The Hershey Bears are enjoying a light week while it lasts. The Bears have the week to practice ahead of some key games as the calendar flips to March. Hershey plays three games at home before hitting the road for ten consecutive games. It’s a road trip that spans just over three weeks and features seven different opponents in six states. Hershey’s strength on the road will be tested mightily as it’s their last trip outside of Pennsylvania this season.
Last Stay at the Bears Den
March opens at Giant Center for a brief stretch of three games on home ice. The Bears play an important game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on March 1. Hershey’s I-81 rival has two games in-hand on the Bears, both of which they’ll play this week. If the Penguins win both games, the two teams will be playing for the Atlantic Division lead on Saturday.
Hershey plays another big game a day later when they host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Phantoms are pushing to move up in the division standings and have challenged the Bears in prior matchups. Hershey has a 3-2-1-0 record against Lehigh Valley over six games with four games remaining. It’ll be a challenging test against Pennsylvania rivals, which often paves the road to the playoffs.
Their last home game will be their final visit from the Belleville Senators. The Senators are in the midst of playing nine of 11 games away from home, spending time in Pennsylvania. Hershey has taken five of six points in the prior three games of the season series. Belleville is pushing to be in a playoff spot this month and will not be a pushover by any means.
The Road Ahead
Hershey embarks on a stretch of ten consecutive games away from home, the longest trip in team history. It’s not unusual for the Bears to spend most of March away from home, which is a typical fixture on the schedule. However, the Bears aren’t able to squeeze in a game or two as they did in the past. Giant Center will be heavily utilized in the meantime, with high school wrestling and basketball championships taking place. The venue will host the Harlem Globetrotters, Kevin Hart, and Cirque de Soleil all in the three weeks the team is away.
There will be little time for sightseeing for the Bears. Hershey travels to Cleveland for two road games on March 7 and 8. They’ll swing back to Pennsylvania to visit Wilkes-Barre before heading out again to Chicago on the 15th and 16th. Then, it’s Springfield, Hartford, and Wilkes-Barre for three games in four days. The last week of the trip is much lighter with Bridgeport on the 26th and Utica on the 29th. The Comets will visit the Bears a day later to end the month at home.
Hershey is on the ice for game action every Wednesday and every Saturday in March. It’s a total of 14 games in 30 days for the Bears. Although the Bears can settle in for some of their weekend sets of games, they’ll be on the move a lot during this trip. It’s a stretch of 25 days between games at Giant Center, and not a lot of time to even practice at home.
Back at Home for the Playoff Push
Once the road trip is complete, the Bears will not need to leave the state of Pennsylvania for the remainder of the regular season. Six of their final nine games of the campaign will be at home, with the road games within the state. It all serves as one big test for the Bears. Head coach Todd Nelson referred to this stretch as “go time” ahead of Sunday’s game against Charlotte.
“It’s go time now,” Nelson said. “If you look at the standings, everything’s really tight. We want to be one of those teams going into the playoffs that gets a first round bye. It’s go time for us, we have a tough month of March coming up. The guys have to understand that if you want to play for the Hershey Bears and be an everyday player, you have to work hard.”
Nelson referred to the prize in the Atlantic Division: a bye from the play-in round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. The group of teams has a strong likelihood of making the playoff as it stands today. Only the top two teams earn a bye from the best-of-three series. Five games against the second place Penguins loom large in settling this standings battle. Nearly all of their April games are in the division amidst the final push.
Not only are the Bears facing division rivals in this stretch, they’re playing hungry teams battling for the playoffs. Cleveland, Chicago, Springfield, and Hartford are all trying to jockey for positioning. Two matchups in that stretch are against the Penguins. Utica and Bridgeport, despite their status, are not going to be pushovers by any means.
The Final Countdown
With the final 22 games of the season ahead, it’s up to the Bears to shore up their play. Sunday’s win over Charlotte is indicative of the hockey Hershey will need to play in order to earn another deep run. Hershey tallied a shutout win behind Clay Stevenson’s strong play a day after a strong game from Hunter Shepard. One of the netminders will have to earn the confidence of the coaching staff for the postseason. So too will the lineup, where Nelson and his staff have been watching closely.
“It’s been one of the tougher years as a coach for me,” Nelson said. “It seems like we have to push the buttons every day with this group. A lot of these guys have played a lot of hockey over the last couple years and it’s mentally draining. As a coaching staff, we have to motivate the guys to get the best out of them. Everyone’s gunning for us. The point has been taken over the last four games that, to be part of a championship team, you have to work hard and contribute in some fashion.”
Hershey’s game has been trending in the right direction. Hendrix Lapierre has been red hot with points in four straight games. Ethan Bear took over the team lead in points with his 33rd on Sunday. It’s easy to see the team is missing the scoring prowess of Ethen Frank, who still holds the lead in goals scored two months removed from his recall. It will be worth waiting to see if the team adds before the March 7 trade deadline in the NHL.
For now, the team is gearing up to make a push in the home stretch of the regular season. This trip will test the Bears, who own the third best road record in the AHL at 16-3-4-0. As far as early tests go, this is as big as they get to see if this team is capable of a threepeat.
