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AHL Hershey Bears

Hershey Weekly

March 30, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club secured a spot in the AHL postseason with four out of six points claimed in the recent three-game weekend.

The league-leading Manchester Monarchs came to Hershey for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday. Hershey began the weekend three points behind the Monarchs for the AHL's overall top record. Despite being outshot 22-5 in the opening period on Friday, Philipp Grubauer ensured that the Bears would be very much in the game as he stopped everything he saw. The second period, however, was markedly different as six combined goals were scored. Hershey would take a 3-1 lead thanks to two Jim O'Brien power-play goals and a shorthanded goal from Chandler Stephenson. But Manchester tied the game before the intermission, as Michael Mersch and Zack O'Brien tallied nearly three minutes apart. Mersch would complete a hat trick in the third, Jordan Weal would add a sixth Manchester goal, and the visitors skated to a 6-3 comeback win. Grubauer faced a season-high 48 shots and turned 42 aside. Jean- Francois Berube picked up his 32nd win of the season with 21 saves.

In the Saturday rematch, Berube and Grubauer opposed each other again, but Berube wouldn't make it through the second period. Hershey took a 3-1 lead in the opening frame, on goals from Tim Kennedy, Dustin Gazley and Chris Brown. Mersch scored his fourth goal of the weekend to put the Monarchs on the board late in the first, but the Bears put a clamp on the game when Garrett Mitchell and Gazley netted second-period goals. Berube would be replaced by backup Patrik Bartosak after Gazley's second goal of the night. Manchester's Colin Miller scored a power-play goal early in the third period, but O'Brien would net his seventh of the season by beating Bartosak with a snap shot with 6:41 left to play. The Monarchs unloaded 42 more shots on goal, but Grubauer stopped 40 of them to win his 26th game of the season.

The Bears departed for Connecticut after the win, and faced a Bridgeport Sound Tigers team already eliminated from postseason contention. Stan Galiev and Andre Burakovsky scored goals on a five-minute power play assessed when Sebstien Collberg had boarded Steve Oleksy, and the Bears led 2-0 after one. Casey Wellman scored on a two-man advantage to make it 3-1 in the second. The Sound Tigers battled hard and tied the game in the third, but O'Brien scored his fourth goal of the weekend with 2:29 left in regulation to send the Bears to victory. Pheonix Copley made 31 saves in the win, which - combined with a Springfield Falcons loss to Worcester - secured a berth for Hershey in the 2015 Calder Cup playoffs.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

QUEST FOR 12: The Bears head to the postseason for the 64th time in franchise history and will begin their quest for a 12th Calder Cup title upon conclusion of the regular season.

O'BRIEN ON THE MONEY: C Jim O'Brien scored goals in all three games this weekend, lighting the lamp four times to extend his point streak to four games (4-2-6). He scored two power play goals on Friday, finished the scoring in Saturday's win and posted the winner on Sunday. Of O'Brien's eight goals, four are game-winners. He has 23 points (8-15-23) in 25 games with the Bears, and Hershey has gone 20-3-1-1 with O'Brien in the lineup.

PHEONIX RISING: G Pheonix Copley won his sixth consecutive game on Sunday, stopping 31 shots to help the Bears defeat Bridgeport. Copley remains unbeaten in regulation in all of calendar year 2015 (9-0-2). He is now 14-3-3 in 22 games with a goals-against average of 2.20 and save percentage of .923.

GAZLEY GRINDING: LW Dustin Gazley put together another outstanding weekend, putting up five points (2-3-5) in a three-game point streak. His two goal, three-point performance on Saturday earned him first-star honors and increased his goal total to 17, which is now tied for fourth among his teammates. Gazley produced 11 points (5-6-11) in March, and has 34 points (17-17-34) on the season to rank seventh on the team in scoring.

THINK POSITIVE: D Cameron Schilling posted the highest single-game plus- minus rating of the season on Saturday. The blueliner was on ice for five of Hershey's six goals for a plus-five rating, and now ranks second on the team with a cumulative plus-17.

ANDRE THE GIANT: C Andre Burakovsky chipped in three more points on the weekend, including two power play points (1-1-2) for second-star honors on Sunday at Bridgeport.

ORLOV OK: Capitals D Dmitry Orlov has chipped in three assists - all on the power play - in his two games played on his conditioning loan to date.

BEARS BULLETS: The Bears extended their road winning streak to four games on Sunday, and are tied for the second-most road wins in the Eastern Conference (18)...Hershey has scored the game's first goal 44 times, which leads the AHL, and is 31-10-3-0 when scoring first...RW Stan Galiev leads the AHL with nine first-goals...Hershey has won 20 one-goal games this season (20-5-5-2)...The Bears rank second in penalty killing (87.5%)...Hershey is the only team in the league with six players that have produced 40 or more points (Kennedy-56, Wellman-51, Conner-49, Newbury-46, Galiev-44, Carrick-40)...D Connor Carrick became the Bears' first defenseman to record 40 or more points since Patrick McNeill (2011-12).

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