Bears win again in Philly

In what was their second to last game ever in the Spectrum the Bears came out flying in the first period jumping to a 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes.

Playing without the AHL's leading scorer, Alexandre Giroux, Hershey totaled 5 goals and managed to hold on to a 5-3 win. Giroux was called up by Washington and very well might play tonight against Florida.

Andrew Gordon continued his new found scoring touch with 2 more goals last night giving 4 in two games. Kyle Wilson, Graham Mink, and Tyler Sloan closed out the scoring for Hershey.

Daren Machesney got the start in goal last night and looked lost for the first 2 periods. He gave up 3 goals on 9 shots in those periods. In the third he seemed to settle down and he made 10 saves to preserve the win.

It was a very sloppy game from Hershey as the defense seemed to struggle a little and Cheese had a tough go of it. The offense did enough but they also went 0-5 on the power play. And the penalty kill is still a significant problem as they allowed a goal on 2 tries.

The 2 best things from the game would be that the secondary scoring is still performing. Minker and Gordo are going to need to score regularly for this team to win the Cup. The other positive from this game is that the Bears only gave up 2 power plays. It was a disciplined performance from the guys in chocolate and white.


My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Andrew Gordon - Both goals were nice and important
2. Quintin Laing - assisted on both Gordo's goals and was all over the ice hitting people
3. Graham Mink - a goal and two assists including one primary assist

Grading the Performance:

• Offense - B+ - 35 shots and 5 goals is obviously very good. BUT would they have scored those goals against a real goalie? Who knows but they need to keep it up cause the defense and the goaltending continues to struggle.
• Defense - C+ - I wasn't impressed with the defensive effort last night. It seemed like they were content to sit back and let the offense win the game for them and keep them in the lead. Hopefully the next few months can bring about some changes so that the defense can win a couple games for the Bears in the playoffs.
• Goaltending - C - The only reason this isn't an F is because Cheese managed to make all 10 saves in the most important period. But the first 2 periods were very disappointing from a goaltending perspective.
• Power Play - F - 0-5 and minimal pressure. There were some chances that they didn't even manage a shot. Unacceptable. I wish the coaching staff would make some changes in the style of attack on the power play. With Coiner and Perrault you have two of the best puck movers around, why not let them control the puck down low and get passes into better scoring positions than the blue line.
• Penalty Kill - F - Sure they were only out there twice but this unit is not performing right now. They gave up one goal and didn't look overly impressive on the other one either.
• Overall - B - I would like to have seen some improvement on the special teams after a week with no games and just practice but it didn't happen. If anything those units were worse after a week of no games. In the playoffs special teams are critical and this team needs to improve on theirs NOW.

LET'S GO BEARS!!!