Thiessen and the Penguins Shut Out the Bears, 4-0

Photo by AFCMedia Photography.

It was the battle of the in-state rivals’ third jerseys tonight. The Bears wore their white skating bear sweaters while the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins wore dark jerseys with more tan than their usual uniforms. But it was more than a story about fashion.

Just 33 seconds in, Patrick Wellar laid out a nice check at the blue line. It was a clean hit but, as often happens in hockey these days, he was immediately jumped. He and Ryan Schnell exchanged some rough stuff but the Bears ended up with a power play.

Unfortunately, the Penguins killed off the penalty and then took the first lead of the game. An innocent pass by Wilkes-Barre in front of Dany Sabourin became a goal when the puck bounced off of an unlucky Patrick McNeill. Before the end of the period, the Penguins scored again on a stuff attempt.

Just a few moments into the second period, Wilkes-Barre extended their lead. Jason Williams was all alone and beat Sabourin up high. That goal would be the end of Sabourin’s night and Braden Holtby had to take over. The decision to swap goaltenders seemed to be more of a message to the team rather than a punishment to Sabourin.

Despite some power play chances in the third period, the Bears were unable to capitalize. While the Bears got a decent amount of shots on goal, they weren’t really challenging Brad Thiessen. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scored on an empty net to finish off the game.

Needless to say, the Bears lose 4-0 to the Baby Pens. We can try again in one week.

Eakin's First NHL goal puck. Photo from @SergeyKocharov.

Tonight’s Notes:

• Cody Eakin remains in Washington this week as he traveled with the team to North Carolina. Check out my write-up on his first NHL game. Eakin continued to impress by racking up his first NHL point with a secondary assist on a Troy Brouwer goal and then his first NHL goal! Congrats to Cody!
• Additionally, Sean Collins played tonight after being returned to Hershey.
• I posted this on Twitter because I thought it was interesting: the last time the Bears faced a regular season shutout on the road was February 13, 2010 (also against Brad Thiessen and the Penguins).
• The Bears power play was 0-for-6 tonight. They only faced one WBS power play but at least they successfully killed it.
• More bad news: Boyd Kane’s point streak came to end tonight. But six straight games is still pretty good.

Lines and Pairings:

Bourque – Aucoin – Mink
Kane – Hanson – Micflikier
Bouchard – Sjogren – Ford
Lacroix – Carroll – Mitchell

McNeill – Collins
Orlov – Flemming
Wellar – Brouillette

Three stars of the game:

1. Brad Thiessen (WBS)
2. Joey Mormina  (WBS)
3. Colin McDonald  (WBS)