Bears welcome Penguins to Giant Center

After last night's extermination in Albany are the Bears ready to play their I-81 rivals tonight? Hershey has produced 4 shutouts this season....2 of those have come against the Penguins. It would be nice to see #3 tonight.

Braden Holtby will likely get the start in goal for the Bears tonight as they look to begin a new winning streak after watching their previous one fall this past Wednesday.

The Bears and Pens have met 5 times so far this season with Hershey outscoring the Pens 18-9 and going 4-1 against them. In Hershey they have won both meetings and outscored the Pens 8-1.

These teams will meet 7 more times this season (including tonight) including 4 times in the next 4 weeks. This is not the same Wilkes Barre team the Bears have seen the past few years but it is still a dangerous rivalry. The Pens would surely like nothing more than to beat the Bears so Hershey MUST be ready to go.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 30-9-0-2 62 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 10-4 Win @ Albany, 1/15
last 5 games ~ 4-1-0-0
home record ~ 15-3-0-2
goals for ~ 162
goals against ~92
power play ~ 19.7% (4th)
penalty kill ~ 91.7% (1st)


Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins
record ~ 20-18-1-1 42 points
standings ~ 3rd in East Division
most recent game ~ 3-0 Loss @ Binghamton, 1/15
last 5 games ~ 2-3-0-0
road record ~ 7-10-1-1
goals for ~ 112
goals against ~ 106
power play ~ 15.5% (19th)
penalty kill ~ 85.7% (8th)

last time teams met - Hershey won 3-2 in Wilkes Barre on New Years Day. The last meeting in Hershey was November 29th when the Bears won 5-0.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

LW Alexander Giroux (12)- Is working on a 9 game point streak and is coming off a 3 goal 2 assist game last night. He has 6 goals and 8 assists during his streak.
C Kyle Wilson (18) - Seems to be finding a rhythm as he has scored a goal in 3 straight games giving him 13 goals and 12 assists this season.
LW Oskar Osala (36) - Is playing a more physical game this season which helps considering he isn't scoring as much. He has 10 goals and 7 assists this season.

Penguins:

C Dustin Jeffrey (21) - Leading the team in assists (29), points (41) and plus/minus (+13). Has 2 goals and 3 assists in 6 January games so far.
RW Nick Johnson (28) - He has only played 24 games for the Baby Pens this season but he dominated the month of December scoring 6 goals and 10 assists in 11 games that month. Hasn't been as good this month though with only 3 assists in 6 games and none in 3 games.
C Mark Letestu (10) - Second on the team in points with 33 and tied for second in goals with 12. Like Johnson he hasn't tallied a point in 3 games but he had 4 goals and 2 assists in the first 3 January games.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!