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AHL Hershey Bears

Bears In Eighth Spot With Three Games Left, Magic Number: 5

April 14, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club grabbed four of a possible six points against two of the Eastern Conference's best over the weekend, to remain in the eighth and final playoff spot in the AHL's final week.

On Friday at Binghamton, a back-and-forth affair went to overtime, where Derek Grant sent the Senators to a 5-4 victory when his shot beat David Leggio with 1:21 left. Chris Wideman put the Senators ahead late in the first, and Nate Schmidt tied the game early in the second. After two goals in 45 seconds by Michael Sdao and Matt Puempel gave the Sens a 3-1 lead, Hershey returned the favor with Dane Byers and Michael Latta scoring before the intermission. Ryan Stoa gave the Bears their first lead 3:58 into the third, but it took just 28 seconds for David Dziurzynski to tip an aerial pass from Grant into the net.

On Saturday, the Bears managed another point in a 4-3 shootout loss on the road against the Springfield Falcons. Stoa scored the game's first goal, but Michael Chaput and Jean-Francois Jacques put the Falcons in front after one. Jeff Taffe then scored a power play marker to tie the game, and Kris Newbury would tack on another goal just 57 seconds later. Falcons forward Sean Collins later netted the team's second power play goal late in the second to tie the game. With no further scoring, the game went to a shootout, where Stoa and Casey Wellman beat Mike McKenna to give the Bears a comfortable start. But McKenna would turn aside the three remaining shooters, while Collins, Jacques and Chaput all beat Philipp Grubauer for the win.

In Sunday's rematch against the Senators, Byers tipped a David Kolomatis pass behind Andrew Hammond for the winner 2:24 into overtime, helping Grubauer's 41 saves stand up in a thrilling 1-0 victory.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

GREAT DANE: Bears captain Dane Byers stretched his point streak to five games with key points in each of the Bears' three weekend games. He scored in the Bears' second-period rally at Binghamton on Friday, helped out on Kris Newbury's go-ahead goal on Saturday at Springfield and provided the overtime heroics on Sunday with the game's only tally in a 1-0 overtime win against Binghamton. Byers moves into a tie for sixth on the Bears in scoring with 37 points (15-22-37), and is a cumulative plus-seven on the streak.

CAREER HIGH FOR KOLOMATIS: D David Kolomatis also recorded points in all three weekend games for Hershey. His four total assists give him 30 on the season (7-23-30). The 30 points sets a new career single-season best for the New Jersey native.

GIANT GRUBAUER: G Philipp Grubauer recorded his third shutout of the season with 41 saves in Sunday's overtime win over Binghamton. It was his second shutout of the campaign at GIANT Center, having blanked Wilkes- Barre/Scranton 2-0 on January 25. Of Grubauer's five career shutouts, four have come on home ice (2/23/13, 3-0 vs. ADK, 3/16/13, 1-0 overtime vs. BRI). He and Dany Sabourin also shared a 5-0 clean sheet on 1/13/13 vs. Connecticut. In three April starts, Grubauer is 2-0-1 with a 1.58 goals-against average and save percentage of .953.

WHAT'S YOUR 10-20?: C Jeff Taffe potted his 20th goal of the season on Saturday at Springfield, giving the Hastings, MN native six 20-goal seasons in his 12-year pro career. The goal was also Taffe's 10th power play goal of the campaign. Of his 46 points on the season, 25 (10-15-25) have come on the man advantage. Additionally, Taffe is now the sole leader in games played this season (72).

LeBLANC DEBUTS: C Peter LeBlanc became the seventh Bears player this season to make his NHL debut as a member of the Washington Capitals, when he played in the Capitals' season finale yesterday vs. Tampa Bay. LeBlanc joined Julien Brouillette, Connor Carrick, Nicolas Deschamps, Michael Latta, Nate Schmidt and Patrick Wey in the first-NHL-game club.

BEARS BULLETS:

- The Bears won their first game of the season when scoring one goal, on Sunday vs. Binghamton. The 1-0 overtime win was the first such decision since Garrett Mitchell ended the game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on March 16, 2013.

- The Bears saw a five-game streak of scoring two or more second- period goals snapped on Sunday. The team had 12 second-period goals in the span.

- With Norfolk defeating Portland in a Sunday shootout, the Admirals and Bears are tied with 86 points heading into a two-game set in Hampton Roads this week. Hershey needs five points to move on to the postseason.

- The crowd of 10,984 on Sunday was the second-largest at GIANT Center this season (10,995, 3/15 vs. ADK). Hershey will lead the AHL in attendance for an eighth consecutive season, with an average of 9,629 and one home game remaining.

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