Hershey Bears: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly 12/11/19

HERSHEY, Pa. -- For the first time this season, the Hershey Bears swept the weekend and picked up all six points possible with a pair of wins over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and a Sunday evening thriller over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

The Good

Friday night in Allentown, the Bears swung momentum entirely in their favor after killing off a 1:50 5-on-3 and rode Joe Snively’s 2nd period marker to a 2-1 victory.

The rematch on Saturday turned into a penalty-riddled affair after the Phantoms, unhappy with Beck Malenstyn’s late-game hit on Mark Friedman Friday night got under the skin of Kale Kessy who said he’d always answer the bell. Kessy’s first dancing partner of the evening was Greg Carey, but the heavyweight fight came early in the third period after Kurtis Gabriel threw down a challenge before the puck even dropped (More from Kessy later this week). Once the dust settled, the Bears emerged victorious, 1-0 on Mike Sgarbossa’s second period goal.

Sunday, the Bears roared back from a 2-0 first period deficit to record a 3-2 OT victory over the Penguins. Matt Moulson and Christian Djoos both scored in the third period paving the way for Snively’s second game-winner of the weekend in the extra frame.

“It’s a huge weekend for us and I’m not saying that lightly,” said Spencer Carbery. “We’ve been sputtering a bit at times early in the year, and we needed to get on a run. We needed to string some, not only good performances, but get results. At some point you’ve got to turn that...this was a huge step in that direction. I don’t think you ever expect to get six points out of a three-in-three, but we dug in and really character win today to get that third win this weekend.”

The Bad

On the weekend, the Bears recorded 67 penalty minutes. Of those, 31 belonged to Kale Kessy in Saturday night’s game.

But the silver lining in the mess was Hershey’s PK killing all 13 power plays including a pair of extended 5-on-3s this weekend.

Sunday night they did so without the services of PK specialist, Beck Malenstyn, who left Saturday night’s game early due to an undisclosed upper body injury.

On Sunday, the AHL handed down a three-game suspension to Malenstyn for Friday night’s hit on Mark Friedman. Freidman had to be assisted off the ice after taking an elbow to the head in front of the Hershey bench in the third period. In addition to losing Malenstyn, the Bears also were without Erik Burgdoerfer who left Saturday night’s game early.

“Hard fought game - I give them a lot of credit," Carbery said of the Phantoms. "We came into their building and won a game last night and thought we played really well and I thought they played equally as good tonight in our building and put us back on our heels a bit...both teams physical, losing players, you’re down numbers, you saw that for both sides.”

The Ugly

The thoughts of all hockey fans are with linesman Bob Goodyear, who took a puck to the side of the head in Sunday’s game. Hershey trainer Murphy Luatua rushed out on the ice after players from both teams beckoned. Goodyear was helped off the ice and down the tunnel.

After the game, Carbery said, “Yeah, that was awful. Never, ever, ever want to see something like that. I haven’t got an update yet, but thinking about him and hopefully everything is ok. I think it got his helmet mostly - that’s what it sounded like - but never a good situation when a ref gets hit by the puck.”

Head coach Spencer Carbery

On Sunday’s second period performance

“We needed a kick in the butt after the first period we had. Give them credit for the way they came out...they just came out and they pushed us around...just a lot stronger all over the ice, literally stronger. So we had to regroup there. On of our better periods, we didn’t score in the period, but had at least ten “Grade As.”

On Copley’s performance Sunday

“I thought he settled in really well and arguably kept that game...within striking distance to give us a chance to come back.”

On starting Vanecek in back-to-back games

“Vitek was outstanding-the best game I’ve seen this year (Friday). The thought there, talking with Alex Westlund, our goaltender coach, I just felt like we’ve been doing this for almost a year-and-a-half. Now Cops wasn’t here, but Vitek and Sammy were just flipping back and forth and it worked well last year. Both guys thrived off it. We’ve been doing it this year, and I don’t know, I just got a feeling...why not let one of these guys run with it a little bit. I know that sucks because you want both guys to play equal, but I have a feeling it will work itself out.”

Vitek Vanecek

On earning a shutout Saturday

“A shutout is always great. It’s good defense. It’s good for me feeling good right now.”

On seeing Beck Malenstyn at full speed heading right for him

“I see it, but I see the puck too, the puck was coming at me, so I know I can’t move because if I move you never know what will happen if it will go in, but he stopped that so I was really happy he stopped that...I knew I needed to stop the puck, so I say, ‘I gotta stay,’ I can’t do anything else.”

Pheonix Copley

On Sunday’s first period

“It wasn’t the start we wanted, but we dug a hole and had to dig ourselves out of it and do what we had to do to get the extra point.”

On the PK unit this weekend

“They work really hard and block a lot of shots, which makes our jobs as goaltenders a lot easier. Big props to them, they’re doing a great job. We just want to keep that rolling as well. It’s been a huge part of our success.”