The Hershey Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Rivalry Has Reached a New Level

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Wilkes-Barre, PA – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forward Tom Sestito (right) reacts to having a penalty called on him after hitting Garrett Mitchell from behind in game four of the Atlantic Division finals Monday night (Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey)

Mondays are normally the worst day of the week, but the night of Monday, May 10 was definitely a fun one.

Prior to Game 4 of the Hershey Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Atlantic Division Finals, the two teams had what we are calling The Tea Party at The Red Line during warm-ups. It all started after Tom Sestito was looking to start trouble skating up and down the red line in warm-ups, going from Chris Bourque to Zach Sill, then Liam O’Brien, who he has some past history with.

After a fight in March between O’Brien and Sestito, O’Brien celebrated the fight with a “rock on” to the crowd. The two had not had an interaction until tonight.

The first four games have been chippy so far, between O’Brien’s hit that caused him to get a suspension, to former Bears captain Steve Oleksy and current Bears captain Garrett Mitchell going at it all series. Game four was no different.

Garrett Mitchell (right) hits Steve Oleksy after Tom Sestito slashed a Hershey Bear and Oleksy slashed a Bear in game four of the Atlantic Division Finals Monday night

Garrett Mitchell (right) hits Steve Oleksy after Tom Sestito slashed a Hershey Bear and Oleksy slashed a Bear in game four of the Atlantic Division Finals Monday night

During the game, Sestito took an interference penalty after hitting Ryan Stanton with a high elbow during the second period. At the end of the third period as the two teams headed to OT, Sestito speared a Bears player. No penalty was given for the spear, but Mitchell went after Oleksy after Oleksy delivered a slash. Both of those players sat for two minutes to start overtime.

After the Penguins won in overtime after Madison Bowey was called for a holding on the penalty kill, the chirping left the ice and moved to social media.

It all started with Sestito’s postgame comments regarding the pre-game get-together.

Sestito’s direct quote:

“To be honest, I don’t even know what happened. I just know O’Brien is coming – chirping – and I’m just letting him know I’m there. The guy’s a coward. Uhhhh. You know, he runs a big game when I’m not here. And then he just doesn’t…he just doesn’t, doesn’t step up to the bell. You know, I had respect for him, but [now] I-I have zero respect for that guy.

After our Retweet, O’Brien responded on Twitter:

Sestito then tweeted back to Liam, with a screenshot from their fight in March (which Sestito had to Google, and also took a screenshot of much earlier with the time stamp on the tweet at 11:48 PM and the time stamp on the screenshot at 11:50 AM):

O’Brien fires back with one of the wittiest tweets I have ever seen:

And finally Sestito gives his thoughts (NSFW):

OPINION TIME:

The Bears should not give Sestito the time of day. Hershey can beat Wilkes-Barre, but they need to use all their willpower to ignore him. Once you begin to focus on him, you take your focus off of the task at hand. Let him skate face first into the glass, let him get chirped by Bears fans, let him throw pucks into the crowd with his cell phone number on it to girls, only to have them tossed back. He is hockey’s version of an internet troll. He will need a bigger bait to catch the Bears, and the Chocolate and White should be smart enough to not bite.

Let Tom be Tom: a troll.

OPINION TIME OVER.

This rivalry hasn’t been this hot since the Bears and Penguins represented the Eastern Conference in five straight Calder Cup Finals between 2006 and 2010. Forget the days of Louis Robitaille and Dennis Bonvie, we’ve got ourselves a new match-up in O’Brien and Sestito.

The Bears and Penguins face off again in game five Wednesday night at Giant Center. Let’s just hope there’s a table at center ice to enjoy the tea this time.

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