“Their four goals, when you look at them, are a direct result of us,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said on Tuesday. “What we’re going to learn from this is that our last three games we’ve taken 19 penalties. That’s going to cost us in the playoffs. That’s from us not moving our feet and not keeping our sticks on the ice. I told the guys ‘if you don’t want to keep your sticks on the ice, I’ll get weighted sticks and you’re going to skate all day with your stick on the ice’. Maybe that will get the message across.”
Nelson didn’t mince words in describing his frustration with the Hershey Bears. Penalty trouble has taken center stage in the team’s last three games, with the Bears shorthanded 19 times in that span. The amount of time spent in the penalty box threw the Bears off their game. Hershey was shorthanded a total of eight times in the first 40 minutes of action. Some of those calls were not the best, with a hit on Ryan Hofer along the boards standing out as one of the most egregious not to be called.
“Frustration set in with our guys. Ryan Hofer is in the defensive zone, their guy came in with a head shot right on his jaw. Those are the types of hits that the league wants to get out of the game. There was no call, so if the referees aren’t going to protect the players, the players are going to protect each other. That’s why the game got out of hand in the second, that’s all on (the referees).”
It’s a symptom of a larger issue for the Bears. Hershey has the second-fewest penalty minutes of any team in the American Hockey League, with only the Texas Stars boasting fewer. In Hershey’s last two games in Cleveland, the Bears similarly took six and five penalties in each game. They were able to get through those, but the impact has been tough and lasting. It might be easier to get away with it against a team like Cleveland, heavily depleted as they might be, but it’s not a sustainable trend. There’s blame to be placed on the officials for what can only be described as a debacle of a game, certainly, but the Bears do need to control as much as what’s in their power to control.
The good news is that the Bears, when playing at even strength, have still been pretty good since their meeting. It’s still a massive missed opportunity for the Bears to wrap up their regular season series against the Bruins with six of six possible wins. Hershey has not always fared well against Providence both recently and historically. The loss is also a missed opportunity to put a dent in magic numbers for the division and the AHL as a whole. Hershey’s magic number to clinch the AHL dropped to 11 on Wednesday as a result of a loss for the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Hershey will be doing some scoreboard watching this weekend. Providence is in action on Friday and Saturday, and losses in both of those games plus a Hershey win guarantees clinching the division as well as dropping the magic number for the league as far as eight should Coachella Valley lose on Saturday. The soonest the Bears could clinch the league title would be Thursday, provided everything falls down the right way
In the meantime, the Bears take on the Hartford Wolf Pack for the last time this season. Outside of Hershey’s trip to Iowa next weekend, Saturday’s game will be the last time the Chocolate and White need to exit the state of Pennsylvania for a game. It’s still a bit hard to believe the playoffs are approaching, as Saturday’s game also marks the last game of March. Hershey’s season ends on April 20.
Hartford enters play off of a 3-0 loss to the Charlotte Checkers on Wednesday. The Wolf Pack have struggled in recent time, with a record of 2-6-1-1 in their last ten games. Wednesday’s game helped Charlotte move into third place in the Atlantic Division while leaving Hartford down in fifth place by four points. Hartford is still likely to make the playoffs, holding a lead of seven points over Lehigh Valley, but have lost home ice advantage in the play-in round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Hershey needs to bring a disciplined approach to Saturday’s matchup for this game.
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