Photo: Cleveland Monsters
The Hershey Bears beat the Cleveland Monsters, 4-1 Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The victory improves the Bears record to 40-16-5-4 (89 points) on the season.
Joe Snively sniped an early 5-on-3 power play goal and Aaron Ness added his 4th goal of the season for a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. Riley Sutter added his 5th goal of the season in the middle frame and Joe Snively added his second goal of the game in the final frame for the 4-1 win. Hershey is now 6-0-0-2 in their last eight games.
LINEUP
Hunter Shepard (17-6-5-1, 2.09 GAA, .918 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the visiting Bears. Jet Greaves (16-13-5-1, 3.21 GAA, .897 sv%) got the start in goal for the Monsters. The forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:
Mike Vecchione – Mike Sgarbossa – Garrett Pilon
Joe Snively – Connor McMichael – Sam Anas
Mason Morelli – Hendrix Lapierre – Henrik Rybinski
Beck Malenstyn – Riley Sutter – Shane Gersich
Gabriel Carlsson – Dylan McIlrath
Bobby Nardella – Aaron Ness
Lucas Johansen – Vinny Iorio
Scratches: Ethen Frank (upper body injury), Matt Strome, Julian Napravnik, Logan Day, Jake Massie, Henrik Borgstrom and Bogdan Trineyev.
FIRST PERIOD
The Bears had an early five-on-three power play and they would make the Monsters pay. Joe Snively (8) fired from close range to give the Bears an early 1-0 lead at 5:59 of the first. Mike Sgarbossa (36) and Mike Vecchione (27) had the helpers.
Joe Snipely! Snively with a 5-on-3 power play goal, his 8th tally of the season. Bears lead 1-0. #ALLCAPS #HBH pic.twitter.com/b7OGRkarAm
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) April 1, 2023
The Bears made it 2-0 early in the first frame. Aaron Ness (4) finished on a 2-on-1 rush with Mike Vecchione for the tally at 11:52.
Anyone else up for tic-tac-toe? Fourth of the season for @Aaron_Ness!
🍎 Vecchione pic.twitter.com/Z1EDmYHizW
— X – Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) April 1, 2023
That was it for the first period, as the Bears jumped out to another sizable, early lead. Hershey led in shots, 12-10 in the first period. Hershey was 1 for 2 and Cleveland 0 for 3 on the power play in the first period.
SECOND PERIOD
The Bears made it 3-0 on a breakaway tally from Riley Sutter (5) at 14:05 of the middle frame. Shane Gersich provided the perfect setup pass for the tally. Shane Gersich (12) and Mason Morelli (26) had the helpers.
Shane Gersich to Riley Sutter for the finish. Bears lead 3-0 in the 2nd. The Bears 4th line continues impressive play. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/fF4zXoB35D
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) April 1, 2023
And that was it for the middle frame. Shots were tied 5-5 in the second period, with the Bears leading 17-15 after 40 minutes of play. Hershey was 1 for 3 and Cleveland 0 for 5 on the power play after two periods.
THIRD PERIOD
The Bears stretched their lead to 4-0 on Joe Snively‘s second goal of the game at 3:32 of the final frame. The play involved all Bears on the ice. Connor McMichael (21) and Bobby Nardella (18) had the helpers. The assist extends Connor McMichael’s points streak to nine games.
Heck of a sequence here. In the end, Joe Snively finishes for his 2nd goal of the game. Assists should go to all Bears on the ice. Bears lead 4-0. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/9K7HKyDJug
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) April 2, 2023
The Monsters scored their first goal with a little more than five minutes remaining. Tyler Angle (10) notched the marker at 14:50 to make it 4-1.
SHAVINGS
- AHL box score
- Attendance: 12,094
- Shots were tied 25-25
- Hershey is now 6-0-0-2 in last eight games.
- Joe Snively led all Bears in shots with 5.
- Bears penalty kill was a perfect 5 for 5.
- Hunter Shepard stopped 24 of 25 shots faced for a .960 game sv%.
- Stars of the game: 1) Joe Snively, 2) Hunter Shepard and 3) Mike Vecchione.
Trade McMichael right now! C’mon, let’s give him away for two years of a mid tier forward, or even better, for a 3rd or 5th round draft pick. He sucks, he stinks, he blows, he’s got nuthin’! C’mon BMac, we don’t need no stinkin’ young centers around here, when we got Kuzy, and his endless circling of the net!
The difficulty is finding the right overpaid veteran well past his prime in order to seal the deal.
Lol. The sarcasm is getting THICK !
Side note: Brian Helmer, Jason Fitzsimmons (Caps director of hockey operations/director of minor league operations) and Jim Slater (forwards development coach) where in attendance for this one.
Monsters are an average team, but also lost a number of their good players to recent callups to Blue Jackets. Still, Bears took care of business. They need to do it again tomorrow.
Why does Aaron Ness get passed over every time the Caps need a D call-up from Hershey? He played some games for the Caps some years back and looked good to me. Has offensive skills, excellent speed. Certainly beyond the Caps’ current “7th defenseman.”
Good to see the Caps’ “brass” at the Bears game. Brian Helmer has impressed me greatly as the Bears executive. A long Calder-Cup playoff run would do wonders for the morale of Caps’ fan base!
Good question. He is on an AHL-only deal this season, and ineligible for a callup, kinda like Ethen Frank’s current deal. He’s 32, so I guess Caps want to sign younger players.
Bears are in another level compared to Cleveland right now. But like you said, you need to take care of business and they did just that.
Good win. Need to repeat on Sunday.
Earlier in the year I commented about McMichael going down, and that it going to be interesting to see if he went down and worked hard to improve, or just moped (like Vrana did years ago). Good for him, he has has had the right attitude and seems to have fixed the holes in his game. He should be rewarded with a call-up. Now.
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By my calculations, the Ghost Pirates and Solar Bears have been eliminated from the ECHL playoffs still leaving 5 teams fighting for the South’s 4 spots.
The Stingrays came to play and then I think the forwards went to the bus for the trip to Toledo. All three Rays goals came in the first period. Bear and Kim both had an assist as the Rays won 3-0. Clay was in net and stopped all of Fort Wayne’s 24 shots. Maass played, Has didn’t.
If Stingrays win today in Toledo or Atlanta loses the Rays become the first South team to clinch a playoff spot.
Rays are #1 in the ECHL in PP%.
They have held last two teams to very low sog numbers (foes 41 vs Rays 86) because of their aggressive defense stripping the puck from opponents. Go Kim, go Maass.
The losing coach yesterday in Fort Wayne was Ben Boudreau, Gabby’s son. He’s in his 4th season with the Komets.