AHL Hershey Bears

Hershey Weekly

Published on April 13, 2015 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club split their weekend set of games with the St. John's IceCaps at Mile One Centre, in the two teams' final meetings of the regular season.

On Friday, the Bears spotted the IceCaps a 2-0 first-period lead, stormed back with three unanswered goals and got stellar goaltending from Philipp Grubauer as the club skated to a 3-2 victory. Rookie Chase Balisy scored the first goal of the contest as he got position in the slot and deflected a shot from Will O'Neill through Grubauer's pads at 7:01. Later in the period, Joel Armia collected a pass from Peter Stoykewych at the point, and from the goal line hurried a feed into the left circle. Patrice Cormier one-timed it inside the far post for a 2-0 advantage. The Bears chipped away at the lead in the second, starting with Liam O'Brien's fourth of the season. The rookie used a charging Mike Moore as a decoy and instead of passing, blasted a slapper over the shoulder of rookie netminder Eric Comrie at 9:02. Dustin Gazley then tied the game when he took a lobbed pass from Kris Newbury and broke in alone from the blue line. He faked to the backhand and went back forehand to slip the puck behind Comrie at 17:19. Chris Conner gave the Bears their first lead at 14:03 of the third, when he rushed the crease and tipped a pass from Tim Kennedy into the net for his 18th of the season. The Bears held on from there, thanks in large part to a Grubauer split save on a wraparound chance that fell in front of a wide-open J.C. Lipon. Grubauer finished with 33 saves for his 17th win.

The Bears wouldn't have the same fortune on Saturday, as Balisy and Cormier again scored the IceCaps' first two goals of the game, but two more by Lipon and Scott Kosmachuk - scored 12 seconds apart - opened up the game, allowing St. John's to cruise to a 5-1 win. After Balisy opened the scoring, Jim O'Brien drilled a feed from Gazley behind Comrie for a power-play equalizer. Cormier's goal was also on the power play at 3:06 of the second, and the IceCaps never looked back. Lipon and Kosmachuk each beat Pheonix Copley while the teams were skating four- on-four. Former Bears blueliner Julien Brouillette then struck for a five-on- three power play goal in the third to round out the scoring in a game that featured 96 penalty minutes. Comrie made 21 saves for his first pro win.

Hershey still needs four more points either gained, or lost by Wilkes- Barre/Scranton, to clinch the East Division title. The Bears visit Lehigh Valley on Tuesday, and wrap up the regular season with games against Binghamton on Friday and Lehigh Valley on Saturday at GIANT Center.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

MAGIC NUMBER: Any combination of four points gained by Hershey or lost by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will give the Bears the East Division regular-season title. Each team has three games remaining.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: RW Stan Galiev was recalled to Washington last week and scored his first NHL goal against the NY Rangers on Saturday, in his second career NHL game. He returns to Hershey leading the team with 25 goals, leading the league with 15 power-play goals and ten first-goals.

GIANT GRUBAUER: G Philipp Grubauer made 33 saves on Friday to help the Bears defeat St. John's. The win was his 27th of the season, which places him in third place among AHL goaltenders. His six shutouts rank tied for third, his 2858:55 played rank fifth, and his 2.29 goals against average rank 10th . Grubauer has 11 career shutouts in a Hershey sweater, ranking him seventh all-time.

CLUTCH CONNER: LW Chris Conner scored with 5:57 left in regulation on Friday to help the Bears come back and defeat St. John's. The goal was Conner's 18th of the season, pulling him into a three-way tie for third in Bears' goal scoring. It was also his seventh game-winner of the season, which leads Hershey and ranks tied for third in the AHL.

GAZLEY GRINDING: LW Dustin Gazley led the offense over the weekend, posting three points (1-2-3). He recorded the game-tying goal on Friday and set up the winner, and then assisted on the Bears' only goal on Saturday. His 18 goals rank tied for third on the team, and his 37 points (18-19-37) rank seventh. Gazley continues to increase his career-best numbers.

"O" FROM THE O'BRIENS: Unrelated forwards C Jim O'Brien and LW Liam O'Brien have each chipped in on offense. Liam has recorded two goals over his last four games, including the Bears' first of three goals in their Friday comeback win at St. John's. Jim struck on the power play for the Bears' only goal on Saturday, and now has 25 points (9-16-25) in 30 games with Hershey.

WELCOME: Two Washington Capitals prospects have joined the Bears this week. 2014 first-round pick, LW Jakub Vrana and 2014 seventh-round pick, F Kevin Elgestal have both arrived and will join in their first full-team practices.

BEARS BULLETS: The Bears recorded their 20th road win of the season on Friday, and are tied for the third-most road wins in the AHL...The Bears have the second-most wins (44) in the Eastern Conference...Hershey ranks third in penalty killing (87.5%), just 0.01% off of the league lead...The Bears finished the season with a record of 10-7-0-1 against the Atlantic Division and 12-4-1-1 against the Northeast Division...The Bears are still tied for the AHL lead in first- goals (46), and RW Stan Galiev leads the AHL with 10 of them...Hershey returns home as leaders in attendance for a ninth straight season (avg. 9,767).

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics

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



American Hockey League Stories from April 13, 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