Not that it appeared to matter.
Despite 14 minor penalties being called on them, the Hershey Bears disposed of the Manchester Monarchs, 4-1, and deposited their two home games in the Eastern Conference final in the win column.
Although the score was not as lopsided as last night's 7-2 thwapping, this game sounded at least as dominating for the Bears. Killing 27:19 in penalty time (some of which...well, very little...overlapped with Monarch penalty time) isn't a recipe for success on most nights. The Monarchs' only success came on one of what were at least four 5-on-3's. Otherwise, Manchester came up empty on 30 other shots on goal.
Hershey has pasted Manchester to the tune of 11-3 in two games thus far. And it must be frustrating for the Monarchs . . . leading scorer in the playoffs Patrick O'Sullivan is 1-1-2 in the two games, but he's taken a whopping 13 shots on goal, too. And second-leading scorer Marty Murray has a big donut in two games and has yet to register a shot on goal. On the other side of the ledger, Hershey has had points from 14 different skaters in two games.
Come to think of it, LaBarbera didn't finish this game on his skates, either. He got pulled in the last minute, which allowed Matt Hendricks to pot an empty-netter for the final score (ok, he went back in after the Hendricks goal, but that's details). That's three games in Hershey without being on the ice at the end.
The way the Monarchs have been mailing it in for the last period of every game, I think the Bears are going to close this out on Sat.
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