Sports stats



AHL Hershey Bears

Another Overtime, Another Bears Victory

March 21, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


PORTLAND, ME - Tim Kennedy scored with 1:18 left in overtime, sending the Hershey Bears to another extra-time victory, a 4-3 decision against the Portland Pirates on Saturday night at Cross Insurance Arena.

The Pirates would get the jump in the game, and the goal came late in the frame on the Pirates' second power play. Pheonix Copley made three great saves in the period, including one on a Brendan Shinnimin breakaway. But as the Bears were regrouping in the neutral zone, Dylan Reese pushed a pass ahead to Jordan Martinook, who tipped it past the Bears' defense to an open Shinnimin. From the middle slot, Shinnimin snapped a shot past the stick of Copley at 18:40, putting Portland in front. The Bears hit the goal post twice in the frame, once each by Liam O'Brien and Andre Burakovsky.

In the middle period, the Bears broke a power play goal drought that dated back to March 13 at Binghamton. Chris Brown, who scored that last power play tally, took a cross-ice feed from Casey Wellman and ripped a shot past Mike McKenna at 3:13, tying the game.

The Bears took their first lead of the game early in the third, when O'Brien walked off of the left half boards, cut to the slot and backhanded a shot into the upper-left corner at 3:57.

The Pirates battled back to tie at the 11:15 mark, and again it was Shinnimin doing the honors. Jordan Szwarz would fire a shot from the lower right circle that deflected off of Copley, off the stick of Shinnimin and into the net.

But just 1:43 later, Burakovsky would put the Bears in front. Collecting a feed from Jim O'Brien, the winger skated into the slot, waited for a screen to set up and ripped a shot over the blocker of McKenna.

The Bears were then flagged for having too many men on the ice, and Portland would find the equalizer. Patrick McNeill snuck in from the right point, grabbed a goal-line pass from Szwarz and snapped the puck inside the right post at 16:50.

Hershey appeared to have ended the game in four-on-four overtime, when Casey Wellman's shot from the left circle beat McKenna. The puck glanced down off of the crossbar, and play would continue for over a minute before the next whistle. Upon review, the goal would be waved off.

In the exciting three-on-three session, Kennedy received a cross-slot pass from Connor Carrick and drilled it home past McKenna, sending the Bears to victory.

Copley improved to 13-3-3 on the season with a personal-high 42 saves on the night. McKenna took his second consecutive overtime loss, turning aside 39 shots, and fell to 24-14-4.

Hershey won its third straight road game to improve to 40-18-5-2 (87 points) and opened an eight-point lead in the East Division.

Hershey returns home to host the Manchester Monarchs on Friday, March 27 at 7:00 PM. All fans in attendance will receive a complimentary ticket to the ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup practice on June 6 courtesy of Pocono Raceway. Individual tickets for this and all remaining home games are available at the GIANT Center box office, online at TicketMaster.com or by calling 717-508-BEAR.

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from March 21, 2015


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central