A New Record!

Last night in Hershey the Bears set a new franchise record for consecutive wins in the regular season with 11. That's right the Bears, without most of their original defense and the 2 of their leading scorers, have managed to win 11 consecutive games this season. This coming after they had lost 5 of 7 in early November.

The streak started with a 3-2 win over Philadelphia on November 14. And since then they have won 2 more on the road and 8 at home by a combined score of 54-15! That includes 2 games where Hershey won 9-0. 54 goals in 11 games is ridiculous. It is almost 5 goals a game. 5 GOALS A GAME!!!

Some other impressive numbers, and these show how good the goalies have been, are 3 shutouts in those 11 games, only ONCE have the Bears allowed more than 2 goals during the streak, and the Bears goalies have awesome numbers during the streak.

Daren Machesney---- .250 gaa ---- .989 save %
Simeon Varlamov ---- 2.00 gaa ---- .925 save %

UNBELIEVABLE....and yes that is right, Cheese has played in 4 games during this streak and has given up 1 goal and has 3 shutouts. And Varlie has played in all 3 road games during the streak and has allowed only 6 goals on the road!

Amazing streak and hopefully it continues in Texas this weekend.


Onto last nights game:

My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Daren Machesney - 30 saves against a very good offensive team
2. Steve Pinnizzotto - a goal and a fight (an impressive fight)
3. Greg Amadio - 2 assists and a solid night on the blue line for the defensive leader

Grading the Performance:

• Offense - B - Still having some trouble getting out of their own end and into the offensive zone. Some of that is to be expected but they to adapt and get it done more effectively. There really weren't a ton of offensive chances but there were enough for a 3-0 win.
• Defense - A - Another shutout for Hershey and the rag tag group of defensemen should be proud of how they played last night. Norfolk is a very good offensive team and the Bears defense shut them down almost all night.
• Goaltending - A - And when they didn't shut down the defense Cheese came up huge for them. 30 saves on 30 shots is impressive. 4-0 during the 11 game win streak with 3 shutouts. Impressive!
• Power Play - C - The weak link right now this unit is missing Sami Lepisto and Keith Aucoin terribly. 0 for 4 last night makes them 1 for 15 in their last 3 games.
• Penalty Kill - A - Again they stepped up and killed off 6 opportunities for Norfolk. This was considered the weak link for the first month of the season but now they are possibly the best. They have not allowed a power play goal in 4 games on 18 chances.
• Overall - B - A solid game again but the offense is struggling to find the net lately. Missing your key defensemen is more of a strain on the offense than most would think it is. Lepisto and Bryan Helmer were critical parts of getting the puck moving the offensive zone and them being gone is hurting right now. But the Bears find a way to win as they have won 11 straight now!

LET'S GO BEARS!!! MAKE IT 12 IN TEXAS!!!