Bears score 10 in Albany

Well I mentioned yesterday that maybe the Bears were caught looking ahead to last night's game this past Wednesday. I would say that is a fair estimation after the complete and utter domination that happened to the River Rats last night.

Albany was NEVER in that game and the Bears controlled play from the opening faceoff on their way to a 10-4 win. Considering the Bears went into the game last night having been outscored 6-1 in two previous games in that building a 10-4 win is awfully impressive. Even more impressive is that the Bears actually led the game 10-1 before allowing a few garbage time goals late in the 3rd period.

Surely not the way Hershey wanted to end the game but I would imagine most teams and most people would let up a bit when you are up 9 goals after 2.5 periods.

Jason Bacashihua got the start and made 19 saves to pick up his 8th win of the season. At the other end Justin Peters had what can only be described as a horrible night. The goalie who had stopped 75 of Hershey's 76 stops in the previous 2 games in Albany allowed 4 goals in the first period before getting pulled for backup Mike Murphy. But then Murphy got hurt so Peters had to come BACK in to the game.

Imagine that for a second...you get pulled because 1. you can't stop anything and 2. your defense is non existent...BUT you end up having to go back in to the game a little later!! Ouch. And it didn't get easier for him. He ended up giving up 9 goals on 35 shots to earn the loss.

Alexander Giroux ended the night with 3 goals (15,16,17) and 2 assists while Kyle Wilson (13), Jay Beagle (7), Andrew Gordon (19), Keith Aucoin (20), Chris Bourque (10), Boyd Kane (15), and Mathieu Perreault (5) also scored for the Bears. Other than the goalies only Patty McNeill, Karl Alzner, and Patrick Wellar did NOT record a point in last nights game.

That is what you would call depth.

To be honest the Rats just didn't seem to be in the game at all. They were standing around while Hershey was flying to the puck. Whether that was a result of the shock of being down so much so quickly or just from being drained I don't know. They hadn't played in a week and we have seen the Bears come out flat after a long layoff like that so who knows. One thing I am sure of...the Rats come to Hershey on January 30th and I guarantee they will be fired up.

Tonight Hershey returns home and welcomes (sort of) the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to the Giant Center. Hopefully the Bears have something left for the flightless birds.


My 3 Stars of the Game:

1. Alexander Giroux - 3 goals and 2 assists gives him the #1 spot in almost any game
2. Francois Bouchard - 2 assists were excellent passes and perfectly placed
3. Andrew Gordon - a goal and an assist and LOTS of hustle all night long

Grading the Performance:

• Offense | A+ | You can't ask for a better performance than that. Whether it was due to their outstanding hustle or to the Rats lack of effort it doesn't matter. The Bears converted on their chances and made the Rats pay for mistakes. That is what a championship team does. The hustle to the puck was outstanding as the Rats rarely won the battle for loose pucks.
• Defense | B | Not sure what exactly happened late in the game as I had already turned the game off but for the first 2/3 of the game the defense did what they needed to. They weren't excellent though as Bacashihua had to make some sprawling saves from time to time but it was obviously enough.
• Goaltending | B | Again I am not sure what the 3 goals late were about but Cash played very well for the first parts of the game. Albany had a few chances and he snuffed them all out.
• Power Play | A | 3 of 5 were the final numbers. That is a pretty good night by any teams standards. Would loved to have seen 5 for 5 but now I am just being greedy. Lots of great passing (Bouchard...excellent job on Perry's goal) from everyone and solid movement and positioning.
• Penalty Kill | A | Killed off all 3 Albany chances and even added a short handed goal (Kane's goal). Albany wasn't too into the game but even still killing off 3 chances and scoring a shortie is a good performance.
• Overall | A | Great performance against the only team in the East division that has given the Bears trouble this season. Some might call last night a Statement Game and I would agree BUT like I mentioned above the Rats were dealing with multiple injuries and call ups and were coming off a week long break. This team will look drastically different come playoff time when all the players get sent back from a horrible Carolina team. BUT either way it was a good game and a great effort.

Bears visit Albany looking to start new streak

Were the Bears looking ahead towards this game a little on Wednesday? Not sure but I could understand why. Hershey had beaten the Admirals 5 times this season and hadn't struggled too much but the trip up to Albany has cost the Bears 2 straight this season. Were they looking towards the Rats while in Norfolk?

Hopefully. That should get them ready to play and they should come out strong. Previously against the Rats the Bears faced goaltender Justin Peters who has stopped 75 of 76 shots against the Bears. When a goalie is playing like that it doesn't matter how good the other team is.

Hershey is looking to get back in the win column and to gain another 2 points on the Rats. A win and the Bears lead the division by 16. A loss and the lead is only 12. So it is truly a four point game tonight. But a 12 point lead is still pretty good no matter when in the season it is.

Jason Bacashihua is expected to get the start tonight in Albany. It will be his first start since December 29th when he got the win at Norfolk. He will continue to be the backup in Hershey for the 2nd half of the season but I would expect him to be a little closer to a 50/50 split over the 2nd half so that the #1, whether its Braden Holtby or Michal Neuvirth, gets some rest. Cash's numbers are solid this season too, he is 7-2-1 with a 2.69 goals against average and a .907 save percentage.

Albany is coming into this game a little shorthanded at forward. Pat Dwyer, Zach Boychuk, Jiri Tlusty and Jerome Samson all remain on recall with the Carolina Hurricanes. In addition to those moves they are suffering from multiple injuries. Rob Hennigar is out indefinitely with a broken hand, Michael Ryan is curbed with a lower-body injury and Matthew Pistilli is sidelined with a concussion sustained last Saturday.

Former Bear Jonathon Paiement has been playing forward recently and is expected to do so again but even with him the Rats might only have 11 forwards dressed tonight.

With all those injuries and call ups the Bears depth should give Hershey a distinct advantage over the Rats tonight.

But if Peters can play like he has the last two meetings it won't matter how many forwards the Rats have.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 29-9-0-2 60 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 4-3 Loss @ Norfolk, 1/13
last 5 games ~ 4-1-0-0
road record ~ 14-6-0-0
goals for ~ 152
goals against ~88
power play ~ 18.5% (10th)
penalty kill ~ 91.6% (1st)


Albany River Rats
record ~ 21-15-2-2 46 points
standings ~ 2nd in East Division
most recent game ~ 3-1 Win vs Hartford, 1/9
last 5 games ~ 3-1-1-0
home record ~ 15-6-1-1
goals for ~ 108
goals against ~ 101
power play ~ 12.5% (28th)
penalty kill ~ 85.2% (11th)

last time teams met - Hershey lost 3-0 in Albany on December 11. That was one week after losing 3-1 in Albany as well.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

RW Andrew Gordon (10)- Second on the team with 18 goals and 3rd in points with 39 he has been one of the most consistent players early. A little light on production of late but is working on a 5 game point streak.
C Keith Aucoin (11) - Hershey's leading scorer with 19 goals and 46 points currently has an 8 game point streak in which he has 5 goals and 9 assists.
C Kyle Wilson (18) - Heading into the second half it would be nice to see Kyle get more opportunities as he has never disappointed in Hershey. He has scored in back to back games and has 12 goals this season.

Albany:

LW Jacob Micflikier (18) - Has only played 19 games this season in Albany and has 6 goals and 8 assists in those games including 4 assists against Hershey.
LW Drayson Bowman (9) - Has scored in back to back games and has 8 goals and 7 assists this season for the Rats.
C Stefan Chaput (15) - With all the injuries and callups he is the active leader in points with 21 but he has not registered a point in his last 7 games.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

The streak ends at 12 as Bears lose in Norfolk

With the exception of one 7-1 game this season the Bears and Admirals games have all been relatively close and competitive. And last night the Admirals got just enough to beat the Bears.

With only 7 seconds left a shot deflected in off Braden Holtby and the Bears lost 4-3 in Norfolk.

After Kyle Wilson gave the Bears a 1-0 lead in the first period the Admirals scored 3 straight before Hershey added 2 more in the third on goals by Patty McNeill and Alexander Giroux.

Alas it wasn't quite enough as Braden Holtby had his worst game in a Bears uniform. He was due to struggle in a game as all goalies struggle from time to time. It was the first time in his 14 games with the Bears this season that he has given up 4 goals. And only the second time he has given up 3 or more.

But this time Hershey's offense couldn't quite overcome the deficit and their franchise record 12 game winning streak was not extended to 13.

Next up for Hershey is a road game against the Albany River Rats. The last 2 times Hershey visited Albany on Friday nights they lost. So hopefully this one will be different.

Bears visit Norfolk tonight

The Hershey Bears take their franchise record 12 game winning streak down to southeastern Virginia tonight to take on the Norfolk Admirals.

This will be the 6th meeting of the two teams this season with Hershey winning all 5 to this point. But this will be only the second game to be played in Norfolk as 4 of the 5 were in Hershey.

Norfolk is coming in on a bit of a slide. Earlier this season they were actually in 2nd place in the East division but now they reside in the cellar, tied for last in the division with Syracuse. They have only won 1 of their last 8 games which included 2 losses to Hershey.

Hershey meanwhile is obviously coming in playing well having won 12 straight. Much of that can be attributed to the play of goaltender Braden Holtby. Holtby has won 9 straight himself and has a goals against average of 1.56 and a save percentage of .948 during that stretch. While he doesn't have a shutout in those games he does have a number of 1 goal games. If you were to extend those numbers out over the course of a season you would undoubtedly have an MVP trophy.

Outside of Holtby though the Bears are still playing very well. The defense has helped him alot while the offense has scored 52 goals during the winning streak which equates to a little over 4 goals per game.

And it isn't like the scoring is limited to just one line. 16 different players including 4 defensemen have scored during the 12 games. If that isn't balance I don't know what is.

Tonight's game starts a 4 in 5 weekend featuring games against the East division. Games with Albany, Wilkes-Barre, and Syracuse loom this weekend. Hershey already leads the division by 14, with a few wins this weekend that number will surely jump.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 29-8-0-2 60 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 3-2 Win @ Manitoba, 1/9
last 5 games ~ 5-0-0-0
road record ~ 14-5-0-0
goals for ~ 149
goals against ~84
power play ~ 18.3% (7th)
penalty kill ~ 91.5% (1st)


Norfolk Admirals
record ~ 16-21-2-0 34 points
standings ~ 6th in East Division
most recent game ~ 2-1 Loss vs Syracuse, 1/9
last 5 games ~ 1-4-0-0
home record ~ 7-10-0-0
goals for ~ 98
goals against ~ 111
power play ~ 12.8% (26th)
penalty kill ~ 86.8% (6th)

last time teams met - Hershey won 5-3 in Norfolk on December 29th. This is the 6th meeting this season and Hershey is 5-0 to date winning by a combined 25-12.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

LW Chris Bourque (17)- He has been involved in 3 games so far against Norfolk and has done well scoring 4 goals and adding 3 assists in those 3 games.
C Keith Aucoin (11) - Hershey's leading scorer with 19 goals and 45 points has 4 goals and 6 assists against Norfolk this season.
LW Alexandre Giroux (12) - In 4 games against Norfolk this season he has 2 goals and 5 assists including 3 assists opening night in Hershey.

Admirals:

LW Juraj Simek (14) - Third on the team in goals (10) and points (20) he has 3 goals and an assist in his last 4 games.
C Blair Jones (9) - He has played in 26 of Norfolk's games to date and has played 14 games with Tampa Bay in the NHL. He is a team best +8 but hasn't played for Norfolk since 12/12.
C Ryan Craig (23) - Second on the team (behind Brandon Bochenski who is on recall to Tampa Bay) in goals with 12 although 6 of those goals came in October.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

Capitals Weekly Update

Here is your weekly update on the news coming out of the District with the NHL's Washington Capitals.

A New Captain

Alexander Ovechkin was given the 'C' as team captain this week. The previous captain, Chris Clark, was traded to Columbus so a new captain was needed. Ovi was the logical choice as he is the face of the franchise at this time.

A New Center

After spending all of his professional career at wing Tomas Fleischmann was moved to center this week. Bruce Boudreau was reportedly trying to find some consistency and balance as you move down through the lines in Washington. After stellar performances in his first 2 games at center (80% and 66.7%) he struggled a bit in the 3rd game (31.6%). With the success and ability he has shown I would imagine he will remain at center for the time being.

Alzner back in Hershey

The speculation after the Nylander move and the trade of Jurcina was that Hershey had seen the last of Karl Alzner. Well that changed quickly as the young blueliner is back in Hershey. The reasoning...8 healthy defensemen in Washington meant little playing time for Alzner. But that might have changed as John Erskine is not practicing although Tyler Sloan is still in Washington and they may go with him instead of recalling Alzner.

Neuvirth shines

The Caps are running into the same problem as the Bears are having with Braden Holtby. Michal Neuvirth has been stellar allowing 2 or fewer goals in 6 of his last 7 starts including Saturday night against Atlanta when he made a 38 save, one goal allowed performance. When Varlamov comes back it will give them 3 goalies playing very well. One will surely be headed for Hershey which would give the Bears 3 goalies that are playing very well.

Trade Rumors

• The latest trade rumors have a few Bears or Bears prospects on the trading block. One potential trade would bring defenseman Sheldon Souray to Washington in exchange for Jose Theodore, Eric Fehr, Stefan Della Rovere, and draft picks. That would mean Neuvy would stay in Washington, a winger would probably get recalled (although a center might work too), and Hershey would lose prospects too.
• Another trade being discussed would be for Ilya Kovalchuk. Although expectations are that would cost the Caps Karl Alzner. I couldn't imagine the Caps giving up on Alzner to rent a forward for the season.
• Thomas Kaberle has also been mentioned in connection with the Caps although there is no mention of what the cost would be for him.

Wilson makes it 12 straight

Kyle Wilson scored his 11th goal of the season with just over 3 minutes remaining in the 3rd period to give the Hershey Bears their 12th straight victory, a new franchise record.

Coming into the 3rd period the Bears were trailing 2-1 after 2 second period goals by the Moose. Chris Bourque scored his 9th on a nice play from Mathieu Perreault to tie the game at 2-2 before Wilson's heroics.

It wasn't easy after that though as referee Kyle Rehman started calling penalties on the Bears. With about a minute and a half left in the game he made a too many men call against the Bears and during the call he also dismissed Boyd Kane from the game. Not sure what Kane said or did but apparently he insulted Rehman in some fashion. And just to make it clear...the penalty for too many men was a good call. Beagle was damn near still in the offensive zone when his replacement jumped over the boards.

The penalties didn't end there though as John Carlson was called for a cross checking penalty with only 5 seconds remaining. Again it was the correct call. And just a note...another too many men call was missed by the officials at about the one minute mark. For a good 2-3 seconds the Bears were playing the penalty kill with 5 guys. So while Rehman might have made some questionable calls there were still others that he missed.

This game started the same way Friday nights game went, a defensive goaltending battle between Braden Holtby and Cory Schneider. Andrew Gordon scored his 18th of the season about halfway through the first period and then a Moose breakaway led to their first goal, scored by Sergei Shirokov shorthanded. The Bears had gone with 5 forwards during a 5 on 3 and they turned the puck over and Shirokov beat Holtby through the 5 hole.

After that the offenses seemed to pick up the pace a bit. Later in the 2nd Marco Rosa converted a beautiful feed by Guillaume Desbians for the Moose's second goal and first lead of the weekend.

They carried that lead into the 3rd before the Bears came back and won in the closing minutes. Hershey will return home tomorrow before heading down to Norfolk for a game Wednesday night. It was a successful weekend yet again and the 09-10 Bears are now franchise record holders with 12 straight wins.


My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Kyle Wilson - game winning goal on a nice individual play
2. Andrew Gordon - scored another goal this weekend
3. Braden Holtby - stopped 33 of 35 shots to pick up yet another win for the rookie

Grading the Performance:

• Offense | B | Actually took less shots than Friday night, 26, but I thought they were more meaningful. They got Schneider moving side to side and managed to get some good looks. I would like to see Perreault shoot a bit more as he was open a couple times and elected to make questionable passes instead. Lots of one-timers and solid movement in the offensive zone.
• Defense | B | There were some poor plays including John Carlson not tying up Rosa as he scored the 2nd goal of the game for the Moose. I thought Zach Miscovic and Sean Collins had very solid games at both ends although Collins did make a poor decision in the 3rd period when he made a pass towards the Hershey bench as they were making a line change...which resulted in the first of 2 too many men calls.
• Goaltending | B | I think Holtby's weakness is definitive now....5 hole. Fortunately this does not usually affect him during game play as breakaways are not super common (although the Moose had a few in 2 games) but Holtby needs to figure out how to block the huge opening he leaves when he goes side to side. Otherwise...how the hell can this guy not stay in Hershey this season??
• Power Play | F | That was one of the worst 5 on 3 power plays I have ever seen. From miscommunication to giving up a shortie that power play was piss poor. The Moose do a good job in front of their own net but you have to be able to get shots on net during power plays if you want to win.
• Penalty Kill | A | They killed off everything they needed to including a 6 on 4 for the final minute and a half in regulation. Just like they have done all season.
• Overall | B | Another solid performance that could have been better. Long road trip to face an out of conference opponent can take a lot out of a team but the Bears managed to win 2 in 2 nights against a formidable opponent.

Congrats Bears on a new franchise record....let's see you extend it Wednesday night.

Bears win in Manitoba, tie franchise record

Last season the Hershey Bears won 11 in a row during the regular season. That was a new franchise record that many thought would stand a while.

Well if the Bears win tonight that record will fall.

Last night in a defensive goaltending battle in Winnipeg the Bears got the win in a shootout to extend their winning streak to 11 games, tying the record.

Both goalies, Braden Holtby of the Bears and Cory Schneider of the Moose, were spectacular....during regulation and overtime anyway. Once the shootout started it seemed that both goalies were a little under prepared. Each team scored 3 times in their first 4 shots before the goalies seemed to catch up and started making saves. Hershey won in the 7th round with a goal from Andrew Gordon and a stop by Holtby on Matt Pope.

Neither team offered overwhelming offensive play during regulation and overtime as both defenses seemed to lock down their zones. Gordon scored his 17th of the season 13 seconds into the 2nd period and Matt Pettinger beat the Bears defense and Holtby for his 7th of the season.

The only other real chance for either team came via a penalty shot for Mathieu Perreault of the Bears. It was a questionable call by referee Kyle Rehman as Perry was barely clear on the breakaway AND got off a shot on Schneider. Typically if a player gets the shot off they do not award a penalty shot, maybe a penalty but typically not a penalty shot. In the end neither hurt the Moose as Schneider made the save on both the breakaway and the penalty shot and the game remained tied at 1-1.

The shootout loss for the Moose was their first of the season. Coming into the game they were 6-0 in shootouts including winning 2 of their last 3 games in that fashion. For the Bears it was only their 4th overtime game of the season and it was their first shootout win. Prior to last night Hershey was 0-2 in shootouts this season.

Tonight the two teams will again face off as Holtby gets another start in net and Manitoba is expected to go with former Bear Daren Machesney in goal. Cheese is having a rough year so far. He is 4-9 with a 2.97 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. It would be good to see Cheese have a little success tonight but at the same time I would love to see a 5-0 dominating performance from the Bears.


My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Braden Holtby - made 30 of 31 saves during play and made the important stops in the shootout.
2. Cory Schneider - stopped 33 of 34 shots but couldn't make the biggest saves in the shootout.
3. Andrew Gordon - scored Hershey's lone goal during the game and scored the game winner in the shootout.

Grading the Performance:

• Offense B- Nothing spectacular although they did end up with 34 shots. Many of those shots were without traffic in front and were awfully easy saves for Schneider. They didn't seem to get Schneider moving all that much and he seemed to see just about everything.
• Defense B+ There were a couple instances of players getting caught up ice or not quite getting their feet moving quick enough to get back but overall they kept Holtby clean in net. Bryan Helmer in particular looked somewhat slow at times but he was surely not the only one, Zach Miscovic and Patty McNeill also struggled at times.
• Goaltending A Another excellent performance by Holtby although a weakness might have been found. Every goal that beat him last night (1 in regulation, 3 in shootout) seemed to go 5 hole. Pettinger's goal in the 2nd period looked easy as he got Holtby going sideways and beat him.
• Power Play ? Really no way to judge one power play chance but they did get some pressure and had a shot or two. Nothing special.
• Penalty Kill A They killed off all 3 chances and looked pretty good doing so. Kept the puck out of the zone and kept the Moose chasing each other during their chances.
• Overall B They did enough to win but didn't do enough to dominate. This is the kind of game you see in the playoffs and it was great to see the Bears win but they had their chances but couldn't seem to convert them.

Bears visit Manitoba for 2 games this weekend

Well the Bears are back in Winnipeg for the first time since June. And what a wonderful time it was then. Hershey clinched the Calder Cup the last time they were there.

The stakes aren't as high tonight and tomorrow, as the Bears play 2 there this weekend, but all the games are still important. Hershey enters tonight's contest with a 10 game winning streak. The franchise record is 11, set last season, and the team can tie and break that in Manitoba.

This is not the same team Hershey saw last June. Of the 10 leading scorers for the Moose in the 2009 season and playoffs only 3 players are in the top 1o again this season, Mike Keane, Guillaume Desbians, and Michael Grabner. Even beyond the top scorers the team is much different.

On this years team you have players with NHL experience such as Mathieu Schneider, who was just assigned to Manitoba, and Matt Pettinger, a longtime Cap. As well as some former Bears including Daren Machesney, Lawrence Nycholat, and Tom Maxwell.

While they aren't the same team they are still good. Currently sitting in 3rd in the North division they are 7 points out of 1st and are on a 4 game winning streak. They aren't as dangerous in the offensive end as they are tied for 3rd lowest in the league in goals scored. Defensively they are solid but not quite as good as last year.

Even still with the long road trip the games will be difficult this weekend. If the Bears can manage to win both games they will return to Hershey with a new franchise record winning streak.

There is no reason to think the Bears won't be ready to show that they are still the class of the league by beating the team they went through for the Cup last Spring.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 27-8-0-2 56 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 4-1 Win vs Adirondack, 1/3
last 5 games ~ 5-0-0-0
road record ~ 12-5-0-0
goals for ~ 144
goals against ~81
power play ~ 18.8% (6th)
penalty kill ~ 91.0% (1st)


Manitoba Moose
record ~ 21-14-4-0 46 points
standings ~ 3rd in North Division
most recent game ~ 5-4 SO Win vs Texas, 1/2
last 5 games ~ 4-1-0-0
home record ~ 14-6-2-0
goals for ~ 94
goals against ~ 102
power play ~ 12.1% (27th)
penalty kill ~ 82.8% (15th)

last time teams met - Bears clinched their 10th Calder Cup in June of 2009. This is the first of 4 meetings this season. Manitoba visits Hershey at the end of the month.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

C Keith Aucoin (11)- The league leader in goals with 19 he also has a 5 game point streak. Has been on fire all season. 5 goals and 6 assists in his last 5 games.
LW Oskar Osala (36) - He has been a little less consistent this season with his points coming in little streaks. Has 4 goals and 3 assists in his last 6 games.
G Braden Holtby (1) - Absolutely ridiculous this season. He hasn't lost in regulation since October 11th or at all since November 21. Overall he is 9-1-1 with a 1.45 goals against average and a .949 save percentage. Phenomenal numbers.

Moose:

RW Sergei Shirokov (52) - The rookie leads the team in goals (12) and points (26). Scored a goal and 2 assists in their last game but only had 2 assists in his previous 5 games.
LW Michael Grabner (40) - Has only played in 9 games for the Moose this season as he has spent some time in the NHL but he has 7 goals and 3 assists in his 9 games.
LW Matt Pettinger (18) - Former Capital spent parts of 5 seasons with Washington. He has 6 goals and 6 assists in 20 games with the Moose this season.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

Carlson nets game winner for USA

If you didn't get to see the IIHF World Juniors Gold Medal game last night you can see it again tonight at 6 on NHL network.

John Carlson, of your Hershey Bears, scored the game winning goal for the USA in overtime last night. It was a simple wrist shot that beat the Canada goalie short side on a 2 on 1 break for team USA.

It shouldn't even have come to that as the US was up 5-3 with less than 5 minutes to play in regulation but Canada managed to tie it up and force OT where Carlson managed to make his presence known.

Good to see a Bear making a huge impact on the World stage!

Congrats John!

Weekly Caps Report

*this is a new weekly series I plan on providing to my readers. The plan is to have this up every Tuesday discussing the previous Mon-Sun week.*


Last week wasn't a great one for the Capitals. They began the week playing host to the worst team in the NHL, Carolina Hurricanes, before making their second trip of the season to the west coast to play the Sharks and the Kings. None of those games ended well for the Caps as they dropped all three games.

The Capitals started last week by trading a couple of players and assigning injured goaltender Semyon Varlamov to Hershey for a conditioning stint. They finish the week finding out that Varly injured himself playing in Hershey and will be out up to 2 weeks.

First the trade...Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina were sent to Columbus for winger Jason Chimera. It was a shock to many in the organization as Clark was the Caps captain and had been working his way back to regular minutes after missing time in recent seasons to injury. The Jurcina half of the trade was a little less surprising. Of all the defensemen on the roster he was the most expendable and was the most likely to find himself on the bench with Karl Alzner gaining more minutes with the big club.

Next up for the Caps are the Canadiens on Tuesday, the Senators on Thursday, and the Thrashers on Saturday.

Bears make it 10 in a row

Apparently Hershey took getting shutout 3-0 in Albany a little personally. Since that game on December 11 Hershey has won 1o straight. And most of the games haven't been close. Hershey has scored 47 goals to the opponents 19 during that span.

They have balanced out their winning as well. 7 of the wins are at home, 3 are on the road, against 7 different opponents, including 6 wins (against 5 different teams) within the East division.

The Bears have opened up a nice cushion in the East division as well...a 15 point cushion over second place Albany. They have also opened up a lead on the rest of the AHL. They have 5 points more than any other team in the league.

Not that any of that means anything this time of year but it is still nice to look at. Hershey's next 4 games are on the road including this Friday and Saturday in Winnipeg against the team they beat in the Calder Cup finals back in June, the Manitoba Moose.

Merry Christmas!

A few facts to consider

If you don't subscribe to the Patriot News or didn't get the chance to read it yesterday Tim Leone had some nice statistics to look at and consider. I will share them with you here....

• For the fifth time in Bears history they have won 20 games in the first 30. The other 4 teams made it to the Calder Cup finals with 3 of them winning including last years team and the 96-97 team.
• The Bears lead the league in goals. They did this last year too.
• But this year (unlike last year) they are also really good at defense allowing the 2nd fewest goals in the league.

It gets even more impressive:

• Alexander Giroux is second in the league in scoring with 33 points. And he has only played in 21 of Hershey's 31 games....not too bad.
• Oh and Andrew Gordon and Keith Aucoin, each with 32 points, are tied for 3rd overall. Yes that means 3 of the leagues top 4 players reside in Hershey.
• Gordon is tied for the league lead with 15 goals and is tied for second in power play goals with 8. Aucoin is tied for second in goals with 14.
• John Carlson leads all defensemen in scoring (24 points), is 3rd in rookie scoring, and is 4th among all players in assists with 23. He is also tied for the league lead with a +17 rating.
• Steve Pinizzotto is tied for the AHL lead with 3 short handed goals.
• Michal Neuvirth is 4th in save percentage and 5th in goals against average.

And the following stats are even better (in my opinion)...especially if you consider last seasons struggles (albeit minor in the end):

• Hershey's TOP RANKED penalty kill has given up only 11 goals....and they have scored 7 shorties! Only 11 goals in 31 games...very impressive.
  
• The power play is #6 overall and since Chris Bourque has been back they have been converting 31.3% of their chances which would be #1 in the league.
• The Bears are 3rd in the AHL in road points percentage and is tied for 3rd in home points percentage.

And to the fans:

• Hershey AGAIN leads the league in attendance, averaging 8,718 per game. And if you are wondering how close the 2nd place team is....Manitoba is averaging almost 1,500 less. That is quite the difference.
  

Just wanted to mention again that I am not responsible for these stats...I borrowed them from Tim Leone. Thanks Tim for doing the research.

Huge win for Bears in Rochester

Yesterday I mentioned that Rochester is a very good home team (11-1-1-0 going into last nights game) and has one of the best power plays in the AHL (2nd overall).

But that didn't help them last night. Despite spending much of the first period (4 separate minors) on the penalty kill the Bears still managed to come away with a 3-1 victory over the North division leaders.

Hershey got a strong performance in goal by Braden Holtby, now 4-1-1 on the season, as he made 26 saves in the winning effort. Hershey held their own at the other end as well scoring 3 times (once in each period) and getting 40 shots on Alexander Salak.

Salak now has 4 losses on the season...half of them coming against the Bears. I am sure he doesn't want to see anymore of Hershey this season.

Hershey got goals from Oskar Osala (7th of the season), Jay Beagle (5th), and Amerks killer Keith Aucoin (13th and 4th in two games against Amerks) to collect their 19th win of the season. Hershey now leads the East division by 3 points with 2 games in hand over 2nd place Albany.

It was a good performance by the Bears as they had struggled recently on Friday nights. It seems the practice schedule change (they had off Tuesday) might have helped them out a bit.

Tonight (depending on the weather) the Bears will host the Amerks at Giant Center. Jason Bacashihua is expected to get the start in net for Hershey.

Rochester again

Last Saturday night the Bears hosted the Rochester Americans and handed them a 6-2 loss while forcing the Amerks starting goaltender Alexander Salak from the game.

Tonight the Bears will be the guests at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial (that's a mouthful) in Rochester.

Rochester is much better at home than on the road. At home they are 11-1-1-0 overall while only 9-6-0-0 on the road. They have also scored 50 goals at home and have only allowed 25 while those numbers are 43 and 48 on the road. And while Hershey hasn't been bad on the road this year (9-5-0-0) they have struggled the past 2 Friday nights on the road when a Wednesday game didn't keep them prepared. And guess what...this is another of those.

A true test of what this team has comes tonight. A good team, even better at home, against a Bears team that hasn't exactly dominated in recent Friday road games.


Last Saturday the Amerks were playing without a few of their top offensive weapons including Michal Repik and Jeff Taffe. And after 3 shifts Graham Mink also left the game with an injury. None of those three are expected to play tonight either.

Rochester played Syracuse this past Tuesday and looked average doing it. Salak however looked very good which is a good sign for the Amerks considering his game in Hershey last Saturday. Rochester got a boost in that from NHLer Nick Tarnasky who is in Rochester for a 5 game conditioning stint. He scored 2 goals Tuesday and will play this weekend against Hershey.

On other note....Michael Duco is back in Rochester for this weekend. To those of you who follow any Capitals blogs you might remember Duco from a few weeks ago. On December 3rd while Giroux was in Washington and Duco was in Florida Duco essentially jumped Giroux and ended up with 27 penalty minutes. To read more about this go over to On Frozen Blog and read their write up.

Here is the video as well....



Boy I hope Duco, GMac, and Ammo get to play tonight...that would be fun!!


Hershey Bears
record ~ 18-8-0-2 38 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 6-2 Win vs Rochester, 12/12
last 5 games ~ 3-2-0-0
road record ~ 9-5-0-0
goals for ~ 103
goals against ~64
power play ~ 16.8% (11th)
penalty kill ~ 93.3% (1st)


Rochester Americans
record ~ 20-7-1-0 41 points
standings ~ 1st in North Division
most recent game ~ 5-3 Win vs Syracuse, 12/15
last 5 games ~ 2-3-0-0
home record ~ 11-1-1-0
goals for ~ 93
goals against ~ 73
power play ~ 21.3% (2nd)
penalty kill ~ 85.3% (11th)

last time teams met - Hershey won last Saturday night 6-2.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

C Keith Aucoin (11)- Scored a hat trick last Saturday night against the Amerks and is now second on the team in goals with 12. Has 4 goals and 5 assists in 5 December games.
LW Alexander Giroux (12) - Wonder if he is going to go after Duco tonight?? Doubt it but even still he has 3 goals and 9 assists in his last 8 AHL games including 2 assists last Saturday night.
RW Andrew Gordon (10) - After having a minor cold streak of no goals in 6 games he has come to play recently. Scoring 8 goals and adding 5 assists in his last 10 games.

Amerks:

C Jamie Johnson (10) - Leads the team with in points (25) and is tied for the team lead in goals with 10 he was struggling for much of the past few weeks but has managed to pick up his game of late. A goal and 4 assists in his last 2 games after only 2 goals and 2 assists in his previous 10.
LW Michael Duco (14) - Isn't a great offensive threat (only 4 goals this season) but in his last 2 AHL games he has a goal and an assist and lets not forgot that he and Giroux have history.
LW Andrew Sweetland (18) - Only 4 goals this season but 2 of those came last Saturday night against the Bears.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

Aucoin's trick...interesting roster news

After a lackluster performance on Friday night in Albany many were wondering which Bears team would shot up Saturday in Hershey. Unfortunately for the Bears they came out Saturday and allowed Rochester to take a 1-0 lead just over a minute into the contest.

And that was the last time Rochester competed in this game.

From then on Hershey took control by scoring 6 to Rochester's 2. Keith Aucoin scored 3 of those to give him 12 this season, good for 2nd on the team. Braden Holtby made 34 saves as the Americans tried the best they could to get back into the game with 28 shots over the last 40 minutes.

Hershey also got goals from Andrew Gordon (15th), Jay Beagle (4), and Boyd Kane (11) on their 26 shots. All those goals weren't cost Alexander Salak a loss and cost him playing time as he didn't finish the game. He was replaced for the 3rd time this season after giving up 4 goals in the first period.

Hopefully whatever the Bears figured out on Saturday night will return on Friday when Hershey visits the Amerks in Rochester.


In other news this weekend....

The Caps have finally found a home for Michael Nylander. The talented yet overpriced Swede will be spending the remainder of this season in the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins...unless of course they loan him out somewhere. Fortunately for the Bears they won't have to see him in the regular season.

Grand Rapids currently resides in 4th place in the North Division so having the extra help might help them get into the postseason. But goal scoring hasn't been their issue and I highly doubt they brought Nyles in to play defense.

More importantly for the Caps (and Bears) though is that the Caps were able to get his multi million dollar salary off the books this season. Now they have some cap space and a roster space available for someone else.

And that someone else has been found...Karl Alzner was recalled earlier and is expected to get a legitimate opportunity to remain in Washington. That is not great news for Hershey as he is probably the best defenseman in Hershey. But as is life in the minor leagues....they will go on.

In other news out of Washington, Mathieu Perreault is back in Hershey while Kyle Wilson might make his NHL debut tomorrow night. Perry was playing very well for a while with the Caps but has struggled of late. He has only produced 1 point in his last 10 games.

As for Wilson this is a great chance for him. This is what I would call a 'show us what you got' call up. Wilson is not considered the top center in Hershey for either offense or defense. If they were looking for a true offensive force they would have called up Aucoin. If they were looking for a solid defensive player they would have called up Beagle.

But Wilson deserves a look and this is his chance. Fair or not his value to the organization will likely be decided during his stay in the capital district.

Good Luck Kyle and as for Karl...congratulations and good luck.

Bears welcome Graham Mink and the Amerks

Last year Graham Mink played a critical role in helping the Bears to their 10th Calder Cup trophy. He scored 32 goals during the season and another 7 in the playoffs. He skated on the top line with Giroux and Aucoin and played his role perfectly. And then in the offseason he left the organization with the hopes of playing in the NHL.

Unfortunately that has yet to happen and he has spent the entire season with Rochester in the North division. But that hasn't been the worst as he is again playing for a division leading team and is the leading goal scorer for the team as well.

It is always good to see former Bears get a shot in the NHL. Dean Arsene got his shot earlier this year with Edmonton and hopefully Minker will get his shot this season with Florida. I think everyone in Hershey will give Mink a warm welcome tonight and we are all rooting for him to get to the top level.

But we still want to see the Bears win and for that to happen they need to show up. Rochester is a good team. Like I mentioned above they are leading the North division by 3 points and have a +22 goal differential. Rookie goaltender Alexander Salak is playing great this season with a 2.03 goals against average and a 15-2 record in 18 games. He is 4th in the league in save percentage with a .933 and is the league leader in wins with those 15.

Like the Bears this team is offensively balanced. 21 players have scored a goal this season and 14 of them have scored 3 or more with Mink's 10 goals leading the way. There doesn't appear to be a go to tandem that controls the offensive strings but they seem to get it done. They don't have a top line like Hershey's where they can just count on them to produce with regularity. No one on the team is producing at a point per game or better while Hershey has 4 such players.

But that doesn't make them any less dangerous. The Bears need to know how to beat this team though as their next 3 games are against them. Tonight and then next Friday in Rochester and next Saturday back in Hershey.

This is a great chance to make an impression against a good Western Conference team. Although of late the Amerks are struggling a bit having lost 2 of their last 3 road games and 3 of their last 4 overall.

Something has to give in these games tough...Rochester possesses the leagues #1 power play while Hershey boasts the leagues #1 penalty kill....which unit is truly the best? We start the discovery tonight.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 17-8-0-2 36 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 3-0 Loss @ Albany, 12/11
last 5 games ~ 3-2-0-0
home record ~ 8-3-0-2
goals for ~ 97
goals against ~62
power play ~ 16.3% (12th)
penalty kill ~ 93.0% (1st)


Rochester Americans
record ~ 19-6-1-0 39 points
standings ~ 1st in North Division
most recent game ~ 2-1 Loss vs Abbotsford, 12/11
last 5 games ~ 2-3-0-0
home record ~ 9-5-0-0
goals for ~ 86
goals against ~ 64
power play ~ 22.7% (1st)
penalty kill ~ 86.0% (9th)

last time teams met - First of 4 meetings this season.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

LW Chris Bourque (17)- After spending the first couple months of the season in Pittsburgh with the Penguins he returned to Hershey last Saturday night and scored 3 goals and 2 assists in his two games last weekend.
LW Alexander Giroux (12) - No one played that well last night but Giroux had his chances but he couldn't get shots off. He needs to do better tonight.
G Braden Holtby (1) - Gets his 5th start of the season in Hershey and his first since November 21 as Michal Neuvirth is in Washington. Solid numbers to this point...1.23 goals against and a .953 save percentage...I would say those are pretty good numbers.

Amerks:

RW Graham Mink (21) - Leads the team with 10 goals and is tied for second with 20 points. He has 3 goals and an assist so far in 5 December games.
C Chris Taylor (12) - Leads the team in assists (16) and points (22) he hasn't produced in 2 straight games but does have a goal and 5 assists in the 4 games prior to that.
RW Michael Repik (26) - Tied for second on the team in goals with 9 and has 3 goals and 2 assists in his last 6 games.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

Damn you Justin Peters

For the second time in a week Justin Peters and the Albany River Rats completely shut down the AHL's highest scoring team. 36 shots by the Bears last night and 36 saves by Peters to earn the shutout.

Even with the additions of Alexander Giroux and Chris Bourque the Bears could not muster enough offense to beat the Albany goalie. Honestly though I thought the offense was average at best. The stats say 36 shots but I don't think half of those even got to the goalie. Although in the third period Peters made a few spectacular saves.

Hershey's goaltender, Jason Bacashihua, didn't do too much worse. He made two phenomenal saves early in the 2nd period to keep the Bears in the game but in the end he wasn't as good as his counterpart.

Even without a few good players the Rats still came up with enough offense to cut the Bears division lead to only 3 points. Albany got goals from Chris Terry, Nick Dodge, and an empty netter from Mike Angelidis to send the Bears back to Hershey on a sour note.

It was just the second time this season that the Bears have been shutout. And while Peters definitely played great the Bears didn't exactly help themselves. They only registered 5 shots in the first period to Albany's 15 and 2 goals. You can't give a goalie like Peters a period off and then start playing down 2 goals in the 2nd period.

And the power play...I shouldn't even get started....7 chances and not too much coming from them. Referee Frederic L'Ecuyer gave the Bears numerous opportunities but the Bears found ways to fumble the puck around in the offensive zone. But you do have to give the Rats some credit as they clogged passing lanes and took away what the Bears wanted to do.

These two don't meet again til mid January (15th) again in Albany. Maybe by then the Bears will have figured out a way to beat the Rats.


My Three Stars of the Game:

1. Justin Peters - 36 saves and his second straight A+ against the Bears
2. Jacob Micflikier - primary assist on all 3 goals
3. Chris Terry - first goal of game, game winning goal as it turns out and an assist

Grading the Performance:

• Offense | B | The first period was pathetic but they got their game going in the 2nd and 3rd but couldn't beat the Rats. Seemed to wait too long to shoot sometimes....always looking for that perfect pass. A hot goaltender will do that to a team...they think they need to make the perfect play to beat them.
• Defense | B | The blueline units seemed to do okay. No major gaffes, not too many problems. 2 goals allowed but that's okay in most cases. Has been a consistent source of steady play this year in my opinion.
• Goaltending | B | Not bad. Cash played well...some big saves and a couple goals allowed. Definitely not his fault they couldn't score at the other end.
• Power Play | F | Horrible in my opinion. Not shooting 5 on 5 is a little more understandable cause you don't have time but there was WAY too much passing on the power play last night. Instead of getting pucks at the net they were looking for the perfect pass all night long.
• Penalty Kill | A | The only goal they allowed was the empty netter at the end and that really can't be held against them.
• Overall | B | Not a bad game honestly. I thought they had their chances and played well in their own end. Sometimes you just run into a hot goaltender. Unfortunately they have run into the same hot goaltender twice in a week.

Bears look to avenge loss in Albany

The Hershey Bears get another crack at the Albany River Rats tonight in Albany. Last Friday in the same building Rats goalie Justin Peters stonewalled the Bears as the Rats won 3-1 on his 39 saves.

But unfortunately for Peters and the rest of the Rats the Bears got a lot stronger this week. Saturday night the Bears welcomed Chris Bourque back to Hershey and he responded with 3 goals and 2 assists in the next two games. Earlier this week Karl Alzner, arguably the best defenseman on the team, returned from Washington, and then yesterday the Capitals reassigned Alexander Giroux to Hershey.

None of those 3 were with the team last Friday night in Albany but all three will be there tonight.

Unfortunately (for Albany) the roster turnover for the Rats went the opposite direction. This week the Carolina Hurricanes recalled defensemen Jay Harrison and Brett Carson as well as forwards Jiri Tlusty and Pat Dwyer. All but Tlusty played against the Bears last Friday night and accounted for 1 goal and 3 assists on the night.

Not that the Rats will be any easier to beat but losing those 4 sure doesn't hurt the Bears chances. And with the addition of Giroux, who hasn't played for the Bears since the night before Thanksgiving, the Bears roster is as loaded as it has been all season.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 17-7-0-2 36 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 9-2 Win vs Hartford, 12/6
last 5 games ~ 3-1-0-1
road record ~ 9-4-0-0
goals for ~ 97
goals against ~59
power play ~ 17.2% (11th)
penalty kill ~ 93.6% (1st)


Albany River Rats
record ~ 14-10-1-2 31 points
standings ~ 2nd in East Division
most recent game ~ 4-1 Win vs Wilkes Barre, 12/6
last 5 games ~ 4-0-1-0
home record ~ 11-4-0-1
goals for ~ 75
goals against ~ 72
power play ~ 10.9% (28th)
penalty kill ~ 83.0% (18th)

last time teams met - Albany won 3-1 in Albany last Friday.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

LW Chris Bourque (17)- After spending the first couple months of the season in Pittsburgh with the Penguins he returned to Hershey last Saturday night and scored 3 goals and 2 assists in his two games last weekend.
LW Alexander Giroux (12) - Hasn't played in Hershey since before Thanksgiving but he was on a roll before heading to Washington. 3 goals and 7 assists in the 6 games before the call up.
RW Andrew Gordon (10) - Leading the team in goals (14) and points (30) he has been extremely hot as of late. He has scored in 6 of his last 8 and in those 8 games he has 7 goals and 5 assists.

Rats:

C Rob Hennigar (19) - Has only been playing for the Rats since Thanksgiving but in those 6 games he has 5 assists.
LW Jacob Micflikier (18) - Hasn't played too many games this season (8) but 4 of them have come in the past 2 weeks and he has 3 goals and an assist in those games.
C Stefan Chaput (15) - Tied for second on the team in points with 18 he has points in 4 straight games with 1 goal and 5 assists in those contests.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

Welcome Back Mr. Bourque

Friday night the Bears couldn't get a puck past Albany goaltender Jason Peters. But Saturday and Sunday they didn't have that trouble. A 5 goal Saturday and a 9 goal Sunday resulted in 4 points and a 5 point lead in the division.

And to make the weekend even better a certain #17 returned to the lineup. Late last week the Penguins put the diminutive winger on waivers and the Capitals claimed him and sent him directly to Hershey.

He arrived in Hershey at 4:30 and scored his first Hershey goal on his first shot of the game and added the game winner in the 3rd period.

Not bad for your first AHL game of the season.

Then the Bears welcomed, quite rudely I might add, the Hartford Wolfpack to the Giant Center on Sunday evening. Earlier this year the Bears put a 6-0 beating on the Pack in their own building and then they followed it up with a 9-2 beating in Hershey.

Before the game was even 23 minutes old the scoreboard read Hershey 5 Hartford 0 and starting goalie Steve Valiquette was sitting on the bench. Unfortunately for Hartford backup goalie Matt Zaba didn't fare much better.

Overall the Bears took 35 shots and scored on 9 of them. Pretty good. And pretty even scoring too. Gavin Morgan scored his first of the year (and first for Hershey since 03-04), Andrew Gordon added 2 (13 and 14), Andrew Joudrey added his 2nd against Hartford this year (4th of the season), Michael Dubuc (9), Chris Bourque (3rd), Steve Pinizzotto scored twice late (4th and 5th), and Kyle Wilson (KYLE WILSON!!!!) added a Gordie Howe hat trick to the cause with his fight, assist, and 9th goal of the season.

Congrats to the Bears for rebounding from the 3-1 loss Friday night....and....
Congrats to Chris Bourque for making it back to Hershey and finishing the weekend with 3 goals and 2 assists.


Other Notes:

• Karl Alzner was reassigned by Washington as Shaone Morrisonn returned from injury.
• Expect Alexandre Giroux back in Hershey by the weekend as the Caps should be healthy enough then.
• When that happens players like Morgan, Dubuc, and Dylan Yeo could be headed back to South Carolina.

Norfolk Admirals visit Hershey Bears tonight

Tough even game last night against Albany. Unfortunately it ended in a 3-1 Albany win but for almost the entire game it was a 1 goal game until the empty netter with less than 10 seconds to go.

Hershey just couldn't beat goaltender Justin Peters although they sure tried as they fired 40 shots at him. Only Andrew Gordon (12th of the season) managed to get a shot by Peters.

Tonight Hershey welcomes Norfolk to town. This will be the third meeting of the season between the Admirals and the Bears. The first two were also in Hershey and the Bears won both, 3-1 and 5-3.

A couple weeks ago Norfolk was actually right along side the Bears at the top of the East Division but have since fallen all the way to 4th. Since their last trip to Hershey, on November 13th, they have won only 4 games and all 4 of those wins have come in either overtime or a shootout.

Included in that stretch is 7 losses, only one of those in extra time. So apparently this team is great when everything is on the line. In fact Norfolk has only lost one time when a game goes to OT or a SO (4-1 in those games). If Hershey can get a lead during regulation then they will probably win.


Hershey Bears
record ~ 15-7-0-2 32 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 3-1 Loss @ Albany, 12/4
last 5 games ~ 2-2-0-1
home record ~ 6-3-0-2
goals for ~ 83
goals against ~53
power play ~ 14.8% (17th)
penalty kill ~ 94.0% (1st)


Norfolk Admirals
record ~ 12-13-1-0 25 points
standings ~ 5th in East Division
most recent game ~ 2-1 OT Win @ Adirondack, 12/4
last 5 games ~ 2-3-0-0
road record ~ 8-8-1-0
goals for ~ 64
goals against ~ 64
power play ~ 10.8% (28th)
penalty kill ~ 90.4% (5th)

last time teams met - Hershey won 5-3 in Hershey on November 13.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

C Keith Aucoin (11)- 8 goals and 12 assists in only 17 games with the Bears this season puts him 3rd on the team in scoring. Against Norfolk this season he has 1 goal and 3 assists.
RW Andrew Gordon (10) - Leading the team in goals with 12 and second on the team in points with 25 Gordo has been playing well lately with 5 goals and 2 assists in his last 6 games. He also has 3 goals against the Admirals this season (all coming in the opening game).
RW Francois Bouchard (22) - Was producing at a great pace back in the end of October into November but since the 8th of November (9 games) he has only 4 assists. Last season he slowed considerably after a hot start...is it happening again?

Admirals:

RW Brandon Bockenski (27) - Leading the team in goals with 12 and points with 21 he hasn't been producing as much of late. Only 2 goals and 3 assists in his last 11 games.
C Ryan Craig (23) - Probably the hottest player for the Ads right now. He has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 3 games. That's following 7 straight games with no points. Overall he has 9 goals (2nd on team) and 4 assists this season.
LW Radek Smolenak (10) - Like Craig he is also playing well right now with 1 goal and 4 assists in his last 3 games. Has only played 16 games this season with the Ads and has 3 goals and 8 assists so far.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

Bears at Rats tonight...Cops for KOPS tomorrow afternoon

The Bears kick off their 2nd straight 3 in 3 weekend tonight in Albany against the 3rd place River Rats. This will be the second meeting between the two teams with the Bears winning 4-1 in Hershey during October.

After tonight the Bears return home for games against Norfolk and Hartford.

But the big event of the weekend takes place at 1pm....the Cops for KOPS benefit hockey game. KOPS stands for 'Keep our Pipers Silent'. This event (the 4th annual) raises money for the children of police officers in Pennsylvania who were killed in the line of duty.

Previous years have raised about $50,000 in money that will be used to assist with education costs. In 2009 six officers were killed and they left behind 12 children.

For more on this years event you can find the flyer here and an article by WHTM here. For even more information including a list of the officers being honored visit John Walton Hockey.

Tickets to the game are $10 (children under 3 are free) and ALL proceeds benefit the children.

Hopefully everyone can get to the game...imagine 10,000 people showing up for PA officers vs NY City officers...that would be cool.

But if you can't be there consider donating anyhow....Additional donations can be mailed to the Derry Township Police Association, c/o Lt. Pat O'Rourke, 620 Clearwater Road, Hershey, PA 17033.



Hershey Bears
record ~ 15-6-0-2 32 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 5-0 Win vs Wilkes-Barre, 11/29
last 5 games ~ 2-1-0-2
road record ~ 10-3-0-0
goals for ~ 82
goals against ~50
power play ~ 15.4% (14th)
penalty kill ~ 94.7% (1st)


Albany River Rats
record ~ 11-10-1-2 25 points
standings ~ 3rd in East Division
most recent game ~ 3-2 Win @ Norfolk, 11/28
last 5 games ~ 2-2-1-0
home record ~ 9-4-0-1
goals for ~ 64
goals against ~ 69
power play ~ 11.4% (25th)
penalty kill ~ 81.4% (21st)

last time teams met - Hershey won 4-1 in Hershey on October 31.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

LW Boyd Kane (28)- Has found his offensive touch the past 7 games with 7 goals and an assist. Including 4 goals in the past 3 games.
RW Andrew Gordon (10) - Leading the team in goals with 11 and second on the team in points with 24 Gordo has been playing well lately with 4 goals and 2 assists in his last 5 games.
C Kyle Wilson (18) - Only 7th on the team with 15 points but many of those have come recently with 3 goals and an assist in the last 3 and two more goals in his last 7 games.

Rats:

RW Pat Dwyer (24) - Leading the team in goals with 9 and second on the team in points with 15 he has been hot of late with 4 goals and 2 assists in his last 7 games.
C Zach Boychuk (11) - While he sports a team worst -9 rating he also has 6 goals and 9 assists which ties him for second on the team in points. With 1 goal and 2 assists in his last 3 games he is also one of the hotter Rats (they seem to be struggling with consistency).
LW Jiri Tlusty (20) - Could be making his Rats debut as he was recently acquired from Toronto. With the Marlies he had 8 goals and 7 assists but only 2 of those goals have come since October.


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

6 games, 10 days, 8 points...not bad

I tried to watch the games Friday and Saturday night but thank you AHL Live for screwing that up for me. Unfortunately I had a meeting and didn't get to see Sunday's game so everything I am giving you today is from the little I was able to see against the Phantoms and from Tim Leone's articles and the score sheets.

Overall Hershey went 3-1-0-2 in the past 10 days. Not bad although it could have been better. The blow out loss at home to the lowly Providence Bruins was kind of a downer the night before Thanksgiving but after that it got better with a beatdown of Adirondack Friday night. Then they let us down again in a shootout against the same Phantom team before coming up with a great performance against the flightless water fowl on Sunday night at Giant Center.

22 goals scored, 8 different goal scorers, 15 goals allowed, 3 different goalies. Not a bad 6 games. And more impressively is that Giroux wasn't one of the top goal scorers and wasn't even there for the last 3 games of the weekend. But other players stepped up when needed. Of the 8 goal scorers only 2 tallied only one goal...Keith Aucoin and Trevor Bruess.

Boyd Kane scored 6 times over the last 6 games and Kyle Wilson and Andrew Gordon scored 4 times each. Giroux (2), Michael Dubuc (2), and Darren Reid (2) scored the remaining goals. It was overall a very good team effort over the 6 games.

The most impressive performance of the 10 days was probably Michal Neuvirth's goaltending job against Wilkes Barre on Sunday. As I mentioned above I didn't get to see it so I can't attest to the claim of 42 shots for the Pens but either way none of them went in. 42 shots, 42 saves and a 5-0 Bears win.

Some games Neuvy is absolutely unbeatable and then others he seems to lose focus a bit and relax too much. If he can figure that part of the game out I can assure you that we won't see him in Hershey for too much longer. He is potentially the best goalie in the system when he is on his game and that is saying alot considering Varly and Holtby.

Good run of games. Only 11 games over the next 31 days should give the team a chance to get healthy. It will also test their concentration with extended time off in between most of their games. Fortunately the month includes two 3 in 3 weekends which should keep them focused.

Also it will be nice to see some different teams for a change. After playing Binghamton, Wilkes Barre, and Adirondack a combined 11 times in the first 23 games they don't play any of them in December. Games against Norfolk, Rochester, and Albany dominate the month.

A great start to the season considering the callups and injuries the team has played through. Leading the team in goals, 5th in the league in goals against, and a 7 point lead in the division.

Not too bad.

Okay start to 6 games in 10 days

Friday night in Binghamton the Bears continued their dominance in New York beating the Senators 5-2 for their third win in that building this season. Everything appeared to be going well as they started a 6 games in 10 days stretch with the Springfield Falcons coming to Hershey Saturday night.

But unfortunately Springfield goaltender Devan Dubnyk managed to control the game by making 29 saves during play and then another 5 in the shootout to give the Falcons a 3-2 shootout win.

It was Hershey's first shootout of the season and only the second game that even made it to overtime. Last season the Bears played in 17 overtime or shootout games and were 7-6 in 13 shootouts. Maybe it is just me but I never feel like Hershey (or Washington for that matter) is any good in the shootouts. Last season was better with Varlamov and Neuvirth in net but when Freddie or Cheese was in there I always felt the Bears were at a disadvantage.

Luckily though shootouts don't exist in the playoffs and eventually another shot would have gotten past Dubnyk. And it wasn't like the Springfield offense was bringing much as they only finished with 18 shots (1 for the shootout win).

Any way you look at it the Bears finished last weekend with 3 of 4 points and have the chance at 8 more points this weekend with 3 home games and a trip to Adirondack.

Tomorrow night in the lone Wednesday night home game of the season the Bears welcome in the (last place) Providence Bruins. Hershey beat the Bruins in Providence 5-1 an November 8th so the Bruins will be looking to get one back.

Hershey welcomes back defenseman John Carlson and forward Andrew Gordon from Washington as the Caps are finally starting to get healthy.

Looking forward to a nice 4-win holiday weekend.

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!!!

Beags and Neuvy with Capitals

Jay Beagle and Michal Neuvirth were recalled by the Capitals today. Neither is expected to play tonight against the Rangers however.

Jose Theodore is back in Washington tending to personal matters so Neuvy will serve as the backup to Semyon Varlamov tonight.

David Steckel took a puck off the foot at practice yesterday and his condition is somewhat unknown. IF he can't go Beags will replace him in the lineup.

Bears on a roll

The last time I wrote here (sorry about the lack of posts) I asked if the Bears were going to answer after their deflating performance against Portland.

They did.

Following that game in Portland they traveled to Manchester (1st in Atlantic) and dominated them. Then they went to Providence and dominated there.

Not bad. Dominated teams from the Atlantic division that they will see only 2 times a year. But how would they do against a team they play against 8+ times a season.

Well they got the chance to prove themselves again this past weekend in Hershey. And they passed that test as well.

Norfolk (4th in East) came to town Friday night and jumped out to a 1 goal lead just over a minute into the game. But Hershey answered and continued answering on their way to a 5-3 win.

Then Wilkes-Barre came to town Saturday (currently in 2nd in division) hoping to end the Bears run. They couldn't. I didn't get to see it but it sounds like it was a somewhat fluky win but a wins a win and the Bears are up 6 points in the division.

6 points is nice but lets face it...its early. There are lots of games to play and injuries to come. Mathieu Perreault remains on recall to Washington and very well could remain there for much of the season. Although Keith Aucoin could return to Washington as well for a time. Who knows.

Either way...the Bears have played a quarter of their road games and are 7-3 with 39 goals scored. They have scored (almost) an entire goal more per road game than home game this season. (5-2 with 21 goals for at home)

Two more things before I am done....

1. Michal Neuvirth has played extremely well the past 2 weekends. He has played in all 4 games since the Portland loss and has obviously won all 4. In those games...he has a .946 save percentage and about a 1.50 goals against average. And since the start of November he is 5-0 with a .942 save percentage and a 1.60 goals against average. Nice!

2. Dean Arsene was called up to Edmonton for the game yesterday in Atlanta. Unfortunately for Deano he was a healthy scratch and did not make his pro debut but hopefully he will get his chance soon enough. Congrats Deano on getting the call up...we are all pulling for you to get a game with the Oilers soon!!

Poor performance in Portland

I watched part of the game last night and it was a disappointing effort for much of the game. The first 10 minutes were good. It was how most road teams start out...lots of energy, some good chances, and overall good play. But if teams don't convert in those first minutes the home team begins to take hold of momentum and dominate.

That is how last night went for Hershey. The Bears came out great and dominated play for the first 8-10 minutes. Then it ended.

Portland scored their first goal, then their second, third, fourth, and finally their fifth goal. Yes that's right, the top team in the East division lost to the LAST PLACE team in the Atlantic division 5-0.

Teams have to show up every game for 60 minutes and unfortunately Hershey only showed up for a few minutes last night.

Next up for Hershey is a trip to Manchester to play the Monarchs. The Monarchs, first place in the Atlantic, have already beaten the Bears this season, in Hershey 2-1. So this game will be a good indication of what the Hershey Bears are this season.

Are they a team that will show up after a bad loss?

Will they avenge an earlier defeat?

Can they beat top competition on the road?

Great test tonight for the 09-10 Bears. It is time to forget about the long season and short summer. Time to forget about what worked last season. Time to focus on now and the next opponent. Time to figure out what will work with this team THIS YEAR.

Aucoin and Perreault performing well in new spots

Today marks the 2nd game of the 4 game 5 night New England tour for the Hershey Bears. After beating Lowell 5-2 on Wednesday night they visit Portland to play the last place Pirates.

Keith Aucoin returned to the Bears on Wednesday and promptly showed the Capitals that he is a player on the larger stage. Coiner returned and promptly scored a hat trick in Lowell. That comes on the heels of scoring 5 points in 8 games with the Caps.

Taking his place in Washington was the (apparently now 5'10") Mathieu Perreault. He played in his first NHL game Wednesday night and recorded assists on both of Washington's 2 goals. So he went from being 5'8" and playing on the top line in the AHL to 5'10" and getting 2 assists in only 10.5 minutes of ice time in the NHL.

I am not surprised by his hot start in the NHL. He is a traditional playmaker that will make those around him much better. I am somewhat surprised that he is listed at 5'10" although if they measured him while he was on his skates I could see it or if he was standing on a stool.

Both players played well in the NHL and both are game changers in the AHL. Glad to have either or both in Hershey!


Hershey Bears
record ~ 8-4-0-0 16 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
most recent game ~ 5-2 Win @ Lowell, 11/4
last 5 games ~ 4-1-0-0
road record ~ 5-2-0-0
goals for ~ 43
goals against ~24
power play ~ 13.8% (16th)
penalty kill ~ 93.3% (4th)


Portland Pirates
record ~ 4-8-0-0 8 points
standings ~ Last in Atlantic Division
most recent game ~ 4-3 Loss @ Syracuse, 10/23
last 5 games ~ 2-3-0-0
home record ~ 3-1-0-0
goals for ~ 31
goals against ~ 47
power play ~ 12.1% (25th)
penalty kill ~ 70.9% (29th)

last time teams met - Hershey won 3-2 at home on Sunday, October 25th.


Players to watch:

Hershey:

LW Alexandre Giroux (12)- After last seasons amazing run he is picking up where he left off with 7 goals and 10 assists in only 8 games.
C Keith Aucoin (11) - Apparently he was trying to make up for lost time on Wednesday by scoring 3 goals. Now has 4 goals and 4 assists in only 5 games this season in Hershey.
LW Oskar Osala (36) - After struggling to score earlier in the season he has now scored in back to back games giving him 3 for the year.

Pirates:

LW Nathan Gerbe (19) - One of the biggest pests on the Pirates team the 5'5" wing has 3 goals and 7 assists this season but no goals since 10/16.
C Tyler Ennis (11) - Leading the team in goals with 6 plus an additional 4 assists. 3 of his goals were on the power play and none have come in the last 3 games.
RW Mark Mancari (25) - Leading the team in points with 11 (3g 8a). Has a point in 6 straight games (2g 5a).


LET'S GO BEARS!!!

Perreault gets his chance

In what I consider to be an 'avoid waiver issues' move, Mathieu Perreault was recalled by the Capitals while Keith Aucoin was reassigned to Hershey.

If Aucoin were to spend 10 games or 30 days straight with the Caps he would have to clear waivers if they wanted to send him back to Hershey. This way they keep that from happening.

Honestly they are very similar players. Both are small playmaking centers. Aucoin is more experienced and can do more scoring but Perry can do amazing things with the puck on his stick and is probably the faster skater right now.

Congrats to Perry for getting his chance and to Coiner...you will surely be back up there soon.