Moulson Leads Bears to Comeback Win

By: John Sparenberg

Matt Moulson once again made the Giant Center the “Moulson Center” Sunday afternoon, leading a third period comeback to give the Hershey Bears their 8th straight triumph, a 3-2 victory over the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Down 2-0 entering the final frame, Moulson gave the Bears their first goal of the game at 1:39, dialing long distance and getting a connection to register his 10th goal of the season.

Six minutes and six seconds after his first strike, Moulson was at it again, wristing another shot that emanated from between the faceoff circles by Philippe Desrosiers on the blocker side with the Bears on the power play, tying the game at 2-2.

Later, Moulson played playmaker on the game-winning goal, putting a long outlet pass onto the tape of a streaking Philippe Maillet at center ice, sending his teammate last season with the Ontario Reign into the Springfield zone on a breakaway. Maillet, whose last goal was a game-winner at Giant Center, added another to his ledger by waiting for Desrosiers to commit before launching a wrist shot by him on the stick side at 10:43.

Bears Torpedo T-Birds in Overtime

By: John Sparenberg

The Hershey Bears made it seven straight wins tonight by downing the visting Springfiled Thunderbirds in overtime, 2-1.

Matt Moulson, who had tallied six of his eight goals this season at Giant Center entering the contest, made in seven-of-nine early in the second period. Stationed in the high slot and to the stick side of Thunderbirds goaltender Sam Montembeault, Moulson deftly redirected Martin Fehervary's point shot by the T-Birds 'tender early in the second period. Liam O'Brien who had won the offensive zone faceoff the got the puck by to Fehervary, picked up the second assist on the Moulson strike.

The visitors tied the game later in the second period, and after a scoreless third period, the teams headed into overtime.

In the extra session, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, who broke a 16-game goalless streak in the Bears' previous game, but was thwarted by Montembeault on a breakaway earlier in the game and a post in the third period, won it for the home club when he went low to the stick side of Montembeault to seal the deal at 4:04 of the overtime.

Vitek Vanecek, who was outstanding in net for the Bears, stopping 27 Springfield salvos including a breakaway attempt, garnered his 9th win of the season with his solid showing. 

Bears Tame Tigers

By: John Sparenberg

On Friday the 13th you'd expect some bizarre happening, but Saturday the 14th, not so much. But last night at Giant Center, the Hershey Bears bounced by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in a weird one, 5-2, to obtain their fifth straight triumph.

The visitors, who arrived in town in the wee hours of the morning after enduring a long bus ride from Utica, New York, received an early wakeup call from the Bears only 1:49 after the opening faceoff, when Brian Pinho, playing in his 100th game as a Bear made it 1-0 for when he shoveled Axel Jonsoon-Fjallby's centering pass by Bridgeport netminder Jakub Skarek's glove.

Keifer "Bank Shot" Bellows responded to tie the game at 7:48, when he scored after launching a puck towards the crease while stationed beneath the goal line, that caromed first off goaltender Vitek Vanacek and then off of Bears defenseman, number two in your program, Tyler Lewington,  who was jostling for position in front of the net with a Bridgeport attacker.

Not to be outdone by Bellows' billiard ability, the Bears tandem of Joe Snively and Mike Sgarbossa combined their own billiard skills to give the Bears a 2-1 lead at 11:44 . Snively started the sequence from just inside his own zone by banking a slick no-look through the legs pass off the boards to a streaking Sgarbossa who received the pass in full flight in the neutral zone. After gaining the Bridgeport zone, Sgarbossa peeled off and tried to center a pass to linemate Garrett Pilon, but the pass never Reached Pilon's stick, however it did find the twig of Bridegport defenseman Seth Hegelson, their own number two, who mistakenly put it into his own cage.

Philippe Maillet's faceoff win in the offensive zone led to his fourth goal of the season seconds later when he somehow managed to go undetected by the defense, and redirected Liam O'Brien's centering pass by a stunned Skarek at 12:38.

The visitors closed the gap early in the second stanza when long time NHL'er Andrew Ladd delected an airborne missile by Vanacek, but the Bears fourth line of the Kale Kessy, Chris McCarthy and Kody Clark went to work shortly afterwards, drawing a power-play when Kessy absorbed a nasty looking blow from behind by Bridgeport defenseman Bode Wilde.

It took the Bears just over thirty ticks of the scoreboard clock to strike on the PP with Matt Moulson potting the marker after gathering in the rebound of a Sgarbossa shot that struck Helgeson in the backside before finding the home clubs' longtime NHL'er.

Off the ensuing center ice faceoff, Pinho interecpted a Bridgeport pass at center ice and dished off to Brett Leason who promptly put the puck back on Pinho's blade, and the "Centurian centerman" then found the third member of the line, O'Brien, who was cruising down the slot and finished off the play to increase the Bears' lead. 

The third period saw the visitors enjoy a 9-3 shot advantage, thanks largely in part to being on the power play for most of it, including a couple of five-on-three opportunities, but Vanacek and his mates withstood to charge to emerge victorious.

Bears Pounce Upon Pack in Overtime

By: John Sparenberg 

Like the world record-breaking 45,000-plus teddy bears that bounced upon the ice at Giant Center Sunday and then were pounced upon and bagged by the volunteers who collected them, the Hershey Bears bounced back from a couple of deficits and pounced upon four rebounds that they converted to goals to bag a 4-3 overtime win over the Hartford Wolf Pack.

It took the Bears nearly 500 seconds of play to score the goal that signaled the start of the teddy bear launching festivities, but for the multitude of charities and children who will ultimately benefit from the thousands of the furry friends tossed onto the ice in celebration of Christian Djoos’ goal, it will be well worth the wait.

Djoos’ goal was tallied after he crashed the crease and pounced upon Joe Snively’s point blank chance and occurred at 8:11 of the first period. This led to a 40:02 delay due to the cleanup of the bears.

After the cleanup concluded, the visitors tied the game when Pennsylvania native Steven Fogarty nearly went to coast-to-coast and struck with a power-play goal, beating Pheonix Copley low to the stick side on a semi-breakaway after skillfully eluding the Bears defense with some slick stick handling moves.   

The Wolf Pack then took their first lead of the game midway through the second stanza when Vincent LoVerde capitalized to give the visitors two goals on two extra-man chances, but the Bears responded to tie the game at 15:16 on a goal by Shane Gersich. Gersich’s goal started with him actually losing a faceoff in the Hartford zone, but thanks to some hard work at the point by defenseman Tyler Lewington and his linemates Liam O’Brien and Brett Leason, the puck stayed in the Hartford end where it was eventually controlled along the right half-wall by Leason. Leason then proceeded to toss a puck toward the net where O’Brien managed to get a piece of the disc despite being entangled with a Hartford defender, with Gersich eventually garnering the biscuit and beating the sprawling Hartford goaltender, Ryan Huska.

Beck Malenstyn, returning to the Bears lineup after a recall to the Washington Capitals, put the Bears back in front with another rebound goal at 5:08 of the third, with Leason and Eddie Whittchow picking up the assists.

It then looked like the Malenstyn marker would end up as the game-winner when the Wolfpack took a minor penalty with just over two minutes left in regulation time, but on the ensuing faceoff, Bears centerman Mike Sgarbossa was cited for a cross-check violation which led to a four-on-four situation. Because of that, the Wolfpack tied the game when Copley tried to guide Vinni Lettieri’s weak backhander to the corner instead of holding on for a faceoff, and Fogarty took advantage of Pheonix’s faux pas and converted the rebound to tie the game at 17:57.

In the overtime, the Bears registered all of the shots on net, and the final one was off the stick of Leason who took a pass from Djoos and then skated down the left wing on a mission to end the game and garner his first professional goal, and it was a mission on which he would not be denied as he netted his own rebound to end the game 2:21 into the extra session. 

Mann's B-Sens best Bears

By: John Sparenberg

The Hershey Bears scored first in their matchup with the Belleville Senators on Saturday night at Giant Center, but the visitors scored the last three goals to emerge with a 3-1 win.

With the win, the B-Sens gave their bench boss, Troy Mann who previously held the same position with the Bears, his first victory over his former club after three previous setbacks.

The Bears enjoyed a huge territorial advantage in the first period, and also outshot their opponents by a wide margin, 11-1, but only carried a 1-0 lead into the middle frame.

The goal, scored at 6:21, came off the stick of defenseman Eddie Wittchow. After gathering in a pass from Liam O’Brien, Wittchow rifled a rising wrister by the glove hand of Belleville net-minder Joey Daccord, who was making his AHL debut, although he made his professional debut last season in the NHL with the parent club in Ottawa. With the tally, Wittchow became the second Bears defenseman this season to score in their debut, joining Alex Alexeyev, who accomplished the feat on opening night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

O’Brien would go on to factor in the scoring in the second period as well, however, this play resulted in a negative result for his club. After absorbing a hard hit just inside the Belleville defensive zone, O’Brien retaliated by delivering a cross-check to a Senators player, and that action resulted in a five minute penalty in addition to a game misconduct sentence.

Initially the Bears penalty killing unit was able to withstand the Senators’ surge, holding them off the scoreboard for three-plus minutes, but then a hooking infraction to defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer gave them a five-on-three advantage, on which they capitalized on to tie the game. Subsequently, they then took the lead on a traditional power play that was struck with time still left on O’Brien’s penalty.

The Bears, forced to juggle their lines with the loss of their alternate captain, had few quality opportunities in the remainder of the game after falling behind, sans a few on their own five-on-three advantage, and an empty net goal with 1:14 left in the game sealed the deal for the “Boys from Belleville”, adding an exclamation point to their victory.

Notes-Kody Clark registered his first point as a pro by assisting on the Wittchow goal.

Bruins best Bears in Turkey Shootout

By: John Sparenberg

In the spirit of the traditional feasting on Thankgsiving, the Hershey Bears and the Providence Bruins engaged in a goal-scoring smorgasbord at Giant Center last night, with the P-Bruins emerging with a 7-6 shootout win after the feasting ended.

Things started out well for the Bears when they took a 1-0 lead on their second man advantage of the game when Mike Sgarbossa entered the Providence crease through a wide open back door and deposited the puck into a yawning cage at 11:45. Matt Moulson collected the primary helper on the strike, mucking it up in the crease and creating chaos for the Providence defense before sliding a pass over to Sgarbossa.

Brian Pinho, who pinged a shot off the post on a penalty shot attempt against P-Bruins net-minder Max Lagace in the first period, changed his approach early in the second, and it paid dividends. He beat Lagace through the five-hole at 52 seconds and started a second stanza scoring frenzy that saw seven goals registered.

Only seven seconds after Pinho’s tally, and while the fans were still celebrating, Joe Snively slid a pretty pass from Garrett Pilon through the legs of a sprawling Lagace to give the home team a 3-0 lead.

At that point, the visitors may have been down, but they certainly were not out.  They scored a pair of goals less than a minute apart, the second of which was very suspect and originated from the bottom of the faceoff circle from a bad angle, but it still somehow eluded Bears’ keeper Pheonix Copley.

But the Bears answered back when defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer benefited from a clean offensive zone faceoff win by Philippe Maillet to notch his second goal of the year, only to see Bruins’ defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, who victimized the Bears for a pair of goals last Sunday in Providence, respond with another to make it 4-3 at 10:36.

There would be one more goal before the buzzer sounded to end the middle stanza, and that came off the stick of Maillet, who on this historic night which saw the Bears play game number 6,000 in franchise history, added some personal history by picking up his 100^th career point on the lamp lighter.

Early in the third, former Bear Paul Carey made it a one-goal Bears lead for the fourth time in the contest, cashing in on his own rebound by squeezing the puck under Copley’s pad, all while situated below the goal line. 

 

After Carey's caper, the score remained 6-5 until the visitors responded with a pair of quick goals of their own as Jakub Lauko and Oskar Steen scored goals only 23 seconds apart to take the lead for the first time.

However, Snively’s second snipe of the game, courtesy of a smooth setup by Sgarbossa, who drew Lagace towards him before sliding a pass under him to Snively for the slam dunk, tied it at 16:08, which sent the game into overtime. Subsequently in the shootout, Lauko netted the decisive goal in the individual skills competition.

Notes-

The Bears scratched Kale Kessy, Riley Sutter, Colby Williams, Eddie Wittchow, Bobby Nardella and Chris McCarthy, all healthy, in addition to the injured trio of Lucas Johansen, Steve Whitney, and Bobby Nardella.

Matt Weis, recently recalled from South Carolina, made his Hershey debut centering the fourth line.

The Battles Within

By:John Sparenberg  jsheynow@gmail.com

Every player has a learning curve when they climb to next step on the hockey ladder regardless of how talented or highly touted they were at their prior level. It doesn’t matter if that player is a second round draft pick (of the Capitals in 1986) like Steve Seftel, or an undrafted one, like Liam O’Brien.

Often, the term, “it’s like men against boys,” is bandied about in hockey when talking about how a battle-tested player, usually one who is bigger, stronger, and faster than their young, upstart opponents, dominates them in battles on the ice.

Overlooked in that dominance is the mental hurdle that the youngsters face not only on the ice where their experienced rivals have an edge on them due to already knowing the intricacies of the league in addition to the nuances of the rinks, but also off the ice, having already settled into their day-to-day life at that level, giving them another distinct advantage.

With the combination of all of the uphill battles that the youngsters face, it's a safe bet to assume that many prospects over the years have either never made it to the pro ranks, or had their careers fall way short of expectations if they did. Some of these situations are caused by mental health challenges that they struggled with, and Seftel, 51, and long-retired after playing only four games in the NHL with the Caps, could be considered Exhibit A. He has literally made his career and struggles an open book with the release of his recent book, Shattered Ice, which he describes as "my hockey odyssey while suffering silently from health issues I didn't understand.”

Seftel's first panic attack happened when he was only 16 years of age, an occurred when he was stuck on an elevator in Czechoslovakia while participating in a hockey tournament. However, he shrugged it off thinking, "it's just who I am, and this is how it's going to be." He never imagined that what he experienced had been caused by an illness.

A few years later, after leaving his home in Kitchener to play junior in Kingston, Seftel's symptoms kicked into high gear when he got his first real taste of the "men against boys" situation he was going to be confronting on the ice, a scenario that replayed again in his mind a few years later when he left home to turn pro with the Baltimore Skipjacks.

"Going to Juniors at 17, you’re really just a young guy going into grade 12, and then turning pro at 20 is a big challenge for guys that age, being on your own, doing your own cooking, getting your own place to live. You’re literally forced to be a man, and you are also now playing against men, but you have to battle through it and do the best you can."

Seftel continued, pointing to a popular comparison with his personal experiences as proof of his cases. "That’s the disadvantage of guys who play junior hockey in Canada versus those who play college hockey in the U.S. If you play junior, you’re only as old as 20 when you turn pro, but if you play college hockey in the U.S., you can turn pro at 23-24 years of age, and I think you’re much better prepared mentally at that age. I often compare myself to Keith Jones (a former Capital, Bear, and Flyer, who currently works on NHL broadcasts for various networks). We are the same age and I played against Keith as a kid in minor hockey, but he wasn’t drafted to the Ontario Hockey League, so he took the longer route (playing college hockey at Western Michigan). I was drafted to the OHL, and played three years junior and turned pro at 20, while he played Junior B and then got a scholarship. I remember when he came to the Caps at 24, he was a rookie and I had already been there for four years. I felt old and felt like old news, and here he is, this fresh face who is the same age, but he had four years to develop in college."

In Seftel's time, the only type of team testing was of the physical nature, and at best you may have periodically had a visit or received a phone call from someone in the organization that drafted you during your season in whatever league in which you were biding your time. Communication was done at training camp, with the player otherwise left to wallow in his own thoughts what was being thought of or said of you.

Today, players got through extensive testing both prior to and after being drafted, and organizations make a pronounced effort to keep in touch with their prospects, offering developmental coaches and a vast array of resources to help them be the best they can be not only as a player, but also as a person due to realizing that physical and mental health go hand-in-hand. Yet, when asked if he would have come out to discuss his struggles with a developmental coach or some other authority during his playing days, after a long pause to ponder the question, Seftel said that he would not have come forth.

"Only because in that timeframe, mental health wasn’t discussed. I never heard anyone talk about anything mental health related until two years ago, prior to my diagnosis. Up until that point, it was never discussed at home. It was never discussed in the locker room, and if it was, it was discussed in a negative fashion.  It wasn’t seen in any way as something that you would want to share."

Seftel, continued, delving deeper into his rationale. "I didn’t fear that I would be exposed, but what I feared was showing weakness, and there is a difference there. Mental illness wasn’t even part of the language back then; the fear was being labeled weak. When you play a contact sport like hockey, or even football, weakness isn’t part of that makeup. Starting from a young age, you’re groomed as being anything but weak, so it doesn’t jive or go along with the mentality we’re trained to have and the way you’re trained to play. So, that was my bigger fear, to be labeled as someone who didn’t have the strength to move on to the next level, mentally or physically."

Longtime Bears backers will remember Seftel from the four seasons he spent with their former arch rivals, the Baltimore Skipjacks, a team that the Bears faced frequently due to clubs being separated by less than 100 miles. That familiarity led to many spirited battles at the Bears' den at the time, the fabled HERSHEYPARK Arena, a building he calls his favorite in the AHL. HPA has distinctive, steep seating that went straight up with not a single seat having an obstructed view gave opposition players the feeling that fans were right on top of them. That architectural achievement, amazing for 1930's construction, seemingly would fluster a player dealing with the inner turmoil that Seftel did, but that wasn't the case, and he had some of his better games as a Skipjack on HERSHEYPARK Drive, including an overtime winner.

"One thing hockey players are very good at, and I was also good at, is compartmentalizing. When you got into game mode and put your game face on, you left the other stuff behind you, and things didn’t really come back to you until the game ended. I’d go through my normal game- day routine. You’d have the butterflies and anxiousness, but you always able to and had to focus on the game. That’s part of your job as a professional. You had to put the other stuff in your back pocket. Going in there didn’t really affect me (from the mental aspect). It was the rivalry that was the bigger part of it."

Liam O'Brien's odyssey to the pros is remarkably similar to Seftel's, taking a mental detour in junior hockey, but unlike Seftel who suffered in relative silence for many years, he reached out and also reached deep within, getting to know his inner self better by educating himself on his own brain.

"It's not an easy job being a professional athlete by any means; there’s a lot of pressure on you and. I had the hardest time with it as a kid. I was a 16-17 year old going into junior, and I was up against a lot of men who were 20 years old.  That’s when I had my struggles. It was more of a day-to-day thing where I got into a negative, low groove, and I guess you could say it almost felt like the word was out to get me. I think that was just a mindset thing for me though. The biggest thing that I did was I started to read about it, and opened my mind up to new ways of thinking. And I think that’s what transformed to the way I am today.

"You’re going to have good days and bad days, and you just want to make sure you have more good than bad.  That’s how I try to live my life. I try to get into a routine that I have on a day-to day basis where I try to be the best, not only hockey player, but the best person I can be every day. I think that’s where it starts. When you feel good about who you are every day, put yourself in a positive environment, and lead yourself in the right direction. It helps in the (mental) area a lot. That’s something I really had to focus on, and I had to do that as a teenager to get myself out of that funk that I had gotten into."

O'Brien confesses that there have still been tough times during seasons where he's had to face adversity, but says we all do, and he believes that continuously facing it down and not ignoring it grows you by making your stronger, and subsequently healthier.

"I’ve helped a lot of guys. I just try to get them to stay as positive as they can. I think especially when you’re in the minors, it’s tougher for guys to stay positive. It’s a different kind of lifestyle because you’re always trying to get to the next level and sometimes the movement isn’t going your way, and the bounces aren’t going your way,” said O’Brien, who has sharpened his goal-scoring skills down on the farm with Bears, averaging 16 markers the last two seasons.

Flashing an unexpected smile that could only be perceived as saying he is accepting of his circumstances, a sure sign of his mental maturity and durability, O'Brien continued. "I won’t say I’m an older guy, but I’m a vet now. So that means I’ve had my years, and I’ve been able to see guys get into funks like that. You don’t want to jump in and say like hey man you should (whatever), you just maybe throw some ideas at them and try to getting them thinking differently and just support them. Everybody is coming from a different place, and I think you need to understand that, especially in hockey where everybody is coming from different parts of the world, and everybody is in a different situation. You really need to understand and respect that and that’s one thing that I’ve really tried to do and that also includes helping the European guys that come over and they really don’t understand at first how things work when they come over. I’ve been there, and I can help guys out because I’ve been there.”

There are a multitude of reasons that we do not seek help when we know we have a mental illness. It may be fear of losing a job or not getting a promotion, or being perceived as weak for admitting you are not perfect. If you've ever had a mental illness, or are currently dealing with one, you are well aware that you learn to become very adept in the art of keeping your symptoms and your struggles within, or hiding them from others, But the truth is, letting go of the false facade, as both Seftel and O'Brien did, won't necessarily cure you, but it certainly will lighten the load of the burden that you are carrying within.

"I always had OCD, and I wasn’t diagnosed, but I definitely knew it, and friends and family certainly observed it. But again, we didn’t talk about mental illness, and OCD was something that I could live with and deal with day to day, and it wasn’t really bothering anybody, so that’s probably another reason that I didn’t seek treatment sooner,” said Seftel who was only recently officially diagnosed with OCD, anxiety and panic attacks.

Seftel continued, his story serving as a caution to what can happen when you keep your symptoms contained. "Then the anxiety started to turn to panic, and panic is the most terrorizing form of anxiety.  That’s what became debilitating for me. The OCD led to anxiety, and the anxiety compounded the panic attacks, and that’s what forced me to seek medical intervention. When you have a panic attack, you think you are going to die, and you feel you are in imminent danger, but it’s really your brain lying to you. When those started to happen I didn’t want to leave the house, and I also started to have physical symptoms at that point where my joints, my knees and shoulders started swelling, and I actually couldn’t even get out of bed. So not only was I mentally ill, but I was also becoming physically ill. When I talked to my doctor, he said it was all related and triggered by the mental illness."