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."

Bears respond to game one setback to even series

By: John  Sparenberg
jsheynow@gmail.com

Who knows what all of the reasons were for the Hershey Bears coughing up a two-goal lead last night in squandering game one of their Calder Cup playoff series against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at Webster Bank Arena in double overtime, 3-2.

Special teams could be blamed, as each of the Sound Tigers' goals were struck on the power play, while the Bears went 0-for-3 and shot themselves in the foot on each of their chances, as a result not making the home club team exert precious, valuable energy, both in that game and later in the series.

But the Bears were having no part of excuses on Saturday night, grinding out a 2-0 win to even the the series behind a brilliant 39-save shutout performance from Vitek Vanecek, and getting goals from their top two marksmen, Riley Barber and Mike Sgarbossa.

It's important to not get too high emotionally after an exhilarating win, such as the Bears game two in, and not get too low after disappointing setbacks like their game one loss. The fact of the matter is, if you have another spring game to play, there is still hope to capture the crown.

With that in mind, Bears bench boss took no chances that the message would not get through to his players entering game two, taking it upon himself to convey the desperate, but not dire, situation his club faced after dropping the opener.

"We had a good conversation today about yesterday. I didn't think that was our best at all, and it was important for us to respond in game two of a short series. I just wanted to make sure that guys realized the urgency level that we needed to have tonight, and I thought that did great responding and playing at a real high level," said Carbery, whose club scored both of their goals off quick transitions from offense to defense.

Unlike game one where the Sound Tigers controlled most of the play from the opening faceoff and had the Bears on their heels early and throughout the night, tonight the Bears brought it all, with everyone buying in, and the results are obvious.

"We were skating tonight, moving the puck well, and we were way hungrier in the offensive zone. There were a lot of areas where it wasn't that the guys didn't want to do it last night,  we just weren't as sharp, and tonight we hit the ground running from the start of the game. Obviously they pushed when we got up by a couple, putting it on us for the last 20 minutes, but we did enough to hang on."

Chris McCarthy, a late season addition to the Bears from the ECHL, and a player who is a skating testament to a guy who packs a lunch pail when he comes to the rink, is a player that Carbery and his staff obviously like, evidenced by putting him into the playoff lineup over Capitals' property players.

"He came late in the year and we were looking for some help down the middle, and he got an opportunity to play, and he ran with it. We liked the way he played in those last two games of the regular season, and we thought he earned a chance to play in game one, and he played well (scoring the first goal of the series), and has been great for us." 

McCarthy, a Keystone state native, has been a force in all zones by using his sizable frame to muscle away loose pucks from the opposition, but he also has an offensive upside, averaging 20-goals a season in the ECHL in the last three campaigns. He put that soft touch on display in game one by picking the top corner last night to garner the first goal of the series. And while it's unlikely that the Bears' goaltending situation will require Carbery to put the pads on him, he displayed good form early in the third turning back a shot while covering for Vanacek who scrambled to get back in his crease after turning the puck over.

Now it's a best of three series as the locale shifts back to Hershey for games three and four, with the Sound Tigers holding a commanding 91-65 advantage in shots on goal.  However, that's not a stat that concerns Carbery at this point, but it's certainly one that his charges can change if they continue the masterful puck possession game they played on Saturday.

"Generally, I thought their shots were a little bit elevated tonight for both sides. I though that both teams, even when there wasn't really an opportunity, they were just throwing it on net. But we don't look at it from a target number; we look at breaking it down from where those shots are from, are they carrying the play, are we hemmed up in the defensive zone, or are we not doing enough up top to block shots to get into the shot lanes, stuff like that."

Notes-Travis St. Denis sat out his one game suspension for his hit on Aaron Ness the previous evening.

Liam O'Brien returned to the Hershey lineup after serving a three game suspension for a hit against the Hartford Wolf Pack on April 12th.

Power play prowess sends Sound Tigers by Bears in double overtime

By: John Sparenberg
jsheynow@gmail.com

Entering the opening game of their Calder Cup Playoffs series against the Bridgeport Sounds Tigers at Webster Bank Arena last night, you could say that the deck was slightly stacked in the favor of the Tigers.

With Riley Barber and Garrett Pilon returning to the lineup, Liam O'Brien sitting out the final game of his suspension, and the late call-up to the Washington Capitals, head coach Hershey head coach Spencer Carbery shuffled the deck and iced the best lineup he could come up with.  This lineup included four players, Chris McCarthy, Joe Snively, Dylan Steman, and Joey Leach on defense, all of whom were not even on the roster a month ago.

When the puck dropped for the opening faceoff, and it became immediately evident that the Bears would be facing long odds and would need to pull out an ace in hole to have any chance of overcoming the odds.  That ace turned out to be Ilya Samsonov, who was making his North American playoff debut in the Bears net.

Samsonov, stellar throughout the night, was spectacular in the first period, stopping every salvo the Sound Tigers launched. Samsonov finished the frame with 15 saves, with several of them being of the spectacular variety, as the teams headed into the second stanza locked in a scoreless tie.

Steve Whitney won a board battle against a much bigger opponent behind the Bridgeport goal line, and then fired a centering pass that was gathered in by McCarthy, who then cruised into the slot undetected before launching a "rocket wrister" by goaltender Christopher Gibson to strike for the first goal of the series.

The Bears made it 2-0 less than five minutes later when Jayson Megna motored by defenseman Sebastian Aho after spotting him a half-zone head start, and then outraced him to a loose puck between the circles before going top shelf on Gibson with the Bears shorthanded.

Unfortunately, the Sound Tigers finally found a way to beat Samsonov before the end of the second period, with Kieffer Bellows potting a rebound while the Sound Tigers were on their fifth power of the night.

Aaron Ness Hershey's power play quarterback, alternate captain, and defensive leader, suffered a scary injury 8:58 into the period after being belted from behind in the goal area by Travis St. Denis. After the impact, Ness slid into the end boards head first, and he did not move on his own the entire time he laid on the ice face down. After a long delay caused by the attending medical crew understandably being extremely cautious in moving Ness, the former Sound Tigers captain was stretchered off the ice and to the hospital for observation.

Both clubs and their coaching staffs watch as
Ness laid on the ice after the hit. 

St. Denis’ penalty was ruled a major penalty, and the Bears then went on what could have been a five minute power play, but, like the Bears' only previous power play, it was interrupted by a Nathan Walker minor penalty. The major resumed after Walker's sentence, but the Bears failed to capitalize on it.

The Bears would then get into penalty trouble late in the game when Tyler Lewington committed an infraction when during the kill, a Bears player lost his stick. Megna guided it back to his teammate, which resulted in a 5-on-3 power play for the home club. Technically what Megna did was illegal, but the teammate was with an arm’s length of him, and normally in a playoff game, things of that nature are either overlooked or a lot of leeway is given, especially with the team involved in the stick shuffling already shorthanded. But that wasn’t the case during this game, and veteran Steve Bernier burned the Bears by tying the goal with his two-man advantage goal at 17:52.

Neither team was able to score in the first overtime, but the fatigue was obvious in the Bears, particularly their defense, which was taxed heavily due to Ness' absence.

In the second overtime, Mike Sgarbossa tripped a Tiger in their defensive zone, giving them their 8th power play of the night, and Bellows was once again able to strike to give the Sound Tigers a 3-2 double overtime win which spoiled Samsonov's stellar 49-save effort.

The Bears finished the game 0-for-3 on the power play, while the Sound Tigers, who were awarded the final four power plays of the game, finished 3-for-8.

Notes- The Bears lineup consisted of a combined 287 games of North American playoff experience, while Sound Tigers' lineup had a combined 349 games, with former Bears, the Bourque brothers, Chris and Ryan, possessing over 50% of that total (180 games).

Megna a center of stability for Bears

By: John Sparenberg
jsheynow@gmail.com

Looking up and down the Hershey Bears' roster from top to bottom as they launch their quest for the Calder Cup, there are a few things that are very evident and jump right out.

The goaltending is rock solid with youngsters Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov, both of whom were members of 20-win club in the regular season and are surely destined for regular NHL duty in the future.

On the backline are Tyler "Tough as Nails" Lewington, who has grown from being a rough around the edges fringe player into a solid defender who gives opposing players headaches and body aches, and veteran Aaron "Assist Machine" Ness, who collected 50 helpers in the regular season and causes headaches for the opposition with his outstanding skating ability.

Up front, Riley Barber and Mike Sgarbossa are both established AHL snipers who reached the 30-goal in the regular season and grabbed the goal scoring headlines.

But it's the veteran centerman, Jayson Megna, who often gets overshadowed by his teammates but never goes unnoticed by the opposition, who is the glue that helps bring all together with his versatility and lead-by-example style of play.

Megna, who has played a combined 113 games in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers, signed with the Bears' parent club the Washington Capitals last summer. He made the Caps out of training camp, but was ultimately assigned to the Bears early in the season before appearing in any games with them.

After arriving in Chocolatetown, Megna became a roster mainstay, appearing in every regular season game after he arrived, with the exception of the meaningless season finale in which he sat out along with many other roster regulars.

Despite often being put into a checking role by the coaching staff, where his focus is more on stopping the opposition from scoring, the crafty Megna, who possesses a smooth skating stride and an abundance of speed, still found a nose for the net in garnering 20 goals for the Bears, a mark that he says means a lot to him.

"This one of the toughest leagues in the world to score goals in,” said Megna, whose career high is 26 set in 2014-15 with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. "When you get 20, it says a lot about your team and your linemates, and I’m very happy to have achieved that mark this season."

Not possessing a particularly hard shot but obviously a pair of soft hands, Megna is normally positioned just outside the crease area where he is often seen dueling in intense one-on-one battles for position with burly blueliners who often outsize him. This all means there is normally a heavy price to pay for each of the career high eight times he lit the lamp on the PP, but even in enduring the pain to reach the new personal high, he still was right back down to ice level, acknowledging it as a team effort and attributing his increased production to more ice time and capitalizing on more chances than he has in the past when afforded extra-man time.

Stick on the ice, Megna prepares to net his 20th.
Photo by: Cory Lyons
Twitter: @CoryLyonsAHL
Instagram: @corylyonsphoto

"It’s a combination of the personnel that we have, and I think we’ve been really solid all year on the PP. We’ve got a lot of good playmakers on our power play, and depending upon the spot that you’re in, you just need to keep your stick on the ice and be ready. I give a lot of the credit to the playmakers that we have on this squad."

On the other side of the special team coin, Megna is also heavily counted upon to shut down the opposition power play on the penalty kill. It would figure that with a PK unit that features him along with fellow speedsters Beck Malenstyn, Shane Gersich and Nathan Walker, that the Bears would have registered more than three shorties on the season.

Megna's speed backs off a Bridgeport defender.
Photo by: Cory Lyons
Twitter: @CoryLyonsAHL
Instagram: @corylyonsphoto

"I don’t think it’s from a lack of chances though”, said Megna, born in Fort Lauderdale,  Florida. “I wouldn’t necessarily say we’ve        dialed it down, but we changed things up on the from what we did earlier in the season  when we were in that rut, and we’re definitely  playing a little more conservatively on the kill  than we did then. I’d agree I think we should have more with the guys we have on the PK, but it’s been just about the lack of execution and not the absence of opportunities."

The Bears' regular season, from a first half free-fall, to a steady and, at times, meteoric second half rise has been well documented, but it's a merely a memory now as they enter the post-season.

"The odds surely were not in our favor after the first half of our season, but we had a belief that things would get better, and if we stuck to the game plan and started to get to the place where we knew we could play, we would have success. That 17-game run is certainly one of the craziest runs I’ve ever been on. It was a special year, it was a lot of things that I haven’t seen in my career, and I’ve been around for seven years. We have a really special group in here and we have great things ahead of us,” said Megna, hungry for his first playoff action since the spring of 2015.

Think it’s foolish to think that if at the end of this post-season journey that the Bears are about to embark on culminates with them capturing their 12th Calder Cup with Jayson "Man in the Middle” Megna leading the charge? If so, ponder this, who would have been foolish enough a few months ago to gamble that they would even be on this playoff road that will ultimately end with the crowning of the Calder Cup Champion?

Bears Shoot Down Comets

By: John Sparenberg
jsheynow@gmail.com

Entering Saturday night's game at Giant Center against the Utica Comets, the Hershey Bears knew who their playoff opponents would be, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. They also knew there was virtually no chance chance of overtaking Bridgeport due to the fact that they were playing just up I-81 at the same time against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins who had virtually nothing to play for, having no chance to reach the post-season.

So, that left the only certainties to be great opportunities for the home club to improve on personal career highs at the expense of the visitors who will not be reaching the post-season, and an opportunity for some new faces to find their way into the lineup.

Bears netminder Vitek Vanecek, who played in his 100th AHL contest in March in Providence,and entered the game with a career high 20 wins, found himself in the thick of things early in the game, starting with a penalty being whistled against him for delay of game when he played the puck in the no-play zone. Showing an obvious objection to the call, not in a verbal manner, but with his play and aggression which featured him utilizing some of his goaltending paraphernalia to whack at the back of a Utica player who took up residence in front of his crease on the subsequent power play, Vanecek went on to stop all eight shots he faced in the frame, several of which were high quality chances.

"I thought he was, and a tough situation too, said Bears head coach Spencer Carbery, when asked if he could sense from the bench that his goaltender was tuned in early. "If you think about Vitek, he hasn't played back-to-back in a long time, especially with travel. We get in a t 3:30 in the morning yesterday travelling from Hartford. So it was a little bit of a situation he hadn't seen in a few months at least. I thought, I knew it was going to have to dig in a little bit today and really battle. There were some scrambles at the net front, there was some traffic there and he was getting bumped around. You could tell he was really battling tonight."

Nathan Walker tallied the only goal of the first period, providing "thunder from down under", when he launched a shot from an "extreme Australian angle" that somehow eluded Utica goalie Ty Reichenbach. Walker's goal was his 17th of the season, which matched his career high set with the Bears in 2015-16.

In the eight minute of the second stanza, Jayson Megna reach the 20-goal plateau for the second time in his career to give the Bears a 2-1 lead when he tallied on the power play, eventually converting a sensational, but sizzling pass from Mike Sgarbossa for an easy lay-up goal at 8:03.

"It was a great play by him, said Megan of Sgarbossa, who being the goal scoring threat that he is forced Reichenbach to contest what he thought would be a shot, but was cleverly disguised as a pass. "It actually hit the toe of my skate and then it kind of settled there for me, and it's tough to miss on opportunities like that, and Mike has made plays like that all year on the power play."

Rookie Shane Gersich added the 8th goal of his rookie season at 10:44 of the third period, assisted by Aaron Ness, who mesmerized the Utica defense with his stick-handling prowess to run his career high assist total to 50. Chris McCarthy, who was making his Bears debut, collected the secondary helper on Gersich's goal.

Lucas Johansen went on the add an empty net goal to finish out the scoring, giving the Bears back-stooped by Vanecek's 31 saves, a 4-1 victory.

Megna, who played for the Comets last season when he was property of the Vancouver Canucks, spoke after the game in the dressing room area after being warmly greeted by many of his former teammates, on whether he had a little extra incentive to score against them.

"Yeah, said Megna, whose previous 20-goal season was with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2014-15. "Obviously even more against this team due to me playing for them just last year, there are a lot of familiar faces on that squad. It's a good rivalry, and you always find yourself up and ready to go for these types of games."

Note- Defenseman Bobby Nardella also made his pro debut for the Bears. Nardella finished with two penalty minutes, and came within inches of netting his first goal when his third period shot rang off the post.

Keefe's Captivating Climb Continues

By: John Sparenberg
jsheynow@gmail.com

In a sense, the Toronto Marlies' recent overtime win over the Hershey Bears in Chocolatetown was a perfect summation of their head coach Sheldon Keefe's career in hockey.

The game started out with Keefe's club dominating the game and taking the lead, much like he did in the early stages of his playing career in junior hockey, beginning with the Toronto St. Michael's Majors in the OHL.

Then, midway through the game, relying on pure talent and determination, much like Keefe did through the rest of his junior career after he departed from Toronto, the Marlies took a commanding lead and success seemed assured as they settled in and seemingly turned on the cruise control.

But later, turbulence struck out nowhere, and before Keefe and company knew what had happened, the Marlies found them back on the tarmac having relinquished their once comfortable cushion, only to get their feet back under them after pausing to regroup, and then outworking the Bears and soaring to an eventual victory.

Coming back to Hershey as the opposition, something he has done five times as a head coach with the Marlies, stirs up some bitter sweet memories for Keefe of his days in the colors of the Chocolate and White.

"Not making the playoffs made it a tough season in that sense, in a place like Hershey and it’s storied history of success, it stung. I remember the Philadelphia Phantoms being a thorn in our side, even up until the last game of the season (which ended with the Bears, needing a victory to gain a playoff berth, put the puck into their own empty net with an errant pass on an overtime power play opportunity). That was a tough way to end it, but I have nothing but positive and great memories of my time here. I was treated very well by Doug Yingst and the whole Hershey Bears’ organization. My time here with the fans and playing in this building was exceptional,” said Keefe, who etched his place in Giant Center history by being the first Bear to tally a hat trick at the venue. "I only got to spend that one season here unfortunately, but that’s all I needed to be able to know that this is a gem of a league and it was a privilege to play here. I was fortunate to play here and have those memories."

Despite tying his professional career high by lighting the lamp sixteen times with the Bears, Keefe's Tampa Lightning tenure, which started with him being selected as their 1st pick and the 47th overall pick in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft and consisted of 125 Tampa tilts and 129 games with their various minor league affiliates including Hershey, came to end following his only season in Hershey.

"After I left Hershey, the next year was the lockout year, and that off-season, I signed with the Phoenix Coyotes. During that lockout I tore up my knee- I blew out my ACL. So I missed virtually that entire season (he played only four games for the Coyotes' AHL affiliate), and then rehabbed through that and came back the next year in the Coyotes’ training camp. The knee didn’t quite feel the way that I hoped that it would, and it didn’t respond the way that I expected it to. It didn’t feel great throughout that camp."

Keefe continued, "I then took some time to reflect and figure out what I wanted to do next and let my knee settle in. Over that time, I began coaching and helping out a junior “A” team that I owned in Pembroke, Ontario. I got a little bit of an itch to coach there and did that for the remainder of that season. I continued to let my knee settle down and continued to work at it, but over that time, I just decided that I was really enjoying the coaching thing and decided to jump full-on into that."

Keefe's coaching career which has included multiple league championships with Pembroke, three post-season appearances in his two-plus seasons guiding the OHL's Saulte Ste. Marie Greyhounds, and three post-season berths leading the Leafs' top prospects in T.O., including the capturing of the Calder Cup last spring, can aptly be described in one word: success. As Todd Crocker, the voice of the Marlies and someone who has seen virtually every game that Keefe has coached and probably knows him better than anyone in the organization, with the exception of the Leafs' top brass, sums up what is the trademark of a Keefe coached team, also in one word.

"Prepared. That's what I've noticed more than anything else from his time here, from that first season when he had a tremendous hockey club,” said Crocker of the 2015-16 team that led the AHL with 54 wins but was beaten by the Bears in the post-season.

"I think a lot of people, when they see a talented hockey club, say that anybody could coach that team, but I think those types of teams are harder to coach. I think it’s been proven time and again that when you have good talented players, it can be a challenge making sure that they do all the things that make them turn out to be superstars. The William Nylanders the Kasperi Kapenens guys like that that went up. Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, they all went up to the Leafs, that’s when you prove yourself as a coach. Even with the record he had coming out of junior- it’s amazing."

Crocker, who earlier the season also "went up", calling his first NHL games for the Leafs, before eventually returning to the Marlies continued, "When he sat down and prepared his teams for those first games, I don’t think they had seen anything like it. It’s the level of attention to detail that he has and the commitment to the system that is employed throughout the Maple Leafs organization. I think that continues to be everything about the success that he has. Even when the lineup is then or maybe not as talented as it had been in the past, he still finds a way, and the reason he does is because he can take a team that is not the most highly talented team, and with good preparedness, they end up winning hockey games."

In the hockey mad town of Toronto where the players are under constant, intense scrutiny from a very knowledgeable fan base, various media members, in addition to social media, does Keefe, entrusted to tend the farm and nurture the Leafs' top prospects feel he is under the same blaring spotlight?

"Certainly not,” he chuckled. “We’re very fortunate to be in a world class city like Toronto, an NHL city and such a hockey hotbed, and to have all the resources of the Maple Leafs at our disposal. But we get to do our own thing and be under the radar a little bit and work with the players and develop the next wave of Maple Leafs. In terms of the pressure, we don’t actually don’t feel any of that. It’s a pleasure to coach this team and be a part of this organization. And to do it in the same city is extra special."

But enough about Keefe and his accomplishments. I wanted to get a deeper view of what he is like removed from the arena lights from someone other than himself, and fortunately, Crocker, with his unique vantage point, does exactly what he so artfully does game in and game out with his broadcasting- painting a picture that brings everything into perfect focus.

"First of all, he’s a lot of hockey, and I think you pretty much say that about most coaches. But he is really focused and dialed in and always thinking about his hockey team. When he gets away from that and is just the guy that he is, he is one of those who I would say is ‘undercover in the room.’ He likes a good joke and he likes kidding around with people."

Crocker continued his insight, "He’s also got an inquisitive nature about him. He’s always interested in things that are going on outside of hockey, because he doesn’t often get to spend time thinking about things outside of the game. He's generally curious and an investigative guy, so if he hears an idea, he’s thinking to himself, how does that make you better, what can you do to be better? I think in the beginning, he is a tough guy to get to know, but once you know him and enter into a circle with him where you are all working in the same direction, he’s the type of guy that there is no chance he abandons you."

For the present, Keefe is still property of the parent Toronto Maple Leafs and he and his mighty band of Marlies are about to defend their crown as the Calder Cup Playoffs get underway shortly. As for the future, unfortunately for Marlies fans, it's a certainty his time in the AHL is quickly coming to a close as he is front and center on the radar of future NHL coaches. When that day comes and he "abandons" the AHL for his first shot on top as a bench boss, his hockey career will have come full circle. From the Bolts, to the Bears, to the Big Show!

Competing With Carbs

By: John Sparenberg

jsheynow@gmail.com

It's noontime on Friday downtown in Rhode Island's capital city of Providence. Most folks in the area who have put in a morning's worth of hard word are scurrying about and probably thinking about what they are going to have for lunch, what they can do to avoid working overtime, and what they are going to be doing to relax over the upcoming weekend.

However, that is definitely not the case (except for the lunch part) for the Hershey Bears' players who are mulling around their dressing room in the Dunkin' Donuts Center after the unofficial end of their workout. Many of them are busy catching up on social media on their electronic devices or texting friends or loved ones. Some are getting their sticks ready game, but all are in various stages of dress after working up a slight sweat in the short morning skate prior to that evening's encounter with the Providence Bruins. This game will kick off a stretch of three games in less than 44 hours, all to be contested away from the comfy confines of their home arena, the Giant Center.

There's feisty forward Liam O'Brien lingering about minus his jersey and shoulder pads on one end of the style spectrum, and on the other end, there's goaltender Vitek Vanecek, nattily attired in stylish threads and matching shoes, accessorized by a sharp-looking overcoat, looking like he could step right out onto the downtown streets around and blend right in with any other office worker.  But he wastes no time giving away the fact that he's a superstitious hockey player by giving the shush sign to the team broadcaster Zack Fisch when Fisch informs him that he will be playing in his 100th AHL game in a few hours as he takes the crease for his club.

Fast forward about a half hour after the morning workout has ended. Emerging from the "Dunk" ice surface and rounding the corner is a well-conditioned Bear attired in the teams practice sweats, a right curved stick in hand, and dripping with sweat after obviously putting in some overtime work. I greet him and shake hands and prepare to start my interview, and we get started with the inquisition.  However, we don't talk about this player’s scoring prowess, if he is playing injured, or something along those lines. Instead we talk about the teams amazing turnaround from a dismal start to the season, his career path through the low minors, a winding road that eventually brought him to Chocolatetown, and his compete level. But this man is not a player-he’s Hershey Bears head coach Spencer Carbery, a former player who was never drafted by an NHL club, but carved out four solid seasons of pro hockey, including the last two spent with the Bears' then and current ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, before dipping his toes in the coaching pool.

After retirement, Carbery immediately became an assistant with the Stingrays and joined their head coach, former Bear Cail MacLean, behind the bench for a season before succeeding him in the head man role when he accepted an AHL coaching offer.

"Coaching in the ECHL, you have a lot of different stuff that you are dealing with that comes with running the entire hockey operations,” said Carbery, who is only 29, when asked about the differences between being the head coach in the ECHL and AHL. "At this level, there are a lot more resources, and there is a significant difference in ability and skill among the players,” he said, carefully choosing his words. “In this league, there is a lot more learning. They are young players, or prospects, that have a bright future ahead of them, or maybe have come from being the best player in major junior or the best college player in the nation, and now coming to the American Hockey League where it’s a difficult league and it’s a definite learning process. Guys think that they can just come in score right away, and it’s just not the case. For me personally, I love the development component of it; it’s so critical, and it happens every single day in the AHL. It also happens in the ECHL, but I think it's more in the AHL than the ECHL, and I think it's because of the age of some of the players. We don't get any 18-19 year old kids in the ECHL, we don't get that kid fresh out of junior on an NHL contract who was drafted 10th overall." 

Carbery cruises into position at
practice in Providence.

In Hershey, Carbery took over for Troy Mann who guided the club to a playoff berth in each of his first three seasons as coach, but failed to do so in his fourth and what turned out to be his last season in that role. In accepting the bench boss job in Hershey, Carbery did so knowing that he was taking over a team that was in transition.

Departures from the previous season included four of the their top five point producers with Chris Bourque, Wayne Simpson, Tyler Graovac, and Dustin Gazley moving on to other organizations or overseas. Travis Boyd graduated to full-time NHL status with the Washington Capitals, leaving Riley Barber as the only member of that fine fivesome returning to Chocolatetown.

Additionally, captain Garrett Mitchell and grinder Zach Sill also headed overseas, and goaltender Pheonix Copley graduated to an NHL job with the Caps as their backup to former Bear Braden Holtby, thus creating a bigger challenge for Carbery and his staff.

"We knew it was going to be a work in progress with the new staff. All of the coaches were not in the organization or with the team the previous year and hadn't seen many of the players. On top of that, we had a ton of new players and a tremendous turnover in personnel even for our veteran type guys,” said Carbery.

He continued, "For a few of them, it was their first time in the organization, first time in Hershey, getting used to each other, getting used to the coaches. So it took some time for us to get on the same page with our expectations and how we were going to play, practice, and prepare."

However, even with the realization that there would be some early bumps in the road, Carbery and company couldn't have envisioned all of the potholes encountered, including a five game losing streak to start the season, and the club unable to post better than a .500 record until game forty-three.

 "We obviously had a tough start to the year, but we never thought that even though we weren’t winning games, that we weren’t right there. Just a couple of tweaks, a bounce here or a read there, and those losses could have turned into wins. I think that’s what happened; we were right there, and we got a little bit of momentum, and we put a few wins together, and all of a sudden that belief in our room it just snowballed,”said Carbery, whose team went on a 17-game run in which they did not suffer a regulation loss around the midpoint of the season, and now find themselves well positioned for a return to the post-season.

Former Stingrays Carbery and Wellar.

Patrick Wellar, one of Carbery's assistants, and also a  former teammate in South Carolina where they  captured the Kelly Cup in 2009, said he considers  himself fortunate to be working with his friend, and that he could see the coaching qualities in Carbery when they were teammates, calling his boss a "spark plug player who did whatever it took to make himself an asset to his team.”

"Our relationship has been really good; we were great friends as teammates and we had a mutual respect for each other. I’m still green in the coaching game, but he’s been great to work with and I've learned a lot from him,” said Wellar, who may have had the best seat in the house when the Rays clinched their 2009 championship in the last minute of the third period, but it's highly unlikely that he was seated, as he was in the penalty box due to an infraction he had committed. "He's been very patient with this young group, and I don’t think you could have a better guy for this group with the patience that he’s shown and helping these guys stay focused."    

Getting back to the sweat thing, the reason that Carbery was perspiring when he and I started chatting was that he had just finished a mock game that he typically plays with his assistants and a few of the players after practices. Fisch had warned me when I had asked him about interviewing Carbery, saying, "He’s not like a lot of other coaches that leave the ice after practice; he stays out there for a while and skates with them.” I took that statement rather lightly, thinking he would just be leisurely skating around the ice conversing with a player or two. Much to my surprise, I witnessed a fast paced, and at times, intense session involving the players, the coach, as well as Wellar, and the other assistant coach, longtime NHL player Mike Eastwood.  

Carbery sees these scrimmages as another way to blur the line between management and the players, but he also has ulterior motives to stay out and engage with his charges whenever possible.

Carbery and Eastwood converge on one of their charges.

"We have a fun time and you get to know the guys a little more.  You get to have some competition, and it just helps overall in connecting with our guys. I think in a subtle way it shows our younger players how to compete and work hard, and it helps to show them that even though they might have the most talent or be the fastest guy, when you want to win and compete, you can overcome that. The other thing I like to show is that even though I’m now 38 years old and retired and have lost a couple of steps, not just one, that I can still compete,” Carbery chuckled.

Eastwood, who played for multiple Stanley Cup Champion coaches during his 13-year pro career, as well as John Paddock, who coached the Bears to the Bears to the 1988 Calder Cup, says that some of his coaches did engage in post-practice sessions like Carbery does, although it's highly unlikely they did so with the same intensity level.

"That’s something that Spence does, and he competes like hell,” said Eastwood, breaking into a smile that made it very apparent that he knows that his boss uses these occasions as a way to both satisfy and on some level relive the intense, competitive spirit he had during his playing days. Eastwood continued, “But you know what, it’s a lot of fun and I think the players enjoy it, and all of the coaches enjoy it as well. Guys that aren’t playing get to put in some extra work and they get to have a little fun while they do it. But make no mistake about it-- he competes his butt off, and that translates to the players. They see that and feed off that, and it resonates with them. They understand that Spence knows how hard you have to work and the dedication that you need to put into your game to make it better.”

A prime example of a player who works hard and has worked hard for everything he's achieved thus far in his pro career is Bears defenseman Tyler Lewington. Lewington, a 7th round pick of the Caps in 2013 NHL Entry Draft, who started his professional career in the ECHL with the Stingrays playing for Carbery in the 2015-16 season, has scratched and clawed his way to becoming an AHL regular with the Bears.  He also earned his first NHL recall this past December, making a solid account of himself and also netting a goal during the two-game stint in Washington, and also earned a subsequent recall late in March, but did not see any action before being sent back to Hershey.

"I was so proud, coming from Charleston, South Carolina and then to play in the National Hockey League. I talked to Tyler when he was going up, and I said to Lewy how crazy is it for you and me to think that when you came to me as a wet behind the ears from Medicine Hat to Charleston SC, and now for it to come full circle,”  said Carbery, reminiscing with a smile.

"It's not always a smooth path to get to play in the NHL. There are a lot of times where you start to doubt and ask yourself if your chance is ever going to come after year after year. You talk about how much he has put in and how hard he has worked and bided his time. He even confided in me that at times he even doubted himself and wondered if he would ever get that chance. This just goes to show you it’s not always the path that you envision, and it doesn’t always happen overnight, but if you stick with it and do the right things and put the time and effort in, good things will happen for you."  

That and a healthy dose of sweat.

Bears Tame Tigers

By: John Sparenberg

If the playoffs had started yesterday, the Hershey Bears would have faced the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, who had "soundly" beaten them in their previous two meetings, but now, after their taming of the Tigers at Giant Center last night, they now have to feel much better about their chances should that post-season scenario occur.

The conventional thinking in hockey is that the visiting team needs to survive the first ten minutes of a big game on foreign ice, limiting the damage during that time frame, before settling into their own game. But with the Sound Tigers being well rested, having been idle since last Sunday and arriving in Hershey last night just as the Bears were finishing up an overtime setback in a hard fought battle against the Toronto Marlies, the roles were reversed.

The Bears survived the first ten minutes unscathed thanks to outstanding goaltending from Ilya Samsonov, who made two glittering glove saves to keep Bridgeport off the board.  The home team took a 1-0 lead  just under the 10-minute wire when Garrett Pilon potted his 9th goal of the season, and his third in four games, cashing in on a rebound of a Shane Gersich shot at 9:31.

Aaron Ness, a former captain of the Sound Tigers, gave the Bears a 2-0 when his shot from the point caromed past goaltender Christopher Gibson with Pilon providing an effective screen.  Ness' goal, his 4th of the season and 3rd on the power play, was struck with John Stevens, the son of the former Bears coach of the same name serving a slashing sentence. 

The visitors started out the second period with an advantage thanks to a carryover Pilon penalty, but that opportunity was short circuited by a too many on the ice bench minor penalty, and the Bears pounced upon their prey on the subsequent power play when Riley Barber's rooftop wrister made it 3-0.

"They block shots really well on that team, especially on the power play, so I just knew from the previous power plays that I had to get it off quick and not put as much on it and try to place it on the far side. The D (along with Devante Smith-Pelly) were screening their goalie," said Barber.

Steve Bernier's layup goal from the doorstep into a virtual empty net spoiled any hopes Samsonov had of a shutout, but Barber matched that marker with a layup goal of his own, converting a pretty pass from linemate Mike Sgarbossa.

"They turned the puck over in the neutral zone and we transitioned fast, making it a two on one, and I just tried to go as fast as I could to the back post.  He made an unbelievable play. Those are the easy ones," said Barber, whose multi-goal effort second period effort marked the fourth time this season he has accomplished that feat.

Unselfishly, Barber gave up a quality chance to rack up a hat trick later in period, electing instead to return the favor by dishing off to Sgarbossa who converting his own layup for his 27th goal of the season.

"The D went down early, so I knew if I could wait them out, I could get it over across the side. It was a mix of both," said Barber when asked if it was just instincts that guided him or the urge to payback his linemate. 

The Sound Tigers had a couple of more chances in the final frame to cut into their deficit, with the best being a breakaway attempt by Travis St. Denis thirty seconds in, but Samsonov stared down that attempt and every other Sound Tigers salvo on this evening and finished his night with 18 saves in backstopping the Bears to their 5-1 victory. 

"On those power plays they had earlier, those one timers from the flank, they may not seem that difficult, but when guys have elite shots and they're setting up for the one timers those are tough saves. He's gotta get over there, and they probably have 4 or 5 of those looks alone," said Bears bench boss Spencer Carbery of Samsonov's work. "Then he made a couple of saves when we turned the puck over in front of our net, and he had to be really sharp there. He wasn't tested a lot, but that's what you need. There are going to be breakdowns and things that happen. Their breakaway is another example where he did a really good job tonight making sure he's sharp in the limited chances that he's seeing."

Marlies Bizarrely Beat Bears

By: John Sparenberg

As we enter the final leg of the regular season in The American Hockey League, you could expect a game like Friday night's bizarre game between the Hershey Bears and Toronto Marlies at Giant Center that ended with the Marlies prevailing in overtime, That is, you could expect it if it were the third game of a 3-in-3 or Friday the 13th, but it was neither.

The visitors controlled the play in the first period by a wide margin, and they also doubled up the home club on the shot board, 13-6, with Hershey's sixth shot launched 190 feet from the Toronto goal by Aaron Ness. However, that missed it's intended target Riley Barber but found it's way on Toronto netminder Michael Hutchinson. Hutchinson's counterpart in the Hershey crease, Vitek Vanacek was razor sharp in the frame, quickly shifting for left-to-right to deny a partial 2-on-1 bid by Sam Jardine only 1:33 into the contest, and later brilliantly blocking away a shot by Chris Mueller.

The Bears quickly countered and tied it just over a minute later when outstanding defense led to offensive pay dirt.  Defenseman Tyler Lewington and Aaron Ness started the sequence in their own zone when they combined to thwart Nicholas Baptiste's breakaway attempt. Lewington then gathered in the puck and hit Garrett Pilon in the neutral zone. Pilon then proceeded to cross the blueline and  totally undress Vincent LoVerde  with some fancy before dishing off to Jayson Megna, whose one-time fade away shot from the left faceoff circled eluded Hutchinson, despite a desperate lunging attempt to stop the blast.

Jeremy Bracco, with another power play strike, gave the Marlies another lead, but the Bears countered to tie the game again when Nathan Walker lit the lamp. Walker started the play by connection with a long outlet pass to Devante Pelly-Smith that originated from his own zone,. Smith then banked a pass to Megna who centered to Walker who redirected it home while fighting off a defender in the slot.

A turnover by Ryan Sproul, who played junior hockey for Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe, a former Bears player, resulted in a goal by Michael Carcone, and the Marlies followed that one up less than a minute later with a 4-on-4 goal by Jordan Subban.  His shot was from the doorstep beat Vanacek, although he got a piece of it with his skate on what would have been a spectacular stop.

Early in third period, the Marlies looked like they were about to put the nail in the Bears' coffin when Pierre Engvall had a golden opportunity from close range, but Vanacek, in razor-like fashion kicked it out with his right pad. While the save undoubtedly was a dandy, it seemed like it might turn out to be  inconsequential as the Bears still faced a two-goal deficit midway through the period. 

Later though, Engvall's hooking infraction would factor mightily into the Bears' comeback. The Chocolate and White failed to convert on the power play and squandered away the opportunity without registering a shot on net. However, just as the power play was expiring, Walker slapped the puck in the direction of the net from the wing in what appeared to be more out of frustration than anything else, but Pilon was able to redirect it by Hutchinson.

Ninety-one seconds after Pilon's potting, the Bears tied the game at 4-4 when LoVerde had what could be politely called a "bad" shift. After fumbling the puck in the neutral zone, LoVerde was sent on his backside by a body check courtesy of Walker. After eventually retreating into his own zone, LoVerde controlled the puck and looked like he would safely exit the Marlies defensive zone. Not so fast though.  An ill-advised pass to a teammate was intercepted by Smith-Pelly, who fired a shot on net that a diving Loverde deflected, right into his own net. 

Megna had the game on his stick when he gathered in a turnover from a Toronto defense who was guess who, that's right, LoVerde but he sailed the disc wide left of an open target to send the game to overtime, where Mueller mercifully ended the game on a power play tally. 

"Our 5-on-5 play left a lot to be desired. A lot of people were out of our lineup, particularly on defense. Lately, we've been doing good things and just over time our team wears down and makes some big mistakes at bad times.  I think fatigue is a factor due to our depth and a lot of special teams play. I didn't hate our third period.  We gave up a power play goal and then had an unlucky bounce.  Then of course we got lucky on the open net that they missed. It's just way things are right now for our team right now. Until we get our team back, it's gonna look ugly," said Keefe in a classic understatement summing up this encounter.

Bears Burst By T-Birds

By: John Sparenberg

For 37-plus minutes, the Springfield Thunderbirds dodged a storm from the Hershey Bears on Wednesday night at Giant Center in Chocolatetown, but the Bears then struck for four unanswered goals in just under 12 minutes and then hung on for a 5-3 win.

After T-Bird goals from Sebastian Repo and Jean-Sebastien Dea, Repo on an open net turnover by goaltender Ilya Samsonov and Dea on a breakaway, Hershey started their four  goal run on a goal by Ryan Sproul at 17:18. Sproul's strike was assisted by Nathan Walker, and Jayson Megna, who won three successive offensive zone draws on the shift to allow for the goal.

Just over a minute later, Devante Smith-Pelly tied the game at 2-2 when from the doorstep, he guided a Mike Sgarbossa pass behind Springfield netminder Chris Driedger. Smith-Pelly, in his second game on home ice for the Bears, collected his first marker at the venue, and now has four goals in his last two games.

Sgarbossa himself lit the lamp exactly seven minutes into the third frame, adding another goal to his career high, which reached 25 with his tally. Sgarbossa's goal came on a nifty pass from "nimble" Aaron Ness, the Bears' leading point producer from the blueline. Ness, after taking a cross-point pass from his partner Tyler Lewington, swiftly skated down the left wing side and in the process drew Driedger out of his net to play the potential shot, but the crafty Minnesotan passed on the opportunity before passing to Sgarbossa sneaking in undetected through the back door.

Riley Barber had a frustrating evening in the shooting department on this evening, missing numerous quality scoring chances, that were either wide of the target, stopped by Driedger, or rang off the iron, but he contributed in a mighty way on what turned out to be the game-winning goal by Jayson Megna at 9:10. Barber, with dogged determination on the fore-check, stole the puck away from a Springfield defender and then found Megna who received the pass in full flight. Megna then proceeded to cruise into the slot and dented the twin by buzzing a wrist shot by the blocker of Driedger for his 16th goal of the season, and his third in three games.

Bobby Farnham's breakaway goal then got the visitors within a goal, but the Bears survived a late Springfield power play, and Sgarbossa scored into an empty net at 19:53 to finish off the T-Birds.






 ,.  ata nHershey Bears Springfield Thunderbirds at Giant Center.

Ryan Sproull, Mike Sgarbossa, Devante Smith-Pelly and and former Jayson Megna.