responsible for helping them realize their potential, the answer you often get is a grizzled veteran who has been through many battles, or a top-scorer, but when asked that question, Pinizzotto had a unique answer.

“It’s the coaches,” he said. “You have a lot of communication with the assistant coaches, and since I’ve been here, both of the assistant coaches have moved up to the head coaching spot. That has given me a better connection with them.”

One of those assistant coaches, Mark French, Hershey’s head coach in this record setting season, said he knew it was just a matter of time before it all started adding up for Pinizzotto as a pro.

“There’s a big difference between playing 40 games a year in college, rather than 70 a year in junior. I think he may be a little of a late bloomer, and I think that might be a big reason for that,” French said.

“When I first got here, he was kind of a first call-up guy (from the ECHL). You could see things in him, but you were never able to get a good, consistent read on him. I think its come harder for him to get to this level, as opposed to other guys, and while it’s taken him a while, I’m really happy with his progression.”

While the previous years’ playoff was in fact a defining moment for Pinizzotto, French said he thinks the definitive turning point happened about midway through last year’s eventual Calder Cup winning season.

“Last year, about halfway through the year, our penalty kill was struggling, and he got an opportunity,” remembered French. “So, we started using him on the PK, and found out that he had a real good chemistry with Andrew Joudrey. Because he did such a good job on the PK, he earned five-on-five time ice time and he became a real abrasive SOB on the ice.”

Riding the momentum of his strong finish into the 2009 playoffs, Pinizzotto played a large role in Hershey’s playoff triumph, making his mark in every series, according to French.

“It was funny in the playoffs, because every series we were in, it would take about five minutes for him to have our opponents’ whole team going crazy. I think he’s really carried that momentum into this year, and he has parlayed that into the next stage of his development, which is to become a complete two-way player.”

With a handful of games remaining in the 2009-10 regular season, Pinizzotto has already surpassed his previous AHL career high in penalty minutes, and obliterated his previous offensive totals, currently residing at the 39 points mark (12g, 27a).

“I always knew the offensive ability was there, but you kind of get assigned to a role in the pros, and you just have to wait for the opportunity to prove otherwise,” said Pinizzotto. “I just try to combine the two elements of my game, and make the best of it.”

Obviously, the Capitals are tuned in to Pinizzotto’s potential, which was represented by them signing him to a two-year pact last summer and giving him his first NHL recall last season to play against the Toronto Maple Leafs, conveniently located near his hometown.

Although the recall had all of the potential of a happy ending, reality reared its ugly head and Pinizzotto never got a chance to suit up for the Caps when the player he was potentially replacing in the lineup was able to play.

“It was frustrating for sure. I know I can play at that the level, and the opportunity was right there for me, just a foot away. You never know how things will turn out in this business; you just have to keep working as hard as you can to get that chance again in the future,” said Pinizzotto, who is signed through next season.

However, earlier this season when the Bears made their only scheduled stop in Toronto to play the Marlies, the top farm club of the Leafs, there was a happy ending. In that encounter, not only did Pinizzotto suit up, he even lit the goal lamp for the family and friends on hand to watch him play.

“Playing in Hershey, it’s about an eight hour drive from home and my family does not get many chances to see me play. It was great to have so many family members at that game. For a lot of them, it was the first goal that they had ever seen me score in my pro career,” he smiled.

Most people consider the number 13 an unlucky one, but for Pinizzotto, it has worked out just fine; besides, he had little choice when the number was given to him as a rookie.

“They just kind of gave it to me. I didn’t ask any questions, and I just took it; but it doesn’t really matter what’s on your back, what matters is how hard you play the game.”

Beagle Takes Bite Out of Sens

2010-03-29T00:14:00.006-04:00

When a team win 55 games in a season like the Hershey Bears have entering Sunday’s matchup against the Binghamton Senators, logic dictates that they must find a myriad of ways to accomplish that impressive feat, and the Bears did just that it the contest.

The boys from Hershey, employing the “Oreo cookie approach” by sandwiching a creamy second period in the middle, in which they scored three goals in rapid fire succession, between dark first and third periods, ultimately emerged from the encounter with their 56th win, a 3-2 triumph.

Binghamton defenseman, Paul Baier, netted the only goal of the first period, canning the rebound of a Geoff Kincade point shot behind Hershey netminder, Braden Holtby.

Playing their third game in as many nights, the Bears could only muster seven shots on net in the first period, with Francois Bouchard’s bid at the buzzer the best of the bunch; they were unable to manage any sustained pressure against the stingy Senators defense.

“They played a bit of a different strategy tonight,” explained Hershey head coach, Mark French. “They were playing a 2-3, which meant that in the offensive zone, they sent two guys in and kept three guys back. I thought we struggled with that. We turned over the puck a lot coming through the neutral zone because there were even man situations...”

The Bears altered their approach from the outset of the second frame, putting immediate pressure on Binghamton netminder, Mike Brodeur, with Alexandre Giroux eventually getting the equalizing goal at 2:02.

Giroux’s goal, the 300th of his AHL career came with his parents in attendance after he was allowed to wander uninhibited to Brodeur’s doorstep. Brodeur, while able to beat back Giroux’s initial attempt, could not prevent his rebound attempt from finding paydirt.

“It was originally an odd man rush and Coiner took a shot and it got deflected into the corner,” said Giroux. “I saw Gordo getting the puck and the D overplayed it. I was able to get my own rebound and put it in on the far side.”

Andrew Gordon and Keith Aucoin were credited with the assists on Giroux’s goal; however, Karl Alzner, who absorbed a punishing check from Binghamton’s Jason Bailey just after he launched a long outlet pass to Aucoin, started the Bears march into the offensive zone and deserves an honorable mention for ‘taking one for the team’.

Less than a minute after the Giroux goal, the Bears sensed the kill against their wounded opponents and took their first lead of the night when Bouchard beat Brodeur at 3:00. Bouchard, by virtue of being on his off wing, was able to release a one-time rocket after receiving a pass from Kyle Wilson, something that would not have been possible were he on the left wing.

The Boys from Chocolate town finished off their bruising of Brodeur when Jay Beagle deflected a Bryan Helmer point shot home at 5:07 to give the Bears a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.

“There were so many people in front, and it was just bouncing off bodies,” Beagle said. “It could have hit my pants on the way. I just know it was hitting bodies and I got a piece of it; thank goodness it went in.”

While Beagle is not a goal-scoring machine like Giroux, when he finds the back of the net, he makes them count, as seven of his 14 goals of the season have been game winners.

“I didn’t even know I had that many game-winning goals. I just try to contribute to the team, if that’s getting a goal or trying to get some energy for the team,” said Beagle.

In the third period, the Bears and Holtby allowed a single strike by Jim O’Brien, but did not allow the B-Sens to garner the tying goal, even with Brodeur on the bench for an extra attacker in the final moments.

Balanced Attack Grounds Pens

2010-03-28T01:10:00.002-04:00

Every successful act has an understated line of supporting characters, and Saturday night for the Hershey Bears, their understudies proved to be the difference in their battle against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Karl Alzner, Andrew Joudrey, and Zach Miskovic each added single strikes around the game-winning goal by Hershey’s headliner, Alexandre Giroux, leading the Bears to their 4-2 win and their 55th triumph of the season.

The Penguins drew first blood while in short-handed mode when Tim Wallace wrestled the puck away from Chris Bourque deep in the Bears zone and then whipped a shot by Bears’ netminder, Jason Bacashihua, who was making his first home start since a February 20th outing against the Lake Erie Monsters.

“When they get the first goal on the first shot, it wakes you up a little bit,” Bacashihua said. “After that, I got run into, and it kind of rung my bell a little bit. You tell yourself as a goalie, they’ve only scored one, try not to let them get two. With a team like this, holding a team to two goals or less, you have a pretty good chance of winning.”

Zach Miskovic, a healthy scratch for Hershey head coach, Mark French, a night earlier, beat Pens’ goalie, John Curry, with a blueline blast to knot the contest at a goal apiece at 14:47. Miskovic’s marker, his fourth of the season, angled behind Curry after caroming off the skate of former Bear, Deryk Engelland.

“In that situation, I was just recovering a puck that the other player was trying to get out of the zone, and I was fortunate enough to cradle it in and get by the first guy and it went off their guy’s skate,” Miskovic said. “It was just luck of the draw.”

With Hershey captain, Bryan Helmer, in the penalty box to start the second period thanks to a roughing call incurred in the first period, Bacashihua committed highway robbery on WBS defenseman Steve Wagner’s shot from point-blank range, preventing the Pens from regaining control of the game.

Hershey came within inches of taking the lead in the third minute of the second period when Keith Aucoin’s shot struck the glove of Curry and then clanged off the post; but the persistent Pens, on their subsequent rush down the ice, gained a 2-1 lead when Eric Tangradi tallied his 15th goal at 3:34.

Alzner’s power play goal at 9:27 of the middle frame tied the game at two as the Bears employed a new strategy by aligning Alzner down low, away from his usual spot on the blue line.

“We had been talking about maybe using me in the slot for some passes from Aucoin there, and he gave me one that I got a little too excited for and just timed it a little bit off and was a little bit ahead of it,” Alzner explained.

“I was pretty upset about it, but Gordon did a great job getting the puck back and he found me. It’s a tough play, but it’s something guys practice a lot-putting pucks high in the net when you’re that close right inside the crease area.”

Alzner, who is in his second pro season and faces a bright future with the Washington Capitals in the coming years, knows full well how imperative the power play exposure is to the advancement of his career.

“It’s huge. That’s one thing I’ve struggled with, offensive confidence. I’ve, at times, put up numbers in juniors, and decent numbers last year for not playing too much power play down here, and I pretty happy with that,” Alzner said.

“I’ve got to find that part of my game because Washington likes a high-powered offense and they love a guy like Mike Green and if I can play a similar style to what he plays, that’s going to be beneficial for me.”

Giroux, while on a 2-on-1 with Aucoin, and after exhausting all passing options, reluctantly dribbled the puck behind Curry to give the Bears their first lead of the game at 15:28.

“I was trying to pass about 28 times to Coiner and I when I couldn’t, I just thought I’d let it go,” he said. “I tried to make a move and the goalie never moved or bit on anything. I was just lucky that it went in.”

During an elongated shift, the unlikely trio of Joudrey, Pinizzotto and Aucoin kept the Pens bottled up in their own zone, and combined for the eventual last goal of the game, with Joudrey backhanding his 14th goal of the season behind Curry at 8:52, and giving the Bears the final margin of victory.

Based on recent history, Saturday’s matchup between the two Keystone State clubs may very well have been a preview of things to come in the playoffs. However, no matter whom the Chocolate and White face in their Calder Cup pursuit, Miskovic is eager to get his first taste of playoff action.

“I’m ready for the next stretch here for what they call another season is what I’m hearing, so I’m ready for it. It will be exciting with this team.”

**Photo courtesy of Just Sports Photography**

Bears Bite Sharks to Claim Eastern Supremacy

2010-03-27T00:55:00.004-04:00

The sequel to the battle of the Eastern Conference titans ended on a much higher note for the Hershey Bears on Friday night, as the Bears swarmed the Worcester Sharks at Giant Center, 7-2.

In the teams’ previous meeting in Massachusetts on March 14th, the Sharks smothered a road-weary Hershey club, 6-2, scoring all of their goals before the Bears were able to respond late in the third period.

Hershey winger, Jay Beagle was the first Bear to buzz Worcester’s starting goalie, Alex Stalock, beating him from close range 3:41 into the game for his 13th goal of the season, after receiving a pretty pass from Mathieu Perreault.

“It was a good play by Bourque to give the puck to Perreault, and for Perre to make that pass. It was such a good saucer pass from Perre and I knew I had to put the puck in the net, and it got us off to a good start,” Beagle said.

Alexandre Giroux, tied for the league lead in goal with 37 entering the contest, took the lead in that category with his 38th marker of the campaign, only forty-six seconds after Beagle’s bellowing, and gave the Bears a 2-0 lead.

The Bears continued their first period stalking of Stalock, with Patrick McNeill, returning to the lineup after a 16 game absence due to injury, wristing a low laser by the besieged rookie at 5:55, for the home teams’ third goal in three shots, staking them to a 3-0 lead.

“I just got it and fired it at the net like it went off one of their sticks and took a fortunate bounce for me and went in,” said McNeill.

“The hardest part about being out for so long was staying positive,” said McNeill. “It’s tough to sit out for a long period of time and then keep your legs and lungs strong. I went into tonight a little bit nervous; I haven’t played in 16 games and I was contributing quite a bit before I went out so I kind of wanted to come back into the lineup and make a good impression in my first game back.”

In the second period, only six seconds after a Bears fruitless and frustrating power play, Keith Aucoin banked in a billiard shot off Worcester defenseman, Mike Moore to increase the Hershey lead to 4-0.

“I didn’t call the bank shot, but I should have,” Aucoin chuckled. “I knew the penalty was just ending and I had to get it off and I just wanted to throw it to the net, hoping something good would happen and I got lucky.”

Midway through the second period, Hershey’s 37-year-old captain, Bryan Helmer, showed that age has no boundaries by impressively racing back into his own zone to thwart a potential breakaway goal by Worcester’s Dwight Helminen.

“It must have been my new skates,” joked Helmer. “He was ahead of me, so I just put my head down and skated as hard as I could. Holtby made a great save.”

With less than a minute to go before the second intermission, the Sharks finally struck for a goal when defenseman, Jason Demers, took advantage of a turnover by Bears’ defenseman, McNeill, and turned it into into a short-side goal to trim the Bears bulge to 4-1 heading into the third period.

Slightly bruised, but not battered from Demers’ denting of the twine, the Bears quickly restored their four-goal cushion early in the third period when Giroux beat Stalock on an excellent solo effort only seventeen seconds into the frame.

Giroux then capped off his hat trick at 7:10, coincidentally only seventeen seconds after Stalock had denied him from point blank range. Giroux’s linemate, Aucoin, picked up the secondary assist on the goal, giving him four points on the evening.

Giroux, Aucoin and Andrew Gordon line, which combined for zero points and a plus-minus rating of -9 in the Bears’ road defeat to the Sharks, combined on Friday night to score seven points, even with Gordon being tossed out of the game early in the second period.

John McCarthy cut the Sharks’ deep deficit to 6-2 at 18:21, and it looked like the game was going to end with that which was incidentally the exact score of the Bears lopsided loss in Worcester earlier in the month.

However, Hershey ironman, Kyle Wilson made sure his team one-upped Worcester, netting the final goal of the game at 19:38, with Steve Pinizzotto and Francois Bouchard picking up the helpers, sending the 10,000 plus spectators home on a happy note.

With this win, their 54th of the season, the Bears clinched the Eastern Conference title for the second straight year.

“When you look at last year and what we did and compare it to what we’re doing in the regular season this year, it’s pretty impressive and hard to fathom,” said Helmer, who was also the captain last season.. “It’s a good bunch of guys in this dressing room and it’s well-deserved.”

**PHOTO COURTESY OF JUST SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY**

Arsene finally lives his dream

2010-03-24T19:50:00.003-04:00

During his six-year term in Chocolatetown, Dean Arsene was one of the most popular players on the team each year due to his no frills, blood and guts style of play on the ice, and his pleasant, approachable demeanor away from the rink.

A by-product of Arsene’s enormous popularity in Hershey was him being tagged with the title “The Mayor of Hershey” for the way he could charm and handle a crowd of any size with his rugged good looks and witty ways.

While also called a “warrior” and “ultimate team player” during his Hershey tenure, there was one thing he was never called during that timeframe: NHL player. That fact led to his difficult decision last summer to leave the Bears and sign with the Edmonton Oilers for a chance to fulfill the dream that had eluded him.

“From a personal standpoint, I did not want to leave. I think that I very easily could have re-signed with the Bears and probably could have played out the rest of my career there; I loved Hershey. I had a lot of great memories there, obviously winning, but even outside of the game as well. I became close with a lot of people there, and it was tough to leave.”

“From a career standpoint, I was kind of getting up in age and didn’t know how many opportunities I would have to sign with a club and get a shot to play in the NHL. That was the number one factor in my ultimate decision, to try to get to the NHL, and thankfully that came true this year.”

Fortunately for Arsene, but unfortunately, for the many Bears’ fans that grew to adore him and his style of play, he missed his chance to return to Giant Center as a visitor earlier this season because of his first recall to the NHL.

Recently, when the Bears journeyed to Springfield to face the Falcons, Arsene finally got his chance to skate against many of the players that he grew close to during his stay in Hershey, and he said it was not difficult to put aside personal relationships and take care of the business of hockey.

“It wasn’t tough to play against these guys. It was one of those games where we knew how much firepower they have there. I know that especially well, and I tried to tell the guys that if we didn’t come out hard, we would be in for a tough battle, and we don’t want to get embarrassed at home.”
Making the occasion ever sweeter for Arsene, he netted his first goal of the season at the Bears’ expense, with a helping hand from former teammate Keith Aucoin, who deftly deflected Arsene’s shot into his own net.

“My defensive partner shot it around the boards, and I saw it was coming off the boards with a lot of spin. I was thinking that if I tried to handle it, I might lose it, so I just tried to throw it on net because I knew we had guys in the crease area. I saw it go off Aucoin’s stick and between Holtby’s legs.

“To get a goal for me anytime is pretty special, but to be able to get one against my former club felt pretty good, I’m not going to lie. I was schocked initially. I was like, ‘oh my goodness, I just scored’, and I was pretty pumped about it.”

The Springfield and Hershey franchises are two of the most storied in the AHL, with the two cities combining for 17 Calder Cups, and while Arsene had had the pleasure of captaining both, they are some substantial differences, particularly with this year’s edition of the Falcons.

“It’s been extremely difficult at times this year,” he confessed. “We went through a spell earlier this season where we lost 17 in a row. That’s just unheard of, to be quite honest, not just for me, but for anybody. I had a very difficult time with it at the start of the year. It’s very frustrating when you’re losing games. It took a big adjustment and I think I learned a lot this year in terms of trying to stay positive.

“Positive reinforcement goes a long way, especially with a young team like us. We have guys who never made the playoffs and have never won, and I try to build them up instead of tearing them down. It’s so easy to get negative. Staying positive has been a big learning experience.”

Arsene continued, “When you get used to winning, it’s an addiction really. I think this year, with us losing, the team missing playoffs for so many years; it’s a lot harder with a younger team, to get them to do the little things. There are so many little things that make the difference in a hockey game and often those little things are the difference between winning and losing.”

“Typically in Hershey, we had older teams, and you didn’t have to say a lot. Guys knew their job and they’re prepared mentally every night and they’re going to go out and work hard. It wasn’t so much where you had to get on guys in Hershey; you just tried to keep the peace and bring the team closer together.”

Even when dreams are fulfilled, as was the case when Arsene received his initial recall earlier this season, there can be the devil in the details, such as when Arsene was poised to make his NHL debut in Atlanta. Arsene’s parents flew in from Canada to witness the occasion, but unfortunately for them and their son, he was scratched from the game.

“They flew to Atlanta because they thought I was going to be playing and we played the next night in Columbus, so they were actually on the plane back home when I played my first game. It was just too much money to try to globetrot across the country, so they weren’t able to do it. I was scheduled to play one game in Edmonton, and they made the trip for that one, but I sat out that one too. They haven’t seen me play in the NHL in person; but they have watched me on TV.”

When you’ve been through many trying situations like Arsene has endured in his pro career, like the major injuries and countless hours of rehab spent in trying to make it back, getting scratched for your pro debut can you’re your head spinning with thoughts, and not good ones.

“When I didn’t play the first game, I thought for a second that I might just get sent back down without playing a game. Thankfully, they kept me up and I was able to play the very next game. That was a big load off of my shoulders, because I was sweating it there when I sat out the first game.”

Finally, after years--and a day--of waiting, the native of British Columbia, who was never drafted, finally made his NHL debut against the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 16th.

“I thought I was going to be really nervous, and had some anxiety in the dressing room more than anything, but once I got on the ice I was able to put everything else aside and go out there and play the game. My best memory of it was just being out there and being with the guys. Everything was top notch, and was everything I dreamt it would be; it was a special moment.”

Currently on his third recall to the Oilers, Arsene undoubtedly has a few admirers in high places in the organization, so a return to the Oilers is not out of the question for the 29-year-old defenseman.

“I’m just signed for this year, so we’ll re-evaluate this summer if they’re interested and to see what happens. Obviously, I’ve made some in-roads with them as far as getting a chance up and I had a lot of positive feedback from the coaching staff and management of what I did up there.”

It is said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Arsene certainly seems like a person who left at least part of his heart in Central Pennsylvania, as evidenced by his extensive answer about what one thing he misses most about playing in Hershey.

“I can’t just pick one thing, there are so many--the fans, the building, the people within the organization, the teammates, and just the town itself. It’s an endless answer. It’s one of those things where it’s every little part of Hershey that makes a tremendous difference. I’d love to come back. It’s a place I’ll always hold dear to my heart. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up there next year or in the years to come.”

Willsie captaining the cause and leading by example

2010-03-22T20:48:00.007-04:00

When former Hershey Bear, Brian Willsie, was growing up, his first job was framing houses with his dad. This, of course, is a job that can leave those who choose that line of employment with various aches and pains of body and mind.

However, that initiation into the working world was probably a breeze to the 31-year old native of Belmont, Ontario, compared to his rookie campaign in Chocolatetown during the 1998-99 season, in which he endured a lengthy goalless streak to start the season, before finishing strongly with a very respectable 19 goals.

“The adjustment to pro was more difficult than I expected; I didn’t score a goal until my 26th game,” said Willsie, a junior teammate of former Bear, Nick Bootland, with Guelph of the Ontario Hockey League. “I had a big zero on the board up until that time, but Mike Foligno who was the coach, still showed a lot of confidence in me, and worked a lot with me. Once I got those first couple, I was fine, but getting there was a challenge.”

Willsie’s second season in Hershey, which saw him earn his first NHL recall, a one-game stint with Colorado Avalanche, started just like the first one, very slowly, with him finding the net only once in his first 16 contests before he again found his stride and finished the season right at the 20-goal plateau.

Hampered by a nagging back injury incurred during training camp, Willsie missed the first 30 games of his third season and spent the entire season in Hershey. He again finished the season hovering around the 20-goal mark, with 18 markers.

The 2001-02 season brought a couple of firsts for the wily Willsie: his first full season in the NHL and his first NHL goal, the game winner, scored against the Carolina Hurricanes and goaltender, Arturs Irbe. Irbe is currently the goaltending coach of the Washington Capitals and also periodically commutes to Hershey to mentor the Bears’ goalies. Willsie’s goal also had another Hershey flavor, with former Bear, Brad Larsen, picking up a helper.

Willsie’s fifth and final season in the Avs’ fold, 2002-03, was a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs, consisting of five rides on the Hershey-Denver shuttle; however, that season also saw him register a career high 29 goal with the Bears, including the first overtime game-winning goal by a Bear in Giant Center history.

While his impressive showing in the previous season was not enough to earn a spot on Colorado’s talent-laden opening night roster, the Washington Capitals took a flyer on Willsie and acquired him in the NHL waiver draft just prior to the opening of the 2003-04 NHL season.

Willsie spent the entire season in the district and netted 10 goals, including the game-winning goal against the Atlanta Thrashers and goaltender, Byron Dafoe. Dafoe and Willsie, intertwined by Wilsie’s first game winner as a Capital, also are both members of Athletes Against Autism, an organization founded by a group of athletes to raise awareness and funds for autism research, treatment and education programs. The group was founded by a pair of former Baltimore Skipjacks and Washington Capitals netminders, Dafoe and Olaf Kolzig.

When the NHL returned in 2005-06 after a lockout wiped out the previous season, Willsie found himself back with the Capitals, and the Capitals thought enough of his leadership skills, first honed in Hershey, to entrust him with mentoring future NHL superstar, Alex Ovechkin, in his rookie season.

“I was actually the captain for a few games here in Hershey (2002-03), when Brent Thompson was out of the lineup with an injury,” said Willsie. “It was kind of a last minute thing that I ended up being his roommate. It was a lot of fun, and I tried my best to teach him a little bit of the off the ice stuff. Obviously, he’s turned into a pretty special player.”

Willsie continued, “Likewise, the Capitals have developed into one of the marquee organizations in the league--not only the parent club, but the club they have here in Hershey. George McPhee has done a spectacular job in the trades before the lockout and developing the players and championships here, and I’m sure there will be championships there in the years to come.”

After a couple of seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, Willsie rejoined the Avs organization prior to the 2008-09 season, and has spent the majority of those two campaigns in the AHL with the Lake Erie Monsters, but has also spent a few games with the Avalanche in each season.

This season, Willsie has taken on the full-time captaincy role with the Monsters, a role he has enjoyed.

“It’s been fun. Darren Haydar is part of the leadership group and he’s been around a while, and Tom Preissing and Brian Fahey (former Bear) has also been a big help. It’s a fun group, and it’s nice to have the honor. It’s rewarding to see how far the team has come and the direction we are heading.”

While he may be enjoying his leadership role in the city that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame calls home, Willsie, who at 31-years of age, could be considered old by AHL standards, but in his prime for an NHL player, was very honest in answering the question of how he can balance his role of captain while on one hand he is partially responsible for nurturing the Avs prospects for a shot in the NHL, but on the other hand is still keeping his eyes on the NHL prize himself.

“That’s a good question, but I think that’s part of the leadership role,” Willsie said. “ I’ve played quite a few games in both leagues, so not only do I want to get back there, but I can also show the young guys what it takes to get there. In one sense, it’s rewarding to see the guys go up, but at the same time, a little bit selfishly, I want to be going up as well.”

Willsie, who stated that he always looks forward to retuning to Hershey, and recently he returned to Giant Center for the second time as a visiting player. Just like his first visit as a member of the Portland Pirates in 2004-05, he netted a goal, this time against former Monsters’ teammate, Jason Bacashihua.

“It’s partly due to the crowd and the building. I seem to get up a little more for games, where there are big crowds, especially in the former places that I’ve played.”

Like just about any other player who donned the Chocolate and White and skated for the Bears in their former barn, the HERSHEYPARK Arena, Willsie gets very sentimental about the venue and about the special players that he called teammates during his time spent there.

“I was trying to tell some of my teammates here how great it was to play over there. I was trying to explain to them how the crowd was right on top of you and the wonderful atmosphere that was in the building. Some of the playoff series we had against Philadelphia there were great to play in. I was fortunate to play with a lot of good players in that building. A couple that come immediately to mind are Mitch Lamoureux and Steffon Walby, but there were so many of them; it was a very special place to play.”

ADIRONDACK AXES BEARS HOME WINNING STREAK

2010-03-22T00:30:00.001-04:00

Desperate teams take drastic measures to secure victories, and the Adirondack Phantoms were a testament to that on Sunday evening at Giant Center when they foiled Hershey’s 25th consecutive win on home ice, skating out of town with a 4-3 win.

The Phantoms came into the game desperate for a win to keep their playoff hopes alive, and rode the strong play of recently signed rookie goalkeeper, Carter Hutton, and three power play goals against the league’s number one penalty kill unit.

The Phantoms got off to a fast start, putting 5 unanswered shots on net in the first two minutes of the game against the Bears who were playing their 4th game in five nights.

“I don’t like to make that excuse,” said Bears’ head coach, Mark French, of how fatigue factored into his team’s performance. “They traveled from Norfolk last night. Everybody in this league has to face travel. Did we have our legs? No. Is the travel an excuse? We’re not going to use that as an excuse.”

The Bears power play, operating at an efficiency rate of 22.0% entering the game, clicked on their second opportunity of the game at 9:53 of the first period, with Andrew Gordon activating the red light.

Gordon had an easy tap-in after gaining position on a Phantoms’ defender just outside of the crease area.

“That’s what I’ve gotten used to this season; if I put my stick down and squeeze it, pucks are going to bounce off of my blade in a good direction. I tried to put myself where the defenseman couldn’t reach me. I didn’t really see the puck coming through; I just put my hand down the shaft of my stick and tried to stay strong. The puck just bounced right off my stick and slid slowly into the net.”

Early in the second period, the Bears’ power play struck again when Kyle Wilson redirected Karl Alzner’s point shot to Mathieu Perreault, who was all alone at the side of the net and potted his 15th goal of the season.

Hershey’s power play unit was responsible for the only other goal during the period, but unfortunately, it came at the expense of the Bears’ starting netminder, Braden Holtby, who was victimized by Jared Ross’s shorthanded breakaway after a turnover by defenseman, Zach Miskovic, cutting the Bears’ lead in half.

Holtby’s costly turnover 7:37 into the third period with the Phantoms on a power play, allowed the visitors to tie the game at two.

Holtby, while trying to clear the puck out of his own zone from behind the net found his attempt thwarted, with the turnover eventually leading to Joonas Lehtibuori’s tying goal.

“On the clearing pass, I didn’t find the hole like I usually do. That was one mistake, and a second mistake is that I didn’t battle hard enough on that screen shot,” said Holtby.

After the Phantoms took their first lead of the night on Stefan Legein’s power play goal, Gordon countered with his league-tying 18th power play goal to tie the game at three at 16:10.

“Bourqie dumped it in, and their goalie went out to play it and I saw Coiner get to it,” Gordon said. “I did what I usually do; go straight to the net, which I’m going to go to the net regardless of where that thing is going. I didn’t have to beat anybody for that one. It sprung loose to me and I had a pretty easy tap-in.”

Due to a controversial call on Bears’ captain, Bryan Helmer at 17:20, the Phantoms were afforded a golden opportunity on the power play. They took full advantage of that opportunity when Mika Pyorala, who rang a shot off the post in the first period with his team on the power play, found nothing but net on a rebound attempt to give the Phantoms a win.

“It’s a disappointing loss, but I guess everything has to come to an end. 24 games is a heck of a record; guys should be proud of themselves. If we’re going to lose, we might as well do it now than in the playoffs,” commented Helmer.

The meeting between the two teams was their last of the regular season, although a post-season meeting is not out of the question.

“I didn’t even though this was the last time we were playing them until you mentioned it,” Gordon said. “I don’t really care who we are playing on any given night to be honest with you, I think we are going to win every single game and I come into the game expecting to win knowing we have the better team; but tonight, they played their game plan pretty well, as they’ve done against us all year.”

BEARS SNACK ON CRUNCH

2010-03-20T22:37:00.004-04:00

Nearly unbeatable at home all season, the Hershey Bears are no slouches on the road, either, and on Saturday night in Syracuse, they crushed the Syracuse Crunch, 6-2.

The Bears, who received a pair of goals from Andrew Gordon, and single strikes from Chris Bourque, Ashton Rome, Jay Beagle and Kyle Wilson, have now accumulated 109 points on the season, with 49 of those points garnered on foreign ice.

Hershey’s power play, ranked first in the American Hockey League entering the game, generated the first goal of the game only 1:19 into the contest. Andrew Gordon produced the power play strike, netting his 16th extra man tally of the year, and 33rd overall goal.

The Crunch tied the game at one when NHL veteran, Dan Fritsche, backhanded a pretty pass to Tom Stestito who went on to beat Bears' netminder, Jason Bacashihua at 6:54.

Jay Beagle took a pass from Bears' defenseman Grant Lewis that eminated from behind the net and gave the Bears a 2-1 lead at 9:26 of the second period by lofting a top shelf shot over the Crunch's goalkeeper, Kevin Lalande.

Chris Bourque’s power play goal at 17:53, his 22nd goal of the campaign and ninth extra man strike, gave the Bears a 3-1 lead to take into the second intermission.

Ashton Rome, who scored a goal in last night’s win over Albany in his Hershey debut, added another goal 2:55 into the period, poking the puck by Lalande with a diving effort from the crease to extend the Bears lead to 4-1.

Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman gave the Crunch a glimmer of hope when he beat Bacashihua at 8:25 of the final stanza to make it a 4-2 game.

However, Kyle Wilson and Gordon snuffed out any hopes the Crunch had of a comeback by adding late third period tallies to give the Bears the 6-2 win.

Bacashihua, who was making his first start since February 24th and his first start since being left off of Hershey’s clear day roster, stopped 29 shots to register his 15th win of the season.

BEARS BLITZ RATS

2010-03-20T00:52:00.004-04:00

The Hershey Bears continued their record-setting ways on home ice on Friday night at Giant Center, racing by the Albany River Rats with six unanswered goals to cruise to their 24th consecutive home ice victory by a score of 8-2.

The Bears displayed their offensive balance with seven different players finding the back of the net, and by scoring eight goals in the game, which was the 9th time this season they have accomplished that feat.

The first 13 minutes of the game were relatively quiet because of neither team generating much offense, with only a subplot being newsworthy. The sideshow involved former Bear, Oskar Osala, taking a run at new Bears’ defenseman, Grant Lewis, and then being pursued and checked by Andrew Gordon.

“My first reaction was one of the guys on our team got hit, and it’s one of the new guys, so I wanted to let him know that we were going to back him up,” said Gordon. “I know he’s only been here a couple days, but at the same time, he’s on the team, and we’re going to stick up for him like anybody else. When I saw it was Oskar, I wasn’t going to do anything crazy. I know he’s not out there trying to hurt guys.”

The Bears lit the lamp for the first time of many when Chris Bourque buzzed a running wrist shot by the glove of Albany netminder, Mike Morrison, at 13:18.

Former Bears defenseman, Jonathan Paiement, authored Albany’s first goal of the game and tied the contest at one when he beat starting Bears netminder, Michal Neuvirth, with a blueline blast at 15:01.

Andrew Gordon, the Bears workaholic winger who is having a career year in the goal scoring department, added his 32nd goal of the season with only 42 seconds remaining in the first period.

“I was trying to slide it doing to Aucoin and do a little give and go, but I sort of fanned on it and the puck bobbled,” said Gordon, who has scored in five of the last six home outings. “Once I bobbled it, the D bit down towards Aucoin which opened me up. It was an accidental bobble that turned out in my favor. Hard work pays off, I guess.”

Neuvirth, the second year pro from the Czech Republic who was pulled in his last start in Worcester on Sunday after allowing five goals on twenty-one shots before being replaced, was replaced once again by Braden Holtby when the teams returned to the ice to start the second period, departing the contest with a lower body injury.

“I actually found out I was going in with about a minute left in the first,” Holtby said. “I had no idea what was going on. Alzner nudged me and told me that I was going in. I was wondering why because he had only given up one goal, but I think it was his knee again. It’s unfortunate for him, but as a backup, I had to be prepared for that. I was lucky the guys played an outstanding game after I came in.”

Paiement again dialed long distance and found another connection early in the second period at 4:42, beating Holtby for at 4:42 with Albany on the power play. With the two goals on the evening, Paiement now counts four goals to his credit this campaign, with three of those being struck at Giant Center against the Bears.

“It went through so many legs, and I have no idea how it got through. It’s just one of those seeing-eye shots you can’t do anything about,” said Holtby of the only goal he allowed on the evening.

Hershey regained the lead for good less than a minute after Paiement’s game-tying goal when Keith Aucoin batted an airborne Alexandre Giroux pass behind Morrison at 5:30.

“I knew Giroux was going to pass it to me, and it kind of rolled on him,” Aucoin said. “I got lucky because the puck was wobbling, and I was able to get my stick on it and it went in.”

Exactly one minute after Gordon’s goal that was disallowed because of the puck being kicked into the net, Michael Dubuc’s fifth goal of the season, and second in his last three games, finished off the scoring in the second period and gave the home team a 4-2 lead entering the third period.

Boyd Kane and Alexandre Giroux each added a goal to the Bears’ total in the third period before fisticuffs became the story and the focal point of the festivities. The first bout of the third period fight card began when Francois Bouchard and Drayson Bowman squared off in a middle-weight tilt.

“It goes back to the last game when we played them and he jabbed me, so I just wanted to go back and show him if he did that kind of stuff, we would have a good fight,” said Bouchard. “I won it clean with him and I was really pumped. It was the first fight in my career. I just got caught up in the moment at the end.”

Less than a minute later when Nicolas Blanchard hit Kyle Wilson from behind, chaos ensued when a pair of secondary fights broke out. When the dust has settled, both the Bears involved in those battles, Boyd Kane and Patrick Wellar, along with their River Rat counterparts, were issued game misconducts.

When play finally resumed, Keith Aucoin and newcomer, Ashton Rome, put the exclamation points on the Bears’ goal total.

“I got a few shots, some good shots, and I think I was just due,” said Rome who rang a shot off the post in the first period. “It felt pretty good. I kind of fanned on it, but I put it on the side I wanted to.”

B-I-N-G-O, BEARS FINALLY CLINCH TITLE

2010-03-17T23:28:00.002-04:00

The Hershey Bears, coming off of one of their worst losses of the season, took to the road and responded in fine fashion on Wednesday night against the Binghamton Senators, sinking the Sens 5-3 and clinching the Eastern Division title in the process.

With the win, the Bears upped their AHL league-leading total to 105 points, nine more than their closest competitors, the Hamilton Bulldogs. The Bears and Bulldogs each have thirteen games remaining on their respective schedules, but the Hamiltonians have just four more home dates at Copps Colisem while the Bears have seven games remaining on their Giant Center slate.

The Bears jumped out to an early lead on Sean Collins’ first goal of the season, only 1:45 into the contest. Collins’ goal was only the second of his AHL career, with his only prior tally coming over a year ago on March 8, 2009, at Lake Erie.

Kyle Wilson, who has made a habit of stinging the Senators in his tenure in Chocolatetown, sacked the second goal of the game at 9:32 by converting the rebound of Michael Dubuc’s shot to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.

Still in the first period, Senators’ winger and former NHL 50-goal scorer, Jonathan Cheechoo, sliced into the Bears lead at 14:17, ridding himself of the check of Hershey captain, Bryan Helmer, before roofing a shot by Hershey netminder, Braden Holtby.

With Hershey on an early second period power play, Wilson collected his second goal of the game 1:58 into the session, canning his 22nd tally of the season and fifth on the power play. Wilson’s two-goal outing was his fifth career multi-goal effort against the B-Sens, and fourth at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

It looked like the rout was on for the Bears just prior to the halfway point of the game when Andrew Joudrey wristed a shot by Binghamton netminder, Chris Holt, 9:59 into the second period to give the Bears a 4-1 lead.

However, the boys from Binghamton, still clinging to their faint playoff hopes, closed the Bears’ bulge late in the stanza with goals from Geoff Kinrade (shorthanded) and Kaspars Daugavins, making it a one-goal game entering the third period.

Before the third period, the Bears penalty-killing unit, ranked top in the league, had not faced a single Senators’ power play opportunity. However, they showed their mettle in shutting down three B-Sens manpower advantages before Andrew Joudrey’s empty net, short-handed goal sealed the deal at 18:59, giving the Bears the 5-3 win.

Holtby, the fine rookie backstopper who faced down 44 shots, the most shots he has ever faced in a game while tending the twine for the Bears, earned his 20th win by collecting 41 saves.

SHARKS MUNCH ON BEARS

2010-03-15T17:21:00.004-04:00

Sunday afternoon’s meeting at the DCU Center between the respective divisional leaders in the AHL’s Eastern Conference, the Hershey Bears and Worcester Sharks, was billed as a “Battle of the Titans”; however, the contest ended up being a titanic mismatch, as the Sharks swam circles around the Bears and departed the affair with a convincing 6-2 win.

The Bears, finishing up a three game in three nights road swing that started in Adirondack on Friday night, followed by Springfield last night, were never able to sustain an attack against the Sharks’ defense and goaltender, Alex Stalock, who leads the AHL in wins, until the final minutes of the game when the outcome had been settled long before.

The Sharks controlled the play from the opening faceoff by depositing a pair of goals off the sticks of Derek Joslin and John McCarthy past Hershey starting goaltender, Michal Neuvirth, to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

Hershey’s high scoring offensive line of Alexandre Giroux, Andrew Gordon and Keith Aucoin, along with the defensive pairing of Patrick Wellar and Zach Miskovic, were on the ice for both first period strikes against. Miskovic, the Bears’ rookie out of St. Lawrence University, bobbled a puck at his own blueline that led to the Joslin goal and allowed McCarthy to skate around him on the second goal.

After the game, when questioned about Miskovic’s play on both goals, Bears head coach, Mark French, chose not to single out Miskovic’s individual efforts, but lay the blame on the play of the whole team.

“We didn’t have a good period as a team. I’m not going to single out anybody,” he said.

The Sharks relentless attack continued in the second period when they added three goals off the sticks of Mike Moore (penalty shot), Brandon Mashinter and Andrew Desjardins to take a 5-0 lead.

Desjardins’ goal spelled the end of the night for Neuvirth, who departed after allowing five goals on 21 shots in 33:58 of action.

“I thought it was an opportunity; he faced his fair share of shots,” French said of his decision to pull Neuvirth.

Goals by the Bears’ Michal Dubuc and Chris Bourque late in the third period cut the Sharks lead to 5-2, but Desjardins’ second goal of the game sealed the deal for the Sharks.

French, whose club still sits comfortably atop the AHL standings in spite of the loss on Sunday, had a short answer when asked to “put in perspective” occasional lopsided losses like Sunday’s and if they are to be expected.

“What do we have, 103 points? I think you answered your own question,” said French.

If there is a silver lining in the Bears’ failure to clinch the division title because of the setback, it’s that they get a chance to do it on Friday night on home ice against the Albany River Rats, their closest pursuers.

“It will be a good game; Albany is a good team,” French commented.

FALCONS FLY BY BEARS IN SHOOTOUT

2010-03-14T09:16:00.007-04:00

A night after they bounced back twice from one-goal deficits to secure an overtime victory in Adirondack, the Hershey Bears could not overcome a pair of two-goal deficits in Springfield against the Falcons, falling in a shootout, 5-4.

The Falcons, cellar dwellers in the AHL’s Atlantic Division, also triumphed over the Bears in shootout fashion in the previous meeting between the teams this season on November 21 at Giant Center.

Things started well for the visitors when they jumped out to an early 1-0 first period lead at 2:12 on Alexandre Giroux’s 36th goal of the season. Giroux, the AHL’s leading goal scorer was left totally alone to the left of Springfield backstopper, J.P. Levasseur, and wasted no time rifling a shot past him after receiving a beautiful pass from defenseman, Dylan Yeo, who registered his first point of the season with the helper.

Shortly after Giroux’s marker, the Falcons tied the game at one when Charles Linglet lit the lamp for the 19th time this season, beating Bryan Helmer to a rebound of his own shot and then thumping Bears’ goaltender, Braden Holtby at 4:43.

Former Bears’ defenseman, Dean Arsene, who left the Bears den over the summer and is now firmly entrenched in the Falcons’ nest, gave the home team their first lead of the game at 5:22 of the first frame. After gathering in the puck along the left wing boards in the Bears’ zone, Arsene proceeded to launch an innocent looking wrist shot in the direction of the net. Fortunately for the Bears, Keith Aucoin was on the spot of the Arsene shot, but unfortunately, he redirected the puck behind Holtby.

“My defensive partner shot it around the boards, and I saw it was coming off the boards with a lot of spin. I was thinking that if I tried to handle it, I might lose it, so I just tried to throw it on net, because I knew we had guys in the crease area. I saw it goes off Aucoin’s stick and between Holtby’s legs and I was pretty happy,” said the former “mayor” of Hershey.

Arsene’s goal was his first of the season, and he admitted afterwards that it was a tad bittersweet to get his first against his former mates from Chocolatetown.

“I was shocked initially, and thought, ‘oh my goodness, I scored’. I’m not going to lie and say that scoring a goal against my former team wasn’t special, but any time I get a goal is special,” Arsene said.

Still in the first period, Hershey’s Chris Bourque, whose father, NHL hall-of-famer, Ray Bourque, was in attendance at the game, put the Bears in a bind. Bourque, after being signaled for a hooking call by referee, Chris Brown, took exception to the call and earned an additional unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty for his complaining.

Bourque’s blunder was then followed by a minor penalty to Steve Pinizzotto, which created a 5-on-3 power play for the Falcons and eventually evolved into a 5-on-3 power play goal off the stick of former Bear, Chad Wiseman. Wiseman’s goal was assisted by another former Bear, Chris Armstrong.

“The first goal is the one that I really wanted back; it was a rebound that I got twisted up on,” said Holtby. “The second goal went off of my own guy, and the third goal was a cross-up by everyone on the ice. I was looking the wrong way, the way I though the guys would be, and the guys thought they had to be somewhere else."

Bears’ head coach, Mark French, had thoughts of removing his rookie netmider in the first intermission, but due to a couple of factors, opted to let him try to finish what he started.

“To be honest, me and Troy (Bears assistant coach, Troy Mann) talked about it, but we wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and I thought he responded quite well,” said French. “We looked at the goals and we also looked at what we wanted to do tomorrow as well” (start Michal Neuvirth in Worcester).

“I don’t think he had much of a chance on the first one, and the second goal went it off of Coiner’s stick; but the third goal, I didn’t think it was a great shot that beat him. He didn’t seem to move when the pass was made to the wide guy (Wiseman), and he said that he couldn’t see the puck. I thought that he would have reacted to pass, he probably would have been over.”

French also said that the fact that the Bears did not get another shot on goal in the first period after the Giroux goal and finishing the period being outshot 16-2 did not factor into his decision to let Holtby remain between the pipes.

“We were only down by two goals at that point and were starting the next period on the power play, and if we got one on that, it would be a different hockey game,” French said.

Early in the second period, a controversial major penalty assessed to Springfield’s Ryan MacMurchy for boarding Yeo at 1:46 gave the Bears a five minute power play. Referee, Chris Brown, did not initially make the call on MacMurchy, but after Yeo remained on the ice after the collision, he doled out the major infraction.

The Bears were able to cash in once on the MacMurchy major penalty when Andrew Gordon finished up a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing sequence that started with Giorux and then progressed to Bouchard, who found Gordon all alone on the doorstep for his 31st goal of the campaign at 3:48.

With the Falcons on another power play in the latter stages of the second period, they received a fortunate bounce when Helmer’s attempt rim the puck around the boards behind his own net caromed off of the net and then onto the stick of Linglet, who found Wiseman cruising down the slot, for his second goal of the evening at 15:06.

With the second stanza winding down, Bears defenseman, Patrick Wellar connected with the stick of Aucoin in the neutral zone, and sent the speedy centerman in alone on Levasseur. Aucoin froze the Springfield stopper by faking a slapshot, and then took a few more strides before blasting a shot by him low to the glove side at 17:43.

“I looked up and saw it was a left-handed goalie, so that look reminded me of that. Then I saw he gave that little opening and I used it to my advantage,” said Aucoin.

Steve Pinizzotto who netted a shorthanded goal in Friday night’s game, potted the only goal of third period, sizzling a short-side shot by Levasseur at 7:30.

“Collins made a nice play there on the wall by chipping it up and sending me and Joudrey on a 2-on-1. I turned a little and tried to make it look like I was going to pass, and then just shot it on net,” said Pinizzotto.

Following a scoreless final twelve and a half minutes of third period play, the game went into overtime with the teams skating at three aside thanks to each club having a player in the penalty box serving a minor penalty.

Springfileld’s Rob Hisey, who scored the eventual shootout winning goal, had the best chance of the overtime, but was narrowly halted by Holtby in his wraparound attempt.

“I tried to play him as aggressively as I could when he was in front because he made a few nice plays to get loose, and was by himself in front. When he went behind the net, I tried to get a stick on his to throw him off. Then he threw it out front and it went off Aucoin’s skate; fortunately I was able to get it before it went in,” said Holtby.

French, whose team continues to pace the AHL with 103 points, was very frank after game when asked if he could be satisfied that his team managed to escape Springfield with one point.

“I think we were relatively embarrassing in the first period, and you have to play 60 minutes to earn a victory. So, I’m disappointed in getting only the one point.”

BEARS WORK OVERTIME TO REACH MILESTONE

2010-03-13T00:44:00.004-05:00

The Hershey Bears entered Friday night’s matchup against the Adirondack Phantoms seeking their 50th win of the season, and after a seesaw battle, the boys from Chocolatetown escaped from Glens Falls with a 5-4 overtime win.

The Phantoms, the only team in the AHL that can boast of placing three blemishes on the Bears’ record, gave the visitors all that they could handle in the oscillating affair, twice grabbing one-goal leads after falling behind early in the contest.

The Bears took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Jay Beagle at 4:34. Beagle pounced upon the rebound of a Mathieu Perreault point blank attempt, and poked the puck behind Phantoms’ netminder, Johan Backlund, to pot his 11th goal of the season.

Less than two minutes after Beagle’s goal, an outstanding individual effort by Alexandre Giroux led to his 34th marker of the campaign, an unassisted tally.

“I was coming from the bench and the guy bobbled it,” Giroux said. “The guy in the zone was standing still, so I tried to make a move on him. Then, I didn’t have enough speed to go around the defenseman, so I stopped and took a shot between his legs. I don’t think the goalie saw it.”

Greg Amadio’s cross checking infraction at 9:50 put the Phantoms on their first power play, and ultimately put them on the board for the first time, with defenseman, Marc-Andre Bourdon, lighting the lamp at 11:32.

Steve Pinizzotto’s punishing hit on Bourdon behind the Phantoms’ net, which put Bourdon on his back, resulted in his defensive partner, Sean Curry, taking a double minor penalty on Pinizzotto at 16:02.

Curry’s aggressive actions gave the Bears a golden opportunity to finish out the period on a positive note by potting a power play goal, but Adirondack’s penalty killing unit thwarted those plans and the teams retreated to the locker room after twenty minutes with the Bears leading, 2-1.

The second period belonged solely to the Phantoms, who netted the only two goals of the frame, including a soft goal that went in off of the back of Bears’ netminder, Michal Neuvirth.

“I thought we played well in the first, and came into the locker room with the 2-1 lead,” said Bears’ head coach, Mark French. “I thought in the second, we were dominated physically, and lost a lot of battles and races to the puck.”

In the forgetful second period, the Bears did not officially test Backlund for the first time until 10:25 into the frame. In all, the high-powered Bears’ offense put just three shots on net in the period, with Andrew Gordon garnering the only shot on net by a forward.

Early in the third period, Hershey captain, Bryan Helmer, was whistled off by referee, Jamie Koharski, for a cross-checking penalty on Phantoms’ forward, Stefan Legein. After realizing that he was being penalized, Helmer blew a fuse and drew an additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty as well as ten-minute misconduct.

“Sure, the guy embellished it,” said Helmer. “He got in my way when I had a chance to get the puck out of the zone, and then they got a great scoring chance because of that. I just lost my cool, and I shouldn’t have done that, but that’s the stuff you learn by.”

With Helmer in the penalty box, Steve Pinizzotto struck with in shorthanded mode, netting his 11th goal of the season, and fourth in short-handed style.

“They tried to dump it in, and they missed the puck,” Pinizzotto said. “Wellar made it a good play by throwing it up to Joudrey, who dove and sent me in on the breakaway, and I beat him low to the glove side.”

Pinizzotto, who of late seems to be able to draw the wrath of his opponents even quicker while sporting the protective cage apparatus that he wears after being injured in a scrap against Albany, wishes he could drop the mitts, but has found another way to contribute by putting up consistent offensive numbers.

“It sucks that I can’t fight, particularly against team like this who want to put on a show for their fans,” Pinizzotto admitted. “The points are starting to come now, which is good, and I feel that I can do a lot to help this team out.”

Ironically, just as Helmer’s first penalty was about to expire, Legein struck on the power to give the Phantoms another one-goal lead.

Amadio, making amends for his earlier actions, drew an interference penalty on Phantoms’ defenseman, Joey Mormina, at 10:37.

While Mormina waited out his sentence, Giroux struck again on the power play at 11:58 to tie up the affair. For Giroux, the multi-goal effort was his second in his last two games played in Glens Falls.

“We know what we have to do when we come here. It’s always a battle and these guys always play really, really hard, and they are particularly intense against our line,” said Giroux.

“I thought all night we moved the puck well, but didn’t shoot enough. Then we were shooting and they were blocking the shots and getting in the lanes; but, on my goal, Miskovic made a great play to Aucoin and he did what he always does, finds me in an open spot.”

Giroux’s goal would be the last of regulation and the teams needed extra time to settle the score in the topsy-turvy battle.

Justice was served for the visitors from the Keystone State when Helmer roofed a wrist shot over the fallen Backlund just 1:33 into the session, giving the Bears their 22nd road triumph of the season.

“I thought the guys played really well in the third period, responding from a bad second period,” said Helmer, who watched the majority of the third period from the penalty box.

“Bourque and Pinizzotto made the play on the overtime goal, and I actually had two chances. The first one I put right in his pads, but I got a second chance, and put it in the net. It’s nice when you can come back and chip in like that.”

BEARS FOIL PHANTOMS

2010-03-07T23:56:00.005-05:00

Trailing for the first time at home during their record-tying 22 home winning streak, it looked like the Hershey Bears might have to reset the clock and start another home run because of the relentless Adirondack Phantoms; however, buoyed by a pair of goals by former Phantom, Boyd Kane, the Bears extended their streak to a record-breaking 23 home wins.

“We really came out hard in the third. Going into the third, we weren’t happy because we hadn’t played a good game. We wanted to break the record, and we knew what was on the line,” said Bears’ center, Keith Aucoin.

Kane initiated the scoring at 16:10 of the first period denting the twine for the 20th time this season.

“I gave it to Bourque up high and he went down low and made a great pass to me,” said Kane, who has reached the 20-goal mark twice in his career, both times with the Bears. “I was all alone in the slot and I was able to put it far side.”

Adirondack’s Andreas Nodl knotted the score at one by fending off defenseman, Karl Alzner, and then beating Bears’ goaltender, Michal Neuvirth through the five-hole at 18:24.

Rob Bellamy gave the Phantoms a 2-1 lead 6:11 into the second period by taking advantage of Neuvirth turning the puck over in the trapezoid behind the net and banking the puck off the glove and body of the second year netminder.

The Bears opened the third period on a power play and seemingly tied the game when Chris Bourque’s bullet appeared to bounce quickly in and out of the net. Though the goal light went on, the goal was waived off and play continued. Shortly after the controversial shot, Zach Miskovic’s missile from the point eluded Phantoms’ netminder, Johan Backlund, and officially tied the game at two.

At 6:25 of the final frame, Aucoin, thanks to a solid screen provided by Kane, put the home team in front for the second time.

“My job on the power play is to go stand in front of the net and screen the goalie,” Kane said. “That’s what I was doing, and Aucoin was actually trying to pass it to me and it just went through me and Mormina and got through the goalie, too.”

Hershey head coach, Mark French, who was not with the organization when Kane captained the club to the Calder Cup in 2006, realizes what Kane’s presence means to the team.

“He’s every bit a professional,” said French. “He’s a great asset in our dressing room, and a workman’s type player. You appreciate his work ethic. He shows up every day with his lunch box and his work shoes and he goes to work. I think everybody can appreciate the type of player he is. He’s very versatile, as you mentioned. He can step up and play, as he did at times this year, on our top line, or he could play on your third-line checking line and do each equally as well.”

Kane capped off the scoring with an empty net goal at 19:40, establishing a new career-high goal total of 21.

“It’s nice. When you come so close and don’t get there, you want to get there,” said Kane of breaking the 20-goal barrier. “It’s a good feeling to get it out of the way, and now I’ll just keep going.”

While playing against players that one called teammates just last season may present problems for younger, less experienced players, for Kane, it’s all in a day’s work.

“It’s a lot of fun to go out there and play against your friends. I’ve been around a bit and done it a lot, so I think it brings the best out of me sometimes.”

*Photo courtesy of JUSTSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

BEARS PELT PENS

2010-03-07T00:32:00.003-05:00

Some say that a good defense will beat a good offense, but it has taken the Hershey Bears a perfect combination of both to be able to claim a 22 home game winning streak Saturday night was a prime example of both in action as the Bears downed the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 4-0 at Giant Center.

The Bears received a single goal from Francois Bouchard, and from each member of their top-scoring line which consists of Alexandre Giroux, Keith Aucoin, and Andrew Gordon. Those goals, coupled with a 25 save shutout by netminder, Braden Holtby, propelled the Bears to within two points of becoming the first team to reach 100 points this season.

Although often overshadowed by the offensive arsenal that defines the Bears, the defensive unit, which includes the league’s top penalty kill, has been rock-solid throughout the home winning streak, not giving up any goals in 26 of 66 periods during the run.

“I think our team defense has been good tonight,” said Bears’ bench boss, Mark French. “I thought it was more about Braden Holtby…overall, through the stretch, I think our commitment to defense has been very good; offense comes fairly easy for us, but if I see that our team’s sharp, it’s usually by us playing strong defense.”

After a scoreless first period that saw the Bears put only four shots on net, they came out storming early in the second, beginning with Giroux’s breakaway attempt that was thwarted by Penguins goaltender, Brad Theissen. Although Giroux was denied in his attempt, Aucoin would not be denied, pickpocketing former Bears’ defenseman, Deryk Engelland, and joined Giroux in the 30 goal club.

“I’ve never gotten 30 before, and it’s my ninth year,” said Aucoin. “It’s one of those things that I didn’t think would happen, especially when I’ve played with G and Gordon and knowing those guys are going to get a lot of goals. It’s a great accomplishment. I finally did it. I think 30 goals is pretty hard to get in this league, and it was good to get that done.”

Shortly after Aucoin’s monumental marker, Holtby showcased some of his best work of the night by stopping Chris Conner’s breakaway attempt and narrowly avoided disaster on a goal-mouth scramble.

“I was talking to Ammo about it and he said he was trying to cross check Kaner to knock the net off,” joked Holtby. “It was a quick shot to my left pad, then on the rebound, they shot it back to my far right and kind of hit me on a weird spot—my toe—and it rolled up and over the net.”

Gordon joined his linemates in the 30 goal club with his 14th power play strike with Aucoin and Chris Bourque picking up the assists.

“I was trying to stand perfectly still so I wouldn’t be in the way of the pass because I figured he was looking for Giroux on the back side,” Gordon said. “Once that pass went past me, I knew it didn’t get all the way to Giroux, so I just took a look around and saw it sitting in the crease for me to poke home.”

“Reaching that plateau means I’m going to have to try to score a lot next year, or I’ll feel like a failure,” laughed Gordon. “It’s nice milestone to make; it’s sort of how I’ve been contributing to the team this year, by picking up those dirty rebounds. For me it’s a symbol of the work I’m putting in, and the fact that I’m doing a decent job at the role I’ve been given this year.”

Giroux and Bouchard tacked on third period goals to ensure the Bears’ that their record-breaking home winning streak would continue to be improved.

Despite the fact that Aucoin has assisted on 18 of Gordon’s goals, he takes little credit for his linemate’s success.

“I think he earned it. He’s a hard worker and gets in the corners and gets us the puck and gets in front of the net. He gets the dirty goals and has a great shot. I don’t think it has anything to do with me and G. He’s earned it and he’s worked hard, and I’m happy for him.”

Capitals continue to make roster cuts

2008-10-03T10:40:00.000-04:00

The Washington Capitals, just days away from opening night in the NHL, tweaked their roster on Thursday by assigning four players to the Hershey Bears of the AHL. Assigned to Hershey were defenseman Tyler Sloan, Grant McNeill and Sami Lepisto and goaltender Simeon Varlamov.

Sloan, a 27-year-old native of Calgary, Alberta, was pointless in two preseason affairs with a plus-minus rating of –1. The eight year pro, who was never drafted, played in 56 games for Hershey last season, recording one goal and seven assists.

McNeill, a 25-year-old native of Vermilion, Alberta, skated in two preseason outings, going scoreless and collecting 12 PIM’s. The former third-round selection of the Florida Panthers in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft split last season between Hershey and the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, accumulating a combined 278 PIM’s. The six year pro also has three games of NHL experience on his resume, all with the Panthers in the 2003-2004 season. During his short NHL stint, the always willing to drop the gloves McNeill did just that, engaging in a bout with former Capitals’ tough guy Chris Simon.

Lepisto, a 23-year-old native of Espoo, Finalnd, was scoreless and served two PIM’s in three preseason tilts. The former third-round selection of the Capitals in the 2004 NHL entry draft split last season with Hershey and the Capitals, picking up an assist in seven affairs with the Capitals, and notching four goals and 41 assists with Hershey. The swift skating rearguard, regarded as one of the premiere rookie defenseman in the AHL last season, finished third overall in the league with a plus/minus rating of +29.

Varlamov, a 20-year-old native of Sarma, Russia, made one preseason appearance, combining with fellow rookie Michal Neuvirth to shutout the Philadelphia Flyers on Sept. 18. The former first-round selection of the Capitals in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft is entering his first season in North America after appearing in 44 contests with Yaroslavl of the Russian Super League last season.

Bears sink Admirals in preseason opener

2008-10-01T19:28:00.000-04:00

In a game that featured plenty of punching power in the early moments, including a pair of fights within the first two minutes of play, the Hershey Bears sailed by the Norfolk Admirals on the strength of four power play goals on Sunday at Giant Center, by a final score of 5-4.

Rookie Michael Dubuc, who scored the only goal of the first period 1:26 into the stanza when he beat Norfolk goaltender Craig “Killer” Kowalski, led the Hershey charge with a pair of goals. When asked whether or not he was surprised by Dubuc’s play, Head Coach Bob Woods replied, “We got a chance to see him in summer camp in Washington. He impressed everybody there, and that’s a big reason he is here now. It’s nice to see guys with offensive ability and a knack for scoring to score like he did tonight.”

Francois Bouchard, Sean Collins (GWG) and Ben Boudreau also tallied for Hershey. Hershey starting netminder Michal Neuvirth, allowed a pair of goals to Norfolk’s Daryl Boyle and Mathieu Curadeau early in the second period, but was otherwise unbeatable in 30:04 between the pipes, stopping 13 of 15 shots. Bobby Goepfert, Neuvirth’s replacement at 10:04 of the second period, surrendered goals to Norfolk’s Justin Keller and Jason Beckett in 29:48 of action, and was credited with the win.

Boudreau, son of former Hershey Bears head coach and current Washington Capitals head coach, Bruce Boudreau, talked about his first AHL game while receiving a congratulatory handshake from Hershey GM Doug Yingst: “I was worried about keeping the puck out of my own net; it was a huge bonus (to score). Watching for 3 years in the stands and then getting a chance here, it’s a lot of fun.”

Woods, who still converses with the Caps’ bench boss when he visits Chocolatetown, joked about Bruce’s presence on the night of his son’s first game as a player at Giant Center: “I had some parent coming in and giving me a hassle, saying his kid wasn’t getting enough ice time. I thought that only happened in minor hockey.”

With his youngest hockey-playing son, Brady, by his side, the proud papa quipped, “As a father, you can’t describe it; it’s pretty exciting. When my kids play, I get so darn nervous, and tonight was no exception.”

JERRARD NAMED ASSISTANT COACH WITH IOWA CHOPS

2008-09-13T23:43:00.000-04:00

Former Hershey Bears Assistant Coach Paul Jerrard has been hired as an Assistant Coach by the Anaheim Ducks’ top farm team, the Iowa Chops.

The 43-year-old Jerrard, a member of the 1997 Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears, served as Assistant Coach for the Iowa Stars, the Dallas Stars’ top farm team for the previous three seasons.

During Jerrard’s two-year tenure behind the Hershey bench with Head Coach Paul Fixter, Hershey compiled a record of 72-71-10-7, failing to reach the Calder Cup Playoffs each season.

A trailblazer of sorts, Jerrard is one of only three black coaches in professional hockey, joining Grant Fuhr and Graeme Townshend.

Fuhr, who backstopped the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers to five Stanley Cups, is entering his fourth season as the goaltending coach with the Gretzky-coached Phoenix Coyotes.

Townshend, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, is entering his first season as skating coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, after serving in the same capacity the past four seasons with the San Jose Sharks. Toronto’s new bench boss, former Washington Capitals head coach Ron Wilson, was the head coach in San Jose during Townshend’s four-year tenure in the Silicon Valley.

PAIEMENT SIGNS WITH ALBANY

2008-09-13T23:41:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Paiement, who developed into one of the steadier members of the Hershey Bears defensive corps last season after his recall from the Texas Wildcatters of the ECHL, has signed a two-way AHL contract with Albany for the 2008-09 season.

During the 2007-08 regular season, the 23-year-old Paiement, an eighth round pick (247th overall) by the New York Rangers in 2004 NHL draft, sported an impressive +13 plus/minus rating and collected 13 points (2 goals, 11 assists) in 37 outings with the Chocolate and White.

In last year’s Calder Cup Playoffs, in his first AHL post-season action, Paiement was the only Bears’ defenseman to light the lamp in Hershey’s eventual five game series loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

DENNIS BONVIE HIRED BY LEAFS

2008-09-09T21:05:00.001-04:00

Former Bear Dennis Bonvie has officially been hired as a pro scout by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Bonvie, who was under consideration for the assistant coach position with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, recently withdrew his name from consideration for the job. With the Bonvie hiring and former NHL enforcer Dave Brown continuing in his position as a scout with the New York Rangers, one thing is for certain, press boxes around North America will be well protected should any trouble break out. Here is the link to the press release http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbWFwbGVsZWFmcy5uaGwuY29tL3RlYW0vYXBwLz9zZXJ2aWNlPXBhZ2UmcGFnZT1OZXdzUGFnZSZhcnRpY2xlaWQ9MzgxNTcy

HERSHEY COMINGS AND GOINGS FROM LAST SEASON

2008-09-01T22:39:00.000-04:00

Dean Arsene under contract with Hershey
Scott Barney signed with Augsburger Panther, Germany
Jay Beagle under contract with Caps
Mathieu Beaudoin UFA
Francois Bouchard under contract with Caps
Josef Boumedienne signed with Toronto Maple Leafs
Chris Bourque under contract with Caps
Frederic Cassivi signed with Sinupret Ice Tigers, Germany
Ben Clymer signed with Dyanamo Minsk, Russia
Sean Collins under contract with Caps
Shawn Collymore signed with Stavanger Oilers, Norway
Eric Fehr under contract with Caps
Ryan Flinn signed with Montreal Canadiens
Alexandre Giroux under contract with Caps
Josh Godfrey under contract with Caps
Andrew Gordon under contract with Caps
Jamie Hunt signed with Augsburger Panther, Germany
Andrew Joudrey under contract with Caps
Maxime Lacroix under contract with Hershey
Sami Lepisto under contract with Caps
Daren Machesney under contract with Caps
Tom Maxwell under contract with Hershey
Chris McAllister signed with Newcastle Vipers, England
Grant McNeill under contract with Hershey
Patrick McNeill under contract with Caps
Jason Morgan signed with Sodertalje SK, Sweden
Jonathan Paiement signed with Albany
Mathieu Perreault under contract with Caps
Steve Pinizzotto under contract with Caps
Sasha Pokulok under contract with Caps
Louis Robitaille signed with SG Cortina, Italy
Tyler Sloan under contract with Caps
Danny Syvret traded by Edmonton to Philadelphia
Stephen Werner bought out by Caps, UFA
Kyle Wilson under contract with Caps

ARRIVEDERCI LOUIS ROBITAILLE

2008-09-01T21:14:00.000-04:00

Louis Robitaille is now officially an ex-Hershey Bear. Robitaille has signed a one year deal with SG Cortina of the Italian Hockey League.

With the departure of Robitaille, who led the AHL in PIM's for the 07-08 season, and the retirement of the AHL's all-time career PIM leader Dennis Bonvie, the penalty box attendants in Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton might have to look for other gainful employment during games between the Southern Division rivals.

From day one of the Hershey affiliation with the Washington Capitals, Robitaille, largely because of his antagonistic style of play, became public enemy number one to any team facing off against the Bears. The offensively challenged Robitaille, while scoring only 17 goals in his 200 game Hershey career, contributed mightily to the Bears' success with his ability to lure opponents into taking untimely penalties.

One of the best examples took place during the first round of the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs. Robitaille, with Hershey, up two games to none in the series, but down 2-0 early in the 2nd period of Game 3, was able to goad Norfolk defenseman James Wisniewski and Norfolk enforcer Shawn Thornton into penalties during the same sequence, which swung the momentum of the game. During the skirmish, Robitaille and Wisniewski each drew coincidental minor penalties, while Thornton received a major fighting penalty and two game misconducts. On the ensuing power play, Hershey was able to score a power play goal, their first of four straight goals, which paved the way to a 5-4 OT win and a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

While this change of address from Chocolatetown to Cortina will force a drastic change in culture, the move also figures to dramatically increase this former 4th liner's workload. In order to fulfill his responsibilites with the Italian club, including increased ice time and the chance to be part of special teams play, Louis will undergo a positional change from left wing to defense. The switch is nothing new to Louis, who played defense the majority of his junior career with the Montreal Rocket of the QMJHL and early in his pro career, before being converted to forward by Portland Pirate head coach Tim Army.

Despite leaving Hershey for a season abroad, the controversial Robitaille also leaves behind a lasting impression on all who came into contact with him, seemingly an equal number of critics and supporters. Perhaps current Washington Capitals and former Hershey Bears coach Bruce Boudreau said it best when he commented that "Louis is a guy that you hate when he's on the other team, but hate him a little less when he's on yours."