Sports stats



AHL Hershey Bears

Busy Bears Retain Second Place

December 28, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club split its two-game weekend, and now head into the busiest week of the season as 2016 approaches.

On Saturday, the division-leading Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins made their second visit of the campaign to Chocolatetown and came in with four shutout victories in their last five games. However it would be the Bears doing the shutting out this time, as the hosts rolled to a convincing 5-0 victory. The Bears had five different goal scorers, three of which were set up by the night's leader on offense, Carter Camper. Aaron Ness started things off with a long bomb that beat Brian Foster just 34 seconds into the game, a goal that ended up as the game-winner, as Hershey continued to pour on the pressure. Chris Brown made it 2-0, tapping in a feed from Mike Moore for his second of the season. A Madison Bowey power-play goal gave the Bears a 3-0 cushion, and only the goal post prevented the Bears from grabbing two more tallies before the first period ended. Paul Carey would jam home the rebound of a Camper sharp-angle shot halfway through the second, padding the lead to 4-0. Erik Burgdoerfer would then bury his third goal of the season - and third against the Penguins - just 1:19 later for a 5-0 lead. Penguins backup goaltender Casey DeSmith came on in the third period and stopped all seven shots he faced, preventing any further damage. At the other end, Dan Ellis would knock away all 22 shots he faced, which included a barrage of chances on three consecutive Penguins power plays in the third period. He earned his first Hershey shutout in the process.

On Sunday, the Binghamton Senators came in winners of two consecutive games for the first time all year. The owners of the second-lowest point percentage in the AHL would jump out to three separate one-goal leads before adding a third-period insurance marker, which was enough for the visitors to hand the Bears just their third regulation loss at home - a 5-3 decision. Nick Paul opened the scoring at 8:26 of the first, slipping a backhander past backstop Mark Dekanich. Brown answered at 14:02 with a blast from the slot that eluded Senators backstop Chris Driedger. Matt Puempel scored on the power play in the second period but Carey answered right back on a giveaway to knot the score. Buddy Robinson would put Binghamton ahead 3-2 at the second intermission, and Puempel's second of the game just 1:21 into the third period would provide the necessary insurance. Travis Boyd would strike off of a Chandler Stephenson faceoff win at 11:23 to pull the Bears within one. Dekanich was pulled in favor of a sixth attacker, but with exactly one minute remaining, Colin Greening found the empty net to seal the victory. Dekanich stopped 18 of 22 shots in his Hershey debut, which was also his first AHL start since 2012-13.

The Bears play a season-high four games this week, wrapping up their seven-game homestand with contests against Syracuse, Lehigh Valley and Binghamton before heading to Bridgeport on Sunday.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

BOURQUE CLIMBS BEARS LADDER: Chris Bourque's career numbers in Hershey continue to climb as he has amassed 419 points (141 goals, 278 assists). Sitting 10th all-time in Bears scoring history, he is just five points behind Frank Mario for ninth place. Bourque has posted the 419 points in 420 career games with the Bears, a total which ranks 24th in Hershey history - 15 games behind Mario and 19 behind the AHL's legendary all-time points leader Willie Marshall. He currently holds the longest active point streak in the league (eight games, 11 points).

CAREY CHIMES IN: Paul Carey is heating up on offense once again, notching three points on the weekend (2-1-3). After tallying a power-play goal on Saturday, he added a goal and an assist against Binghamton on Sunday. Carey has seven points (3-4-7) in his last five games, has taken over the Bears' goal scoring lead (12) and ranks second in points (12-9-21).

CAMPER CONTRIBUTING: The Bears' third 20-point producer, Carter Camper, saw a four-game point streak snapped on Sunday but not before matching a season high with three assists on Saturday against Wilkes- Barre/Scranton. Camper is tied with Chris Bourque for the Bears' assist lead (16) and ranks third in points (4-16-20), with seven points (2-5-7) coming in his last five games.

BROWN'S BACK: Chris Brown rolled through the weekend by notching three points (2-1-3), including goals in back-to-back games.

HELPFULNESS: Defenseman Aaron Ness picked up the game-winner just 34 seconds into Saturday's game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and added an assist on Sunday vs. Binghamton. He has four points (2-2-4) in his last five games and saw his plus-minus rating jump to a team-best +12 over the weekend.

ELLIS CLOSES IN: Goaltender Dan Ellis' shutout victory over Wilkes- Barre/Scranton was the first of his Hershey career and 14th of his AHL tenure.

He is one win away from 100 in the American Hockey League.

BEARS BULLETS: The Bears tied or set several season highs on Saturday vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, including most goals (five, tied), most power play goals (two, tied), most assists in one game (Camper-3, tied) and largest margin of victory (five)...The Bears have moved into 12th in the AHL in goals per game average (2.94) after tallying eight times on the weekend...Hershey's 31 first- period goals rank tied for fourth-most in the AHL...The Bears moved into seventh in the AHL in shots allowed per game (27.61)...Hershey is 14-0-0-0 when allowing two or fewer goals...Hershey's 11 home victories are tied for the second-most in the AHL...The Bears own the league's top attendance again, with 156,420 fans (average 9,201) over 17 home games.

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from December 28, 2015


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central