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.
Showing posts with label Chris McCarthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris McCarthy. Show all posts
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Saturday, April 20, 2019
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.
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).
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. |
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).
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