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.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Thursday, November 28, 2019
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 100th 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.
Friday, October 11, 2019
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."
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."
Sunday, April 21, 2019
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.
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.
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).
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
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.
"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.
"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?
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 |
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 |
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?
Sunday, April 14, 2019
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.
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.
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