Well, Hershey's depth is again proving to be a force. In the first two games against the Albany River Rats the Hershey Bears have scored 6 goals in the third period or overtime. Compared to only 2 for the Rats.
In the Bridgeport series the Bears scored 7 goals in the 3rd period or overtime. So looking at the 7 playoff games to date Hershey has outscored the opposition 13-4 in the third period or overtime.
That is pretty good. It makes it very hard for the Rats or any other team for that matter to win.
You look at the Hershey roster compared to the Albany roster and you see that Albany has a similar level of talent...on their first 2 lines. But I am not sure there is a team in this league that compete with what Hershey rolls out on their 3rd and 4th lines.
8 goals in 7 playoff games...impressive for a player. Now consider that Hershey has TWO such players in Alexandre Giroux and Andrew Gordon. The next closest player is Abbotsford's Jon Rheault with 5.
Hershey has 3 of the top 4 scorers in the playoffs to date with Keith Aucoin and his 9 assists (and 1 goal) joining Giroux and Gordon.
Add to that scoring Michal Neuvirth's solid goaltending and you have a team that can go a long way assuming they stay both healthy and focused.
Elsewhere around the league:
Not sure how many of you are paying attention but the Texas Stars absolutely rocked the Rockford IceHogs in the first round, sweeping the series in 4 games. Texas goaltender Brent Krahn gave up 5 goals in 4 games while making 122 saves.
They are a balanced team that could cause serious trouble for the big 2 out west (Chicago and Hamilton) if Krahn can continue his stellar play.
The interesting thing about the Western Conference is that they are well behind the Eastern Conference in games played. Neither of those divisional finals have started yet and both are scheduled to have game 2 on Sunday. If Hershey was to sweep Albany or win in 5 games they would be done with their series before either of those series got to 2 games.
Heck in the other Western conference matchup...there isn't one yet. Abbotsford and Rochester are playing a game 7 tonight to see who gets to head to Hamilton this Thursday.
As for the other Eastern Conference series, Worcester vs Manchester, the Sharks lead 1 game to none. That series is more closely aligned with Hershey's with game 4 coming Saturday night.
Lots happening around the league the next few days but the only thing we in Central PA care about is how the Hershey Bears do tonight and Thursday.
LET'S GO BEARS!!!
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