Hershey Bears Weekly Notebook 12/6/22

HERSHEY, Pa. - After sweeping the week on the road over Thanksgiving, the Bears returned for an all-Pennsylvania week by defeating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-3 Tuesday night in a shootout.

They then traveled to Allentown Wednesday and earned a 4-2 victory.

Finally, they returned to Giant Center for Sunday's rematch with the Penguins where a terrible few minutes in the second period led to a 7-3 defeat.

Last Week

Tuesday, November 29: W-B/Scranton - 3 at Hershey - 4 (SO)

Tuesday night's game featured the league's two best goaltenders statistically, Hunter Shepard and Dustin Tokarski, but neither was able to pitch a shutout as the Penguins tallied just 69 seconds into the game on their first shot. The Bears went down 2-0 a short time later, but Mason Morelli redirected Jake Massie's shot past Tokarski before the end of the first to cut the deficit in half.

In the second period, another shot by Massie was redirected in front of Tokarski and into the net, only this time it was not a Morelli redirection, but bounced off of one of Tokarski's teammates. At the end of the second, a tussle between Drew O'Connor and Kale Kessy ensued with Kessy earning 17 minutes in penalties and O'Connor being assessed just two.

After the game, O’Connor told Tony Androckitis, "I don't really know what happened. He dropped the gloves there, so I just tried to grab a hold of him and not let him punch me in the face too many times."

Kessy’s penalty did prove costly as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton connected once on the five-minute man-advantage before taking a penalty of their own. Later in the third, Mike Vecchione tied the game with a redirection of Bobby Nardella’s shot, sending the game into overtime and eventually the shootout. In the shootout, it was Shepard and Sam Anas who combined to earn Hershey’s second point and the 4-3 victory.

"We're finding ways [to win] right now," head coach Todd Nelson said after Tuesday's game. "I thought tonight wasn't our best game, but our guys fought through it. The turning point could have been that fighting major. That (traffic in front of Takarski) was part of our game plan; he's playing so well right now. If he's going to see it, he's going to stop it, and so we look at the goals that we scored, there's a lot of traffic in front."

Wednesday, November 30: Hershey - 4 at Lehigh Valley - 2

In Wednesday night's game, a beautiful pass from Henrik Rybinski to Hendrix Lapierre put the Bears on top in the first period, but Lehigh Valley tied the game in the second as the Bears were unable to clear the puck from the zone. Connor McMichael then tallied his second goal since returning from Washington, putting Hershey back on top.

Lehigh Valley tied the game again late in the second, but it was all Hershey in the third as Mike Sgarbossa and Ethen Frank both added scores while Fucale stopped the remaining shots against him for a total of 18 saves in the victory. With the victory, Hershey leapfrogged Providence into first place in the Atlantic Division.

Sunday, December 4: W-B/Scranton - 7 at Hershey - 3

Sunday night, the Penguins took their frustrations out on Hershey in the second period - exploding for five unanswered goals en route to a 7-3 victory.

With Hunter Shepard heading west to join the Capitals, who saw starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper leave Saturday’s game with an upper body injury, Hershey signed Reading Royals’ back-up Justin Kapelmaster who entered the game and shutdown the Penguins the final 32:11 of the game, but unfortunately for Hershey, the Bears were unable to get back on the scoreboard.

Anas, Lapierre, and Sgarbossa all recorded first period goals for Hershey. Fucale surrendered seven goals on 21 shots while Kapelmaster ended the night a perfect 10-for-10.

After the loss, Nelson said, "Look, in the second period, there's so many odd-man rushes, like even when we're on the power play, two on ones, it's unacceptable. We'll go back to work tomorrow and straighten this out because we have another game coming up here Tuesday. I'll take responsibility for this because we thought as a staff we did the right things to get the guys ready for today, obviously, so we're trying to find that balance."

Quotable

PTO goalie Justin Kapelmaster on how he learned he was getting called up to Hershey and the travel he made on game day:

"[Sunday] morning my coach called me and said, 'You have to go off to Hershey, today'. I played against a bunch of [current Bears players] in college. Any situation like that [is] not ideal, but from a goalie standpoint, you have to be ready for anything. It's great to be up here and hopefully I can stick around up here a little longer."

Unfortunately for Kapelmaster, he was released from his PTO as the Bears called up goaltender Clay Stevenson from their ECHL affiliate in South Carolina.

The Week Ahead

Hershey is once again at home Tuesday night for Truly Takeover as they host the Charlotte Checkers at 7:00 p.m. ET; the first 6,000 fans will be given a Pepsi Zero Reusable Straw key-chain.

On Friday the Bears travel to Bridgeport for a 7:00 p.m. ET start before returning to Giant Center to host the Cleveland Monsters Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET and Sunday at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Tuesday, December 6: Charlotte at Hershey - 7:00 p.m. ETFriday, December 9: Hershey at Bridgeport - 7:00 p.m. ETSaturday, December 10: Cleveland at Hershey - 7:00 p.m. ETSunday, December 11: Cleveland at Hershey - 5:00 p.m. ET

Team Leaders

Points: Hendrix Lapierre - 15 Goals: Ethen Frank, Hendrix Lapierre, Mike Vecchione - 6 Assists: Mason Morelli - 10 +/-: Gabriel Carlsson +8 PIM: Kale Kessy - 46 (T-9th in AHL) Saves: Zach Fucale - 295 (19th in AHL) SV%: Hunter Shepard .932 ( 1st in AHL) GAA: Hunter Shepard 1.83 (1st in AHL) / Zach Fucale - 2.49 (11th in AHL)