Bourque Brothers Return Home as Bears

Last weekend, the Hershey Bears ventured to New England for a three-game road venture with stops in Hartford, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island. Over the years, the club had visited these venues many times, but this time the contests featured a new twist: for the first time the Bears featured the Bourque brothers, Chris and Ryan, in their lineup.

Both the Bourques were born in the New England area, Massachusetts to be specific, and both of them also spent last year as teammates in Hartford as members of the Wolfpack. Chris rejoined the Chocolate and White over the summer, inking a two-year deal with the Bears/Caps, but Ryan has only recently joined the ranks, having been acquired in a late February deal that saw Chris Brown head to Hartford.

When the puck dropped for the opening faceoff in Hartford on Friday, Hershey’s starting line did not feature either Bourque, as head coach Troy Mann said his sentimental side never came into play when he was deciding which unit to put on the ice to start the contest.

“It didn’t cross my mind at all to be honest with you. I can’t coach like that; it’s about winning the hockey game.”

Early in the first period, Ryan, normally stellar in his own zone, committed a glaring turnover that resulted in a Hartford player gathering in the puck all alone in front of the Hershey net, but a dandy save by goaltender Dan Ellis stopped the turnover from resulting in a Wolfpack tally. After the game, Ryan took ownership of the gaffe as his own, not chalking it up to a case of the jitters.

"I wasn’t nervous, but it was definitely a little weird feeling after being here for five years. With the way they treated me here, I have so much respect for them. It was a little bittersweet coming back, but with that being said, Hershey’s been a fresh start and it’s been amazing since I’ve been here.”Later in the period, during a commercial timeout, a touching, tribute video was played on the center ice scoreboard which celebrated Ryan’s time in Hartford, with clips showcasing him both on and off the ice.

“It definitely brought back a lot of memories of all the good times I had with the players and the staff here. It just shows the class that they in the organization,” said Ryan, 25.

Combined, the line of Ryan, Nathan Walker, and Dustin Gazley, like the rest of the club on this night in Hartford, generated little offense which is very uncharacteristic for the undersized, but talented, trio.

“Up until tonight they have been top notch, creating a lot of opportunities off the forecheck, buzzing in the offensive zone. Tonight, overall as a team, it wasn’t a great performance. But overall they’ve been very good,” said Mann.

Ryan, when asked what made the line click, offered up a comical, then serious response.

“We’re all under 5’10”,” he joked. “We are a smaller line but we bring a lot of speed and we seem to always be on the puck, trying to create chances on the forecheck with that speed.”

Chris was the star of the night among the Bears on an otherwise dismal night in the 5-1 setback in Hartford, averting a breakaway in the first period with a strong backchecking effort in the defensive zone, drawing the first full power play of the night for his club while backchecking in his own zone, and collecting an assist on the Bears’ only goal in the loss.

“I thought he was ok; he did get the assist on our only goal. He’s leading the league in scoring for a reason. He’s able to get his points even when he’s not on top of his game," said Mann.

With the Bourques in tow, the Bears boarded their team bus and headed north to Providence for the next leg of the weekend for a Saturday engagement with the P-Bruins, the top farm team of the NHL’s Boston Bruins, the team that the Bourque’s dad Ray skated for in over twenty seasons.

Trouble was “brewing” for the Bears not long after the opening faceoff when the home club took a 1-0 lead only 20 seconds after the puck was dropped after a shot from the blueline bounced off the body of a Hershey defender and then bounced into the net behind netminder Justin Peters. The Bruins doubled their lead less than two minutes later before a power play goal by Walker got the visitors on the scoreboard. On this night, with Gazley out of the lineup in favor of former Bruin Carter Camper, Mann switched up his lines from the Hartford game, and the result had Ryan skating alongside Jakub Vrana and Travis Boyd when the clubs were skating five a side. Ryan talked about the challenge of playing with unfamiliar linemates after the game.

“On this team, we have a really deep forward group, and any player you are playing with is going to be a guy who can get the job done,” he explained.

The Bears faced another two-goal deficit later in the game when Austin Czamik powered a puck past Peters, but a power play strike by Vrana, and an another even strength goal also tallied by Vrana, with Ryan creating traffic in front of the P-Bruins net and appearing to get a piece of a Madison Bowey point shot that eventually found its way onto the stick of Boyd, who collected an assist on the Vrana marker, tied the game early in the third period.

“I didn’t get a piece of that shot, but we had a good forecheck going there and we just cycled it in the zone. Boyd picked it up along the wall and when he has some space he is going to make the play, and the kind of player Vrana is around the net, or for that matter any place on the ice. That was a big goal and a big momentum builder going forward.

The Bears eventually rode that momentum to a winning verdict in a shootout decision, putting themselves within a point of securing a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs, and after the game, Ryan spoke about his team’s resiliency in the victory.

“It was a tough first couple of minutes for us, but we responded. Both of those early goals were kind of fluky and really weren’t anything we could control. We pushed back as a team, from Petey, who led the way in goal (stopping a penalty shot effort by Czamik in the first period and sealing the win by stopping Czamik’s shootout bid) , to the rest of the team out. It was a gritty road win.”

Through thirteen outings as a Bear, Ryan Bourque sports a spiffy plus-minus rating of +2, but he is still searching for his first goal as a member of the club, but as Mann explains, although he’d welcome more offense from the speedy forward, he is more concerned with the intangibles he provides.

“The trade was made for him because we wanted a guy to be able to come in and help our penalty kill. Be more of a momentum type of guy who gets in on the forecheck and use his speed, and that’s exactly what he is. Certainly you’d like to see a couple goals go in for him, but we are third in the league in offense, so it wasn’t a situation where we were looking to add offense, so whatever he brings to table offensively is fine.”

Finishing up the three-in-three weekend on Sunday afternoon against the P-Bruins, the Bears fell in a shootout, 2-1, but headed home with Providence in the rear view mirror, and as a result of the point gathered in the shootout setback, a playoff berth in the Calder Cup playoffs in front of them.

“It’s definitely been a bit of an adjustment coming to Hershey, " said Ryan following Saturday’s game. “There’s definitely more that I can do, and I look forward to getting my feet under me and contributing more, but that’s what these games are for though, to prepare you for the playoffs.”