Chirps from Center Ice

I’m not going to do write-ups of every postgame, but last nights warrants a brief one.

–> Playoff atmosphere for Game 1. That intense.

–> Going back to intros, Brett Sterling didn’t get that much of an ovation. It is obvious that the attending had no idea how dangerous the man can be. I heard people saying, “Oh he’s the new guy.” I corrected those within earshot. He isn’t “the new guy” he is “The Ticket”. (Ticket to what?) The Ticket to a Calder Cup.

–> Andrew Hutchinson, Ryan Craig and Tim Wallace wore the A’s.

–> Steve Wagner had a forgettable game. Somehow managed 4 shots and a +1, but he let Steve Pinizzotto sneak in behind him for a breakaway goal which tied the score at 2 midway through the second, then his next shift he lets Jay Beagle blow past him, Beagle hits the post, skates around then drills Wagner after Steve had his head down.

–> Reactions from around Bombulie’s post-gamer on his blog and people I spoke with post game said Corey Potter was awful. For what it’s worth, I didn’t notice him.

–> Chris Conner is as fast as lightning. His never-say-quit attitude led to a gritty goal by Andrew Hutchinson to give us the lead at 3-2.

–>We were 1 for 5 on the powerplay. That 1 cash-in was the anomaly because the other 4 tries were god awful. There was a time we had :33 of a 5 on 3 and couldn’t even establish anything!

–> The more things change, the more things stay the same for the Bears. They murder you on the back door plays. Aucoin and Greentree both had powerplay goals which is mainly based on the spread-type play that Hershey institutes with their talented wingers. I plan on asking Bombulie about this tomorrow at the booster club meeting whether this can be stopped.

–> Braden Holtby looked good for the Bears but very pedestrian in the shootout. Bombulie described what I tweeted last night in his post-game wrap here. Alrighty then. Find a weakness, exploit it, win the game.

–> In the end, we won in a shootout. Two points. That’s all that matters. Now, replicate that 9 more times against this team this year and playoff success will take care of itself.

–> On the aforementioned Ticket, a picture of him and your blog author can be found here.

Tomorrow, it’s a booster club meeting for me where we’ll have a sit down with Pens’ beat writer Jonathan Bombulie. If there is something worthwhile look for me back here late Monday.