The Hershey Bears and the Charlotte Checkers met up for an afternoon tilt at Bojangles Coliseum. After the Checkers struck for a heartbreaker on Saturday, the Bears looked to take a split in the rematch. Sunday’s game marked the finale of the regular season series. Clay Stevenson stood on his head with a 26-save shutout, his first clean sheet of the year. Ivan Miroshnichenko’s goal stood up as the winner in a 2-0 final score.
Stevenson’s Saves
Stevenson didn’t have a ton of work in the game with just 12 saves in the first two periods. His main body of work happened in the third period as Charlotte pressed to even the score. Hershey’s sophomore netminder was credited with 14 saves in the third (a number that may be amended later to add more). His best work included the net nearly falling on him but recovering to make the save.
The shutout is the first of the year for Stevenson after posting seven a year ago. It’s just the second clean sheet of the campaign for the Bears since October 20. Stevenson earned it, helping the Bears win the special teams battle with four penalty kills. Despite a hefty disadvantage in the third, the Bears limited the number of quality chances against.
“We were all hungry as a group to get the job done today,” Stevenson said after the game. “We had more to give, put together a solid sixty minutes. (The defense) kept it pretty simple for me to stop shots.”
The win follows a strong performance in a loss for Hunter Shepard, who made 35 saves on Saturday. Shepard kept the Bears in the game, a difference of just one late goal. It’s a solid showing for the defense and goaltending to play a typical Hershey Bears hockey game. Hershey had allowed three or more goals in ten straight games ahead of the weekend. The team’s goaltenders bucked that trend this weekend.
Miro Bears Down
It was a strong showing for Charlotte netminder Ken Appleby, who was the only goalie to make a mistake on Sunday. He made 20 saves on 21 shots, allowing one goal in his last two starts. The lone goal to beat him was off the stick of Ivan Miroshnichenko on the power play. Miroshnichenko found a loose puck after Hendrix Lapierre chopped it on net and buried his 13th goal of the year.
Lapierre has been on a tear of late, extending his point streak to four straight games. In that span, he has seven points (three goals, four assists) in addition to AHL Player of the Week honors. Hershey scored the only power play goal of the afternoon on the AHL’s best penalty kill.
Hershey added one more on the empty net as Ethan Bear stopped a shot and flung the puck the distance the other way. Bear, who represented the Bears in the All-Star Game, had a strong showing defensively. He ranks eighth in the AHL among defenders with 33 points and a plus-22 mark in 46 games.
Sunday Split
Sunday’s game marked the final time the Bears and the Checkers will meet in the regular season. Over eight games, both teams took four wins, though the Checkers had more points via overtime decisions. Each team took three of their wins on the road. The win gives the Bears a six-point edge over the Checkers in the standings.
The Atlantic Division race is turning into a dogfight for positioning with the month of March looming. Teams like Charlotte, Providence, and Lehigh Valley are trying to move up in the standings. The top two teams earn a bye from the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. All divisional matchups will be measuring stick games into the penultimate month of the regular season.
Hershey will open a busy month of March on home ice against Wilkes-Barre in another essential installation of the I-81 rivalry. They’ll play three games at home before embarking on a historic ten-game road trip over more than three weeks. The trip serves to test their mettle playing seven different teams in that stretch.
