SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks rally in third period to stun Hershey 4-2

The Worcester Sharks played uninspired, mistake-filled hockey for most of the first 54 minutes of Saturday’s contest against the Hershey Bears to find themselves trailing by a goal and their playoff heartbeat rapidly approaching a flat line, but three quick strikes by Dan DaSilva at 14:04 of the third period, Taylor Doherty at 15:10 and Travis Oleksuk at 17:19 gave the WorSharks a shocking 4-2 win over the Bears at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 4,820 fans. DaSilva’s goal makes him the Worcester Sharks all-time leading scorer.

Dan DaSilva (#22), pictured from Friday night's game with former 'Crazed Rats' linemate John McCarthy (#7),
scored the game tying goal Saturday night to become the Worcester Sharks all-time leading scorer at 139
points. DaSilva is also just one goal shy of tying the WorSharks record for career goals.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we once again point to AHLlive.com.

Scratches for Worcester were Sena Acolatse (leg), Matt Pelech, Mike Pereira, Brodie Reid, Chad Rau, and Lane Scheidl (concussion). Troy Grosenick was the back-up goaltender.

With his goal DaSilva passed Tom Cavanagh to become the WorSharks all time leading scorer at 139 points. That total ties DaSilva for 7th all-time in Worcester scoring with Dan Corso and Stephane Roy. DaSilva’s 58 career goals is good enough for third all-time for the WorSharks, just one behind the 59 of both Riley Armstrong and Mike Iggulden. Presuming DaSilva gets into the 60s he’ll start picking off players on the career goals list pretty quickly with Stephane Roy (61), Jeff Panzer (62), and Jame Pollock (63) within easy reach. In one of the rare Worcester records not held by Terry Virtue, the all-time Worcester goals record is held by Marc Brown at 79.

As you may have expected, the DCU center got pretty rowdy late in the third period with the WorSharks stunning comeback. Save for Hamilton’s second period goal the loudest cheers early in the game came from the large Holy Cross contingent rooting on newcomer Adam Schmidt, who skated four years for the Crusaders. Schmidt holds the Holy Cross record for most career games played at 151 and lead the Crusaders in scoring this season (14-15-29). When asked recently about Schmidt this writer called him “a potential diamond in the rough”. While making any decisions about a player’s talent after one game is silly, Schmidt certainly didn’t do anything to change my opinion–there looks to be something there, and hopefully the Sharks organization can get his game to work at the pro level.

Another ATO player, Brock Higgs, has slowed his torrid scoring pace of last weekend but still looks like a keeper. After a ‘no so good’ first period–and to be honest, not many WorSharks looked good in the opening 20 minutes–he got back into the flow of things and led all players with six shots on goal. Higgs best bid came in the third period when Hershey goaltender David Leggio made two great acrobatic-style saves and still managed to get a pad down to stop Higgs from stuffing the puck in the net.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 22 Dan DaSilva (g)
2. WOR – 4 Taylor Doherty (gwg)
3. WOR – 12 Freddie Hamilton (g,a)

The Sharkspage player of the game was John McCarthy

Even strength lines
McCarthy/Kearns/DaSilva
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Schwartz/Higgs/Schmidt
Bonneau/Viedensky/Hayes

Abeltshauser/Doherty
Davison/DeMelo
Comrie/Bigos

BOXSCORE

Hershey 1 0 1 – 2
Worcester 0 1 3 – 4

1st Period-1, Hershey, Wellman 16 (Deschamps, Stoa), 10:40. Penalties-Watkins Her (tripping), 12:05; Newbury Her (slashing), 13:29; Oleksuk Wor (slashing), 19:02; Kolomatis Her (hooking), 20:00.

2nd Period-2, Worcester, Hamilton 19 (Tarasov, Davison), 18:47. Penalties-Kearns Wor (hooking), 1:36.

3rd Period-3, Hershey, Deschamps 14 (Wellman), 9:36. 4, Worcester, DaSilva 15 (McCarthy, Kearns), 14:04. 5, Worcester, Doherty 4 (Viedensky, Hayes), 15:10. 6, Worcester, Oleksuk 14 (Hamilton, Abeltshauser), 17:19. Penalties-Latta Her (cross-checking), 6:50; Newbury Her (high-sticking), 9:52.

Shots on Goal-Hershey 10-8-9-27. Worcester 16-6-18-40.
Power Play Opportunities-Hershey 0 / 2; Worcester 0 / 5.
Goalies-Hershey, Leggio 18-17-3 (40 shots-36 saves). Worcester, Sateri 17-20-1 (27 shots-25 saves).
A-4,820
Referees-Keith Kaval (40), Nic Leduc (12).
Linesmen-Ed Boyle (81), Todd Whittemore (70).