Caps prospects/Hershey Bears thread

[DC HEELS]

Yawn, a pretty uneventfull off season

[Don Incognito]

I cant wait to see this guy in action

[YanksNats1987]

Hershey opened their playoffs last night against Charlotte. Lost the game 5-4. Here's a recap:

In a back and forth game at Giant Center Thursday, the Charlotte Checkers scored two third period goals to rally to a 5-4 win in Game 1 of the East Division Semi-Finals. Charlotte claimed, at least for now, home ice in the best-of-seven series with Game 2 looming Sunday.

Steve Pinizzotto got HERSHEY'S postseason off to a big bang with his first goal of the playoffs just 70 seconds into the game. While the crowd was overjoyed to see the early strike from the home team, Charlotte would rally to take a 2-1 lead with goals from Zac Dalpe and Chris Terry. Terry's goal came midway through the first period, and deflected off a skate blade in front of HERSHEY goaltender Braden Holtby. Keith Aucoin would tie the game at 2-2 before first intermission, with his first of the postseason at 16:34. Brian Willsie and Patrick McNeill would assist, and the game was deadlocked after 20 minutes.

Charlotte took a 3-2 lead in the second period at the 8:15 mark when Brett Bellemore scored a short-handed goal. Bellemore pounced on a rebound of a Nicolas Blanchard shot to give the Checkers the lead, but Boyd Kane would score on Charlotte goaltender Justin Pogge at 13:11. A pretty assist came on the goal from Aucoin, who stole the puck from Zach Boychuk in the HERSHEY zone and slung the puck up ice. Kane would take the pass, skate in and score on a fluttering puck off Pogge and into the net. The BEARS held a 27-16 shot advantage through two periods, but the game was tied at 3-3.

Brian Willsie scored 1:42 into the third period to give HERSHEY a 4-3 lead, but the Charlotte rally began with Zach Boychuk scoring at 8:40 of the period to tie the game. The game-winner came off Drayson Bowman's stick less than two minutes late at 10:38. Pogge earned the win with 27 saves. Holtby stopped 23 of 28 in defeat.

http://www.hersheybears.com/news/detail.php?id=3531

Next game is on April 17.

[YanksNats1987]

Charlotte won last night to even the series with Hershey at 2.

[YanksNats1987]

The Bears dropped another game last night and now trail the series 3-2. They'll have to win both games back at Hershey in order to advance.

[YanksNats1987]

Herhsey lost today in OT, so unfortunately that means their season is over...

[YanksNats1987]

The Hershey Bears announced that the Capitals have resigned AHL defenseman Zach Miskovic to a one-year contract. Miskovic, who was originally signed as a free agent in 2009, recorded a career high of seven goals along with 16 points in 58 games for the Bears during the 2010-11 season.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...YX6G_blog.html

[InsaneBoost]

Good deal, we need those D men.

[YanksNats1987]

The Capitals have re-signed restricted free-agent defenseman Patrick McNeill to a two-year contract.

According to Cap Geek, which first reported the deal, it is a two-way contract worth $525,000 per season if McNeill is playing in the NHL or $105,000 if he is in the minor leagues.

McNeill, 24, has spent the past four seasons with the Hershey Bears and was recalled briefly by the Capitals this past year but has yet to make his NHL debut. He appeared in 51 games for the Bears in the 2010-11 regular season, recording seven goals, 27 points and finished with a plus-7 rating.

Capitals Insider

[YanksNats1987]

From Bob McKenzie:

WSH signs goalie Dany Sabourin to 1 year 2 way contract. $525K in NHL/$150K in minors.

[YanksNats1987]

Since there's no NHL right now and possibly the entire season, at least Hershey gets to play.

Right now they are 1-2 on the season. Jon DiSalvatore and Jeff Taffe lead the way with 6 points.

Hopefully the Bears put together a nice season. Reminder: Bears play the Norfolk Admirals at Verizon center on December 6th!

[PineAppleFlavor]

Braden Holtby and his Bears were dismantled yesterday by the Syracuse Crunch, however, they seem to have gotten it together vs. the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins tonight.
4-1 final with Holtby stopping 23 of 24.