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AHL Hershey Bears

Bears Battle Past Wolf Pack

March 7, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


HARTFORD, Conn. - Chris Conner, Stan Galiev and Casey Wellman all recorded a goal and an assist, while Pheonix Copley made 34 saves to help the Hershey Bears battle past the Hartford Wolf Pack by a 5-3 count on Saturday afternoon at XL Center.

Once again, Hershey would get the game's first scoring chance before the period was 30 seconds old. Chris Brown would take a shot from the right circle that beat Wolf Pack goaltender Yann Danis through the pads, but the puck deflected off of the left goal post and stayed out.

Moments later, Hartford grabbed the game's first goal. With Copley stretching out to grab a bouncing puck at his crease, Carl Klingberg lifted the loose puck over the netminder from the bottom of the right circle at 1:09.

The Bears would tie the game on a nice play by Dustin Gazley. The speedy winger collected a pass from Tim Kennedy and darted down the slot toward the Hartford goal. He took a snap shot that sailed past Danis at 5:50 for his 14th goal of the season.

The Wolf Pack restored their lead when Chris Bourque's slapper from the center point sailed through traffic and past Copley at 9:05.

But that lead lasted just 19 seconds, as Conner completed a pretty passing play between Galiev and Kennedy. From the right wall, Kennedy sent a cross-ice pass right to Conner's tape, and the winger fired it past Danis to again knot the score.

Wellman's 20th goal of the season gave Hershey its first lead of the game at 15:13. Skating down the right wing, he took aim at the upper-left corner and hit the bullseye for a 3-2 advantage.

The Bears were working on the final seconds of a short two-man advantage in the middle period, but instead of forging ahead further, it would be the Wolf Pack tying the score. A missed pass would deflect all the way out to center ice. Danny Kristo emerged from the penalty box, collected the puck and beat Copley on the ensuing breakaway at 10:57 for the only goal of the period.

Hershey regained the lead at 6:24 of the third. Philippe Cornet would send a feed in front to Wellman, and instead of shooting, Wellman spotted Kris Newbury to his left. Danis got a piece of the sharp-angle chance by Newbury, but the puck rolled inside the right post and over the line for a 4-3 Hershey advantage.

Galiev capped off the scoring when a knocked-down clearing attempt came right to him in the slot. The winger fired a hard slap shot that again beat Danis over the blocker at 14:14, increasing his team-leading goal total to 22.

The Bears withstood a brief six-on-four situation and the rest of the time spent by Hartford with an extra attacker, to improve to 36-15-5-2 (79 points) and re-claimed the Eastern Conference's top spot.

Copley improves to 11-3-3 on the season, while Danis falls to 9-12-3 with 15 saves on 20 shots.

The Bears return home to host the Portland Pirates tomorrow, March 8 at 5:00 PM. Individual tickets for this and all remaining home games are on sale at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.

NOTES: The Bears scratched LW Dane Byers, D Tomas Kundratek, C Jim O'Brien, C Chandler Stephenson, LW Aaron Volpatti and D Patrick Wey... The Wolf Pack scratched RW Joey Crabb, G Cedrick Desjardins, D Tommy Hughes, C Ryan Potulny and LW Nick Tarnasky...The Bears ended the night 0-for-3 on the power play and 1-for-4 on the penalty kill...RW Casey Wellman became the Bears' second 20-goal scorer of the season, and hit 20 goals in a season for the first time in his pro career...RW Stan Galiev became the Bears' fifth 40-point producer of the season with his two-point effort...G Pheonix Copley remains unbeaten in 2015 (6-0-2)...The Bears finished the season series with a 3-1-0-0 record against the Wolf Pack.

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