Joudrey Saves Bears

Hershey got off to a fast start in Norfolk last night when Alexandre Giroux scored his 24th goal of the season about 4 minutes into the game. It looked like Hershey might be off to the races in a shootout yet again.

But Norfolk goalie Mike McKenna had other ideas. McKenna made up for the lack of defense from his team to make 26 saves including at least 4 breakaways and 1 penalty shot. If it wasn't for McKenna's solid play this game would have been a blowout.

Instead Norfolk tied the game late in the second period with a Brandon Bochenski (12th) goal and then took the lead 8 minutes into the third as Justin Keller added his 5th of the season.

The Bears answered quickly though as they turned on the offense and dominated the rest of the third period. Kyle Wilson scored his 16th of the season 3 minutes after Keller's and Andrew Joudrey put away the game winning goal, his second game winner against Norfolk this season (and 3rd goal overall), with just over 5 minutes left to play in the game.

Simeon Varlamov came up big in the end of the game and throughout the game as he allowed 2 goals on 37 shots. He gained his 15th win of the season which is good for 4th in the league.

The end of the game proved interesting as the captain of the Admirals, Zenon Konopka, proved that he is anything but respected in his antics. There was a minor scrum near the Bear's net and one fight between Steve Downie of Norfolk and the Bears "Mayor" Dean Arsene.

After all that was sorted out the refs put 2 seconds back on the clock and brought the teams back onto the ice. They were all set for the faceoff when the refs decided nevermind and called the game. An otherwise solid officiating night from Chris Cozzan was somewhat marred by a very confusing set of circumstances to finish the game.


My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Andrew Joudrey - clutch at the end...scoring needs to come from all places to win
2. Kyle Wilson - also clutch at the end as he tied up the game when Norfolk seemed in control
3. Justin Keller - Norfolk forward put his team up with just over half a period to play

Grading the Performance:

• Offense - B - Not bad. Personally I think they had more than the 29 shots they were given credit for but whatever. They seemed to be a little shocked from the resistance put forth from Norfolk after they scored early. Fortunately a couple guys were able to take advantage of a horrible defensive effort in the third period from the Ads and score.
• Defense - C+ - Again...they need to lower the opponents shot total. Get in the way and block more shots and take the body more often. Some of the defense seemed to struggle a little bit last night with simple plays. And many times it appeared the guys were standing around watching instead of being in position and ready to go. But they came away with a win.
• Goaltending - A - The first goal wasn't really Varly's fault. He made the save and then got crashed into while the puck BARELY (I mean by less than an inch) cleared the puck out of the crease. 35 saves is big. Varly is becoming the MVP of this team rather quickly in my opinion.
• Power Play - A - 2 for 6 is a good night for any team. Both Giroux's and Wilson's goals came with the man advantage. I like what the power play has been doing since Giroux returned. They are working more from down low than the blue line.
• Penalty Kill - A - They stopped all 4 chances Norfolk got which is good considering Norfolk is a top power play unit.
• Overall - B - Like the game last Wednesday against Springfield...if they play like that against a good team they will get beaten. There was a lot of watching the play from (especially) the defense. But they won and got passed their turnovers and made the necessary plays.

LET'S GO BEARS!!!!