HERSHEY, Pa – The Hershey Bears have been one of the AHL’s best team ever since the start of the season. Today, the Bears are one of a handful of teams that look as though they wish to make the same claim. With only one month left in the regular season, the Bears have the Eastern Conference’s best record at 40-18-1-5 (86 points), but no longer have the AHL’s best record overall. The Manitoba Moose have that distinction with 91 points, followed by the Milwaukee Admirals with 87. Hershey can still boast of having the leagues best offense with 247 goals scored, but the reason the Bears have not don’t as well since January is the Bears have dropped from having the leagues seventh best defense to the 24th in a 29 team league. A major part of the Bears downfall has been on special teams. The Bears were ranked 17th on the penalty kill but have fallen all the way to dead last in the league. The good news is the Bears went from 13th on the power play to 8th.
Chris Bourque
Alexandre Giroux has been a monster on offense leading the league in goals scored with 45, a new personal best. He is second in the league in points (75) behind teammate Keith Aucoin with 22 goals and 63 assists. You would think that the Bears would have more scorers in the top 20, but the only other Bears who can make that claim is Chris Bourque Giroux (17 goals and 39 assists), who is 16
th overall. Still, the Bears have a balanced offensive attack. Like the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, the Bears have more players with 10 or more goals on the team in the AHL with nine, and have more players with 20 or more goals with five.
Mathieu Perreault
One of the Bears having a good season is rookie center Mathieu Perreault, a sixth round pick in 2006 who had a stellar major juniors career with Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL). In the seasons in the Q, Perreault had back-to-back 100 + point seasons with a career high 41 goals. His career low was 18. Currently Perreault has only 10 goals and 33 assists, but he is tied for seventh in rookie scoring with 43 points. Because of Hershey’s high flying offense, only five players on the team have a negative plus/minus rating. Aucoin leads the team with a plus 25. Sami Lepisto leads all Bears defensemen in points with 4 goals and 30 assists. Rookie Karl Alzner leads the team in plus/minus rating with a plus 23, while Patrick McNeill is second at plus 22. Rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov is having a great season so far. After 17 games, Varlamov has a 2.52 goals against average, good for 17
th in the league with a save percentage of .908. Because Varlamov splits time in net with teammate Daren Machesney, neither is in the top 10 in wins. Both have 17, but Machesney is tied for ninth in the league with 3 shutouts. As the Bears are finding out, they will most certainly face a tough challenge getting out of the conference come playoff time, much less win the Calder Cup. If the team can’t correct their penalty killing woes in a hurry, they could face an early exit. The Bears are on the verge of having one of their best seasons ever. With 16 games left in the season they could have a 50 win season, and could pass a team best of 51 set in 2006-07. So get ready folks, the Calder Cup playoffs are only a month away. As they say at the race track: “And down the stretch they come!” Contact the author at
Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com Photos courtesy of Just Sports Photography
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