Admirals stonewalled by Bears' Holtby, 4-0

The Admirals bused up to Hershey, Pennsylvania to enjoy delicious chocolates. Oh, and they had a hockey game against the Hershey Bears, too.

The first period went by quickly with only three penalties being called and not many flourishes from any team. The Bears scored 11:35 into the period after Boyd Kane deflected in a shot behind a screened Igor Bobkov. The Admirals tried to apply some pressure later in the period but Bears goalie Braden Holtby made it the intermission with his shutout still going strong. The Admirals out-shot the Bears 12-8 and went 0 for 2 on the power play.

The second period was almost a mirror of the first. This time, the Ads were 0 for 1 on the power play and 2 for 2 on the penalty kill. Ryan Potulny of the Hershey Bears doubled the lead 2-0 with under five minutes to go, putting a rebound behind Bobkov. At the end of the period the Admirals were still out-shooting the Bears 25-14 but sometimes quality is better than quantity. Devante Smith-Pelly, Kyle Palmieri, and Peter Holland did not have a shot up to this point.

The Admirals started the third period like they did their last two games - down to the opposition. This one was different, though. They never even made an attempt at coming back to get it into overtime. They gave up two goals, including a late goal by Boyd Kane, after Bobkov couldn't contain a rebound. This game was the second shutout of the season for the Admirals.

The biggest disappointment for the game was that of Peter Holland, Kyle Palmieri and Devante Smith-Pelly who really did nothing the entire game. The three of them combined for two shots on goal, 8 PIMs and were a minus-3. With this loss, the Admirals are now in a last place in the conference with a 11-13-1-0 record.

Norfolk looks to bounce back against the Albany Devils on Friday and Saturday at home.