Screen cap: AHL TV
The Hershey Bears fell to the Charlotte Checkers, 3-1, Saturday night at the Giant Center in Hershey, PA. Capitals forward prospect Hendrix Lapierre scored his 9th goal of the season in the loss. The Bears record drops to 22-8-2-1 (47 points) on the season.
HERSHEY BEARS LINEUP
Zach Fucale (11-6-1-1, 2.50 GAA, .900 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Bears. Alex Lyon (8-8-1-0, 2.64 GAA, .907 sv%) got the start in goal for the Checkers. The forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:
Mike Vecchione –Mike Sgarbossa – Ethen Frank
Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Garrett Pilon
Mason Morelli – Hendrix Lapierre –Henrik Borgstrom
Beck Malenstyn – Riley Sutter – Henrik Rybinski
Gabriel Carlsson – Dylan McIlrath
Aaron Ness – Vincent Iorio
Jake Massie – Bobby Nardella
Scratches: Sam Anas (lower body injury), Lucas Johansen (Covid protocol), Kale Kessy (upper body injury), Shane Gersich, Julian Napravnik, Matthew Strome.
Aliaksei Protas on the ice for the Bears. #ALLCAPS #HBH pic.twitter.com/4uJEsMASpA
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 7, 2023
Recalled/Re-assigned: The Washington Capitals loaned Aliaksei Protas to the Bears on Saturday. Forward Alex Fortin was returned to ECHL South Carolina and forward Kevin O’Neil was released from his professional tryout and returned to South Carolina on Friday.
FIRST PERIOD
The Checkers opened the scoring with a goal from Aleksi Heponiemi (7) at 12:57 of the opening frame. The goal was setup by a turnover by Gabriel Carlsson in the Bears own zone.
Bad turnover by Gabriel Carlsson lead’s to game’s first goal. Checkers lead 1-0, late in the first frame. #HBH pic.twitter.com/W6ICj8ZbwD
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 8, 2023
The Bears tied the game on Hendrix Lapierre‘s 9th goal of the season at 17:30 of the opening frame. Lapierre jumped on the ice for a shift and out-hustled a Checkers player for the puck, firing a shot five-hole for the tally. Aaron Ness (8) had the lone assist.
Hendrix Lapierre jumps on the ice for a shift and out-hustles a Checkers player for his 9th of the season. Game tied 1-1. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/9QScfpflr5
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 8, 2023
Another angle of Lapierre’s tally, from the stands.
I had a great view of the goal! pic.twitter.com/ivtWuvbNan
— Collin McCoy (@CDM1424) January 8, 2023
The first period concluded with the game tied, 1-1. Charlotte led in shots 10-8. The Checkers were 0 for 2 and the Bears 0 for 1 on the power play after 20 minutes.
SECOND PERIOD
The Bears and Checkers skated to a scoreless draw in the middle frame.
The Bears led in shot, 11-7 in the second period.
Charlotte was 0 for 4 and Hershey 0 for 3 on the power play after two periods.
THIRD PERIOD
The Checkers took a 2-1 lead late in the final frame with a power play goal from Cameron Morrison (2) at 14:16. Santtu Kinnunen (13) and Aleksi Heponiemi (8) had the helpers.
Checkers with a late power play goal take a 2-1 lead with 5:30 left in the final frame. #HBH pic.twitter.com/oy00hr3nro
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 8, 2023
The Checkers added an empty net goal with 1:55 remaining to make it 3-1, and that would be the final
The Bears are back in action on Sunday when they host the Syracuse Crunch at Giant Center. Puck drop is set for 5:00PM.
SHAVINGS
- AHL box score
- Attendance: 9,697
- This was Garrett Pilon’s first game since November 19.
While tonight’s loss was not Fucale’s fault, I do have a question. Why would he start against the stronger team (Charlotte Checkers) and Hunter Shepard get the start tomorrow against the lesser team (Syracuse Crunch)? Makes no sense.
Gersich a healthy scratch 👀
Get used to that.
Listened to Bears radio. Sounded as though Protas was very busy if not productive. Bears sinned too much.
Stingrays beat Savannah 4-1. Bear had a goal (Maass assist) and then an assist on the second goal. Maass got a 2 minute for instigating and a 5 minute for fighting. Tyler in net. Bear second star of the game.
Is Bear looking worth of a call up to Hershey? Positions are scarce (Gersich was a healthy scratch tonight) but I’d love to see him get a couple of games.
No. Absolutely not. Terrible player. Leave him alone.
ECHL All Stars is January 16. Bear is Rays’ player rep (Rays HC coaches the East and Travis Ward, Rays equipment manager who got his start at Caps Medstar Iceplex is tournament equipment mgr.). I certainly wouldn’t mess with Bear before then. And if he goes to Hershey, he needs to play not follow the Caps example of recall to the bench. Rays are first in South and Bear is a big reason why.
First in points and assists, second in goals. 33 points in 28 games.
Watching Grand Rapids-Texas Stars replay. A lot of former Caps: Riley Barber, Vrana, Alex Chiasson
How’s vrana doing?
He appears to be trying. A lot of rumors out there saying the opposite, kinda why I wanted to check in on the game. He was a -1 for the game, now -6 in 6 games. No points. I didn’t realize he took down all Detroit-related posts from his social media.
Last time I looked at his stats no sog either.
I always thought that Riley never get an opportunity with us and that simewhere else he could be 3rd line player. But after all his stops it seems it will never happen. Too bad, would like to see him as a Bear one day.
Agree. He’s still a fave of mine.
Difference is that when Caps call players up, often it is for game day insurance should a player wake up sick/covid. I know it may be a shock, but the players in Hershey are not as good as the players in DC….
Also, reading so many post on this site, seems Caps fans prefer 3rd and 4th liners more than impact players. I think many want the caps to have 12 players on the 3rd and 4th lines….
Ha! Tend to agree with you. Makes sense though as NovaCaps covers prospects better than anyone else and I love that!
I really like our depth and youth right now. But you need to beat someone out to get a spot. I mean the Hershey roster is stacked right now which is fun to see and it will be interesting to see who makes the jump next year. Still a lot of time to sort that out, but there are 5-6 guys who have a legit shot to be on Caps roster. I think we’ll see 3-4 promoted and we’ll see some vets (Like Sheary) get resigned.
Oh, bless you Dwgie- That’s awesome to hear. We put in a ton of hours watching prospect gsmes. Two of us (Eric Lord and myself) watch every Bears game (I haven’t missed a game in 9 years 🤞🙏) we also spend a lot of time watching the other prospects each and every day. But it’s only because we love it!
You love shows. I am personally much more educated on the Caps pipeline because of yours and Erics work. Keep it up!
🙏👍👊