The Hershey Bears first regular season venture into Texas was not a successful one, as the Bears fell to the San Antonio Rampage at the AT&T Center, 3-0.
With the win, the Rampage, who snapped a 17-game winless streak last week, extended their winning streak to five straight games. Hershey, in defeat, saw their franchise record 11-game winning streak come to a halt.
Despite a combined 42 shots on goal during the first two periods, the game remained scoreless, thanks to some outstanding goaltending from Hershey’s Simeon Varlamov and his San Antonio counterpart, Josh Tordjman.
San Antonio’s Chad Kolarik, a native of Abington, Pennsylvania, beat Varlamov to break the scoreless duel at 1:36 of the third period with his ninth goal of the season.
Sensing the kill, the Rampage quickly doubled their lead on a goal by Brett MacLean at 1:58, only 22 seconds after the Kolarik strike. The Kolarik and MacLean markers set a new Hershey season record for the quickest back-to-back goals surrendered, eclipsing the previous record of 23 seconds, ironically set in the Bears’ only other previous shutout loss of the season, a 6-0 whitewashing in Hamilton on Oct. 29.
San Antonio’s Derek Nesbitt, a college teammate of former Bear Troy Milam at Ferris State, cashed in on the power play 9:22 to give the Rampage the final 3-0 margin of victory. Nesbitt’s power play tally, registered with former Rampage Bryan Helmer in the penalty box, broke a string of 22 straight successful penalty kills for the Chocolate and White.