Hershey Hockey Game

I have yet to see the Hershey Bears win a game.

The game started out all right. The Binghamton Senators scored two goals early in the first period, but the Bears answered with two goals of their own. Then Senators scored again early in the second period and then once more early in the final period. The Bears pulled their goalie to try to make a comeback, but Senators slip past them and scored one more, clinching the game 5-2.

You can’t put all the blame on the Bears, though. They’ve been having a pretty good season this year, and last year they even won the Calder Cup, the American Hockey League equivalent to the Stanley Cup. The Senators’ goalie was phenomenal. The Bears just couldn’t get enough shots past him.

The Senator's goalie, Andy Chiodo, in action.

It was still a great night though. Hershey, Pennsylvania is only an hour’s drive from campus. Holly’s car bounded through deep puddles on Chocolate Avenue while billboards welcomed us to “The Sweetest Place on Earth.” The town smelled like roasted peanuts as we passed the Hershey Factory on our way to pick-up Megan, a friend of ours from Hershey. We ate lunch at a place called Houlihan’s, in the shadow of the Kissing Tower and the Great Bear rollercoaster.

The game, while not as exciting as it could have been, was still full of all those crazy spectacles you’d expect at an amateur-league sporting event: The cameras panned the crowd looking for the Almond Joy “Nut of the Game,” a small blimp circled the arena and sprinkled cash on the crowd, t-shirts tossed into the stands by Coco the Bear.

During the Kit-Kat "Break" between the first and second periods, they brought two women out to center ice dressed in inflatable sumo suits so we could watch them bump into each other.

During the second break, one lucky fan won $1,000 for hitting a puck through a bean-bag sized opening placed in front of the goal. Then there was the Hershey's Kiss Cam, the "Dish of the Game" cooking segment played up on the jumbotron (we learned how to make corn pudding), and a guest appearance from the Red Robin mascot for a gift card giveaway.  Somebody even won a free oil change.

Like the Bears, Holly, Megan, and I didn't win anything ourselves, but the tickets were only $22.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

More about Hershey, PA
More about the Hershey Bears

Driving down Chocolate Avenue, note the Kiss-shaped streetlights

The Hershey  Chocolate Factory

Houlihan's on Chocolate Avenue

Houlihan's on Chocolate Avenue

The Giant Center, home of the Hershey Bears