Bears 4 - Senators 3
October 22, 2005
After the excitement over last weeks performance, the Senators had me worried after falling 4-3 to the Bears in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. The Sens came out flat and were outplayed by a much larger and more prepared Hershey team. Once again they took far too many penalties, but this time their opponent took even more, but this only gave us an opportunity to see that our special teams has a lot of work to do. Hershey had an excellent PK unit and gave our shooters no time to setup and little room to pass and they made a point of keeping Martins out of the game and allowed no one to setup in front of the net.
The Bears were led by two Binghamton alumni, Brooks Laich (Sens) and captain Boyd Kane (Icemen). They capitalized with all four goals scored on the power play, but they also missed just as many open net goals and had numerous others robbed by Billy Thompson.
One sign of concern was Denis Hamel, who kept trying to skate in alone through 2 or 3 defenders only to end up lying on the ice. Maybe he was hoping to draw a hooking penalty, but the result was always a turnover. Fans didn’t like it, but one of the rules that has not changed is that defenders ARE allowed to ’stand up’ a rushing opponent when they have the puck or just had the puck. Yeah there was a facial or two, but this is hockey, not basketball. I know Denis is expected to carry the B-Sens offense, but he needs to learn to utilize his new teammates.
On the bright side, Danny Bois continued to impress with his skating and hustle. Here is one kid who wants to make the most of his increased role on this team. Novak continued to show great speed, but had trouble controlling the puck on the power play and was shoved around by the much larger Hershey players.
Overall it was a rough game to watch, but the Sens stuck with it and didn’t let the game get away from them. Like I said last time, this is a young team and will require some patience. Tonight starts a short road trip and this will be an excellent chance for the players to get to know each other a little better on and off the ice. With only two games in 2 weeks I think the Sens are ready for a little less practice and more game time. I expect we’ll see a much better team on November 5th.
Notes: We got to the game early to get good parking and watched the warmups from the blueline on the visitors side. Brooks Laich took the time to give pucks to both my boys so we gave him the applause he deserved when he scored his goals and got named first star of the game.
Comments
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
