Friday, February 23, 2007

Bears Triumph in Philly

Hershey Get 2 Goals From Unlikely Sources in Victory
Hershey Bears 3, Philadelphia Phantoms 0

Boxscore
(Photo Courtesy of www.hamiltonbulldogs.com)

After Tomas Fleichmann was recalled to the Washington Capitals this afternoon the Bears knew that others would be needed to step up and fill in for the scoring slack. Coming into tonight’s game there were just two Bears regulars who hadn’t cracked the goal scoring sheet this season. It could not have been scripted any better as they would both contribute in Hershey’s win over their intrastate rivals.

Phantoms’ defenseman Nolan Baumgartner, who was placed on re-entry waivers by the Flyers earlier in the day, turned the puck over in his own zone directly leading to Dean Arsene’s 1st goal of the season for the Bears.

That would be all of the scoring until the third period. Phantoms’ center Matt Davis took what turned out to be a key holding penalty while his team had a man advantage with 5:20 remaining. The Bears would capitalize on the power play and put the game out of reach for good. Timo Helbling who would make you believe, at least for a moment, that he was a sniper by rifling a shot into the top right corner of the net beating goaltender Scott Munroe for his 1st goal of the season as well.

Maxime Daigneault would make the lead stand up as he provided Hershey with his second straight quality start making several big stops on his way to his 3rd shutout of the season. The win improved his record on the season to 13-4-0 and put him into a tie with Frederic Cassivi for the team lead in wins. He also improved his record to 4-0 on the season against Philadelphia. Alexandre Giroux would add an empty netter for his 33rd goal of the season to make the final 3-0.
These two teams will not have to wait long to see each other again as they will meet in a rematch tomorrow night at in what is expected to be a sold out Giant Center.

My Top Three Stars:

1. Dean Arsene, Hershey GW Goal

2. Maxime Daigneault, Hershey 31 Saves in Shutout

3. Timo Helbling, Hershey 1 pp goal

Game Notes:

Jamie Hunt, Tyler Sloan, Pete Vandermeer, and Kip Brennon were the scratches…. Tonight was the 125th regular season meeting between these two teams dating back to 1996…. With Tomas Fleichmann recalled earlier, Chad Wiseman returned to the lineup despite not yet being 100%.

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