Anderson, Bears Find Stride to End Homestand

After three and a half weeks of enjoying the comforts of home, the Hershey Bears wrapped up a seven-game homestand at GIANT Center with a 5-2 triumph over the Belleville Senators on Saturday night.

Hershey’s luck wasn’t necessarily on its side to begin the contest, as the Bears put up five straight shots to open the game before Belleville capitalized with a power-play goal with its first shot of the night. The Senators then tacked on an additional goal in the second period to take a 2-0 lead, and it appeared that Belleville was poised to pick up its second win of the weekend after a 7-3 thrashing of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday.

Still, Bears head coach Derek King was pleased with what he saw out of his team’s overall effort.

“Our plan was to try to jump on a tired team,” King said. “That’s a good hockey team over there, and we kind of wore them down by just keeping putting pucks on the net. But I think that’s the best three periods we’ve played this year so far.”

After Spencer Smallman got the Bears on the board in the second period, Hershey exploded for four goals in the final stanza. Joey Anderson netted a pair of goals to continue his strong offensive production (three goals and an assist in his last three games) after initially being a healthy scratch for the first three games of the season.

“He’s been helping our kids, the young guys – especially the wingers – helping them on how to do board work and stuff like that,” King said of Anderson. “But [he’s] great in the locker room and [it’s] hard not to like a guy like that.”

Not bad for a guy who joined the team in training camp on a professional tryout agreement and remains on his PTO at the conclusion of Hershey’s fourth week of the season. It helps that Anderson has an advocate in King, as the two both worked together in the Chicago Blackhawks-Rockford IceHogs pipeline.

“[I’ve had] a relationship with him over the years, so I know what he can do,” King said. “I’m sure he’s not in an easy position too on a PTO and family here, but he does everything right. He’s a great pro.”

Anderson also spoke of being able to reunite with King here in Hershey.

“It’s been huge. I don’t feel like I’ve felt the best as far as my game has been kind of the whole year – I feel like I’ve fought the puck, I haven’t exactly been confident. But I do know how to play, and I know where to be, and I know how to put out fires and play smart, and put pucks into good areas,” Anderson said. “These are all things I did with Kinger when I was in Chicago, so he’s used to that; he knows that’s something I can bring of value and I’ve told him I don’t care where I play. If he needs me to be on that third or fourth line working pucks out of the D-zone, that’s fine with me and kind of just the familiarity with me and Kinger has been really big for me kind of trying to get myself comfortable here.”

Awaiting the Bears next week is their first slate of road games this season, with games at Rochester and Toronto on Wednesday and Friday respectively, before returning home for Sunday’s clash with rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

After several weeks of a schedule reminiscent of college hockey, with practices during the week and games on the weekend, King is excited to wrap up the homestand and get the team back into a routine that is more suited to the grind of an AHL season.

“It’s great. Love being at home with the fans and everything, but just too many days in between games and then just practice and practice. So we’re looking forward to getting on the road and, you know, get going here.”

Written by Bears media specialist Jesse Liebman. Responses edited for clarity.