The Hershey Bears completed a weekend sweep in convincing fashion when they shut out the road-weary Binghamton Senators on Sunday at Giant Center, 9-0.
After failing to garner all six points in three previous 3-in-3 attempts, tonight’s lopsided victory was a welcome relief to Hershey. All they needed to get the engines revving was a power play goal from Alexandre Giroux, at 11:01 of the first period. Giroux’s goal broke a seven game goal-scoring drought, and the relief could clearly be read on his face.
“It’s my job to score goals, so when I don’t, it’s a little tough on me to look on the bright side…It’s always good to get the first one and for it to also be the winning one,” Giroux said.
Giroux’s goal, which started a scoring trend, allowed the Bears to go to the locker room with a 1-0 lead entering the second period. The second period began quietly, with only one goal in the first ten minutes, Andrew Gordon’s 8th goal of the season. However, Gordon’s tally started the goal-scoring frenzy that had the goal horn working overtime during the last ten minutes of the stanza.
Coach Bob Woods has frequently talks about the depth the 08-09 Bears possesses, and tonight’s second period outburst was testament to that thought. Five different players—Andrew Gordon, Graham Mink, Francois Bouchard, Keith Aucoin, and Kyle Wilson—all beat Binghamton goaltender, Jeff Glass, to light the lamp.
Hershey Bears’ netminder, Daren Machesney, came into the game after struggling in his past three outings. His recent performances have been raising questions about his ability to carry the workload of a number one goaltender, but he rebounded with an impressive 26-save shutout, the second of his career. He admittedly made a few subtle changes to his game, but insisted that a major overhaul was not necessary.
“I just needed to be more aggressive and make myself look bigger,” said Machesney, whose six wins surpassed Simeon Varlamov’s five victories this season. “Don’t go down so early. Stay up and more patient on your feet so you look bigger when the shot’s coming and just try not to think too much.”
Even with his outstanding shut out win, Machesney knows that the life of a goalie does not allow him to rest on his laurels.
“It’s only one game. I’m not going to be on ‘Cloud 9’,”he said, while also offering this life lesson that we could all use. “Learn from your mistakes; try not to make the same mistake twice, and if you do that in life, you’re going to be very successful.”