Hershey Back Home After Weekend Split With Charlotte

HERSHEY, Pa. - Hershey’s first road trip of the season is in the books. The Bears traveled to Charlotte for back-to-back games against one of their Atlantic Division foes.

In Friday night’s game, Alexsai Protos tallied his first goal of the season early in the first period, but a pair of goals from Alexander True (who is second in the league in points scored behind Springfield’s rookie defenseman, Scott Perunovich) put the Checkers in front by the end of the first period. In the second, Hershey regained the lead after back-to-back powerplay goals from Mike Sgarbossa and Garret Pilon. Former Lehigh Valley Phantom forward, Mike Vecchione, recorded assists on both PP goals. But Charlotte responded late in the second period to tie the game. In the third, it was all Charlotte as former Hershey defenseman, Connor Carrick, assisted on Max McCormick’s game-winner. Matt Kiersted added an empty net goal for the Checkers. Phoenix Copley stopped 15 of 19 shots in the loss. The Bears went 4-for-4 on the PK and were 2-for-6 on the PP.

Saturday’s game saw True on the scoresheet once again with the primary assist on Logan Hutsko’s goal early in the second. The Checkers remained in the lead until just past the midway point of the third when Pilon tied the game with his third goal of the young season. Then in overtime, Lucas Johansen scored from the center-point position for the game winner. Johansen, who has had numerous set-backs in his career, now has two goals in four games this season. Hershey was 3-for-3 on the PK and 0-for-3 on the PP. Zach Fucale picked up his second win of the season in as many starts by stopping 27 of 28 shots. The victory marked the 100th professional victory for Fucale who recorded 61 in the ECHL and 39 in the AHL.

Top Three Takeaways

Miscues

Once again penalties and puck-possession hit the top-3 story lines from the weekend. Hershey had eight penalties this weekend, many of which were avoidable. Hershey’s inability to clear the puck from the zone and ill-advised passing attempts have led to multiple scoring opportunities for Charlotte and Lehigh Valley so far this season.

Clearly it is early in the season and the Bears are in better shape than they were at this time in previous seasons, but Allen is not one to be happy with those small victories in light of the on-ice errors. After last Sunday's victory he said, "It's early in the season...make no mistake, we have a lot to work on." One can bet that correctable mistakes will be addressed.

D-Problem

It’s never a good look to be the defensive pairing on the ice for the all of the even strength goals scored against in a night, but it is even worse when it’s the pair that was on the ice for four of the five even-strength goals in a weekend, it’s a bit glaring. Such is the case for Teddy Geisser and Dylan McIlrath.

Obviously this pairing has not played together prior to this year, but for this team to be successful, Allen needs to find combinations that work well in front of his two netminders. Geisser and McIlrath were a team-worst -3 on the weekend along with forwards Shane Gersich and Beck Malenstyn (see below).

On the bright side, it was great to see Lucas Johansen score the overtime winner Saturday.

Bottom Line?

After going 2-0 on opening weekend at home, Allen said it was on him to “try and make sure we get the right guys out against the opposition’s top players.”

In Charlotte, the Gersich line definitely struggled against True’s line on Friday night, as they were on the ice for the first two Charlotte goals. But, True who registered two goals and two assists on the weekend for the Checkers, is a game-changer. Through four games this season, the former San Jose Barracuda has four goals and three assists for a 1.75 points per game average - tied for third in the AHL in scoring with seven points entering Thursday's games.

So while Gersich and Malenstyn both went -3 on the weekend, perhaps those numbers are a bit skewed. Still, Hershey needs to find an answer for lines that can score any time they are on the ice.

Up Next

The Bears returned home for a mid-week matchup against the Syracuse Crunch Wednesday night, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Matt Moulson. However, the Crunch battled back on a second period goal from Jimmy Huntington and a game-tying third period tally from Gabriel Dumount to force overtime before eventually winning the game in the final seconds of the five-minute, 3-on-3 session on a goal from Charles Hudon.

Remaining schedule this week is a two-game home set against the Cleveland Monsters.

Saturday, October 30: Cleveland at Hershey, 7:00 p.m. ETSunday, October 31: Cleveland at Hershey, 5:00 p.m. ET