The Hershey Bears, following up on Wednesday’s season opening 8-4 dismantling of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, reeled off a pair of impressive wins last weekend over another division rival, the Norfolk Admirals.
On Friday night, Hershey rookie forward Oskar Osala’s first AHL goal, the only goal of the first period, started the weekend off on the right foot for the Bears. An early strike by Wyatt Smith and a goal off the stick of Brandon Bochenski at 8:32 gave Norfolk a 2-1 lead. Norfolk’s lead would prove to be very brief, after Graham Mink, Andrew Gordon and Alexandre Giroux each lit the lamp within a four-minute span to give Hershey a 4-2 lead after two periods. Norfolk’s Paul Szczechura’s goal at 9:43 of the third period made it interesting, cutting Hershey’s lead to 4-3. Norfolk coach Darren Rumble, a former Bear, in an effort to get the equalizing goal, elected to pull goaltender Karri Ramo for an extra attacker with just over two minutes remaining in regulation time. Rumble’s high stake gamble did not pay off, when Chris Bourque’s empty net goal at 18:44 culminated the scoring, giving Hershey the 5-3 win. Goaltender Daren Machesney picked up his second win in as many outings, stopping 19-of-22 Norfolk missiles fired in his direction.
On Saturday night, Hershey’s much heralded rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov made his professional debut. Varlamov, after yielding an early to goal to Norfolk’s Radek Smolenak only 4:20 into the game, settled down, not allowing another goal until early in the third period. Keith Aucoin countered the Smolenak goal with his second goal of the season, tying the game at 1-1 after twenty minutes. Rookie Francois Bouchard’s first goal of the season at 18:23 was the only goal of the second period, giving Hershey a 2-1 lead after two periods. After Norfolk‘s Brandon Segal tied the game at 2-2 early in the third period, rookie Mathieu Perreault’s marker at 8:46 gave Hershey a 3-2 lead. Hershey nemesis Zenon Konopka, who earned that distinction while skating for the Portland Pirates in the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs, sent the game into overtime with his first goal of the year at 10:57. Varlamov and his Norfolk counterpart, Karri Ramo, stopped all four shots they faced in the extra session to send the game into the shootout. In the shootout, Varlamov stopped three of four Norfolk shooters, while Alexandre Giroux, Bouchard and Aucoin, all beat Ramo to seal the deal in the Chocolate and White’s 5-4 shootout win.