Bears Week 12 Recap: Staying Put
A two game split this weekend kept the Hershey Bears at second in the Atlantic Division, five points behind Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, as they go into the busiest stretch of hockey this season.
Saturday night saw the aforementioned division-leading Penguins made their second visit of the season to the GIANT Center. By the end of the night, they wished they had stayed home. Carter Camper set up three of Hershey’s five different goal scorers en route to a 5-0 shutout victory. 34 seconds into the game, Aaron Nesslet loose a bomb from th blue line to beat Brian Foster. Chris Brown scored his second of the season thanks to a Mike Moore pass and Madison Bowey tallied on the power play for a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. Camper’s sharp-angle shot was saved, but Paul Carey jammed home the rebound for the fourth goal. 1:19 later, Erik Burgdoerfer made the lead five with his third of the season, all coming against the Penguins. Casey DeSmith saved the remaining seven Bears shots in his relief effort. On the other side of the ice, Dan Ellis kept the scoresheet clean on 22 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton shots.
Mark Dekanich, on recall from the South Carolina Stingrays, started Sunday in his first AHL game since the 2012-13 season with the St. John’s IceCaps. However, it was the Binghamton Senators who would continue their winning ways of late on a 5-3 loss for the eight-year pro. Nick Paul and Chris Brown traded goals in the first period, Matt Puempel and Paul Carey did the same in the second. Buddy Robinson would tally late to give Binghamton a 3-2 lead at the second intermission. Puempel’s second of the game would be enough to seal the victory, but Travis Boyd scored off the faceoff to keep the game within reach late. With Dekanich out for the extra skater, Colin Greening scored on the empty net. Dekanich stopped 18 of 22 in his Hershey debut.
NEXT WEEK
Four games, the most in one week for the Chocolate and White, await the team this week. Three home games against Syracuse on Tuesday, Lehigh Valley on Thursday, and Binghamton on Saturday are followed by a trip to Bridgeport on Sunday.
CURRENT STANDING
2nd in Atlantic Division, 16-9-1-5 (W-L-OTL-SOL), 38 points