{"id":1037,"date":"2008-12-29T08:25:28","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T08:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehogs.net\/blogs\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2025-05-03T01:35:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T05:35:36","slug":"bears-exterminate-late-rats-rally-122808","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2008\/12\/29\/bears-exterminate-late-rats-rally-122808\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears Exterminate Late Rats Rally 12.28.08"},"content":{"rendered":"
After a disappointing loss last night against the Binghamton Senators, the Hershey Bears quickly bounced back into the win column by defeating the Albany River Rats, 5-3, at Giant Center Sunday evening.<\/span><\/div>\n
Hershey\u2019s Oskar Osala started the scoring, striking first at 12:28 of the first period. Osala\u2019s goal, his 17th<\/sup> of the season, broke his five game goal-scoring drought.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cI knew there\u2019s always going to be stretches like that and I don\u2019t think I played that good tonight, either, but I had some chances in the earlier games, too: shooting, missing empty nets and all kinds of stuff,\u201d said Osala, who is tied with the Philadelphia Phantoms Claude Giroux for the league lead in rookie goal scoring.<\/span><\/div>\n

Albany\u2019s Michael Ryan tied the game at one with his 10th<\/sup> goal of the season, a power play goal at 14:04.<\/p>\n

Andrew Gordon, while sliding on his knees, gave Hershey the lead at 1:57 of the second period, redirecting a Greg Amadio point shot past Albany goaltender, Justin Peters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to make sure I had a screen in front, and he (Amadio) threw a nice low shot to my forehand,\u201d said Gordon, who has scored in three of the four meetings between the divisional rivals. \u201c I don\u2019t know if I got<\/p>\n

cross-checked or if I toe-picked or if there was even anybody around me, but I managed to reach back and get a tip on it. I didn\u2019t even see it go in, but if I heard the crowd I was going to stay down and if I didn\u2019t, I was going to get up and go to the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recreating a scenario from Friday night\u2019s Washington Capitals game, when Bryan Helmer\u2019s long outlet pass figured prominently into a highlight reel goal by Alexander Ovechkin, Helmer launched a pass to Bears\u2019 forward Quintin Laing, who then shuffled a pretty cross ice pass to Kyle Wilson who found the back of the net. This goal at 6:04 gave Hershey a comfortable 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n

Referee Chris Cozzan awarded a penalty shot to Albany\u2019s Jakub Petruzalek when he ruled that Greg Amadio\u2019s defensive attempt to stop Petruzalek denied the Albany forward a reasonable scoring chance (Rule 57.3). Amadio, who confessed that he was a little cloudy on the criteria in awarding a penalty shot, did admit to committing an infraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what the rule is exactly, but I slashed his stick and broke it and thought maybe I\u2019d get a slashing penalty, but I guess I did take away his scoring opportunity when I broke his stick,\u201d said Amadio.<\/p>\n

However, the Bears did not absorb the brunt of the penalty shot, thanks to the aggressive goaltending approach of their rookie net minder, Michal Neuvirth, who denied Petruzalek\u2019s bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes in practice I try that (poke checking the puck off the stick of the opposing shooter) and when I saw his head was down, I just tried it and I\u2019m glad I did it and stopped the penalty shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neuvirth, who struggled at times in the loss to Binghamton, his AHL debut, was noticeably more comfortable in Sunday\u2019s game, thanks in part to a pre game talk with head coach, Bob Woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave me some confidence,\u201d said Neuvirth, who is second only to his goaltending partner, Bobby Goepfert in the ECHL in Goals Against Average. \u201cI felt kind of bad after the game yesterday, but I put that behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith Aucoin capped off the second period scoring with a power play goal at 19:55, giving Hershey a 4-1 lead entering the third period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a big goal with 4 seconds left in the second and that was huge going into the third period,\u201d said the veteran Aucoin, who saw signs of hope despite the unit\u2019s recent struggles. \u201cThe last couple games I thought our power play has gotten a lot of chances and we\u2019ve gotten a lot of shots. The puck just hasn\u2019t gone in for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first half of the third period, Neuvirth preserved Hershey\u2019s three goal lead by denying quality scoring bids from Albany\u2019s Brad Herauf and Mike Angelidis.<\/p>\n

Albany made it interesting, scoring two goals within 31 seconds of each other in the last three minutes of the game. However, Chris Bourque\u2019s empty net goal at 19:47 ensured the Bears their league leading 23rd<\/sup> victory of the season.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a disappointing loss last night against the Binghamton Senators, the Hershey Bears quickly bounced back into the win column by defeating the Albany River Rats, 5-3, at Giant Center Sunday evening. Hershey\u2019s Oskar Osala started the scoring, striking first at 12:28 of the first period. Osala\u2019s goal, his 17th of the season, broke his … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1890],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-washington-capitals","tag-hershey-bears"],"yoast_head":"\nBears Exterminate Late Rats Rally 12.28.08 | The-Hogs.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2008\/12\/29\/bears-exterminate-late-rats-rally-122808\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bears Exterminate Late Rats Rally 12.28.08 | The-Hogs.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a disappointing loss last night against the Binghamton Senators, the Hershey Bears quickly bounced back into the win column by defeating the Albany River Rats, 5-3, at Giant Center Sunday evening. 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