Bears beat Checkers 2-1

Here are a few thoughts from last night's game:

1.  Everybody say "Thank You DANY!!".

While the Bears were being outshot 12-4 in the first period and for much of the 2nd period, goalie Dany Sabourin was making big save after big save to keep the team in the game.  Charlotte came out and dominated play for the first 30 minutes of the game.  And Dany is the ONLY reason the Bears weren't down more than 1 in that period.

2.  Tomas Kundratek's huge hit.

Midway through the third period Tomas Kundratek made a clean hit on Checkers winger Nicolas Blanchard.  Blanchard was knocked out immediately and after a few minutes he did skate off under his own power...with assists from a couple of teammates.

The reason I bring this up isn't so much for the hit but for the Giant Center's staff.  Blanchard was injured on the play...and it was serious enough where they had the gurney sitting by the ice entrance as they thought they might need it.  Yet the GC video staff felt the need to make it the crunch of the game?  Really?  I can understand showing the replay after the player left the ice.  That is fine.  Showing it more than once, they showed it twice back to back, was questionable but ok.

But don't make it the crunch of the game.  Yes it was a clean hit, Blanchard kind of contorted his body a bit to make the pass and that cost him, but he was still injured on the play.  Maybe I am alone on this, but if that same situation happened to a Bear on the road, I would be pissed off.

3.  Officiating.

Terrible.  And it wasn't just the missed calls and questionable calls...which by the way, can someone explain to me how Chris Bourque got a cross-checking penalty in the 3rd period when his stick CLEARLY didn't make contact with the Checker AND he was holding the stick with one hand??  That had to be the worst call of the night.

Anyways.  Yes the calls were bad, but even worse was referee Timmy Mayer jawing with the Bears all game long.  At one point the puck bounced off of him and went to the Checkers...Boyd Kane didn't like that and said something to Mayer (shocking I know) and Mayer kept arguing with him about him for a couple of minutes afterwards.  What kind of ref does that?  Just your mouth and ignore him.  Not a very good job by the referee last night....in any way.

4.  Standings.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton hosted the St. John's IceCaps last night.  They lost.  Which means that Hershey is only 1 point behind the Pens for 4th in the Eastern Conference with one game in hand and one game head to head the rest of the way.

The Bears are also 9 points ahead of 6th place Bridgeport.  More coming on this stuff next week.

5.  And finally...the Announcement!

The Hershey Bears will celebrate their 75th year in the AHL by hosting the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in an outdoor game at HersheyPark Stadium next January 20th.  Tickets will be made available to season ticket holders on June 18th and the public on sale date will be announced in the future.