AHL Hershey Bears

Four Weekends To Go

Published on March 25, 2013 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The HERSHEY BEARS Hockey Club picked up three of a possible six points on their weekend in New England. On Friday night in Hartford, an exciting contest against the Connecticut Whale went back-and-forth and took a shootout to decide the extra point, but it was the hosts who prevailed in a 3-2 final score. After Nick Palmieri gave the Whale the lead, Nicolas Deschamps buried the rebound of a Jeff Taffe chance for his first goal with the Chocolate and White. Ryan Potulny ripped home his 14th of the season in the second period to give the Bears their first lead, but Blake Parlett found daylight behind Philipp Grubauer in the final minute of the middle period to tie the game. Grubauer would deny Christian Thomas on a penalty shot in overtime, keeping the Bears alive and sending the game to the shootout, where Whale forward Kris Newbury became the only player to score for either team. On Saturday in Manchester, the Bears were in cruise control after Potulny scored twice and Boyd Kane scored for his 500th AHL point to push the team to a 3-0 second-period lead. But Andy Andreoff, Colton Yellow Horn and Jordan Weal scored in succession to wipe out the lead and put the game in a 3-3 deadlock at the start of the third. Yellow Horn would strike again, and Linden Vey scored twice around a Peter LeBlanc tally, sending the Monarchs to a 6-4 win. Sunday was a much better result for the Bears, as Patrick McNeill, Matt Pope, Casey Wellman and Garrett Mitchell powered the team to a 4-1 win over the Worcester Sharks. Dany Sabourin made 32 saves in a great effort in goal. Former Capitals winger Joey Crabb made his Bears debut and picked up one assist.

The Bears will pay a visit to the Capital District for a Friday contest against the Albany Devils, before hosting the Providence Bruins on Saturday.

BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

THE CAPTAIN'S RESUME: Captain Boyd Kane joined RW Jon DiSalvatore as the second Hershey player this season and became the 85th player in the history of the league to reach 500 career AHL points with his goal on Saturday at Manchester. The goal was also the 100th of Kane's tenure in Hershey. Kane added an assist in that game, as well as on Sunday at Worcester, to push his career total to 502 (213-289-502). With 927 career AHL games played, Kane has tied former Bears winger Les Duff for 12th place all-time. He also moved past former Bears forward and current Winnipeg Jets head coach Claude Noel for 30th place in all-time games played in Hershey (354).

TAFFE ON TOP: C Jeff Taffe chipped in two assists over the weekend to become the AHL's active scoring leader with 60 points (18-42-60) in 62 games. His 42 assists rank second overall.

HOT AT THE RIGHT TIME: C Ryan Potulny, who racked up eight goals in the Bears' playoff push last March, scored his fourth, fifth and sixth of this month over the past weekend. Potulny is now tied for second place on the Bears' goal-scoring list.

NOT TOO CRABBY: RW Joey Crabb made his Bears debut on Sunday at Worcester, one day after clearing waivers and being assigned from Washington. He earned an assist on the first Hershey goal in the team's 4-1 win.

GOOD DAY FOR CHAY: D Chay Genoway, acquired in a March 14 trade, picked up his first two points (assists) for the Chocolate and White in Sunday's win at Worcester and was named the game's third star. Genoway also finished with a plus/minus of plus-three, pushing his season total to a team-leading plus-16.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE: RW Matt Pope scored his first goal since November 2 in Sunday's 4-1 win at Worcester. The goal ended up as the game-winner.

FOUR MORE POINTS: C Casey Wellman continues to be the team's hottest point producer, earning three assists on Saturday and scoring the insurance goal on Sunday for a total of 21 points (7-14-21) in 22 games since being acquired on January 31.

THE 10k RACE: GIANT Center has welcomed an average of 9,972 fans in 35 home games. An average of 10,327 in the final three home games would give the Bears a season average of 10,000 fans per game, the first team to reach the number since the 1998-99 Philadelphia Phantoms.

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from March 25, 2013


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