This was another of those “What the hell?” type games at Giant Center. I can’t still put my finger on why, but it didn’t start out well for the Bears when they let Graehme Friggin’ Mink score 2.24 into the game. However, as opposed to the Wednesday Game O’ Doom, the Bears didn’t sit on it the way they tend to want to. At 4:49, Beagle responded with Gordon’s help, and they left for intermission tied 1-1. In the second, Hershey came out like they meant it, scoring three goals (Motzko, Beagle, Barney) to Worcester’s one, and then in the third, when they looked like the might be attempting to sit on their laurels, they managed to hammer out two more (Motzko, Clymer) in response to Worcester’s two.

As far as the game went, however, it was a game of banging and poking and missing for both teams, but the Bears were definitely having a harder time from it. The Baby Sharks seem to have a lot of good puck handlers who can do the stupid little dipsy-doodles and a number of the Bears as a wanted to try to do the same thing, which was a bad idea on their part.

no, baby Army in the net does not count as a goal.
There was some issue with the visitors’ net at the very beginning, when it refused to stay on the anchor numerous times. I get a little jittery every time there’s a big delay of game like that, as I’ve seen it turn this team into a wibbling mass of goo a couple of times. Luckily, Woods seems to have been ramming spines down everyone’s throats, as it wasn’t an issue this go around.

Penalty-wise, it was a pretty damn boring game. It looked like there was going to be a Beagle/Clymer co-scrum once, but they just sorta shoved around and gave up. Flinn, the hired muscle, finally got in to play, but was really kind of less than impressive without a big fight. It seems from what he did that Clymer and Arsene should really be able to handle the shoving side of things, as they’ve already been doing that for a while. There was one blooded Shark, but that seemed to have come from the kick-back on a stick that broke and flew up to catch him in the mouth.

Here’s a new one for you long-time THTM readers, which may become a post game feature:

Three Stars from the Bears for me would have been Deano, Beagle, Bourque. (as much as I hate to admit it) Deano was intimidating the heck out of anyone he could, and throwing himself bodily into things. Beagle, similarly, was everywhere he could be, and following pucks in. Bourque was taking shots. Even when he might not have made them, he was trying, which is a nice change from the Bears of a few weeks ago who just wanted to play with the puck and never shoot.

Three Sucking Holes from the Bears: Motzko, Boumedienne, Pokulok.
Motzko and Boomer were both having awareness issues tonight. Motzko this is nothing new for, but Boomer just looked tired, and wasn’t moving his head, which lead to him missing four or five good ones behind him because he wasn’t paying attention. Pokulok just doesn’t move. He’s big, and should be able to get there, but he and McAllister just don’t play a body-oriented game, which they need to, as the big guys.