Following Saturday’s debacle at Giant Center, in which the Hershey Bears surrendered the last four goals of the game to fall to the Albany River Rats, head coach Bob Woods warned of future disaster if his team failed to put forth a better effort.
“I don’t care how good we think we are, or what our record is. If we don’t play 60 minutes, and work hard, anybody can beat us…,”commented Woods. “If they try to go in with the same effort tomorrow, it will be pretty ugly; I guarantee it.”
On Sunday, Woods’ words proved prophetic when the Bears surrendered the final five goals of the game to give the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins the 6-2 win at Wachovia Arena.
Woods, electing not to throw any particular player under the bus for his club’s second straight setback, decided instead to head straight for the bus, skipping his customary post-game gathering with the media.
Things started well for Hershey when Giroux scored his 28th goal of the season, and 11th in 7 games since returning from Washington. Giroux one-timed a cross-ice pass from Chris Bourque behind Bourque’s former college teammate, Penguins netminder, Jon Curry. Giroux’s goal, scored with Hershey enjoying a 5-on-3 manpower advantage, was the Bears’ first 5-on-3 goal of the campaign.
A little over three minutes later, the Penguins tied the game at one with a goal from Bill Thomas at 7:49.
Hershey regained the lead at 14:35 on a goal by Kip Brennan. Brennan’s goal, assisted by his linemates, Steve Pinizzotto and Andrew Joudrey, was his first marker of the season. Pinizzotto did the majority of the labor on the Brennan bid, forcing a turnover Pinizzotto on WBS defenseman Jon D’Aversa. After Pinizzotto’s thievery, Joudrey gathered in the loose biscuit and quickly fed Brennan alone and on the doorstep of Curry for an easy tally.
“We worked hard down below the goal line,” said Brennan, whose last AHL goal was scored almost exactly a year ago (1-12-08). “Joudrey and Pinizzotto cycled it a couple times and Joudrey made a great pass to me.”
The Penguins came out like a team possessed, outshooting the Bears 12-3 in the second period, scoring three goals in the stanza, including Janne Pesonen’s power play goal at the buzzer.
In the third period, the baby Pens didn’t let up, and the Bears didn’t step up. The home team scored two power play goals in the first two minutes of the period, one from Danny Richmond and the other from Jean-Michel Daoust to give the Pens their 24th win of the season.
Sunday’s loss marked Bears’ goaltender, Simeon Varlamov’s, first loss in a month. Varlamov, making his 20th appearance for the Chocolate and White, gave up a season high six goals in the game.
When asked whether or not he thought the Bears were outworked in the game, forward Alexandre Giroux was quick to offer up a candid response.
“Absolutely. Maybe not in the first; in the first, we did what we wanted to do and I think after that they won every battle along the wall and in front of the net. They came out stronger than us in the second and third.”