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).

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.

Bruins Best Bears in Shootout

By: John Sparenberg

It was anything but the "Battle of the Century on Friday night in Providence as the Hershey Bears and Providence Bruins battled at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, but it id turn out to be quite an interesting battle, one that saw the Bears and their all-star netminder, Vitek Vanacek, who reached the century mark by appearing in his 100th AHL game, fall to the Bruins in a shootout by a 3-2 score.

The Bears started the game firing on all cylinders and had numerous scoring chances thwarted by the Bruins' outstanding netminder Zane McIntyre. However the Bears eventually found pay dirt late in the frame when Riley Barber dented the twine. Barber's goal elevated his total for the season to 27 and eclipsing his previous career high of 26 set in the 2015-2016 season, which was his first in the American Hockey League.

Barber's goal was not a solo effort, but a true team one that took the collective effort of the entire on-ice unit, and actually started in the defensive zone where Tyler Lewington won a battle behind his own net before the puck eventually found it's way to the Bears goal crease where Lewington emerged from a scramble to lug it into the Providence zone, leading an odd man rush. That rush was stalled along the boards, but Lewington won another board battle, this one against former Bears teammate Paul Carey. From there, Barber found defenseman Aaron Ness at the point, and Ness circumvented the Bruins defense, finding his way behind their net before dishing a nifty backhand pass to Barber. Not to be overlooked on the play was Hershey forward Mike Sgarbossa, who never touched the puck in the sequence, but played a pivotal role by covering the point for Lewington, allowing him to continue his mission.

After failing on two power plays in the first frame, the third time proved to be the charm for the hometown Bruins, when their captain Jordan Szwarz seized a rebound, and from a prone position, pushed the disc into the cage to tie the game at 1-1 with Connor Hobbs watching helplessly from the penalty box serving a very questionable interference infraction.

Later in the stanza, a miscalculation by Bears defenseman Ryan Sproul, who inadvertently shot the puck into the Bears bench area, where it struck the skates of his partner Lucas Johansen gave the Bruins another power play and they capitalized on the gift with another extra man strike, with Carey lighting the lamp to give them a 2-1 lead at 17:17.

Seconds before his goal, Carey himself did the Bears a favor, inadvertently clearing the zone himself sending an errant pass out of the zone. However, defenseman Connor Clifton corralled it and led the charge into the Bears zone. Upon gaining the zone, Clifton dance around Lewington, and put a shot on net that was stopped, and Lewington gathered the puck and attempted to backhand it out of the zone, but it was intercepted Karson Kuhlman, who quickly passed to Clifton, who then feathered a pass through the five hole of Lewington and right onto the stick of Carey who stashed it home.

"Our first period was excellent, one of the best periods we've played in the last little bit", said Bears bench boss, Spencer Carbery. "The second was different though. We got away from that and started getting a little careless with pucks, and the momentum changed, and then obviously they got those two power play goals. But we kept pressing in the third and found the equalizer to get the game into overtime. Certainly we would have liked the extra point, but we'll take it and move on to tomorrow."

The Bruins maintained their lead until the 15th minute of the third period, when Johansen brewed up the game-tying goal by backhanding a shot from the left faceoff circle and right on the Dunkin' Donuts logo.

Vanacek finished the evening with 29 saves, and also stopped the first five shootout attempts he faced before Anton Blidh beat him to the blocker side for the decisive goal.

"Our special teams are in a bad spot right now, both the PK and the power play, and we just gotta get it sorted out", said Carbery. "Sometimes, you go through these stretches where nothing will go right on the PK, and the power play, maybe a little bit of urgency is lacking at times and maybe we are a bit too casual, but we have to get those right. You look at the gamesheet tonight, they get two on the power play and we get zero and it's a 2-2 game, that's why the game went to overtime."