Sunday, November 10, 2013

10-round shootout thrills fans in Chocolatetown

After the game went to a 10-round shoot out, the Hershey Bears proved that they are in fact creative goal scores. Out of the 10 Bears, 6 registered tallies, finding the back of the net and beating the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 6-5 in the shootout.

The Great Dane Byers lead his team to an early first period goal, putting the Hershey Bears on the board 18 seconds into the game. After a few weeks of trial and error with line combinations, new comer head coach Mike Haviland hit gold with the first line combo last night. Both teams got the game off to a spirited start as they dropped gloves twice in the first period to go a few rounds.

“We opened up the game with a great first shift and then I thought we kind of sat back a little bit and then we got it going again,” Haviland said as he described a team that put in continual effort throughout the game.

The Bears kept their one goal leading heading into the second and then third period. Ryan Stoa notched them a bit of insurance scoring a power play goal in the 3rd to take a short lived two goal lead. During the final 20 minutes the Bears lost their lead and the game was pushed on into overtime.

“We’ve got to find ways to win, that’s the big thing now,” head coach Haviland expressed, wanting to spend more energy on winning rather than losing.

Overtime was filled with close calls and many opportunities on both ends of the ice. After 5- minutes, the score was still holding at 2-2 and the game proceeded to a shootout. Booing and cheers filled the barn as the Bears and Sound Tigers went a thrilling 10 rounds. Depositing the puck into the net for the Bears were: Casey Wellman, Peter LeBlanc, Ryan Stoa, Jeff Taffe, Nathan Walker and The Great Dane Byers, who clinched the win with the final goal of the shootout. This might have been the longest shootout in the memory of most Hershey Bears fans.

“It’s a big confidence booster for this group. We needed it, we needed to start the weekend right.” Haviland commented, as he seems to already be mentally preparing for the Bears game against Binghamton Senators later today at the Giant Center.

Looking forward to this afternoon the Hershey Bears, 3-4-2-1 will be facing a very good Binghamton Senators team, 8-4-0-0. The Bears have some momentum to build off of from last night. They will need all of their players on board if they are to be competitive against the Senators. Philipp Grubauer was exceptional in goal last night and tonight, hopefully David Leggio will be between the pipes for the Bears tonight. Leggio has been a solid contributor and will be able to keep the Bears competitive as they play into the third period. Come out to the Giant Center tonight, game starts at 5 p.m.

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