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AHL Hershey Bears

Hershey Weekly

February 24, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club picked up four of a possible six points on the weekend to pull within one point of the AHL's best record.

On Friday at Binghamton, the Bears suffered just their second regulation loss in the calendar year, when a 2-0 first-period lead turned into a 5-3 victory for the Binghamton Senators. Casey Wellman and Tomas Kundratek scored just 1:22 apart, pushing the visitors out of the gate strong. Dustin Gazley and Stan Galiev would later hit a goal post on scoring chances, and the Senators would only trail by two at the first intermission. The hosts would then go on to score four unanswered goals before Philippe Cornet brought the Bears back within one, but an empty- net tally by Colin Greening sealed the win for the Senators. The loss snapped an eight-game perfect streak in 2015 for Philipp Grubauer, who made 28 saves on 32 shots.

Hershey returned home to face the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Saturday night. In a penalty-filled affair that resulted in a combined 192 penalty minutes, the Bears came out on top with a 4-3 victory. Another strong first period pushed Hershey out in front 3-1 at the first intermission. Joel Broda scored just 1:59 into the game, Tim Kennedy added to the lead and after Cam Reid got the Sound Tigers on the board, Stan Galiev pumped in his 20th goal of the season for the two-goal cushion. Sound Tigers forward Alan Quine would draw the visitors back within one near the halfway point of regulation. At 15:40, a melee ensued that resulted in the ejection of six players. No further scoring would take place until the 10:53 mark of the third, when Chris Conner scored at the expiration of a four-on-four situation for a shorthanded tally. The goal proved to be the winner, as Harry Zolnierczyk made it a one-goal game again with 3:36 left to play. Hershey hung on from there for the victory. Grubauer, who replaced Pheonix Copley after the fracas, earned his 20th win of the season with 12 saves.

On Sunday, in the first meeting of the season against the Providence Bruins, Jim O'Brien ended a back-and-forth affair by scoring 3:09 into overtime for a 5-4 Hershey victory. Garrett Mitchell scored in a first period in which the Bears trailed 2-1. Broda, Chris Brown and Dustin Gazley then gave Hershey a 4-2 edge before Alexander Khokhlachev's second of the night and Rob Flick's 11th of the season pulled Providence even at 4-4. Jon Landry and Kris Newbury each recorded two assists, while Grubauer made 33 saves for another win on the weekend.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

STAN THE MAN: RW Stan Galiev became the Bears' first 20-goal scorer this season - and first since the team's 2012-2013 campaign - with his power play strike in Saturday night's win over Bridgeport. Among the AHL, Galiev's 12 power-play goals lead, and his 21 power-play points rank tied for third. Galiev has also scored seven of Hershey's 35 first-goals, which is tied for the league lead. He assisted on Sunday's game-winner against Providence, giving him 11 points (6-5-11) in 10 February games.

CONNER'S ON FIRE: LW Chris Conner saw his eight-game point streak snapped on Sunday, but still contributed in a big way last weekend. He picked up one assist on Friday, then set up a power-play goal and scored the shorthanded winner on Saturday to increase his point total to 36 (15-21-36) in 39 games. He has 11 points (5-6-11) in 10 February games and is tied for second in the AHL in game-winning goals (six).

JOEL JUMPS IN: C Joel Broda has been finding a groove on offense, as the forward has collected three goals and one assist over his last five games.

Broda scored the first goal of Saturday night's win over Bridgeport, helping Hershey to a league-best 35 first-goals in 53 games. He also added a goal in Sunday's win over Providence.

JUMPIN' JIM: C Jim O'Brien's third Hershey goal was a big one on Sunday, as it sent the Bears to their 32nd win of the season 3:09 into overtime. The Bears improved to 3-4 in 4-on-4 overtime and are 2-1 in 3-on-3 overtime. Also, O'Brien has posted 15 points (3-12-15) in 17 games since his acquisition in late December.

TK-O: Veteran C Tim Kennedy chipped in three points on the weekend, tallying a power-play goal and two assists. Kennedy is tied for the AHL assist lead (39) and power-play assist lead (18), and has pulled into sole possession of ninth place on the AHL scoring leaderboard (5-39-44). Kennedy has eight points (1-7-8) in nine February games.

BEARS BULLETS: The Bears have the league's longest-active home points streak (10 games, 8-0-1-1)...Hershey leads the league with 35 first-goals, and is 24-8-3-0 when scoring first... The Bears lead the league in penalty killing (88.2%)...Hershey ranks second in goals against per game (2.26)...The Bears rank second in team shutouts (eight), a number that is one shy of the franchise record...The Bears have the most home wins (21) and home points (46) in the AHL...Hershey maintains the AHL attendance lead with an average of 9,601 fans (25 games).

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