Photo courtesy Steve Earley / The Virginian-Pilot

Bears 5, Admirals 2

The Hershey Bears have made a habit out of being outshot in games in the first quarter of their 2012-13 season. 17 out of their first 18 games in fact, but that changed Wednesday night as the Bears cruised to 5-2 victory over the slumping Norfolk admirals, outshooting the Ads along the way 35-26. The last time the Bears outshot an opponent was the home opener, way back on October 20, an 8-7 loss to the Rochester Americans. In what hopefully is a sign that the team is starting to turn things around, 14 different skaters recorded points in what has been deemed a total team effort. TJ Syner (2), Patrick McNeill (1), and Garrett Mitchell (5) scored single tallies, while Jon DiSalvatore (5) added two lamp lighters for the Chocolate & White, who won their second in a row in a game they would never trail. The loss, their sixth in a row, drops the Admirals further into the East Division basement, now three points back of the 4th place Bears.

The first period was a back and forth battle, as both teams seemed to be feeling each other out in their first meeting of the season. The Bears would get on the board first very late in the period as Syner would score on a tap in from a great pass across the crease from Matt Beaudoin at the 19:05 mark of the first. Zach Hamill would pick up the secondary assist for his sixth point in the last six games. The Bears would finish the period up by the lone tally and be leading the shots race 13-7 at that point of the game.

Norfolk would score the equalizer 7:39 into the second as Kyle Palmieri would score his 7 th of the season. Bears defenseman Cam Schilling turned the puck over behind his own net to Admirals’ forward and leading scorer Peter Holland who circle out in front and found a cutting Palmieri who deposited the puck into the gaping, seemingly wide open cage to knot the game at 1. The game would only stay that way for about five minutes as Jon DiSalvatore, fresh off scoring his 500th AHL point in the Bears victory over the Marlies at Giant Center Sunday, scored his fourth of the season to put the Bears back in front. Bears leading scorer Jeff Taffe would dump the puck around the wall, where it was picked up by Evan Barlow who skated in to the right circle, spun and threw the puck in front to DiSalvatore, who redirected in on Admirals’ goalie Igor Bobkov (3-6-0), who made the original save but DiSalvatore got a second whack at it and got it by the young Russian netminder. The assist by Barlow was his second in as many games since joining the club from the Reading Royals of the ECHL. The goal came at the 12:37 of the period. The Bears would increase their lead 52 seconds later when defenseman McNeill would blast a center point shot under the glove of Bobkov to give the Chocolate & White the lead for good. McNeill has been mostly out of the lineup this season, playing in only four of the team’s 19 games, much to the chagrin of Bears nation. The goal was his first on the campaign and his second point in as many games. Defensive partner Dmitry Orlov and forward Matt Pope were credited with assist on the play and the second stanza came to an end with the Bears up 3-1.

The Ads would not go quietly however, as forward John Mitchell would redirect a point shot from defenseman Gabe Guentzel, past Bears goalie Braden Holtby (6-6-0) to cut the deficit in half at the 6:48 mark. The goal was Mitchell’s fourth of the season and the secondary assist was credited to Admirals’ captain Nate Guenin. That was as close as the Ads would get however, as the Bears spark plug forward Garrett Mitchell would break their backs with a one-timer goal from the slot to make it 4-2 at 16:23 of the period. Bears forward Ryan Potulny backhanded the puck from the half wall in behind the net where Bears’ captain Boyd Kane corralled it and fed Mitchell, who was all by himself in the slot Mitchell blasted the puck past Bobkov which really took all the wind out of the Admirals sails. Disalvatore would add his second of the night a few minutes later into the empty net, on an assist from Taffe to finish out the scoring. Bobkov who played well in the losing effort stopped 30 of the 34 shots he faced, while Holtby turned aside 24 of the 26 he saw for his sixth win of the season. The Chocolate & White will look to add to their modest two game winning streak this Friday night as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers come to the GC for the first time.

3 Stars
1. Patrick McNeill (HER) – scores first of the year for the GWG
2. Dmitry Orlov (HER) – has primary assist on McNeill’s game winner, game high +3
3. Garrett Mitchell (HER) – scores his 5th to give Bears some insurance

Between The Blue Lines
• The Bears scratched defensemen Garrett Stafford (upper body), and Julien Brouillette (healthy), as well as forwards Matt Clackson (healthy), Ryan Stoa (upper body), Jon Kalinski (hand), and Mattias Sjogren (healthy). The Admirals didn’t give jerseys to defensemen Ryan Parent, Hampus Lindholm, & Matt Smaby, as well as forward Corey Elkins, all for undisclosed reasons.

• This was the first of three meetings between the two clubs in the next eight days. They will play this Saturday at the GC and next Thursday (12/6) at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C., home of the Bears’ parent club the Washington Capitals.

• After winning their first four games of the season, Norfolk has dropped 11 of their last 14 games.

• Game attendance was 3,176.

• According to Tim Leone of the Patriot News/PennLive.com, Patrick McNeill’s goals was his 137 th point in a Bears uniform, tying him for ninth place in all-time scoring by Bears’ defenseman with Barry Ashbee.

• The Bears defensive pairing of McNeill and Orlov each had a plus/minus rating of +3.

• Both teams finished ‘o-fer’ on the power play with Bears going 0-2 and the Ads going 0-3.

Next Up
Friday night (11/30) vs. Bridgeport Sound Tigers @ the GC @ 7 PM