Bears Continue To Roll

Whenever the Bears and the Phantoms meet on a Friday night, fans never know what to expect.  However, two things have remained constant between the rivals in the City of Brotherly Love this season:  scoreboard malfunctions and balanced scoring from the Bears, the second of which led to the Chocolate and White’s 5-2 victory. 

Early in the first period, Hershey found themselves at a two-man disadvantage, when Graham Mink and Keith Aucoin received penalties 39 seconds apart, giving the Phantoms a 5-on-3 advantage for 1 minute and 29 seconds.  The Bears’ penalty killers responded to their early challenge by not allowing a single shot on goal during the entire sequence. 

Bears’ head coach Bob Woods felt that the momentum gathered from the successful penalty kill was the spark his team needed to move forward.

“I thought we were a little bit flat,” he said. “I don’t know if it was bus legs, or whatever, but I thought that kill kind of gave us a little extra juice; I thought we kind of took control after that.” 

And take control, they did, scoring a pair of goals within 1 minute and 11 seconds from the sticks of Alexandre Giroux and Andrew Gordon, giving Hershey a 2-0 lead.  Shortly before the first intermission, the Patrick Maroon scored for the Phantoms, with a goal that replicated his success in the Phantoms’ shootout win against the Bears on November 2^nd, where he beat Bears’ goaltender Bobby Goepfert twice in similar fashion.

It was a successful night for Kyle Wilson who found the back of the net for the third consecutive game after being the recipient of a long distance tape-to-tape pass from defenseman Patrick McNeill.  Tonight’s Hershey goalie, Simeon Varlamov, registered his first professional point by contributing to the tally at 1:31 of the second period.  Wilson, who also added another strike later in the evening which marked his 6^th and 7^th goals in the last nine games after enduring a ten game scoreless drought, chose not to alter his game to change his fortune, but instead kept plugging away in hopes that his luck would change.

“You just kind of stay the course.  Every person has their times when they’re not scoring and you’ve got to try not to change your game at all and try to keep doing what you’re doing and it will eventually go in for you,” he said.

Using the recently rediscovered Bears’ killer instinct, Francois Bouchard lit the lamp only 1 minute and 32 seconds after Wilson’s goal, giving Hershey a three-goal cushion of 4-1.  Bouchard’s goal, assisted by Oskar Osala and Mathieu Perreault, was the 9^th goal contributed by that line against the Phantoms this season.  Andrew Gordon, who knows a thing or two about what it takes to be successful in a first season of professional hockey, potting 16 goals in 07-08 during his rookie season, is not surprised by the unit’s success. 

“They have so much skill, so much ability.  Oskar brings a different element to the two young French guys,” Gordon said.  They’re so quick, they’re so fast, and they read off each other so well and Oskar is so strong in the corners.  He gets the pucks to them.  They all bring a different element that brings them together so well.  It’s fun to watch.”