The penultimate game of the regular season: Hershey Bears on the road versus Manchester Monarchs.
There were four goals to talk about during the first period; unfortunately only one of them belonged to the Bears. Richard Clune started off the night by deflecting the puck off of his foot. Ryan Potulny tied it up with yet another power play goal from him. He’s pretty good at those. But Monarchs scored two more times on Daren Machesney. A shorthanded goal and a five-hole goal made it 3-1 Monarchs after twenty minutes.
The former Captain and current Captain take a ceremonial face-off before the game.
So, this is it. We’re down to the final weekend of the regular season. First up: the Portland Pirates and the familiar faces of Ashton Rome and the Mayor of Chocolatetown, Dean Arsene. Here we go: Kyle Greentree started off the scoring with a shorthanded tally halfway through the first period. But the Pirates tied it up by the end of twenty minutes by scoring on a heavily screened Daren Machesney.
How about a nice picture of Coco since I didn’t have many other bright spots to feature. Photo by Kyle Mace.
The Bears didn’t close out the last of their home games on an up beat, but in a couple weeks it will be a brand new season… playoff season. It started with a loss on Friday night versus the baby Pens on their home ice. Saturday night at home ended with another loss. They were able to salvage one point in a shootout. Sunday night was Team Awards Night. That was really the only bright spot of the weekend as Sunday ended with yet another loss. The playoffs are right around the corner and this is not the time to go on a losing streak. The Bears need healthy players now, or this may be a short post season.
Joel Rechlicz accepts his award for Man of the Year
Every year the Bears have their annual awards ceremony before the final game of the season. Nine awards in total were given. The list of winners is as follows:
The outcome of Mark French’s frustration (All photos by Kyle Mace)
Dany Sabourin has been living by the motto “No Rest” these past couple of weeks. Out of the last 13 Bears game Sabourin has started 12 of them. The one he didn’t start, he was backing up Braden Holtby in Washington. After all of the games and travel for Mr. Sabourin, he might need some rest after tonight’s game. It wasn’t a busy game, but one that felt like it was going to go on forever. Connecticut only had 26 shots on the night, but one got through. The one that got through would be the only puck that saw the back of the net as Hershey would lose, 1-0.
Jean-Francois Jacques scores in the shootout to give the Crunch the extra point in the standing (Photo by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears are supposed to feed players to the parent club Washington Capitals, but on Saturday night it was the Bears fans who got to taste the “Cheese” again. Former Bears goaltender Daren Machesney returned to Hershey from South Carolina, playing his first game as a Bear since the 08-9 season. Dany Sabourin was called up to Washington, to back up the other Bears goaltender Braden Holtby, as the Caps finished the regular season against the Rangers. Machesney played well, but the Bears only picked up one point against Syracuse in a 3-2 shootout loss.
Photo by Anthony Fabrikant/AFC Media.
As the season winds down, the Bears take to the ice to try and improve their position in the standings. No better chance to achieve this than to take down the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
The first period left much to be desired from the Bears. Despite three power play chances, the Bears only mustered up four shots on goal. To make matters worse, the Penguins scored late in the period, just eight seconds into a power play.
Ryan Potulny picture from our Instagram.
Another eventful week in the books for us. Last Wednesday night we had our first ever viewing party. We had quite a few people come out to Fire Alley to watch the game and help us raise some money. It also helped that the Bears won against Binghamton extending the winning streak to seven. Sadly, that streak came to an end on Saturday against St. Johns. Fortunately the Bears got a little help from other losses that night and clinched a playoff spot. Thanks in part to an effort from Ryan Potulny that earned him AHL Player of the week honors, the Bears came back from a deficit on Sunday against Binghamton. That effort proved to fall just a little short when the Bears lost in 13 rounds of shootout. Before you move on to the rest of the links from around the web, check out the pictures from autograph night taken by Kyle.
After a two week hiatus due to the planing of our first ever Hershey Bears viewing party, Snapshots is back! This time we give you a special edition.
An annual tradition continued at the last home stand. The Hershey Bears players participated in an autograph session after their shootout win over the Charlotte Checkers. But enough of me talking, let’s get on with the show!!
This past Wednesday night was a special one for Sweetest Hockey as it was our first ever Hershey Bears viewing party! This was all in conjunction with the Hershey Bears Wives, Hershey Bears Booster Club, abc27, The Old Barn Hockey Show, and Fire Alley with the proceeds from a raffle going to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Pennsylvania.