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.