Vecchione Hat Trick Powers Bears to 4-2 Win Over Checkers

January 11, 2025

Mike Vecchione recorded a hat trick and the Hershey Bears (23-11-3-0) completed a weekend road sweep of the Charlotte Checkers (19-9-2-2) with a 4-2 win on Saturday night at Bojangles Coliseum, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

Vecchione opened the scoring in the first period, then scored the go-ahead goal in the third after Alex Limoges had tied the game at 2-2 in the second, and completed his second career AHL hat trick with an empty-net goal.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Vecchione gave Hershey a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 4:05 of the first period for his sixth of the season from Luke Philp and Ethan Bear.
• The Bears were forced to play the remainder of the game with a short bench after Pierrick Dube received a game misconduct at 18:27 of the first period.
• Alex Limoges scored for the second straight night during a 5-on-3 man advantage at 15:30 to tie the score at 2-2 and extend his point streak to five games (2g, 3a) since returning from injury. Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko received assists on the goal.
• Vecchione redirected Vincent Iorio's feed past Appleby at 4:56 of the third to put Hershey up 3-2, then completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal at 18:16 for his second career three-goal game and his first since May 9, 2021 at Ontario as a member of the Colorado Eagles.
• Spencer Smallman returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury and dressed in his 300th career professional game (275 AHL GP; 25 ECHL GP).
• Hershey improved to 3-3-0-0 against Charlotte this season.

SHOTS: HER 18, CLT 29

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 27-for-29; CLT - Ken Appleby, 14-for-17

POWER PLAY: HER - 2-for-6; CLT - 0-for-6

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Todd Nelson on the momentum of Friday's game:
"It was a really good, playoff-style hockey game. Both teams were really hungry. It was a pretty chippy game as well on both sides and our guys just stuck with it for 60 minutes. It was a pretty good 60 minutes for us and our special teams were huge tonight.

Nelson on how the team managed the game misconduct that resulted in the ejection of Pierrick Dube:
"I gave the line of Rybinski, Philp, and Vecchione double duty. So one of those three guys would be going out with Sgarbossa's line, so it worked out fine for us."

Nelson on the play of Mike Vecchione:
"Very impactful. First off, he gave us a lot of confidence when we scored the power-play goal on his one-timer. It was a great play by Luke Philp to get it over to him, but he buried it and I think that just kind of got our team going, because even though we had a good start, we've been kind of struggling on the power play. It's nice to get a couple goals on the power play today and Veccs started that off."

Nelson on the play of Alex Limoges:
"He's just a skilled guy that had been out while he was hurt, and now he's back playing and he's starting to find his groove. He's a very intelligent player and that goal he scored on the 5-on-3 is a product of that. He's really good around the net, has quick hands, and it was a big goal for us."

Nelson on the performance of Clay Stevenson, who was forced to start in goal for the second consecutive night following Hunter Shepard's recall to Washington earlier today:
"I thought he was really good tonight. He did this last year where he played back-to-back games and we had a couple victories, and this is a building that he feels really comfortable playing in and he played extremely well for us."

Mike Vecchione on how it felt to record his first hat trick as a Bear and get the result tonight:
"A lot of weight lifted off the shoulders. Always has been a tough stretch to play here. But the guys keep you going, the guys picked me up. And it's just good to get a win out here for first place in their barn, so I couldn't be happier for the boys."

Vecchione on Clay Stevenson stepping up:
"He's lights out all the time. We've got one of the best goalie tandems that we could ask for and Mud's work ethic in practice really shows. He's out there after just taking extra shots and really getting the reps in. He's a machine and obviously he wasn't expected to play tonight; he put up an amazing game for us and I couldn't be happy for him too. He does it night and night out."

Vecchione on how the team can use the momentum of this weekend's performance to build into the second half of the season:
"It's huge. Obviously this is a great test for us and on the road for first place. And you know, the guys just responded, obviously we didn't play our best last night, but we got the win, and I thought we took a step forward tonight, and we've just got to keep building each and every night."

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they return home to host the Belleville Senators on Friday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.