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.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Bears Best Bruins 11.23.11
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.
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.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Devils Down Bears in Shootout 11.19.11
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.
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.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Bears Crush Crunch
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.
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.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Pens Prey on Bears
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.
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.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
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.”
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Ads Sink Bears in OT 10.15.11
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.
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.
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