The Hershey Bears are nearly through with their 72-game schedule for the 2023-24 season. The team is home for a pair of games against the Charlotte Checkers in a potential playoff preview. After going up early, the Bears surrendered a lead but staged a third period comeback in a 4-3 win. Hershey secured some more team history with the win, locking down the best points percentage in a single season in 86 years of Bears hockey. Clay Stevenson made 27 saves in the win, his 24th victory of the season.
Strome Stars
The Bears got off to a hot start, striking twice in the game’s first five minutes. Joe Snively struck for his 13th goal of the year on a quick pass from Matthew Phillips. The lightning-fast goal set the pace early in the game. Snively continues to pile up points, tallying nine in his last six games.
Moments after the goal, the Bears were flagged for a hooking call but managed to turn a negative into a positive. Matt Strome forced a turnover and went in on a breakaway but was held up, resulting in a penalty shot call. After a successful shootout winner in Iowa not too long ago, Strome followed it up by capitalizing on this opportunity.
Strome broke a lengthy drought for the Bears in terms of penalty shots with the goal. Hershey had not converted on a penalty shot in nearly six years, not since Riley Barber scored on Alex Lyon on October 28, 2018. It’s the latest feat for this year’s Bears group to conquer.
“(Strome) has been in some shootouts for us this year,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said. “He scored in Iowa to win the game and the other two times he hit the post. Even though he plays on the fourth line, he has a couple moves that caught Juha (Lehtola)’s eye, our goalie coach. I felt comfortable with him going on the penalty shot, it was a nice play by him.”
Checkers Check In
After the Strome goal, the Checkers turned the tables on the Bears. Charlotte piled up shots on Stevenson and rattled off two goals to tie the game before intermission. Wilmer Skoog took a pass from Mackie Semoskevich off a Hershey turnover and beat Stevenson high to cut the lead to one. Minutes later, the Checkers needed all of four seconds on a power play to even the count. A clean faceoff win and a hard shot from Mitchell Vande Sompel evened the count at two heading into the intermission.
Charlotte took the lead in the second period on Skoog’s second goal of the game. A pass from Samoskevich on the right side found Skoog with some space, and he beat Stevenson for his 21st goal of the season. Samoskevich tallied an assist on all three Checkers goals to suddenly put the visitors on top for the first time in this game.
A Challenging Call
The Checkers thought they pulled ahead by two goals just about halfway through regulation. Cameron Morrison took advantage of a puck that lost momentum on its way in towards Stevenson. He was able to jam the puck free and just over the goal line past the outstretched goaltender. Before the puck could be dropped, the Bears did something that’s rare at the AHL level: head coach Todd Nelson challenged the goal. Although it’s commonplace in the NHL, AHL rules are very different and don’t have the same rules typically. The review revealed that Morrison’s last contact with the puck was a kick with his skate, overturning the Charlotte goal.
“It’s funny because it’s not like the NHL where you have two video coaches and multiple different angles. I wasn’t going to do anything until I saw the Jumbotron and saw the goal go in. The players were going, ‘hey, it was kicked in,’ and I called the referee over and was told that, in order to review it, we had to challenge it. We guessed right.”
“That was the turning point, I thought. If it wasn’t right, we’d be down 4-2 and would have had to kill a penalty. The guys got a lift and focused hard in the third period. Charlotte’s a good hockey team, they’re so fast. They’re tough to play against.”
Room For a Comeback
Instead, Hershey was only down one goal instead of two going into the third period. It takes a lot to bury these Bears, even down six of their top players on recall to the Washington Capitals. Hershey tied the game on a goal from Alex Limoges, who deflected a shot from Ethen Frank for his 24th goal of the season. The goal gives Limoges a new single season best in terms of goals and hit 50 points for the second consecutive year. Frank earned the assist, but has one more game to try and hit 30 goals for the second straight campaign.
The Bears pulled ahead on a fantastic individual effort from Pierrick Dubé. Shadowing a Charlotte defender looking to interchange the puck with a teammate at the blue line, Dubé swooped in. He kicked the puck free to himself on a breakaway and beat Magnus Hellberg for his 28th goal of the season. The goal is a big confidence boost for Hershey’s blossoming goal scorer in the midst of a career year.
“First off, he did a good job checking, he checked well and stripped the puck,” Nelson said. “When he has opportunities like that, he doesn’t miss too often. It was a big goal for him for a lot of reasons. He was down on himself for not scoring, so it was a great night for him.”
Bear History and a Rematch
With the win, the Bears are guaranteed to have the best points percentage of any team in their storied 86-year history. That mark includes whatever the result of Saturday’s season finale might be. Their final points percentage will eclipse even that of the historic 2009-10 Hershey team that stacked up 60 wins in the regular season. Wednesday’s win moves the Bears to 53-13-0-5, good for 111 points. Their points percentage currently sits at 0.782, beating the 2009-10 team’s 0.769 mark. Hershey’s percentage can’t drop beneath that even with a loss in Saturday’s finale.
Charlotte is officially eliminated from finishing as high as second in the Atlantic Division. The Checkers can take over third place should they win and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins lose out in their final two games of the season. They’ll be back in Hershey for Saturday’s game before wrapping up their season in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Checkers will still have home ice advantage when the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs begin thanks to their current position. However, moving up gives them a more favorable matchup, in this case against those Phantoms.
