Hershey Bears: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly 1/2/20

HERSHEY, Pennsylvania  - The Bears, who fell December 29th to the Penguins at home, finished off December with a pair of road wins in Utica Friday night and then in Allentown Sunday, finishing the month with an impressive ten wins in 11 games.

The Good

On Friday night in Utica, the Bears jumped out to an impressive 4-0 lead in the first quarter, but had to go into overtime to secure the 6-5 victory over the Comets who are in second place in the North Division. Garrett Pilon (2G, 1A), Mike Sgarbossa (1G, 3A), Brian Pinho (1G, 1A), and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (2A) all had multi-point nights while Kody Clark recorded his first AHL goal and Joe Snively recorded his eighth of the season to help pace Hershey.

In Saturday’s loss, Mike Moulson scored twice, but one of them was washed out by the officiating crew for goaltender interference (more on that in UGLY), and the visiting Penguins emerged with a 2-1 victory.

Sunday afternoon, a pair of tired teams took to the ice at PPL Center in Allentown, but the Bears dug deep and found the energy in the second period, exploding for three goals, and then rode a 29-save shutout performance from recalled netminder Parker Milner to close out 2019 with a 3-0 victory over the Phantoms.

The youth movement was in full effect as rookie Joe Snively and second-year forwards Garrett Pilon and Brian Pinho recorded goals. Rookie blueliner Bobby Nardella recorded the game’s lone two-point performance with a pair of assists.

“It was a lot of travel, but that’s kind of what you sign up for, but it was good to get the win,” said Milner Sunday evening in Lehigh Valley after stating he had been in four cities/rinks in four days after being recalled following Thursday night’s shootout loss in Atlanta.

“It’s pretty evident that they are really detailed, really strong defensively and it seems like everyone’s aware in the room that when you play strong in your own end then that’s going to turn into offense. It’s really a fun team to play for as a goalie. You kind of come up with your couple of big saves and know that they'll be blocking shots and doing that sort of thing.”

And if that isn’t enough good news, this weekend marked the return of Lucas Johansen, Shane Gersich, and Connor Hobbs, putting the Bears close to full strength just as the calendar turns over to 2020.

The Bad

Hershey’s lack of ability to play with a 4-0 lead (albeit against a very solid Comets team on Utica ice) and then general lack of spunk in Saturday’s game (again, in their defense, traveling in from a late finish in Utica) contributed to a bit of concern and ended Hershey’s nine-game win streak through the month of December.

“Usually it’s harder to tell as a coach if there’s three or four guys who just don’t have it, but when the whole group doesn’t have it, you know,” said a disappointed Spencer Carbery. “Just no execution, sloppy passes nad on a night like that you need 4 or 5 guys to step up.”

The Ugly

Saturday night saw Matt Moulson have a goal disallowed due to goaltender interference. Of course any Hershey goal disallowed in Giant Center won’t be popular, once the replay made its way to the big board, the crowd unleashed on the officiating crew and they weren’t alone. After the first intermission, Carbery came out to the bench early to have a chat with the officiating crew, but in a strange twist, was unable to actually confer with the referee who actually made the call.

In a lengthy post-game press conference, Carbery said, “It’s not good. I’ll have to speak to the league about it because Mike should come over and explain what he saw. Now there’s a young referee who’s just finding his way. That’s normal protocol is to come over explain what you saw through your eyes. He gets Reid, the more senior official, to come over and explain what he saw, translated through, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me and I don’t think that’s the normal protocol. They just said that this is what he saw and that he may have seen it wrong. It’s tough because that’s exactly where he’s looking. If you watch it on the video, he’s standing looking at that exact situation, so sometimes referees get calls wrong. I make mistakes, they make mistakes, and players make mistakes, but when you’re isolated on a certain thing and there’s nothing in your way...when you disallow a goal you have to make absolutely, certainly sure that you saw exactly what you think you saw and that you’re taking it away for the right reasons.”

Carbs' Corner

New Years’ Resolution for Hershey

“I haven’t even thought about that. They just said this is the last game in 2019 and I’m like, “Oh, I’m just trying to deal with Sunday’ but we’ll just keep working to get better. We’re playing well right now, you’re seeing a lot of positive things, you’re seeing a lot of growth from a lot of young players. That’s always good to see and we’ll just look to continue to grow in 2020. I’d like to see more guys wear a couple of more Caps sweaters too.”

More on the blown goaltender interference call and disallowed goal Saturday

“It’s an awful call. He just missed it, got it wrong. Just not a good situation, not something at this level should happen. There’s nothing you can do after the fact, that’s what I tried to convey, that message, to the guys, because once it’s disallowed, once they make their decision, ultimately you can let it affect the outcome or you can go do something about it.”

On guys making extra passes and missing out on shots

“I probably know the ones you’re talking about. The one Matty’s got at the netfront on the PP, the one Ax goes back again on the 2-on-0. Now that I think about that, it’s just symbolic of the night. You have a 2-on-0 on the PK and don’t get a shot, so it’s frustrating because I thought this was a game sitting there for us to take.”

On the heavy play of the Penguins

“I felt like they physically overpowered us. Sometimes when you hear that you think hitting. It was just stronger, stronger on their sticks, they won more pucks, their first goal was very symbolic of that; stronger and heavier in a lot of different areas.”

Quotables

Parker Milner on being recalled after playing Thursday night in Atlanta, being in four different cities in four days last weekend:

“The good thing about being really tired is you’re not really thinking as much so I was just trying to kind of be in the moment and come up with a save when I needed and it is challenging when you’re not touching the puck as much but I was happy I was able to make the ones when they matter.

Mike Sgarbossa on playing with rookie Joe Snively and second-year center-turned-winger Garrett Pilon

“I don’t consider [Snively] a rookie. They are in this league for a reason. Everyone on this team is. They’ve worked hard for what they’ve accomplished they’ve earned the right to play on that first line. They’ve kind of taken it and ran with it. That's a testament to those two. I don’t feel any added pressure or stress that I have to carry them. Sometimes I feel like they’re carrying me."