Johansen Adjusting Just Fine...Again

Adversity can come in many forms for a professional hockey player, and the challenge is to come out of the other side of those trying times stronger, and former Kelowna Rockets defenseman Lucas Johansen, for whom the sky is the limit as far as how high he can soar in his professional hockey career, taking them in stride, facing them down and coming out better on the other side has been a way of life throughout his career, and has continued this season in his first season in the pro ranks with the Hershey Bears.

Being the younger brother of NHL star Ryan Johansen, currently a member of the Nashville Predators, and a former 2010 first round draft pick, 4th overall, of the Columbus Blue Jackets via the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, means that Lucas always has, and always will be, compared to his older brother.

Lucas and Ryan, 2016 NHL Entry Draft. All
photos courtesy russianmachineneverbreaks.com

"Growing up, he set a pretty high standard for me, which was tough adversity at first, but I learned how to deal with it and learned that him playing in the NHL had a lot of benefits for me," said Lucas, a first round draft pick himself, selected 28th overall by the Washington Capitals in the 2016 NHL Draft.

Lucas continued, "I took it in stride and did the best I could with the situation and hopefully one day we will eventually get to compete against each other at the top level and that’s exciting. He definitely taught me a lot over the years, and if we were compared it didn’t matter, he was all for me, and I was happy that he was there."

Johansen's Rockets career got off to a flaming start in the 2104-15 WHL season, when the "Kids from Kelowna", aided by Lucas' eight points and plus-20 rating, captured the WHL title, but ultimately fell just short of capturing the Memorial Cup, falling to the Oshawa Generals, coached by former Bears defenseman D.J. Smith in heartbreaking, overtime fashion.

A second season in Kelowna resulted in a second head coach for Johansen, former Bear Brad Ralph, but despite the coaching change he posted career highs in goals (10), assists (39), and points (49), and the Capitals took note and selected him later that summer in Buffalo in his first year of draft eligibility, with Ryan on hand for the festivities.

So, after solidifying himself as a standout WHL defenseman in his sophomore season by posting outstanding numbers, having been selected by the Caps, therefor knowing where his NHL future was going to be spent, one would think that maybe season three in the Orchard City would be a smooth, peachy ride, but a third coach in as many season awaited Johansen when former NHLer Jason Smith was hired to steer the Rockets' ship just two weeks after the draft. 

Smith, who captained the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers over the course of his NHL career which consisted of 15 seasons and over 1,000 games played, certainly could identify with Johansen, although thanks to being removed from the WHL for such a long period of time due to his extensive playing career as well as a two year stint as an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators limited his exposure to both the league and the Port Moody, B.C. native.

But that's not to say that he didn't or couldn't identify with Johansen's situation. Like Johansen, Smith also played in the WHL, spending three seasons with the Regina Pats, like Johansen, he was also a defenseman, and finally he knew all about the pressures of being a first round draft pick who was selected after his second season in the WHL, having experienced the same situation in 1992 when the New Jersey Devils chose him.

"After I took the position I spent time watching video and asking questions about his game, and how he could be a factor for our team. Coming to a new spot and coming from pro hockey back to junior hockey I didn’t know a whole lot about the Rockets and all the players, but I spent time in the summer watching their games and talking to the assistant coaches who were here and still here to this day. I tried to learn as much as I could about him as a player, what positives he had in his game, and what things we might need to work on."

Smith continued, "From the start of the year he had a huge role on our team, whether it was defending, being on the power play, or being relied upon to be a puck mover. He also played against quality players on the opposition every night and was relied upon each night to not only defend, but to provide offense by being involved in the offensive zone and getting pucks to the net."

Fully capitalizing on the unique opportunity presented to him last season, Johansen excelled under the watchful eye of Smith, combining his abundance of natural talent with the wealth of experience and hockey knowledge that Smith possesses to nearly match his offensive totals from the previous season, while at the same time refining his defensive game, as evidenced by his doubling of his previous season's plus/minus rating.

"We had those three coaches in three years, which is also more adversity that people sometimes forget about, but my time there was awesome," said Johansen, reflecting fondly upon his career with the Rockets. "They have such a high standard there and there are so many great people throughout the organization who work so hard and strive to do their best to help the players move on, with Jason in particular. I remember the first practice that I had, he gave me a tip that I’ll always remember, and that told me right away that he had some good intel. It was a tip that only a 15-year NHL vet would have up his sleeve kind of thing.”

It takes an attentive student, one who is willing to learn, to make a teacher look good. The student has to possess excellent listening skills, with the ability to absorb the words and then take what he has heard from his mentor and apply them to excel and avoid the potholes that can be avoided by drawing upon the words and experiences that his mentor encountered, and that's a lesson that Smith learned early in his pro career, and it's one that he passed on to Johansen.

"There are certain things that are really important to allow yourself the opportunity to play at the highest level. I think me having the having the experience of being a player at the National League level, and going through all of the steps of developing along the way, when you speak to players and you’re trying to give them direction, I think they have an understanding that you’ve experienced it and obviously not one player is exactly the same, but the information that you give is about trying to get them to the next level and allow them to have the most success they can."

Smith continued, "I think anytime along the way when you’re a player, and I can speak to this, as I was lucky enough to have Larry Robinson in New Jersey when I first came into the league. The knowledge that I took in from him in my three, three and a half years with him was as much as I learned all the way coming up playing hockey. You can rely on people who have experience and have gone through the stages of being a player in that league. Lucas was very coachable and he wanted to get better and prove that he could be a real dominant player in our league."

On the hockey ladder, the step from the junior level to the professional level is only one rung up, but when a rookie, even one as highly touted as Johansen takes that step, there are guaranteed to be positive moments, and then those not so positive moments, and it didn't take long for Johansen to experience his first "minus moment".

In the Bears' season opener, he was on the ice for a goal against less than three minutes into the contest, and it didn't get any better as the game progressed as the rookie rearguard finished the contest with a minus-4 rating, and it also didn't get much better in the following four games, after which he found himself sporting a minus-8 rating, and then found himself out of the lineup in game six.

'We didn’t sit him based on play," said Hershey assistant coach Reid Cashman, who works with the club's rearguards. "It’s just that we had a lot of young defensemen and there was almost a rotation going on. Connor Hobbs (a former Regina Pat) sat out a game, and then some injuries happened."

Undoubtedly sitting out as a healthy scratch for the first time is a moment of awakening, there is potential for the player to sulk and spin further into a downward spiral, but if approached the right way, both by the coaching staff and the player, it can turn into a learning opportunity where the player gets to rest, watching the game from the vantage point of the press box, and exercise, and Johansen did both.

"It happens to everybody, right? For example, our captain was scratched this year too, and that’s no shot at him at all. I’m not going to let it get me down or let it bug me or anything. They were very clear on why it happening and I used it to get a great workout in, because for me it’s about gaining as much strength as I can. I was able to get in a good quality workout that day and it’s all part of the journey. So I had no problems with it."

Johansen has responded in a most positive way since sitting out, finding himself in the lineup every night, finding his name on the good side of the plus/minus column on most nights, and often finding his name in the goal scoring column, including his first pro goal, which was netted exactly one week after the benching.

"Lucas has continued to get better week in and week out. He works his butt off every day in practice, and he’s taken the initiative to continuously get better,", said Cashman. "He has great poise and a high hockey IQ, and he's found a level of urgency. What he's really good at is slowing the game down. We had to find a way to speed the game up so he could slow it down, if you know what I mean. He’s found that sense of urgency to play fast, and then let his natural instincts take over when there's time to make a play."

For the majority of the season, Johansen's defensive partner, or "right hand man", has been another former WHL alumnus, Tyler Lewington (Medicine Hat Tigers). To say that Lewington's style of play and Johansen's style of play are different would be a huge understatement.

Yet, despite their contrasting styles, with Lewington being a bruising, in your face contact type of defender who never met a collision that he didn't like, with an underrated offensive side, and a skating stride that can be characterized as something less than smooth, and Johansen being an elusive type of player, who describes himself as a "smooth skating defenseman who has good poise with the puck, who can produce offensively by either joining or leading the rush, and uses his stick well defensively", the distinctly different duo proved to be a near perfect pairing, but some recent roster moves have broken the pair up.

"We like that Lewie is a very stabilizing force for Lucas both on the ice and in between shifts.  They work well together and have good chemistry, but with Aaron Ness coming down that has changed some things, and we've moved him over on the right side with (Hubert) Labrie,", said Cashman, "With the way our lineup is now we have four lefties in it, and Lucas played right D all last year in juniors, so we feel very comfortable with him on the right side. But we try to make our D pairs as interchangeable as possible to set us up for later in the year, and a recent example of that was the game the other night when we down, and Lucas and Colby Williams (another former Regina Pat) got shifts together to try and create some offense."

"We have different styles of play for sure,” said Johansen, discussing his pairing with Lewington. "He’s definitely a lot more hard-nosed than I am and a lot more physical, and he can also make great plays. I think we complement each other pretty well. We were joking that he’s one of the vets on the team even though he’s only had two years at the pro level. He’s a great guy to play with and he’s also a great communicator, and that makes my life easy out there on the ice."

It's very easy to get consumed by the numbers, and forget the fact that young rookies like Johansen are in a mighty struggle as they take the first steps in the infancy of their professional careers.

If it wasn't enough that they are challenged almost on a daily basis by any number of factors, such as fatigue, their veteran teammates, a coach, or an intimidating foe in or near the rink, in an environment that they are familiar with, there is also that added factor that most of them, and Johansen is no exception, are also adjusting to a new life in a different environment, the kitchen, far away from home and family.

"It’s definitely different,” said Johansen, who recently turned 20, and celebrated the occasion by scoring a goal on the eve of his birthday. "Even when I was in Kelowna, I was only four and a half hour drive away from home, and now I’m almost on the Eastern seaboard. On the ice, you definitely notice that the speed is up and your time and space is limited, everything is a level up from the CHL. But the most change is off the ice, in terms of I’ve got to figure out how to cook now, which is easier said than done, he laughed. “But it’s fun, it’s a new process for me, a new challenge, and I’m enjoying it thus far."

Bears Wallop Wolfpack

Buoyed by second period strikes from Zach Sill and Mason Mitchell, and a spectacular 27-save effort in net from Vitek Vanecek, the Hershey Bears bounced the Hartford Wolfpack on Saturday night at XL Center, 4-1 , reaching the .500 mark (9-9-0-2) for the second time this season with the victory.

Mathias Bau started the scoring for the Bears, beating Wolfpack starting netminder Chris Nell with a long range wrist shot at 3:18 of the first period. Hampus Gustafsson picked up the primary assist on the Bau goal, his first helper of the season, and defenseman Hubert Labrie picked up the secondary assist.

Riley Barber gave the visitors a 2-0 lead with 1:33 left in the stanza, potting his 5th of the season with assists going to Lucas Johansen and Dustin Gazley.

Sill struck with the Bears in shorthanded mode 7:08 in the second, with Labrie registering the lone helper. Sill’s strike was the 50th of his AHL career.

Mitchell managed his first red light of the season at 15:04 of the session, streaking down the left wing and launching a laser of a shot that eluded Nell, and ended his night as well.

Vanecek, who surrendered four goals on only twelve shots in his season debut on November 12, at Giant Center against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, was stellar all night, making several spectacular stops before Adam Tambellini spoiled his shutout bid with only 2:47 left in regulation time.

Notes- Labrie, who played in his 300th AHL contest in the Bears’ game Wednesday against Springfield, and skated in his 90th as a Bear in this encounter, posted his first multi-point effort in a Hershey uniform with his two assist effort...Sill’s shorty was the Bears’ third of the season, third struck on the road, and the clubs’ first since October 27…Barber’s GWG was his first of the season...The Bears were 0-for-3 on the power play, yet won for the first time on the road this season when not registering an extra strength tally.  

Bruins Best Bears to Split Weekend Series

The Providence Bruins stopped the Hershey Bears’ three game road winning streak on Sunday afternoon at Dunkin’ Donuts Center, prevailing by a 4-1 margin.

Liam O’Brien, who has managed to stay off the penalty side of the scoresheet (no PIM’s) and find his way on the scoring side since returning from the NHL’s Washington Capitals, netted the Bears’ only goal of the game and his 3rd marker of the season with his club on the power play at 11:23 of the first period.

Hershey netminder Pheonix Copley, who entered the game unbeaten on the season (5-0-0-1), stopped 16 shots in suffering his first setback of the season,. He also contributed to his own demise by turning the puck over in his own crease shortly after the opening faceoff, with his faux pas leading to an easy unassisted goal by Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson at the 1:43 mark of the first period. 

Notes- Hershey defenseman Tyler Lewington served a minor penalty in the game, marking the 14^th game of the 17 that he has played this season he has visited the “sin bin”…Chris Bourque added to his league leading point total by collecting the secondary assist on O’Brien’s goal…Hershey’s one-goal offensive output was the 5^th time this season that they have scored a goal or less in a game (1 shutout). 

Bears Bruise Bruins

The Hershey Bears traveled north on Friday night to battle the Providence Bruins and escaped the Dunkin’ Donuts Center with a 3-1 victory. With the triumph, head coach Troy Mann’s 140^th as the Bears’ bench boss, the Bears moved their record north of the .500 mark for the first time this season (8-7-0-2).

The Bears wasted little time finding the scoreboard, beating Providence netminder Zane McIntyre for the first time only 2:22 into the affair, when Riley Barber, potting his 4th goal of the season, struck on the power play. Liam O’Brien and Chris Bourque, the former P-Bruin, assisted on the strike.

Barber was back on the scoresheet a few minutes later, collecting the secondary assist on Mathias Bau’s 4^th goal at 5:57, giving the Bears a 2-0 lead. Tyler Graovac, in his 2^nd game with the Bears on a long term conditioning assignment picked up the primary assist on the goal.

A little over halfway through the 2^nd period, Bau was back in the goal scoring column again. Benefiting from an outstanding individual effort by Anthony Peluso, who controlled the puck along the boards, before dishing a pretty pass to Bau, who then cruised down the slot unimpeded before ripping a wrist shot by McIntyre at 12:19. Mason Mitchell picked up the secondary assist on the goal, collecting his first professional point.

The Bears and their capable keeper Pheonix Copley, carried a 3-0 shutout lead into the third period, but for the 16^th time in 17 games, they allowed a goal in the final frame, this one to Justin Hickman.

However, Hickman’s goal was the only one that Copley would allow, as the North Pole, Alaska native finished the night with 31 saves, raising his record on the season to 5-0-0-1.

Tyler Graovac’s empty-net goal at 19:54, the Bears’ third empty-netter of the season, assisted by Dustin Gazley and Bau, finished out the scoring. 

Bears Comeback Crack's Crunch

The Hershey captured their first victory when trailing entering the third period last night at Giant Center against the Syracuse Crunch, and in the process improved their record (7-7-0-2) to the .500 mark for the second time this season.

Jeremy Langlois started the comeback just 27 seconds into the third, gathering in the puck at the right point before coasting down to the top of the faceoff circle and launching a slapshot that caromed by Crunch keeper Connor Ingram. Langlois' lamp lighting was his second of the season, and the 40th of his AHL career.

Chris Bourque, cruising down the left wing, collected a precise cross-ice pass from Wayne Simpson, and then launched a wicked wrister by Ingram to give the Bears their first lead of the event at 4:05. Bourque's goal was the 250th of his pro career, his 185th as a Bear, and the 225th of his AHL career. 

The Crunch tied the game less than three minutes later on a goal by Alexander Volkov, but another goal by Bourque, once again assisted by Simpson, gave the Bears a lead they would not relinquish at 12:55. 

Lucas Johansen added an unassisted, empty-net goal at 19:51, giving the Bears the final margin of victory at 4-2. 

Notes: The win was the first of the season attained by the Bears when they failed to scored on the power play...The Bears have scored two empty-net goals in their last four games...Pheonix Copley captured the win in net for the Bears, stopping 20 shots to improve his season record to 4-0-0-1...Copley has allowed a total six goals against in his last 4 outings, after allowing six, all in the same period, in his first appearance of the season in Rochester.

Bears Struggling to Succeed 

Thus far the Hershey Bears’ 2017-18 season can be summed up in three words, surging and struggling.

Training camp injuries to both last season’s number one and number two goalies, Pheonix Copley and Vitek Vanecek, both unforeseen when camp started, meant that bench boss Troy Mann’s charges, already thin in the defensive area, would be stretched even further without the services of that talented tandem for a few weeks.

“Everybody knows that Copley had a pretty significant injury in game four of the Providence series (an injury that shelved him for the remainder of the playoffs), but he came into training camp and everything was great, but unfortunately at the end of camp he tweaked that same injury. They wanted to make sure they got it right, there was no surgery involved in the summer, but we had to be very patient in order to get him back to 100%. As for Vitek, it was just a tough luck kind of injury. He pulled his hamstring in the first preseason game in Jersey and once I got back to Hershey, Dr. Black pretty much said hamstring injuries are a minimum of six weeks, and sure enough it was just over six weeks before he was healthy enough for us to send him down to South Carolina to get a couple of rehab starts in.”

With Parker Milner and rookie Adam Carlson trusted to “tend the twine”, backed up by the relatively inexperienced blueline bunch, the Bears struggled from the start, beginning with a sizable 7-2 road setback at the hands of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, an encounter in which goaltender Milner was victimized for six goals. That was followed up by a pair of home ice losses, one in regulation and one in a shootout to the Phantoms, and just like that the Bears found themselves without a win in three ties to open their historic 80^th American Hockey League campaign.   

“First and foremost, I don’t know how many AHL or NHL teams for that matter could survive without their number one or number two goalies, so that certainly played a major factor.  We were hoping to have Copley and Vanecek to start the season, knowing that we were going in with three rookies on the blueline, and actually that turned into four when Madison Bowey only lasted one game (before being called up to the Washington Capitals due to an injury on the Caps’ defense) . That all combined to play a part in It”, said Mann, whose club was winless in their first four outings of the season.

Mann continued, “Adam Carlson was certainly a pleasant surprise in terms of the couple of starts that he got, but there were some inconsistencies in Parker Milner’s game, mixed that with seven or eight rookies on the roster, specifically on the back end, and we knew there were going to be some growing pains.”

Like many other AHL coaches, Mann has lamented over the years about the abundance of games his club has against division rivals, but he had to be happy when we peered closely into the Bears’ schedule when it was released this past summer. Sure, it was still dotted with frequent appearances against Keystone State neighbors the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but it also featured a three game early season Midwest road swing to Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, and Rockford, and the freedom of the road, although it only paid off with one win, in Grand Rapids, Mann says his club benefited in tangible ways from the experience.

“It was a very difficult road trip as it was basically three games in two and a half days with time changes and some tough travel. But we were able to get in there two days early, with the big amount of rookies on the team, and do some team bonding and get in some practices. I think that any time that you are able to do those things as a team, especially when you have a lot of new guys, it’s important. I still think that even though we only won one game on the trip, I think that trip played a big part in getting our guys together.”

After returning home from the Midwest trip, the Bears suffered another tough setback, on the road against the baby Pens. But, that was followed up by a pair of home ice wins, and the Bears’ fortunes appeared to be changing with the back-to-back wins, and the prospect of Copley returning to action in the next game, a road outing against the Rochester Americans.

In Rochester, the Bears bolted out to 3-0 lead, and Copley, who was perfect in the first period in his return to action, but in the middle stanza, he succumbed to six goals in a 19-shot barrage, and that left Mann with a bit of a dilemma.

“Anytime you have multiple pucks going in in one period, whether it’s to change the momentum or because of indifferent play it (pulling the goalie) always goes through your mind.  But he had missed some significant time, and hadn’t played a game in about five weeks, and I thought it was important that he fight through it, and he did (allowing no goals in the remainder of regulation and overtime).  I didn’t want to pull him and then have him travel five hours back to Hershey and start the next night.  My message to the team after the second period was that we could win the game 7-6, I just felt it was one of these games, and we were able to get two goals in the third before losing the shootout, which is pretty much a crapshoot.”

Mann added, “We also had a three-in-three that weekend, and we had a plan in place to get him in two games, and if not, we were actually going to play him one, and give Carlson and Vitek one as well.” 

Copley has followed up the rocky Rochester outing with three straight wins, allowing only a total four goals in the process.

Vanecek, on the other hand, had an easy night in his AHL season debut on November 12 against the baby Pens at Giant Center, easy at least in the fact that he only faced a total of twelve shots. But the rust in his armor from the injury showed, as he managed only eight saves in suffering a defeat that saw the Bears score just one goal in support of him.

The Bears offense is best characterized by the “surging and struggling” saying. Nearly half of the clubs 40 non-shootout goals this season (18, or 45%), have been scored on the power play, and when that extra man unit is surging and they strike at least once on the power play, they are 6-3-0-2 and score an average of 3.36 goals per game, but when they fail to strike with the extra man, they have yet to a win a game, going 0-4, and scoring only a total of four goals in those contests.

“It’s absolutely a concern”, said Mann, in response to whether his team’s reliance on the power play is worrisome. “Our skill set this year is certainly not as deep as in years past, especially when you compare it to two years ago when an influx of rookies came in like (Travis) Boyd and (Riley) Barber and those types of players turned pro. We’ve talked about it, and obviously we’d like to generate some more five-on-five goals, as it forces your special teams have to be good on a night-to-night basis, unlike last year when we could get by on nights when the power play wasn’t on.”

“If you look at the league numbers, we are in the top ten on both special teams units, and I think for us to continue to have success that’s going to have to continue. Last year I think we finished second in scoring in general, and that was also the case the year before, but I just don’t see our team, the way it’s currently constructed, I don’t see that continuing this year. Our scoring has been primarily coming from four of five guys, as evidenced by multiple forwards on the team with pretty low numbers, and that’s just the way it is right now, but it’s still early.”

Series Questions

Will iron man Travis Boyd, who played has played in every Hershey game including the playoffs dating back to the beginning of last season, find his offensive game in this series?

If Boyd, who failed to score and registered only 2 shots in the Lehigh Valley series, both in game three, finds his offensive game in this series, that certainly bolsters the Bears' chances of conquering the Bruins. However, there is certainly a bit of cause for concern, when considering the fatigue factor, and the fact the Boyd has not found the score sheet in eight games dating back to the regular season. A check back to last seasons Calder Cup Playoff stats for the Minnesota native reveals that he only put 22 pucks on net in 21 outings and only lit the lamp twice, but both of his markers were game winners, including the OT goal in game seven against the pesky Penguins from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the second round that propelled the Bears on to the next series.

When will Jakub Vrana return to the lineup, and will he be effective when he ultimately does?

There is no doubt that Vrana, a former 1st round pick of the Capitals who played in 21 regular seasons with the Caps this season in addition to the 49 games he appeared in with the Bears, is a prized prospect who possesses superior talent and has the ability to be a game changer, even in the post-season. Last spring with the Bears in 21 contests, he finished with 14 points, which tied him 5th in league scoring, and his 8 goals led the club, but his inconsistent play, which was also a factor in the regular season leading to a couple of occasions where he was a healthy scratch, resurfaced in the first 3 games against Lehigh Valley, earning him a spot in the press box as a healthy scratch for the final 2 games of the series.

Which team will win the special teams battle?

The Bruins led the league in the first round in power play goals (6) and power play efficiency (27.3%) in their opening round duel with the baby Pens, but in 6 regular season outings against the Bears that consisted of 16 chances, they were able to strike only once on the power play.

On the other hand, the Bears' late regular season power outage, which saw them register only 3 goals on 31 opportunities in the final 10 games (9.7%), continued in their opening round win over the Lehigh Valley as the unit failed to put a charge into Phantoms' penalty kill during their 13 chances.

It should be noted however, that the Bears' post-season success is not totally dependent on a successful power play. During last years quest for the Calder Cup, which consisted of 21 games and saw them advance to the finals only to be slayed by the Lake Erie Monsters, the Chocolate and White netted only 10 extra man goals and never netted more than one in any game.

Which Stan Galiev will show up?

Galiev, a gifted goal scorer, finished the regular season with 21 goals, but also finished it in quite the scoring slump, failing to light the red light in his last 14 outings and collecting only 4 assists in the process . However, 5 of Galiev's 21 goals were scored at the expense of the Bruins, including a pair of multi-goal efforts, and he led the Bears in scoring against the P-Bruins in the regular season by posting 7 points (5+2).

Once the post-season started, the regular season woes have become nothing but a memory for the native of Russia. He paced the Bears' conquest of the Phantoms with a team leading 5 points, including the secondary assist on Nathan Walker's overtime winner in the series opener, and has potted a goal in 3 separate games, and each of his markers have been the Bears' first of the game.

Who will come out on top in the goaltending match-up between two of the AHL's top goaltenders, Providence's Zane McIntyre and Hershey's Pheonix Copley?

During the regular season, each of the net-minders registered 20+ wins, with McIntyre managing 21 wins in 31 apperances, and Copley coming out on top in 26 of his 41 appearances, including one victory at the expense of the Bruins in his only outing against them. Each of the keepers also finished in the top ten in save percentage with McIntyre's .930 leading the league, and Copley compiling a combined .924 with Chicago and Hershey.

In their clubs' opening round victories, both McIntyre and Copley continued their stellar work between the pipes. Both have played 306-plus minutes, and once again McIntyre's (.936) save percentage tops Copley's (.933), but Copley can boast of owning the only shutout between his goaltending counterpart, and he has also allowed one less goal against.