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AHL Hershey Bears

Bears, Five Other Teams Separated by Five Points

March 10, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club earned a split on the team's first trip of the season to Hampton Roads, winning 3-2 on Friday and dropping a 3-1 decision on Saturday against the Norfolk Admirals.

The two teams battled through a tightly-played first period on Friday, with Bears backstop David Leggio and Norfolk netminder John Gibson denying all shots faced. Norfolk would get on the board first, when Devante Smith- Pelly tallied his 21st goal of the season 2:25 into the second. The Bears answered quickly however, as Michael Latta jammed a shot past Gibson after a scramble at the net front. Casey Wellman then buried a power play goal at 8:46 to put the visitors in front. Nate Schmidt set up both of the Bears goals in the middle frame. Dane Byers gave the Bears some insurance with his 11th goal later in the third. Norfolk's Max Friberg would score with Gibson on the bench in favor of a sixth attacker, but the goal came with less than six seconds remaining in the game, and the Bears would win to snap a six-game winless skid.

In the Saturday rematch, Latta would tally for the second straight night to put Hershey on the board first. In the middle period, forward Andre Petersson tallied his first goal with the Admirals since being acquired from Binghamton to tie the game. After Chris Wagner put the hosts in front at 14:18 of the second, the Bears got into some penalty trouble and Friberg would finish off a three-goal period for the Admirals. Neither team would score in the third, giving Norfolk a 3-1 win.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

A LATTA HARD WORK: Bears C Michael Latta led the Bears' offense on the team's trip to Norfolk, tallying three points on the weekend. He netted one goal, one assist and a plus-2 rating in Friday's win, and followed up with a power-play goal for the only Hershey marker on Saturday. Latta has points in every game he has played against Norfolk this season (4 GP, 2-3-5, plus-3). His only game missed, November 3, was due to NHL recall. Latta also leads the Bears with three unassisted goals, and ranks second on the team in shooting percentage (9/43 = 20.9%).

CAPTAIN COMES THROUGH: Bears captain Dane Byers posted another two-point effort this weekend. The left winger ended up with the game-winner on Friday, added one assist, and led the club with five shots on goal. Byers has four multiple-point games in his last ten played.

TWO FOR NUMBER 2: Bears rookie D Nate Schmidt picked up the first two-point game of his AHL career on Friday, posting two assists in the Bears' 3-2 victory.

SEGAL PULLS EVEN: RW Brandon Segal snapped an eight-game pointless streak with an assist on Latta's power play goal on Saturday. With the assist, Segal pulled even with C Jeff Taffe for the Bears' scoring lead, with 39 points (14-25-39) in 52 games played. 16 of Segal's 52 points have come on the power play (6-10-16), which ties for second on the club.

DESCHAMPS JOINS THE CLUB: LW Nicolas Deschamps became the fourth Bears player to reach 30 points with his assist on Saturday. He has matched his second-highest single-season point total (13-17-30), last recorded with the Toronto Marlies in 2011-12. His career high is 46 points (15-31-46), set in his rookie year of 2010-11 with the Syracuse Crunch.

APPROACHING MILESTONES:

- C Ryan Potulny is one game shy of 400 in the AHL.

- D David Kolomatis is one game shy of 300 in the AHL.

- RW Joel Rechlicz is one game shy of 100 with the Bears.

- C Ryan Stoa is three games shy of 100 with the Bears.

BEARS BULLETS:

- Hershey, entering the week in fourth place in the East Division and ninth in the Eastern Conference with 67 points, sits just five points off of the division lead - which currently is the third spot in the conference. The Bears and five other teams (Albany, Binghamton, Norfolk, Providence and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) are all separated by just five points in the standings.

- The Bears play two of their six remaining home games this weekend. Hershey's 19 home wins rank second in the Eastern Conference.

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from March 10, 2014


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