{"id":924,"date":"2008-11-23T05:30:31","date_gmt":"2008-11-23T05:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehogs.net\/blogs\/?p=924"},"modified":"2025-05-03T01:35:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T05:35:37","slug":"bears-cage-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2008\/11\/23\/bears-cage-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears Cage Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"small;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">The last time the Hershey Bears and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers squared off for first place, Hershey was at the end of a 3-in-3 road journey, and Bridgeport took advantage of that situation and came out on top.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>In tonight\u2019s game, however, the roles were reversed and the Bears pounced upon the opportunity, prevailing 4-1, thanks to three unanswered third period goals.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">Hershey dominated the game early, outshooting their opponents 7 to 1 in the first five minutes of the game.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>However, Bridgeport\u2019s Joe Joensuu, who scored a pair of goals in the only other game between the two teams this season, netted the first goal of the game at 10:34.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Bears, despite finding themselves trailing even though they outplayed the Sound Tigers, responded promptly with a goal of their own from Keith Aucoin, a power play tally at 12:08.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Aucoin, who is known more for his role of a set-up man rather than a goal scorer, was in full goal scoring mode on this occasion, after gathering in an errant point shot from behind the goal line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u201cI saw he was down on my side, and I didn\u2019t see anybody on the other side. I thought if I got it over there quick enough I\u2019d get it in, and lucky enough I got it in there quick enough,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"small;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">The two teams would not score for the next 30 minutes of play, until Sami Lepisto\u2019s power play goal at 3:07 of the third period.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Lepisto, who scored four goals in 55 games last season, has already registered three goals in his 20 games so far this season.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>There has been a noticeable difference in Lepisto\u2019s confidence in carrying the puck this season, and tonight\u2019s goal was a perfect indication of that.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>After eluding a Bridgeport defender at the blue line, Lepisto proceeded to the right face off circle, and in a situation in which he most likely would have looked for a pass, he confidently launched a wrist shot that found its way behind goaltender Yann Danis.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u201cIt took me a while to get used to the game here,\u201d he said.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>I am feeling more confident and I\u2019m feeling pretty confident in my wrist shot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">After Lepisto\u2019s goal, Oskar Osala and Graham Mink added two more goals, and Daren Machesney stopped all five shots he faced to give Hershey the victory.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Machesney, who had struggled prior to last week\u2019s 22 save shut out against Binghamton, seems to have found his game again with another solid effort, stopping 17 of 18 shots.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Machesney was quick to give credit to his teammates who kept the shots on goal to a minimum by blocking many attempted Bridgeport efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"small;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u201cThe guys in front of me played great; we had the puck the whole night,\u201d commented Machesney, who picked up his 7<sup>th<\/sup> win of the season.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThey didn\u2019t give them (Bridgeport) a chance to do anything special.<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Shot-blocking is one of those things in a game that\u2019s overlooked, and in the last week or so we\u2019ve been a lot better at that.\u201d<span style=\"yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">At the quarter-pole of the season tonight, with the Bears finding themselves in full stride in the midst of their second five game winning streak of the season, Machesney knows that there is still a long way to go, and that the season is far from over. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a long haul; we\u2019re not going for sprints, we\u2019re going for a marathon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last time the Hershey Bears and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers squared off for first place, Hershey was at the end of a 3-in-3 road journey, and Bridgeport took advantage of that situation and came out on top.\u00a0 In tonight\u2019s game, however, the roles were reversed and the Bears pounced upon the opportunity, prevailing 4-1, &#8230; <a title=\"Bears Cage Tigers\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2008\/11\/23\/bears-cage-tigers\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Bears Cage Tigers\">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-924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-washington-capitals","tag-hershey-bears"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bears Cage Tigers | 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\/11\/23\/bears-cage-tigers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bears Cage Tigers | The-Hogs.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The last time the Hershey Bears and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers squared off for first place, Hershey was at the end of a 3-in-3 road journey, and Bridgeport took advantage of that situation and came out on top.\u00a0 In tonight\u2019s game, however, the roles were reversed and the Bears pounced upon the opportunity, prevailing 4-1, ... 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