The Hershey Bears, playing in the building that will host the 2009 AHL All-Star Classic later this month, notched their second consecutive road victory, sailing to a 7-2 over the Worcester Sharks on Sunday afternoon at DCU Center.
Hershey’s victory, their league-leading 26th of the season, guaranteed that head coach Bob Woods and assistant coach Mark French would be leading the Canadian contingent in the All-Star game on January 26th. Washington Capitals head coach and former Bears coach, Bruce Boudreau, will be inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame during the All-Star festivities.
Alexandre Giroux, who led Hershey’s offensive charge in Saturday’s win in Hartford against the Wolfpack with a four-point effort (1 goal, 3 assists), topped that dominating performance in this encounter, registering a career high five points (4 goals, 1 assist).
Continuing a season long trend that has seen the Chocolate and White score ten goals within two and a half minutes of the opening faceoff, Giroux netted the first goal of the game only fifteen seconds into the contest. Giroux’s goal, his 20th of the season, marked the 4th time in his AHL career that he has reached the 20-goal plateau.
Worcester’s Lukas Kaspar’s power play goal at 18:01, with Kip Brennan serving a minor penalty for roughing, tied the game at 1-1. Steven Zalewski and former Bear, Patrick Traverse, assisted on Kaspar’s goal, his eighth of the season.
Hershey defenseman Bryan Helmer’s hooking penalty early in the second period gave Worcester a chance to build upon the momentum created by Kaspar’s late first period goal. However, Helmer’s penalty actually gave the Bears a much needed boost.
Helmer, after emerging from the penalty box at the conclusion of his sentence, was sprung on a breakaway by a pretty outlet pass from the Bears’ defensive zone. Despite failing to convert the opportunity, the efforts of Hershey’s captain did draw a hooking penalty on Worcester’s Claude Lemieux at 3:50.
Keith Aucoin, who scored the Bears’ first goal on Friday night in Hartford, made Lemieux pay for his transgression when he redirected a Chris Bourque point shot into the net at 4:25 to give the Bears a 2-1 lead. Aucoin’s power play marker, his sixth of the season, was the first one registered away from the friendly confines of Giant Center.
Moments after a bid by Kaspar to tie the game at 2-2 struck iron, but not paydirt, Giroux lit the lamp at 7:50 to give Hershey a 3-1 lead. Giroux’s goal was assited by Aucoin and Hershey netminder, Simeon Varlamov, who collected his second assist of the season. Both of Varlamov’s assists have been of the game-winning variety.
With both teams skating at four a side, the Sharks’ Ryan Vesce beat Hershey goalkeeper Simeon Varlamov at 11:16 to procure his 12th goal of the season, narrowing Worcester’s deficit to 3-2.
Steve Pinizzotto, who had just one AHL in 42 AHL games prior to the Bears embarking on this current five game road swing, struck for the third times in as many games at 15:09 to give Hershey another two-goal lead at 4-2.
With Greg Amadio in the penalty box serving a minor penalty for roughing, Giroux capped off his hat trick at 19:50, by deftly banking a shot off of Traverse and behind dismayed Worcester net minder, Taylor Dakers, to make it a 5-2 Hershey lead.
Giroux, appearing in his 534th AHL Game and entering the third period having already secured his seventh career hat trick, finished off his first ever four goal game by beating Dakers on the power play at 3:28 to stretch the Hershey lead to 6-2.
Late in the third period, Aucoin, the AHL’s leading point producer, struck for his second goal of the game by skillfully sliding the puck through the wickets of Dakers while Hershey was shorthanded at 17:12. Aucoin’s multi-goal game was his first of the season.