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AHL Hershey Bears

Climbing Higher As Holidays Approach

December 17, 2012 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The HERSHEY BEARS Hockey Club grabbed five out of a possible six points on the week, beginning with a very successful trip to Newfoundland in which the BEARS claimed 2-1 and 4-0 victories over the St. John's IceCaps on Tuesday and Wednesday. In Tuesday's contest, special teams was the difference as all scoring in the game came on the power play. Jon DiSalvatore started off another great week by scoring Tuesday's first goal, then helped set up the eventual game-winner from Tomas Kundratek. Braden Holtby allowed his only goal of the trip to Zach Redmond, a second-period power play tally. In Wednesday's rematch, Zach Hamill, Alex Berry, Mathieu Beaudoin and DiSalvatore all struck to help back up Holtby's 30-save clean sheet. The team returned home on Saturday and started off well, skating to a 3-1 first-period lead. Cameron Schilling scored 36 seconds into the game, Mike Carman picked up his third of the season, and Hamill scored on a highlight-reel play to push the BEARS ahead. But the Sharks drew even, getting goals from Jon Matsumoto and two from James Sheppard - all on the power play. The Sharks had a chance to take a late lead when Brandon Mashinter was handed a penalty shot with 2:01 left, but Holtby made the stop. With Matsumoto tallying in the shootout and Alex Stalock stopping all five opponents, Worcester skated to a 4-3 victory. The BEARS have pulled into the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with their five-point week.

The BEARS will host the Norfolk Admirals on Wednesday, a special night in Chocolatetown as the inaugural class of the HERSHEY BEARS Hockey Club Hall of Fame will be enshrined prior to the game. The BEARS remain home to host the Springfield Falcons on Saturday.

BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

CINCO DiSALVATORE: RW Jon DiSalvatore posted a five-point week, tallying two goals, three assists and a plus-1 rating in the span. DiSalvatore has climbed into second place on the BEARS scoring leaderboard (9-13-22), and has points in eight of his last 10 games.

IN GOOD COMPANY: G Braden Holtby picked up his 71st career victory on Wednesday at St. John's, tying him with Phil Sauve for seventh in all-time wins by a BEARS goaltender. The win was also the 12th shutout of his BEARS tenure, tying him with Andre Gill for fifth place in HERSHEY history.

TAFFE AT THE TOP: C Jeff Taffe continues to set up many a HERSHEY goal, adding four more helpers this week to extend his streak to a current league-best six games. Taffe's 21 assists rank second in the AHL, his 10 power-play assists rank tied for second, and his 27 points are tied for fourth in the AHL scoring race.

HAMILL TIME: C Zach Hamill scored in back-to-back games last week, and pulled into a tie with Jon DiSalvatore in scoring nine tallies on the season. Hamill leads the team with three game-winning goals. The BEARS are 11-2-0-1 in the games in which Hamill has recorded a point.

TIGHT GAMES: Of the BEARS' 27 games played to date, nearly half have finished with a one-goal margin. The BEARS are 6-5-1-1 in one-goal games.

ROAD CREW: The BEARS currently own the league's longest active road winning streak, at five games. The streak is also the third longest in the AHL this season.

INTO THE TOP EIGHT: The BEARS' shootout setback to Worcester on Saturday still earned a point for the club. HERSHEY has picked up points in eight of the last 10 games (7-2-0-1) to pull into the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.

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