The Hershey Bears were lambasted by the Laval Rocket 6-1 in their first game back from the AHL All-Star break. Not only did they get mollywhopped, but they also nearly lost one of their best players to injury.
With 6:14 remaining in the second period, Protas collected a loose puck in neutral and dumped it into the offensive zone. As he did, Rocket forward Tyler Thorpe approached from Ilya’s blind side, attempting to send Protas hard into the boards. Little Pro managed to sidestep most of the impact, but Thorpe connected hard with his left leg, sending him tumbling to the ice.
Bears Hockey Nation posted video of the hit.
Seven seconds later, play was blown dead, and Shawn Fliszar, the head athletic trainer of the Bears, immediately came out onto the ice to tend to the Capitals’ important prospect.
Protas eventually got up under his own power. As he made his way off the ice to the locker room, he stopped and began yelling at the Rocket bench.
Fortunately for the Bears, Protas returned in the third period after many feared the worst, including head coach Derek King.
“Well, he was having a game,” King said per the team. “I thought he played well, he had control of the play, he was making things happen. I was a little worried about maybe if this would be another guy who may be out for a while, but he battled back, and it was good to see him finish the game.”
Earlier in the night, Thorpe got in a fight with Bears defenseman David Gucciardi.
Protas wasn’t the only Capitals prospect that the Rocket targeted during the game. Andrew Cristall, the team’s leading scorer, also absorbed several cheap shots and hits throughout the night, per Bears Hockey Nation.
The Rocket’s play eventually caused the game to get out of control in the third period, where there were 96 penalty minutes doled out between both teams.
Five different Hershey Bears players received misconducts, including Ivan Miroshnichenko, Louie Belpedio, Grant Cruikshank, and Dalton Smith.
Bears forward Justin Nachbaur was also tossed 2:40 into the third period due to physical abuse of officials (Cat. III). Saturday, the AHL announced that Nachbaur was suspended for three games for the incident.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League’s Player Safety Committee today announced that Hershey Bears forward Justin Nachbaur has been suspended for three (3) games as a consequence of his actions in a game at Laval on Feb. 13.
Nachbaur was suspended under the provisions of AHL Rule 40.4 after receiving a game misconduct for physical abuse of an official (category III). He will miss Hershey’s games today (Feb. 14) and Monday (Feb. 16) at Belleville, and Wednesday (Feb. 18) at Toronto.
The Bears’ next game is Saturday night as they take on the Belleville Senators as part of a four-game road trip in Canada.
