Bears visit Senators tonight

The past two weekends the Bears answered questions about how they will respond when knocked down. And this weekend they will get to answer a couple more questions....

How will the team handle callups to multiple key players (Carlson, Beagle, Perreault, Neuvirth)?
Can the other goaltenders (Bacashihua and Holtby) step up?

Perry has been up in Washington for a while now so they have already played without him. Beagle has also been up for a couple games. But Neuvirth and Carlson just went up and won't be back this weekend.

Add to those callups the fact that Hershey faces a schedule of 6 games in the next 10 days, 4 of those against division opponents. Hershey's depth helps them in these situations but with multiple callups the depth is not as good as it was 2 weeks ago. Every team faces stretches like this but the Bears can make a statement by coming up with wins in the next 10 days.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 12-5-0-0 24 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 3-1 Win vs Wilkes-Barre, 11/14
last 5 games ~ 4-1-0-0
road record ~ 7-3-0-0
goals for ~ 60
goals against ~35
power play ~ 12.7% (20th)
penalty kill ~ 92.2% (5th)


Binghamton Senators
record ~ 8-7-2-1 19 points
standings ~ 4th in East Division
most recent game ~ 2-1 SO Win @ Hartford, 11/18
last 5 games ~ 3-1-0-1
home record ~ 2-4-1-1
goals for ~ 55
goals against ~ 56
power play ~ 16.0% (12th)
penalty kill ~ 85.7% (12th)

last time teams met - Binghamton won 5-2 in Hershey on 10/24.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

LW Alexandre Giroux (12)- Leading the team in goals (8) and points (21) he has 1 goal and 3 assists in the past 3 games.
C Keith Aucoin (11) - Tied for second on the team in goals with 7 and has dominated in the month of November. 6 goals and 2 assists this month including 3 goals and 4 assists in his last 4 games.
D Karl Alzner (7) - Not a typical point producer he has a goal and 2 assists in his last three games and is a team best +14.

Senators:

RW Ryan Keller (28) - Leading the Sens in goals (10) and points (19) he has scored 2 goals and 2 assists in the past 2 games.
C Martin St. Pierre (39) - Second on the team in goals (7) and points (18) he has only produced 1 point (assist) against Hershey this season but has registered a point in 6 straight games (2g, 4a).
LW Denis Hamel (17) - Producing at a good pace lately with points in 5 straight. 4 goals and 4 assists in those 5 games.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!