AHL Hershey Bears

Bears Rout Pirates for Second Consecutive Win

Published on December 3, 2011 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


HERSHEY, Pa. - Graham Mink and Ryan Potulny each tallied two goals and an assist, Jacob Micflikier contributed three assists and Dany Sabourin turned aside 20 shots to help the HERSHEY BEARS to a 7-1 rout of the Portland Pirates on Saturday night at GIANT Center.

For the second consecutive night, the Pirates struck first with an early goal. A loose puck bounced into the slot from the left half boards onto the tape of Ryan Duncan, who took a knuckling wrist shot that snuck past Dany Sabourin 2:00 into the game.

The BEARS tied it up on their second power play of the night, when Mink turned around in the slot and fired a wrist shot over the shoulder of Pirates backstop Justin Pogge at 16:28. The goal triggered the popular teddy bear toss, where 10,119 stuffed toys were collected after the goal. The period was also called at that point and 3:32 was added to the second period.

Potulny then put the BEARS ahead for good at 6:28 of the second frame, when he finished off a Micflikier feed and beat Pogge with a tap-in strike from the top of the crease.

The BEARS would add three more tallies in the period to blow the game wide open. Matt Pope held the puck on a two-on-one rush and placed a perfect wrist shot into the upper-right corner behind Pogge to give the hosts a 3-1 lead at 12:54. Julien Brouillette's one-timer off a Tomas Kundratek pass made it 4-1 at 15:00 for the BEARS' second power play goal of the game. Then with 1:11 left in the period, Mink struck for the second time on the power play with help from Chris Bourque and Sabourin to make it a 5-1 contest.

HERSHEY would keep their skates on the gas and push their lead to 6-1 just 1:05 into the third, when Ford's wrist shot fluttered past the blocker of Pogge. Potulny then beat Pogge on the netminder's poke-check attempt at 3:49, sliding a puck through his pads to round out the scoring.

The AHL's top-ranked power play finished the night 3-for-5, and the penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5.

Sabourin improved to 5-4-1 with the win, while Pogge dropped to 3-2-1 with 34 saves on 41 shots.

With the win, the BEARS improve to 11-6-3-2 on the season.

The BEARS are on the road to complete the weekend tomorrow, December 4 for a 3:00 PM faceoff against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Courtesy of ABC-27 and GIANT Food Stores, the game will be broadcast live in central Pennsylvania on ABC-27's RTV channel 27.2, Comcast 246 and Verizon Fios 461. The game will also be simulcast on the BEARS Radio Network.

The team returns home on Saturday, December 10 for a 7:00 PM matchup with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The first 5,000 fans will receive a flashlight courtesy of Capital BlueCross.

Individual tickets for this and all regular-season home games are on sale now by calling (717) 508-BEAR, or by visiting ticketmaster.com.

HERSHEY BEARS season ticket plans are also on sale now by calling (717) 508-BEAR, with many different flexible plans still available. Season ticket plans start as low as $160.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 3, 2011


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