Goepfert Comes Up Big

Bobby Goepfert made his AHL debut last night for the Hershey Bears and had a pretty good showing. He faced 28 shots of which he stopped 25 of them. He also faced 5 shots in the shootout and made only allowed 1 to get by him.

The Bears won in a shootout 4-3 (2-1 in SO) last night in Albany. For a while it was the Bears best defensive performance of the season in my opinion. There was 1 mental lapse that I saw on Albany's first goal where 2 Bears (Alexandre Giroux and Bryan Helmer) seemed to get caught flat footed on their blue line during a Rats power play. Jerome Samson skated right by them and Karl Alzner played the 2 on 1 correctly but Samson beat Goepfert for the goal.

Hershey was up 2-0 before that goal after Alexandre Giroux scored his 9th of the season and Andrew Gordon added his 6th. Giroux's goal came with Albany goalie Jason Peters out of position after trying to make a sprawling stop. Giroux controlled the puck and basically just skated right by the fallen goalie and put it in the net. Gordon scored his goal by just putting the puck on net from a terrible angle and luckily it got by.

Unfortunately I didn't get to actually see the Bears third goal or the Rats 2nd and 3rd goals because AHL Live crashed and I couldn't get back on.

The last goal by Albany was in the final second of the game with the Rats having 6 guys on the ice compared to Hershey's 4 due to Jay Beagle being in the penalty box.

The shootout was full of questions however as coach Bob Woods sent Karl Alzner and Darren Reid out as the first 2 shooters for the Bears. With all the explosive offensive talent on this team why would you EVER send those two out? If they want to take shootout shots they should be doing it in practice.

A good win after a tough loss on Wednesday night. Next up is Philadelphia in Hershey tonight and in Philly tomorrow night.


My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Bobby Goepfert
2. Alexandre Giroux
3. Pat Dwyer

Grading the Performance:

Power Play - C+ - Overall the Bears did okay on the power play. They had many opportunities to get goals but Peters came up big in net for Albany. My main complaint is this is now the second game in a row where Hershey had an extended 5 on 3 and didn't convert. They need to convert on those especially.
Penalty Kill - B - I thought this unit played MUCH better than they have been. The first Albany goal was the lone mistake that I saw. The last goal was in the final seconds when every player is crashing the net slapping the puck. It wasn't your traditional power play and should not be graded as one.
Even Strength - B - They played well but there is sometimes too many players going for big hits instead of staying in position. Dean Arsene was in the booth last night and he even commented on Grant McNeill at one point going for the big hit and missing leaving a 2 on 1 with Karl Alzner the only man back. You can't do that and consistently win at this level.
Overall - B - This team is good, we all know that. But the defense and goaltending are so far lacking any consistency. On the power play, especially the 5 on 3, they don't seem to be shooting as much as they should be. At even strength they seem to shoot a lot more freely which maybe they should be passing. Last night they played a good game, the defense was solid and the offense produced 3 goals. But most importantly Goepfert played a solid game in net making some big saves. Consistency in goal will mask many other shortcomings for any team.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!