Bears Open Season with Big Win in Springfield
October 10, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -Veteran Chris Bourque notched points number 500 and 501 of his AHL career witha goal and an assist and rookie Riley Barber buried his first two professionalgoals, helping the Hershey Bears cruise to a 5-1 win over the SpringfieldFalcons on Saturday night at MassMutual Center.
Opening the scoring for theBears was Carter Camper, who snapped a perfect goal-line pass from Paul Careybehind rookie goaltender Nicklas Treutle at 8:54.
Barber would tally his firstAHL goal at 11:45 to give the Bears a 2-0 advantage. Bourque would hit his milestone by making the first pass toChandler Stephenson, who in turn slipped a cross-zone feed to Barber. The rookie winger held the puck on hisbackhand before slipping a shot between Treutle's pads.
Just 12 seconds later however,Springfield would send its fans to their feet after connecting on a two-on-onerush. Brendan Shinnimin faked ashot from the left circle, which drew Bears backstop Dan Ellis out ofposition. Shinnimin then fed CraigCunningham, who had a slam-dunk from the top of the crease at 11:57.
The Bears would then kill off1:23 worth of a two-man disadvantage to hold their lead at the intermission.
Connor Carrick would make it a3-1 contest at 11:09 of the second, following up to deposit the rebound of ashot from Garrett Mitchell.
Barber's second of the nightcame while the teams were skating four-on-four. Ryan Stanton started the play with a pass from the leftpoint down low to Camper, who in turn found Barber alone in front. Barber tucked the puck behind Treutleat 14:24.
Springfield dodged a big bulletshortly afterward, when the club killed off a full two minutes of a two-manadvantage.
Bourque ended the scoring witha long-range one-timer off of a feed from Aaron Ness. The puck eluded Treutle under his glove at 13:09.
Hershey finished the night2-for-4 on the power play and was perfect on five penalty killing situations.
Ellis won his Hershey debutwith 19 saves on 20 shots, while Treutle made 25 saves on 30 Bears shots.
The Bears are now off untilnext weekend, when the club will head to Maine to take on the Portland Piratesin a pair of games beginning on Saturday, October 17. Faceoff from the Cross Insurance Arena is set for 7:00PM. Fans may listen to the game onthe Bears Radio Network of affiliates WQIC-FM 100.1, WTKT-AM 1460 and WOYK-AM1350, online at foxsports1460.com or via the iHeartRadio app for smartphones (FoxSports 1460).
The Bears open the home portionof the schedule on Saturday, October 24 at 7:00 PM against the Hartford WolfPack. The first 8,000 fans willreceive a magnetic schedule courtesy of PNC Bank. The 1980 Calder Cup championship team will be honored priorto the game in celebration of the 35th anniversary of thetitle. The Bears will also wearspecial throwback jerseys, which will be auctioned off live following the game.
Individual tickets for this andall Bears home games may be purchased at the GIANT Center box office, by calling(717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.
NOTES: The Bears scratched D Christian Djoos,RW Caleb Herbert and D Tyler Lewington...The Falcons scratched LW MichaelBunting, LW Greg Carey, G Louis Domingue, C Tyler Gaudet, D Justin Hache, GMarek Langhamer and D Daniel New...Hershey's last opening-night victory came on October7, 2011 at Binghamton, a 3-2 decision...Bourque is the seventh United States-bornplayer to record 500 AHL points and is the 89th in AHL history.
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