At only 21-years-old, Vitek Vanecek had one of the best seasons a goalie could have at his age in the AHL. The young netminder went 18-10-7 in the regular season with five shutouts, despite a very rough month at the end of December through the end of January, where he went 0-5-2.

“I’ve said this to a number of people, you take out four weeks of his season, his numbers are excellent,” said head coach Troy Mann after the Bears game seven loss. “It’s unfortunate we played Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre for that stretch of hockey late-December and early-January.”