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Hershey Bears

Down To The Wire

April 15, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The HERSHEY BEARS Hockey Club pulled back to within two points of the eighth and final playoff spot, capping off a three-game swing through New England with a big win in Maine. The Bears started off the weekend by dropping a 3-2, tightly-played battle against the league-leading Providence Bruins on Friday. After falling behind 2-0 early in the second period, Garrett Mitchell and Ryan Potulny tallied to tie the game. But Jamie Tardif's second of the night in the third period held up as the game-winner.

On Saturday in Manchester, the Bears spotted the Monarchs a 3-0 lead to start the second period, but it proved to be a hole too deep from which to climb. Hershey did put up a furious battle to mount a comeback. Joey Crabb started a superb weekend by scoring once and setting up Julien Brouillette's second goal of the season, while rookie defenseman Nate Schmidt chipped in with his first professional goal, all within the second period. But a tally from Hunter Bishop would stand up as the winner, as Monarchs netminder Martin Jones turned aside 37 shots in the game - including all 14 in the third period - to fend off a Bears rally.

The Bears needed to play desperation hockey on Sunday, and ended up seeing numerous statistics rewritten in a 6-3 victory over the Portland Pirates. Crabb netted a hat trick plus one assist, Jeff Taffe rang up five helpers and the Bears struck five times on the power play in the win.

The regular season wraps up this weekend as the Bears travel to Glens Falls on Friday to face the Adirondack Phantoms. On Saturday, the Bears play their last East Division game of 2012-13 at Binghamton before coming home to host the Manchester Monarchs on Sunday.

BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

ALL OF A SUDDEN: C Jeff Taffe, who entered Sunday five points out of the AHL scoring race, pulled even with a five-assist performance in the Bears' win at Portland and now shows (18-52-70) in 70 games. The five-point game was a season high for the Bears, and helped Taffe (52) best his personal single-season assist high mark (50, '08-'09). Taffe is back on top of the AHL assist lead as well as the power-play assist lead (21). He now has an AHL career point total of (203-296-499), putting him in position to become the third Bears player this season to hit 500 points in the league (DiSalvatore, Kane).

HARD-SHELL CRABB: RW Joey Crabb had a huge weekend on offense. He tallied two points (1-1-2) on Saturday to help the Bears' comeback in Manchester, and then followed up with a hat trick plus one assist in the Bears' win at Portland on Sunday to go (4-2-6) in the two games. Crabb has recorded six goals and five assists in nine games since clearing waivers on March 23, and recorded the first Bears hat trick since Ryan Potulny scored three times on 4/1/12 vs. Binghamton.

TOMAS TALLIES AGAIN: D Tomas Kundratek is climbing the ranks among AHL defensemen after a strong showing on Sunday. Scoring the first of five Hershey power play goals, Kundratek has tied for the AHL lead among defensemen with seven power-play goals. He has lit the lamp 16 times overall this season, and ranks second behind season-long leader Justin Schultz.

SCHMIDT STRIKES: Rookie defenseman Nate Schmidt, signed by Washington after completing his third season at the University of Minnesota, scored his first AHL goal on Saturday at Manchester. Schmidt has contributed (1-3-4) in his first five games in a Hershey sweater.

SNAPPING A SKID: After scoring five power play goals over their previous nine games, the Bears exploded for five goals on the man advantage on Sunday at Portland - matching the league's season high for power play goals in a game (Charlotte Checkers, 2/16/13). The Bears jumped into sixth place in road power play success (29/147=19.7%) and into 11th overall (57/319=17.9%). The last time that the Bears posted five power play goals in one game was at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on October 8, 2008.

THE 10K RACE: The Bears have welcomed 370,780 to their home games this season and will become the fifth team in AHL history to boast an average attendance of more than 10,000 fans. The team's current average is 10,021 with a sellout crowd already in place for April 21 vs. Manchester.

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