Bears Come Back From 3-1 Deficit To Defeat First-place​ Hartford

Bears come back from 3-1 deficit to defeat first-place​ Hartford

The Hershey Bears came into play Saturday night, coming off a rough road trip to Charlotte earlier in the week, dropping both games to the Checkers. They looked to take advantage of some home cooking with a Saturday night tilt against the division-leading Wolf Pack.

In the opening period of play, the Chocolate and White got off to an ideal start. With Beck Malenstyn sniping one top shelf past Hartford’s Adam Huska, to give the Bears the early 1-0 lead. In the later stages of the first frame, things started to sour for the Bears. Hartford was able to score three goals in just under five minutes, taking a 3-1 lead over Hershey into the first intermission.

Head Coach Spencer Carbery went on record postgame, saying that a lot of the first period struggles were caused by “uncharacteristic stuff” and “some really really easy individual reads” that the guys in the brown jerseys weren’t picking up on.

The Bears remained resilient in this one again. Coming out of the gate strong, the Bears were able to get back into the game. Garrett Pilon scored 30 seconds into the frame. With a little over three minutes to play in the second, Shane Gersich scored to tie the game at three apiece. One of the other big keys to the turnaround was the rebound by goaltender Pheonix Copley, who came up with some clutch saves in the middle frame to keep the equalizer in reach.

“Yeah the one save on the back door was a huge save because that would go to 4-2, and that can really take the wind out of your sails right there” Carbery mentioned. “[Copley] made some other really big saves for us in the second and third to keep it at 3-2, and we’re able to tie it up and then take the lead.”

The final period of play was another strong one for the Bears, but it did warrant an equally strong response from Hartford. After Tyler Lewington pocketed his first goal of the season to take a 4-3 lead, Hartford’s Vitali Kravtsov scored just over a minute and a half later to tie the game back up at four, and eventually force overtime.

Speaking of Tyler Lewington, he became the most unlikely overtime hero with a snipe off of an amazing feed from Christian Djoos, that ended the game and won it for the Chocolate and White. This 5-4 win against the Wolf Pack brings the Bears within two points from the first-place team, which happens to be Hartford.

Lewington’s goals were his first two of the season, and they could not have been any bigger. As for Djoos, his primary assist on the OT winner is his 100th point as a member of the Hershey Bears.

Hershey looks to keep the home cooking going, as they play their final home game of the month of January tommorow night against the Rochester Americans.

Bears Strong Second Period Gives Them The Edge In Allentown.

Bears strong second period gives them the edge in Allentown.

The Chocolate and White looked to get back to their winning ways Sunday afternoon as they took on their other Keystone state rival, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The first period of play was rather lackluster for the rival Phantoms, but not so much for the visiting Bears. Hershey did everything offensively but couldn’t seem to put one behind Phantoms goaltender, Alex Lyon, through twenty minutes of play. The first ended with no score on the board, but Hershey was able to register 15 shots on goal, versus six for Lehigh Valley.

Hershey dominated once again in the second period of play, but this time they got some goals in the net. The Bears tallied three goals in the middle stanza, heading into the third and final period up 3-0. The goals came from Joe Snively, Garrett Pilon, and Brian Pinho. Brian getting his goal only five seconds before the buzzer.

The Bears achieved their three second period goals by throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the net and registering 16 more shots on goal in the second period of play. Not only did they have an offensive onslaught through the first 40 minutes, defensively the Chocolate and White would stay rock solid. Only allowing four shots on goal through this period.

Into the third frame, the Bears’ defensive stand would continue. One man leading that charge was a guy not seen at all in Hershey until this point in the season, goaltender Parker Milner. He was called up earlier in the weekend from the ECHL affiliates, the South Carolina Stingrays in place of the injured Pheonix Copley. After Vitek Vanecek went back-to-back to start the weekend, Milner would get the call in this one. Milner was sensational in this contest, stopping all 19 shots thrown his way, en route to his first career American Hockey League shutout. 

The Chocolate and White have ended 2019 on a high note. Taking two games out of this 3-in-3, and ten out of eleven games overall in December. The Bears will head into 2020 in third place in the Atlantic Division.

The Bears are in action next Friday, January, 3rd as they head on up 81 to meet with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Mohegan Sun Arena.

From all of us at Chocolate Hockey, have a safe and happy New Year!

Moulson Mounts The Comeback, As Hershey Takes Its 8th In A Row.

Moulson mounts the comeback, as Hershey takes its 8th in a row.

The Bears looked to once again continue their dominant play, as they would seek their eighth win in a row on Sunday afternoon.

After coming out flat against the Thunderbirds in last night’s contest, the Chocolate and White would look to improve their start tonight, looking to get the offense started early.

Despite strong words from head coach Spencer Carbery last night after the game about how they came out, the Bears once came out flat through the first two periods of play. Struggling in their defensive zone, and not being able to generate many “grade A” chances on Springfield’s goaltender, Philippe Desrosiers.

After two goals in the second from the Thunderbirds, the Bears needed a rally to come back and win their eighth game.

This is where the Matt Moulson show would begin. Just two and a half minutes into the third period, Moulson snapped a wrist shot past Desrosiers to bring the Chocolate and White within one. Just over four minutes later, while on the power play, Moulson hit pay dirt once again, letting another wrist shot go from in between the dots and top-shelf, to tie the game at two apiece.

Three minutes after that, Moulson would set up a beautiful stretch pass to Philippe Maillet, giving him a breakaway chance that he would cash in on, to give the Bears a 3-2 lead.

“You need guys like Matt Moulson to step up and go, hop on my back and let’s go,” said head coach Carbery said postgame when talking in regards to Moulson’s leadership. “It’s just a big moment where big players step up, and that’s exactly what he did.”

Hershey clamped down defensively in the final moments of the game, getting key stops from goaltender Pheonix Copley, out working and outmuscling the Thunderbirds, to earn their eighth straight victory. Sending home Bears faithful happy for the holidays.

The Chocolate and White will be in action next Friday night in Utica, New York, as they take on the Comets, in their first road game since December, 6th vs. Lehigh Valley.

From all of us here at Chocolate Hockey, have a Merry Christmas.

Hershey’s Goalie Situation Becoming Clearer With Return Of Copley, Vanecek

Hershey’s goalie situation becoming clearer with return of Copley, Vanecek

The Hershey Bears’ number one and two goaltenders returned to the ice earlier this week as Vitek Vanecek and Pheonix Copley were both cleared for full practice with the Chocolate and White.

Both netminders were injured in training camp and have yet to see any regular season action this season. “Certainly I’ve got a month of extra rest,” said Copley after practice Tuesday. “I’m excited to get going. Obviously, you want to be going at the start of the season. I’m just that much more excited.”

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Questions Still Loom Around Hershey Bears Goaltending Situation

Questions still loom around Hershey Bears goaltending situation

To any outsider, Saturday’s 7-2 loss to Lehigh Valley could be viewed as a “rocky start” to the season, but when you look between the lines, the loss isn’t as bad as it might seem.

“I take responsibility for those last two goals,” said head coach Troy Mann after Tuesday’s practice. “Once [Greg] Carey made it 5-2, I should have shut that game down. But you’re always thinking, and you know we’ve worked on the five on six, six on five a little bit last week. I said ‘You know what, let’s maybe work on our six on five for the last two minutes of the game.’ Unfortunately, it didn’t play out very well because we lost a draw and next thing you know, five seconds later it’s in the back of our net. Then it snowballed with another goal.

“That’s how it ended up being 7-2, but realistically it was 4-2 with a little two minutes left in the game and we’ve addressed that with the players.”

Hershey is still trying to find that identity a new team always has, even though there are over a dozen returning players this season. “We’re going to pound the video from that first game all week here. We did some video this morning showing our offensive zone concepts. Not only is it a refresher for the 13 or 14 returning players, but it gets the new guys knowing how we want to play and how we want to build our team identity.”

Juggling a talented blue line

Currently, the Bears have eight defensemen on their roster. Half of those eight players are rookies this season. That puts Mann in a tough position to manage a line-up, as at least two rookies will have to be scratched every few games to start the season. For Connor Hobbs, it was his turn to get scratched to start the season. “We have a plan in place starting early,” said Mann. “Hobbsy knew three days before the opening that he was the first guy. Had nothing to do his play, we just wanted to go with the three left, three right match-up. He was the first rookie to sit. There will be another rookie sit Saturday, and another rookie Sunday and then we’ll reassess going into the three in threes.”

Veterans won’t be exempt from being scratched either. Hubert Labrie could find himself in a suit upstairs for a couple of games this season. “A guy like Hubie Labrie who was signed here and was under the understanding coming in that we were going to have three, pretty good rookie defensemen that were going to have to get their ice time. There’s going to be some growing pains with them. He’ll probably take his turn as well. Once we get deeper in the season obviously top six will play in that seventh and potentially eighth guy will have to battle for ice time.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us in that area, there’s no doubt about it.”

Goaltending still a question mark

Both Pheonix Copley and Vitek Vanecek were scratched for the Bears season opener, and it doesn’t look like we’ll see them this weekend either. “We’re looking to get an update here,” said Mann on Tuesday. “Doctors here right now and that’s my next move to go meet with him. Both goalies are to be determined in terms of their status.”

The team confirmed Thursday that both Copley’s status and Vanecek’s status are week-to-week with lower-body injuries and are not expected to play this weekend. The two were working on the ice after the team photo shoot on Tuesday but were not present for the full team practice. Parker Milner and Adam Carlson will man Hershey’s nets for now.

“It’s a very difficult time right now for us – obviously both our number one and number two are out and hopefully we get one of those guys or even both back sooner rather than later.”

No reasons to be disappointed in Vanecek’s first season in Hershey

At only 21-years-old, Vitek Vanecek had one of the best seasons a goalie could have at his age in the AHL. The young netminder went 18-10-7 in the regular season with five shutouts, despite a very rough month at the end of December through the end of January, where he went 0-5-2.

“I’ve said this to a number of people, you take out four weeks of his season, his numbers are excellent,” said head coach Troy Mann after the Bears game seven loss. “It’s unfortunate we played Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre for that stretch of hockey late-December and early-January.”

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Pheonix Copley to Miss Game Five with Lower Body Injury

When goaltender Pheonix Copley was injured in game four of the Atlantic Divison Finals Friday night in Providence, both Bears players and fans alike held their breath. Copley had been stellar in the first two games on the road in the series, but now the Chocolate and White turn to Vitek Vanecek as Copley will miss game five due to his injury.

Vanecek, who has not allowed a goal in his last 104 minutes played, will get the nod on Sunday. The 21-year-old netminder faced nine shots after replacing Copley with only 42 seconds remaining in the second period.

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