Bears drop game 1

3 shots in the first period.  That's what the Bears managed last night in Wilkes-Barre. 

Down 2-0 entering the third and the Bears managed.....5 more.

Combining the second period you get a 20 shot total for the Bears.  

You aren't going to win many games with those kinds of shot totals.  The fact that the Penguins didn't allow many shots probably shouldn't come as a huge surprise...they finished #1 in the AHL in shots allowed per game.

But this is the playoffs.  Shots are going to be hard to come by and you have to make the most of them.  The Bears didn't do that last night as they went 0-3 on the powerplay and based on Scott Stuccio's call I never got the feeling that the Bears were even threatening the Pens in the offensive end.

It was the type of performance you would expect from a team riding an 8-game losing streak...not from one that hopes to play late into Spring.

The return to the lineup of Cody Eakin and Jacob Micflikier has given every Bears fan hope that they can win some games and move onto the next round.  It didn't happen last night, but maybe that was to be expected as guys were out of the lineup for a little while and it takes a little time to re-adjust.  Tim Leone said that after the first 30 minutes the Bears played better...so maybe that is a good omen.

And they are saying the right things...

“We can’t sit back and wait for them to kind of dictate how the play is going to go,” Bears defenseman Sean Collins said. “We have to be the ones dictating the play. Once we started playing the right way and doing the right things, keeping things simple, getting pucks deep, then we started putting some pressure on them.”

Hopefully game 2 is different.  Game 2 NEEDS to be different.

First things first...the Bears need to get more than 20 shots on goal.  They finished the regular season averaging a little over 30 per game.  And they were #2 in the AHL in shooting percentage at 10.3%.  So if they get 30 shots a game...they should get 3 goals.

That would have been good enough to more than likely force overtime and then who knows.

But the shots total are only the first stat that Hershey needs to change.

The Bears and Baby Pens have played 5 times previously in the Calder Cup playoffs....the winner of game 1 has won each of those.

It's time for the Bears to keep that streak at 5.

LET'S GO BEARS!!!!