AHL Hershey Bears

Hershey Weekly

Published on December 22, 2015 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The Hershey Bears Hockey Club picked up a big overtime victory to wrap up the weekend, and hold the second spot in the Atlantic Division at the holiday break.

The Bears headed back east for their fourth trip to Allentown and their sixth game of the season against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Three consecutive goals gave the Bears a 3-1 cushion, but the Phantoms struck for five unanswered and used that to take a 6-4 victory on Friday night. Paul Carey, Carter Camper and Chris Bourque scored to beat Phantoms goaltender Anthony Stolarz in a span of 6:10, but the visitors eventually got into penalty trouble. Taylor Leier brought the Phantoms within one with a power-play goal late in the first period, and on a five-minute power play in the middle frame, Nick Cousins and Maxim Lamarche would restore the Phantoms' lead. The Bears battled to try to tie the contest but a Mark Alt goal and Cole Bardreau deflection put the game out of reach. Travis Boyd would get one back with less than nine seconds remaining in the game, rounding out the scoring. Justin Peters stopped 30 shots in the loss.

On Saturday, the Bears' seven-game home winning streak was on the line against the Toronto Marlies' eight-game road winning streak. Aaron Ness scored his first goal with the Bears just 4:25 into the game, but the league- leading Marlies got a two-man advantage goal from Mark Arcobello to knot the score before the first intermission and came out flying the second frame, scoring three unanswered goals to go ahead 4-1. Camper's second goal in as many nights gave the Bears some life by pulling the team within two. T.J. Brennan would then score twice in the third period to wrap up a 6-2 victory, only the Bears' second regulation defeat on home ice this season. Ray Emery, signed to a tryout by Toronto earlier in the day, made 23 saves for the win. Dan Ellis stopped 11 of 15 before being replaced by Peters, who turned aside 10 of 12.

The Syracuse Crunch then paid their first visit of the season to Hershey, owners of an eight-game winning streak against the Chocolate and White. Following a beautiful ceremony emceed by Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike 'Doc' Emrick to honor the new inductees into the Hockey Club Hall of Fame, the Bears made sure the streak ended, despite going down 3-0 on three Syracuse power-play goals in the opening period. Ryan Stanton and Chandler Stephenson brought the hosts within one before Jeff Tambellini quieted things down with a shorthanded goal early in the third period. Sean Collins then took over, starting and finishing the comeback. His first goal deflected off of a defenseman and behind Syracuse netminder Adam Wilcox. Christian Djoos then finished a give-and-go with Stephenson to tie the game with 8:38 left in regulation. The three-on- three overtime would last only 25 seconds, as Collins accepted a long pass from Stephenson, got behind the defense and fired a shot past Wilcox for the 5-4 win. Ellis made seven saves in relief of Peters for the victory.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

ENSHRINED FOREVER: The fourth group of enshrines of the Hershey Bears Hockey Club Hall of Fame were inducted prior to faceoff on Sunday. The inductees are: Roger DeJordy (player), Howie Yanosik (player), Larry Zeidel (player) and William "Scotty" Alexander (general). Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike 'Doc' Emrick once again served as honorary emcee.

BOURQUE CLIMBS BEARS LADDER: Chris Bourque extended his point streak to a season-long eight games over the weekend, adding two points (1-1- 2). His streak is the longest active in the AHL heading into the holiday break. Bourque's career numbers in Hershey continue to climb as he has amassed 419 points (141 goals, 278 assists). Sitting 10th all-time in Bears scoring

history, he is just five points behind Frank Mario for ninth place. Bourque has posted the 419 points in 420 career games with the Bears, a total which ranks 24th in Hershey history - 15 games behind Mario and 19 behind the AHL's legendary all-time points leader Willie Marshall.

CAMPER CONTRIBUTING: After posting just one point in his first six December games, Carter Camper has now recorded four points (2-2-4) in a three-game weekend point streak. Camper ranks third on the Bears in overall scoring (4-13-17) and second in assists.

COLLINS TAKES CONTROL: Forward Sean Collins moved into a tie for fourth place on the Bears' scoring leaderboard (5-10-15) with his two-goal effort on Sunday vs. Syracuse. Collins started and later finished a three-goal comeback overtime win for the Chocolate and White, and recorded the Bears' fifth two-goal performance of the season in the process.

STEPHENSON SOLID: Chandler Stephenson posted the Bears' fifth three- point effort of the season - and second of the weekend - on Sunday vs. Syracuse, which was also the first of Stephenson's pro career. He earned second-star honors for the performance and now shows 13 points (3-10-13) in 18 games.

NESS-ESSARY OFFENSE: Defenseman Aaron Ness notched his first Hershey goal in Saturday's game against Toronto, giving all Hershey defenseman at least one goal on the season. Ness also leads the Bears in plus-minus (+8).

BEARS BULLETS: All three of Hershey's overtime wins have come at home...The Bears improved to 4-3-0-2 when trailing after 20 minutes, are tied for the most wins in the AHL when doing so and are one of two teams with a winning record when doing so...The Bears' 10 home wins are tied for second in the Eastern Conference and third overall...The Bears' 21 second-period shots on Sunday tie for second-most in the AHL...Hershey continues to pace the league in attendance, with 137,271 fans (average 9,151) over 15 games.

Check out the Hershey Bears Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from December 22, 2015


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