Bears Play Physical, Bears Win

Referee Jeff Smith has a reputation for calling few penalties and really letting teams play. Well that wasn't very easy to do last night in Hershey. The Bears and the Norfolk Admirals combined for 24 penalty calls for 94 minutes. That included 5 fighting majors and 2 game misconduct penalties.

Grant McNeill managed to account for 25 of those penalty minutes and 3 of the fights all by himself. Oh and he also scored his first goal of the season to give the Bears a 1-0 lead in the first period.

Unfortunately the Bears couldn't hold that lead and ended up having to come back from 2 goals down again after allowing the Ads to get a 4-2 lead midway through the game.

But they did it! And you know how they did it? Traffic in front of the net and crashing the net to get rebounds. 5 of their six goals came from in close either off deflections or off rebounds. That is how you win consistently. Those pretty goals and incredible shots are nice but teams can shut those down easier. The key to consistent success is the ugly goals that guys get right in front.

Think back to the beginning of the season when the Bears were winning and scoring at will. They did that cause Graham Mink and Oskar Osala were getting lots of in close shots and rebounds. In the first 21 games Mink and Osala combined for 26 goals and the Bears were 20-5-0-1 in those games. And I guarantee if you go back and look at the goals only a few would be from more than 10 feet from the goal.

The other thing the Bears did last night, and I am going to call out a couple players here, is they got physical in front of their own goal. Two players that have made some mistakes were very physical last night with the Norfolk forwards, Tyler Sloan and Sami Lepisto. I have been critical of these two multiple times in the past couple months but last night they stepped up and played very well. They were especially good when it came to tying up players in front of Daren Machesney.

There were obviously still some problems last night. Machesney had a couple goals (the third and fourth) that he would probably like back but he also saved the game for Hershey in the third period with some great saves. A couple other problems were dumb penalties (BOURQUE that one was terrible, you were already down a man and you just pulled the guy down) and some minor defensive lapses. The defensive lapses I am talking about were a couple times guys jumped into the offensive end too far (Patty McNeill did it once and Greg Amadio took a penalty cause of it and Sloan does it a little too much) and Karl Alzner struggled on 2 of the goals, one he tripped and the second (4th Norfolk goal) he misplayed his man who came around the net and scored.

But even with those bad things this was still a much better game. The team isn't completely out of their slump yet but they are getting there. If they continue to take the body at the defensive end and crash the net at the offensive end they will be tough to beat. Once you start doing those two things teams adjust and they will start shooting from further out (which will help the goalies) and they will start allowing shots from outside (which allows Alexandre Giroux and Chris Bourque to get some nice shots).

Either way it was an important win that proves this team still has some "want" in them.


My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Graham Mink - 2 goals and a team high 7 shots...he wanted to win this game
2. Oskar Osala - 1 goal and incredible energy all night
3. Brandon Bochenski - 2 goals and he also had a team high 7 shots for Norfolk

Grading the Performance:

• Offense - A - I know they waited until the third period (and the end of it at that) to really start pressing but all game they were getting traffic in front and were playing a more physical game. They started out slow with only 7 shots in the first period but they finished with 44 so they obviously turned it around.
• Defense - B - One of the better performances I have seen in a while from this unit. Guys playing physical in front and not taking crap from Norfolk. Good to see the captain Bryan Helmer drop the gloves and pound on Grant Potulny in the first. That fight really set the tone for the game.
• Goaltending - B - He could have been better but without his 37 saves (17 in the third alone) Hershey would NOT have been in this game. Give Cheese some credit for saving the past two games for the Bears. It is exactly what we have been asking for.
• Power Play - C - They scored one goal and it was very nice but other than that they didn't get much pressure with the man advantage. They need to do more.
• Penalty Kill - C - They did allow 2 goals on 4 chances but to their defense they were down 2 men both times and one of them Kyle Wilson didn't have a stick with hurt more. Still would like to see them kill those off but I can understand why they didn't.
• Overall - B - I thought this team really showed something late in the game. AND HUGE CREDIT to Coach Woods for changing up his offense late in the game. He took Giroux off the top line and put Osala up there and it led to 2 goals. I have been waiting to see what would happen if you split that line up and it gave the team some much needed energy last night. Overall a nice game but there is still room for improvement.

LET'S GO BEARS!!!! GET ANOTHER ONE TONIGHT!!!