The Hershey Bears concluded the 2023-24 season on Saturday before a near-capacity crowd at Giant Center against the Charlotte Checkers. In a tight-checking game, the Checkers went up early and managed to hold off a late push from the Bears. After leading 2-0 for most of the game, Hershey cut into the lead, but 2-1 is as far as it got for the Bears. A pair of empty net goals led to a 4-1 final score. A win for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins out of town locked in the playoff matchups for the opening phase of the Calder Cup Playoffs. The Checkers will see the Hartford Wolf Pack beginning on Thursday night.
Bears Team Awards
The night began with team awards for the Bears on Fan Appreciation Night. Jake Massie was honored for his selection as the AHL Man of the Year Award earlier this month. Vincent Iorio received the John Travers/Steve Summers Award for the highest plus/minus on the team (Aaron Ness received the award in his place). Pierrick Dubé received the Kenny Smith Memorial Award for the most Player of the Game selections from the radio broadcast after games. Jimmy Huntington won the Arlene Tighe Award as the team’s Unsung Hero while Chase Priskie took the Milton Garland Award as the top defenseman. Henrik Rybinski received the Dan Sernoffsky Memorial Coaches Award for the most improved player.
Among the honors on Saturday, Aaron Ness skated in his 800th professional game in a milestone for the tenured Bears defender. Clay Stevenson scooped up the Jack Gingrich Award as the team’s rookie of the year. Hunter Shepard took the Mountz Team Most Valuable Player Award. Shepard earned the AHL’s First All-Star Team Award earlier this week in other awards for the netminder. He posted a record of 27-4-3 in 34 appearances. His 1.76 goals against average and 0.929 save percentage lead the league in both categories.
Shepard and Stevenson won the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for the 2023-24 season. The award is given to the goaltender(s) who allow the fewest goals per game in the regular season. Per the Bears, it’s just the fifth time the team has received this particular league award. The team’s excellence has earned a lot of awards both individually and collectively. Hershey also collected the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL’s top regular season team. The Bears finish with a record of 53-14-0-5, good for 111 points.
Checkmate
Charlotte broke through twice in the early stages of the first period. Familiar face to the rivalry Mackie Samoskevich finished a nifty passing play with Rasmus Asplund. No goaltender would stop this shot on the rush, although Shepard was awfully close to doing so. Samoskevich stays red hot after posting a trio of assists in Wednesday’s matchup between these two teams. Samoskevich has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his last six games. Will Lockwood added another one just over a minute later on a great feed from Justin Sourdif on the boards. Charlotte led 2-0 for most of the game.
Suddenly, Hershey was on the verge of some odd bookends to their season. The Bears were shut out during their first game of the campaign and were just over a minute away from ending on a similar fate. Joe Snively eliminated that possibility with a blast from the point that finally broke through Spencer Knight (24 saves), but the Checkers tallied twice on the empty net in a 4-1 final score.
“Quite honestly, if Hunter Shepard didn’t play as sharp as he did, they could have had four or five,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said. “We got a bit better in the second, the third was our best. I thought their goaltender played well. It would have been nice (to get the win), but that’s not the endgame for us right now. We’re focusing on the big prize.”
“The guys got a bit of a scare. Charlotte’s a big team and a fast one. They spent a lot of time in our zone and they’ll be a team to be reckoned with in the playoffs. It’s more of an eye opener for our guys than anything, to be quite honest. It’s not a bad thing, because when we break down the video it’s not going to be pretty.”
Playoff Ready
The results in Saturday’s action locked in the playoff matchups for the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Charlotte will host the Hartford Wolf Pack in all three games of their series beginning on April 25. Like last season, Bojangles Coliseum will host all three games due to the AHL’s travel regulations. Hartford will get the benefits of being the host team in Game Two with getting the last change, but that’s it. The other playoff series will be a Pennsylvania rivalry between the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Sunday, April 28 is the last day of action in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Hershey will await the winners of the first round. The Bears have a bye for the second consecutive year, leaving them to an extended break. Like last year, Nelson will integrate rest with strong practices and an inter-team scrimmage to keep his club ready. The timeline for Hershey to begin postseason play is not known and depends on who advances. If the higher seeded Penguins and Checkers emerge, the Bears will have a first-round rematch against Charlotte. That would require the Bears to start on the road in a 2-3 series. If the Checkers fall, the Bears stay put at Giant Center and any other series would be a 2-2-1 format. It might take until May for the Bears to be back in action again.
