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AHL Hershey Bears

Hershey Weekly

November 17, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club picked up two of a possible four points over the weekend. The team enters the new week in second place in the East Division and in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Bears faced a rare two-game weekend featuring a road trip on Friday and a home contest on Sunday. The Syracuse Crunch played host to the Chocolate and White on Friday, the first of four meetings between the former division rivals. Kris Newbury would tally his ninth goal of the season just 5:58 into the game, with Casey Wellman and Nathan Walker assisting. But Syracuse captain Mike Angelidis would score the first of five unanswered goals by the Crunch, as the hosts shook off the slow start and cruised to a 5-1 victory. Kevin Lynch and Henri Ikonen tallied their first AHL goals to put the Crunch ahead comfortably at the second intermission, while the Syracuse penalty kill snuffed out three consecutive Hershey opportunities in the middle period to maintain their lead. Nikita Nesterov's blast on a two-man power play advantage beat Philipp Grubauer to give Syracuse a 4-1 lead. Jonathan Marchessault finished the game off with an empty-net tally with 2:22 left to play. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 of his 21 saves over the final two periods to earn his second win. Grubauer finished with 20 saves on 24 shots.

After a practice day on Saturday, the Bears hosted the Wilkes- Barre/Scranton Penguins on Sunday. A sellout crowd of 10,907 watched the Bears storm back from a 2-0 deficit and win the game by a count of 3- 2, with a majority of the scoring occurring in the second period. The game was marred by a combined 89 penalty minutes, 10 total power plays and two penalty shots, and it would be Hershey coming out the winners on special teams. The Bears killed off all four Penguins power plays while scoring on two of their six. Jayson Megna, who entered the game with three goals in his last two games against Hershey, added two more to give the visitors a 2-0 lead early in the second period. Hershey began its comeback when Philippe Cornet tipped a Tim Kennedy slap shot behind goaltender Jeff Zatkoff at 4:59. Moments later, Josh Archibald was awarded a penalty shot after being taken down, but his attempt sailed wide to the right of the net guarded by Grubauer. Connor Carrick struck on the next power play chance, beating Zatkoff with a low slap shot that was again set up by Kennedy. Stan Galiev picked up the secondary assist. With the clock down to 23.8 seconds remaining in the period, Chandler Stephenson was denied a scoring chance on a hit from behind, and was also awarded a penalty shot. His snap shot banked in off of Zatkoff's blocker, giving Hershey the lead. Grubauer only had to make four more saves in the third to hold on for the win.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

SPECIAL TEAMS STEPHENSON: Rookie C Chandler Stephenson scored his second goal of the season on Sunday vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a penalty shot. The goal ended up as his first career game-winner in the AHL. His other goal, scored against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, came shorthanded.

TWO FOR TK: C Tim Kennedy registered his second multiple-point game of the season with two power-play assists in Sunday's win vs. Wilkes- Barre/Scranton. He now has 10 assists on the year, tied for second among his Bears teammates and ranking just out of the top five in the AHL. His five power-play assists rank tied with teammate Kris Newbury for the Bears lead.

CAN'T KEEP QUIET FOR LONG: Veteran C Kris Newbury was held off of the score sheet in Sunday's win vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and is now in second place in the AHL in scoring (9-10-19). Sunday was just the third time in the 15- game season to date in which Newbury was held without a point.

CARRICK CHIMING IN: D Connor Carrick has been an asset on offense from the Hershey blue line. The native of Orland Park, Illinois has registered four points (3-1-4) over his last four games, including two game-tying goals (Nov. 8 vs. HFD, Nov. 16 vs. WBS).

"O" FROM THE "D": Hershey's defensemen have been chipping in remarkably on offense. At least one Bears defenseman has found the score sheet in all but two of the season's games played - November 2 and November 14 - and Bears blueliners have a total of 40 combined points (eight goals, 32 assists) through 15 games, with two more (1-1-2) coming on Sunday vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

MOST EXCITING PLAY IN HOCKEY: Hershey has been involved in four of the 16 penalty shots awarded around the AHL this season. Philipp Grubauer has one credited save and one goal against, while the Bears were successful on both of their chances - both against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton - with Dustin Gazley and Chandler Stephenson scoring.

BEARS BULLETS: Hershey has won both of their home games when trailing after the first period...Hershey ranks second in shots against per game (25.00)...The Bears rank third in home penalty killing (90.0%) and fourth overall (88.5%)...The Bears have won seven straight home games vs. Wilkes- Barre/Scranton...Hershey has held its opponent to three or fewer goals in 11 consecutive games at GIANT Center.

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American Hockey League Stories from November 17, 2014


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