The 2022-23 season is off to a great start for the Hershey Bears. The Bears are sitting in second place in the league with a (9-3-2) record and are on the hunt for their 12th Caulder Cup. Todd Nelson behind the bench, Captain Dylan McIlarth leading the team (mainly from the “Sin Bin”), and the team of Hunter Shepard/ Zach Fucale keeping the crease clean seems to be working out beautifully for the Bears.
The Hartford Wolf Pack tried their luck in the loaded “Giant Center” barn only to be shown the door a few hours later with their tails tucked between their legs. The Bears throttled Hartford with a stunning 6-1 victory on Saturday night. Mason Morelli started the onslaught 10 minutes into the game with a beautiful goal assisted by Garrett Pilon and Henrik Borgstrom. Morelli leads the Bears this season in assists and points (9) and (11) each respectfully with Hendrix Lapierre and Mike Vecchione following close behind. Morelli’s assistants Borgstrom and Pilon decided to not let Morelli have all the fun, so the boys each added a goal to the board for the Bears. When the buzzer sounded at the end of the first period the Bears were on top 3-0 with 9 shots on goal compared to Hartford’s 4. After the break the goals started flying early in the second, Sam Anas started us off about six minutes in with a slippery little deflection goal, which also turned out to be Anas’ 100th professional goal. Vecchione followed the leader a few moments later extending the Bears lead to 5-0.
Somehow in all the melee Andy Welinski finds the net for the Wolf Pack and finally gets them on the board late in the second period making the score 5-1 in favor of the good guys. Lapierre joined the scoring party with only a handful of ticks left in the period, sending the Bears to the intermission with a 5 point lead.
Despite a barrage of shots from both The Bears and The Pack the game remained scoreless in the third, which allowed the Bears to claim a VICTORY on “Hockey Fights Cancer” night. Hershey had 32 shots on goal while Hartford had a dismally low 19, The Pack did however lead the Bears in penalty minutes for the night, 4-2.
The Bears face Hartford again November 20, 2022 in the Giant Center at 4:30pm E/T on the AHL network and can be heard on Fox Sports 1460 in Harrisburg.
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