The Hershey Bears concluded a brutal stretch of four games in five mornings/nights today, as they took on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at 1:00 p.m. The game, originally scheduled for 3PM, was bumped up two hours early to accommodate the Gold Medal Game between the United States and Canada.
In his first start since returning from the Russian National Team in the Olympics (and eating McDonald’s everyday), Semyon Varlamov played splendidly against the Baby Pens stopping 30 shots and thwarting three consecutive opportunities in the shootout as the Bears prevailed 2-1. After falling behind 2-0 in the shootout, clutch goals by Keith Aucoin, Alex Giroux and the previous night’s hero (more on that later) Mathieu Perreault allowed Hershey to win the shootout 3-2. Kyle Wilson scored Hershey’s lone goal of the game during regulation, despite the Bears peppering Baby Pens goalie Brad Thiessen with 33 shots. The win was Hershey’s 46th on the season.
Saturday night with Bruce Boudreau in attendence for a pregame book signing, the Hershey Bears pushed their incredible AHL Record home winning streak to 21 with a resounding 9-2 victory over the New York Islanders farm team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Hershey jumped out to a 5-1 first period lead on the heels of a first period hat trick by everyone’s favorite miniature-sized-center Mathieu Perreault.
Perreault ended the night with an incredible four goals, including one on a penalty shot in the second period. Other crazy stats accumulated during the night? Prepare yourself:
- Two lines for Hershey accumulated more than 10 points: Andrew Gordon, Keith Aucoin and Alex Giroux accounted for four goals and 11 points, while Mathieu Perreault, Chris Bourque and Steve Pinizzotto combined for five goals and 12 points.
- Steve Pinizzotto had four assists.
- Chris Bourque had a goal and three assists.
- When leading after two periods the Bears are now 35-0.
- On the season the Bears are scoring on 13% of their shots, but last night Hershey managed to score on 18% of them.
- Saturday’s total of 50 shots and four goals by Perreault were both season highs for the Chocolate and White.
- They also tied the largest margin of victory with seven goals in front of this year’s 3rd largest crowd with 10,703, Hershey’s 9th sell out this year.
I guess the little brother Hershey wants more attention.
Meanwhile, Capitals chronic-scratches Tyler Sloan and Quintin Laing played in Hershey on conditioning stints. We have the photos from Kyle M. below.
Kyle’s Photos from Saturday Night’s Bears/Tigers Game:
