Sunday, December 1, 2013

Hershey Bears send the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins packing

Its consistent wins that Head coach Mike Haviland is looking for from this Hershey Bears team, a group that has only been able to put together a 2 game winning streak so far this season. The Bears took no prisoners last night, as they won in overtime sending the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins packing for the first time this season.

“We've got to go back to work tomorrow,” Head coach Mike Haviland said. “We've got to start stringing some wins together here. You can be happy a little bit and enjoy it, but your mindset's got to move on for tomorrow.”

The team meeting and intense practice on Friday was reflected in the Bears style of play last night. Joel Rechlicz got the Bears emotionally invested as he dropped the gloves less than two minutes into the game with heavy weight Pierre- Luc Letorneau- Leblond. It was the first of many scraps between the teams.

“It’s a process, it’s a consistency thing. I think we got our point across the other day, we really did,” Haviland said of the Friday team meeting following the Thanksgiving eve loss to the St. John’s IceCaps. “We talked about our identity as a team, how to be and how we have to play. It’s everybody across the board, it was everybody and I thought the guys brought it tonight.”

The Bears played another complete 60-minute game on home ice, they have played some great games at home and Haviland is now looking for them to string those successes together. With all of their penalties, the Bears did not have much of a choice but to make this game a full team effort. Although they have a habit of losing leads and letting teams come back to compete late in the game, the Bears managed to clinch the win in overtime.

“Monday’s a day off, not tomorrow,” Haviland seemingly already preparing his motivational speech for guys in order to get them in the mind frame for a battle on the ice Sunday afternoon.

The Bears laid the foundation last night and will look to build off of that as they face the Providence Bruins tonight at the Giant Center.

Follow Erica on twitter @TheAmateurFan

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