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AHL Hershey Bears

Hershey Weekly

February 10, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club picked up four of a possible six points on the weekend, and enters the All-Star break in the club's highest standings position of the season: third place in the East Division, and seventh place in the Eastern Conference. The weekend started slowly for the Bears, as the team fell 4-1 on the road to the Rochester Americans on Friday. Jeff Taffe scored a power-play goal, the lone tally for the visitors. David Leggio returned to his former home of the previous two seasons and stopped 29 of 33 shots in the setback.

The Bears and Portland Pirates played a tight game at GIANT Center on Saturday. After a scoreless first period and a second frame featuring a trade-off of goals between Peter LeBlanc and Portland's Brandon Yip, Hershey captain Dane Byers scored on a beautiful pass from Matt Watkins to put the Bears ahead 2-1. The team would take that score to the final horn thanks to a 30-save effort from Philipp Grubauer.

The rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins came to town seeking a perfect weekend, but the Bears put the stop to that in thrilling fashion. Ryan Stoa gave the hosts an early lead, but goals from Harry Zolnierczyk and Tom Kostopoulos gave the Penguins the edge at the first intermission. Watkins would tie the game in the second period, and Byers would convert a third- period penalty shot to restore the Bears' advantage. Wilkes- Barre/Scranton's Bobby Farnham tied the game with 3:11 left to play. However no one could stop speedy Dustin Gazley, who chipped another perfect pass from Watkins past goaltender Eric Hartzell 47 seconds into overtime, sending the Bears off the bench to celebrate their 11th straight home win.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

BACK FROM THE DISTRICT: D Julien Brouillette, RW Casey Wellman and D Patrick Wey combined for seven points (3-4-7) and a plus-11 rating during their recent time in the NHL. Brouillette and Wey tallied their first NHL assists in the same game on Thursday vs. Winnipeg, while Brouillette buried his first NHL goal against New Jersey on Saturday.

GOT A LITTLE CAPTAIN IN YOU?: Bears captain Dane Byers tallied his first game-winner of the season in Saturday's victory over Portland, and then scored on a penalty shot to give the Bears a lead in Sunday's eventual overtime win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Byers has three goals and one assist in his last six games.

STAR GAZING: RW Dustin Gazley scored the Bears' overtime-winning goal on Sunday against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, his sixth goal of the season. The Bears won all six games in which Gazley scored.

STRACHAN'S A PLUS: Veteran D Tyson Strachan posted another strong weekend on the Hershey blue line, finishing with a plus-three rating in Sunday's win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Strachan leads the Bears with a plus-16 rating on the season.

WHAT A WEEKEND FOR WATKINS: C Matt Watkins set up LW Dane Byers' game-winner on Saturday over Portland, scored the tying goal in the second period of Sunday's game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and later put a perfect pass onto RW Dustin Gazley's stick for the overtime winner. His two-point, third-star effort on Sunday came in the 300th game of his AHL career.

GIANT GRUBAUER: Sunday marked the first time in G Philipp Grubauer's return from Washington that the netminder allowed more than one goal in a victory. In his previous three wins, Grubauer allowed a total of two goals against. Since his return, Grubauer is 5-1-0 with a goals- against average of 1.66 and a save percentage of .943. He has also not lost at GIANT Center since being reassigned (4-0-0, 1.25, .958).

BEARS BULLETS:

- The Bears have racked up 11 consecutive wins at GIANT Center, and remain perfect on home ice (10-0-0-0) in 2014. The 11-game home winning streak is the longest active in the AHL (Texas Stars - 12), and second-longest home winning streak of the entire AHL season. It also is the Bears' longest home winning streak since their AHL record-setting 24-game stretch during 2009-10.

- The Bears' 18 victories at home lead all Eastern Conference teams and rank second in the AHL, only to Texas (19).

- The Bears are 19-0-0-1 when scoring four or more goals.

- The Bears rank second in the AHL in first-period goals (49).

- LW Dane Byers' penalty shot conversion on Sunday was the second consecutive successful penalty shot for Hershey (1/11/14, Nicolas Deschamps vs. Springfield's Mike McKenna).

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