AHL Hershey Bears

Hershey Weekly

Published on March 16, 2015 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club picked up two points during the week, and still hold the American Hockey League's East Division lead and second seed in the Eastern Conference.

In the Bears' first Wednesday game in seven weeks, the Bears battled in a back-and-forth affair before ultimately falling 5-3 on the road against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. After video replay confirmed Jayson Megna's opening goal, Connor Carrick deflected a Dustin Gazley feed behind goaltender Matt Murray to tie the game. Barry Goers put the Penguins ahead with a four-on-four goal, but Gazley would again tie the game as his cross-crease pass-back attempt to Kris Newbury deflected in off of defenseman Danny Syvret. Mike Moore then put Hershey in front in the third, denting Murray's goals-against average for the first time in several weeks. But Matia Marcantuoni tied the game just 13 seconds later, while Tom Kostopoulos and Conor Sheary added two more unanswered tallies to help the hosts to the win.

On Friday the Bears regrouped, came out flying and never looked back in a 2-1 win over the Binghamton Senators. After Binghamton controlled the play in the first three minutes, the Bears would capitalize on a goaltender interference penalty when Chris Brown drilled home a pass from Philippe Cornet on the power play chance. Casey Wellman then scored on the team's fourth shot of the game, slapping a Tim Kennedy feed behind Peter Mannino. From that point on, Mannino shut the door on any further scoring, while Brad Mills broke up Pheonix Copley's shutout bid at 5:28 of the third. The Sens would draw no closer, however, helping Copley win his 12th game of the season with a 21-save effort. Mannino turned aside 30 of 32 Hershey shots in the Senators' crease.

The Bears and Penguins then matched up for the final time in the regular season on Saturday. Megna again scored the game's first goal, while Sheary made it 2-0 at the first intermission. Moore got the Bears on the board in the second period, slapping a long-range shot through a screened Murray. But the insurance goal came off the stick of Dominik Uher, a goal that came in a second period completely owned by the Bears. Grubauer settled in and stopped all nine shots in the third, but Murray also stopped all of his shots faced to help the Penguins win 3-1. The Bears finished with a record of 6-4-2-0 in the 12-game season series, including 5-1-0-0 at GIANT Center.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

MAGIC NUMBER... For Hershey to clinch a playoff berth, through games ending March 15: 19 points.

MOORE GOALS AGAINST WBS: D Mike Moore picked up his second goal of the week - and third in as many games against the Penguins - for Hershey's lone tally of Saturday's contest. Moore has three goals with the Bears, and all have come against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, with his first coming as the overtime winner on February 7 at GIANT Center.

PHEONIX RISES: G Pheonix Copley notched his 12th win of the season on Friday at Binghamton, with a 21-save performance. It was Copley's fourth consecutive victory, and kept him unbeaten in regulation in 2015 (7-0-2).

Copley is 3-0-1 with a 2.23 GAA and .913 save percentage against the Senators in four games this season.

TK-O: Veteran C Tim Kennedy keeps on producing, posting an assist in all three games this week. His 45 assists rank second in the AHL, his 18 power- play helpers rank tied for third and his overall point total (7-45-52) rank tied for eighth. He has six points (1-5-6) in seven March games. He needs just four more assists to match his single-season career high (2008-09), and has 193 total assists in his AHL career. Kennedy's next three games are against his last two former teams - Worcester and Portland.

DUSTIN THE OPPONENTS: RW Dustin Gazley picked up two points (1-1-2) on Wednesday at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, increasing his goal total to nine over his past 14 games. He has 11 points (9-2-11) in that span as well, moving into seventh place among his Bears teammates in scoring.

BEARS BULLETS: Saturday's setback saw Hershey's incredible streak of 13 consecutive Saturdays with at least a point snapped (10-0-2-1)...The Bears are 15-4-2-1 on Saturdays...Hershey's 39 first-goals rank second in the AHL, and the Bears are 27-9-3-0 when scoring first...RW Stan Galiev has eight of Hershey's 39 first-goals, which leads the AHL...The Bears moved back into second place in AHL penalty killing (88.0%) with an 11-for-12 performance on the week...Hershey ranks second in goals against per game (2.29) and sixth in shots against per game (28.29)...Hershey ranks second in the AHL in team shutouts (nine), which also equals a franchise record...The Bears have the most players on their roster having produced 40 or more points (five: Kennedy 7-45-52; Conner 17-28-45; Wellman 21-23-44; Newbury 17-26-43; Galiev 23- 19-42).

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Hockey League Stories from March 16, 2015


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central