Hershey ended up with 45,650 Bears in total to break their own world record from last year. The players were having a blast jumping into the piles of stuffed animals that were thrown on the ice and they ended up helping with clean up as well.
This was a sloppy, penalty riddled game. Lots of just lazy play leading to lazy penalties being called. The Bears really need to clean that up because their special teams play has been fairly brutal.
LuJo, Nardella and Williams are still out with various injuries. Geisser and Hobbs healthy scratches.
First PP unit was Fehervary, Djoos, Sgarbossa, Mailett and Moulson. Second PP unit was Alexeyev, Snively, Pilon, Leason and AJF.
Leason gets his first AHL goal and the game winner. Also pocketed 2 assists. I’ll have to go back and look at the score sheet again but wouldn’t be surprised if they are secondary assists because I don’t remember either
. His goal was a great follow up attempt from his initial shot. He had 3 points on the night but really didn’t stand out besides his OT winner (yes I know that sounds kind of crazy). Hopefully this opens the floodgates for him.
Top line RW Pilon for the night. He seems to be developing some chemistry with Sgarbossa and it’s paying off with increased ice time. Kid is just a solid hockey player all around and has great hockey IQ. You won’t find him out of position anywhere on the ice and puts in a consistent effort each night.
Pinho and Malenstyn also were solid as always. Great defensively responsible forwards who use their speed and skating to disrupt the oppositions top lines. Pinho’s work along the boards is a big part of his game and his forechecking is relentless.
First time seeing Kody Clark in person. Didn’t stand out good or bad but also had very limited ice time on the 4th line with Liam and Gersich. He has decent size and a prototypical power forward build.
Gersich scored tonight and ended up playing center on the 4th line. The goal was a big positive for him since he hasn’t really lived up to expectations. Overall, he seems to be getting lost in the shuffle now that all the forwards are starting to get healthy.
Fehervary QBed the 1st PP unit and logged a ton of PK minutes. I think it’s safe to assume the Caps long term plan for him is an all situations defender and he’s going to benefit logging these tough minutes in Hershey. I still think he could be a little more aggressive in the offensive zone. Still very impressive play for how young he is. Will be an NHL player in the near future.