Photo: Hershey Bears
The Hershey Bears fell to the Charlotte Checkers, 3-0 Wednesday night at Giant Center in Hershey. The loss drops the Bears record to 26-20-3-3 (58 points) on the season.
Following a scoreless first frame, the Checkers would finally dent the twine late in the middle frame for a 1-0 lead at the second intermission. The Checkers would add two empty net goals late for the 3-0 final. Checkers netminder Spencer Knight stopped 44 of 44 shots faced in the shutout.
STARTERS
The Bears started goaltender Pheonix Copley (13-7-2-2, 2.43 GAA, .909 sv%) in net while the visiting Checkers countered with Spencer Knight (5-3-0-1, 2.97 GAA, .901 sv%) in goal. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:
Injuries: Lucas Johansen (upper-body injury), Macoy Erkamps (lower-body injury), Mike Sgarbossa (upper-body injury), Matt Moulson (back surgery), Kody Clark (lower-body injury), Kale Kessy (upper-body injury) and Bobby Nardella (lower-body injury).
Re-assigned: On Wednesday the Bears re-assigned Drake Rymsha to the Fort Wayne Comets (ECHL). The also released Nick Isaacson from his PTO. He returned to the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL).
Scratches: Hunter Shepard.
SECOND PERIOD
The Checkers would finally break the seal with 3:25 left in the middle frame. Logan Hutsko (10) would whirl and fire to make it 1-0 at 16:35. Cale Fleury (19) had the lone assist.
Checkers break the seal with 3:25 left in the second period. They lead 1-0. #HBH pic.twitter.com/XtPsOooz27
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) March 3, 2022
The second period would end with the Checkers leading, 1-0. Hershey led in shots 16-7 in the second period and 27-17 after two periods. Hershey was 0 for 4 and Charlotte 0 for 1 on the power play after 40 minutes of play.
THIRD PERIOD
The Bears and Checkers skated scoreless for most of the final frame before the Checkers added two empty net goals for the 3-0 win.
The Bears are back in action on Friday when they visit the Springfield Thunderbirds. Puck drop is set for 7:05PM.
SHAVINGS
- AHL box score
- Attendance: 10,043
- Bears led in shots 44-28.
- Pheonix Copley stopped 25 of 26 shots faced.
- Charlotte was 0 for 2 and Hershey 0 for 5 on the power play.
- Bears have one goal in the last two games and seven goals in last five games.
- Third-straight home loss for the Bears.
7 goals is their last 5 games is a bit misleading because 4 of those goals came in a win over Utica. In their last 5 losses, the Bears have scored a total of 3 goals. Hard to win games with that lack of production.