Joe Szymanski

Szymanski: Hershey Fails to Convert Chances, Loses Home Ice Opportunity in 2-1 Loss to Islanders

Photo Credit: Hershey Bears Hockey

It has been three weeks since the Bears have taken the ice at the Giant Center and after the longest road trip of the season, Hershey is back home.

And it’s an important one too. The Bears return home with that x next to their name, signifying Hershey will return to the playoffs this season. They will have to participate in the play in round this season, after getting the first round bye the last three seasons, and seeding is still in play.

Hershey is currently in fifth place, which would put them as the lower seed against their opponents tonight in the Bridgeport Islanders. Hershey could still be overtaken by Springfield and fall as far as sixth place, but after Springfield’s loss to Hartford last night, Hershey only needs to secure a win in one of their last two games to avoid Charlotte in the play in, where all three games would end up being in Charlotte, which Hershey obviously wants to avoid.

Hershey can also overtake Bridgeport and get home ice advantage for the play in series, but they must sweep the weekend and win tonight and tomorrow against Rochester to move up into that fourth spot.

Only two changes for the Bears from Wednesday, both on the backend. Aaron Ness comes in for Leon Muggli, while Louie Belpedio comes in for Reilly Webb, with both returning from injury.

Postgame Takeaways

  • You could tell from the start this was going to be a tight, defensive game. Bridgeport rested a few of their top offensive guns, and were playing defense first hockey all night.
  • Hershey, to their credit, dominated the first period in general. They had the better opportunities, the better looks. As has been the case for Hershey much of this season though, their failure to convert on those chances assisted their downfall.
  • Thought David Gucciardi had a really nice game today. The rookie defensemen was the Bears best puck mover from the back end and was the main driver behind some of the top chances Hershey had.
  • The first real opening in the game came four minutes into the second period. After Hershey fluffed a two-on-one opportunity, the ice really opened up, and in that chaos it would be Bridgeport who connected. Adam Beckman would put home his 30th of the season to put the Islanders up 1-0.
  • Hershey’s only goal would come on the man advantage. Some good puck movement from the second unit saw Corey Schueneman get a wide open look from the point, and it would be Henrik Rybinski who would tip it home to tie the game at one.
  • Great to see Captain Aaron Ness back on the ice tonight. Him and Louie Belpedio’s return is a real boost to Hershey’s backend headed into the playoffs.
  • Clay Stevenson was excellent once again. In his last three games, including his start for the Capitals against Columbus this past Tuesday, Stevenson has stopped the last 80 of his 84 shots faced. can’t really ask for much better than that.
  • The first line struggled to create all night. Derek King called them out in the press conference, which you can watch below. I am sorry if the sound sucks, the microphone connector I have for my phone broke after my pregame preview. I overnighted new stuff for tomorrow!
  • It was a real heartbreaker on Bridgeport’s winning goal. Calle Odelius’s shot deflected off Sam Bitten’s stick and past Stevenson. It’s the little things like being out of position on your guy that matter the most, and that goal was just another example there for this group.
  • I didn’t think, and Coach King agreed with me, that the Bears did enough to make Varlamov move in net. Varlamov has great NHL pedigree, with over 250 career NHL wins, but he hasn’t played hockey in over a year consistently and is about to turn 38. You have to make him move to have success.
  • Need a win tomorrow to get at least one game in the Giant Center. Lose and Hershey will be in Charlotte for all their games in the play-in round. You cannot have that happen.
  • Hershey now falls to 13-16-6 on home ice this year. This has been the underlying stat killing the Bears all season, and I’m not sure what the issue is. Do they feel too much pressure at home, is the environment not good enough, does the group not get fired up for home games? Giant Center, in its history, has always been a tough place for teams to come play. This has been the outlier season and a real blemish on this group.
  • We’ll see what lineup changes Derek King makes tomorrow. The lines will be shuffled, but will Wyatt Bongiovanni get back in the lineup, does Leon Muggli sneak in, who gets the start in net? These are all questions that King and his staff will have to decide on before tomorrow’s matchup against Rochester.

Postgame Comments

Head Coach Derek King: https://youtu.be/zwM4wZaUqSM?si=XpTlNcl_Tzx-ampz

Aaron Ness: https://youtu.be/u71zUT7TEVw?si=fh4GF7IeU-ekEVVU

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