AHL Hershey Bears

Laing scores three as Bears win at Albany

Published on December 20, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


The HERSHEY BEARS Hockey Club played the club's 5000th regular season game in club history Wednesday night, and Quintin Laing turned the contest into his personal highlight reel. The BEARS tied a season high by scoring seven times en route to a 7-4 win at Pepsi Arena.

The BEARS took a 1-0 lead early in the first period when Tomas Fleischmann ping-ponged a shot in front of the Albany goal. The puck deflected off the skate of Albany's Dave Gove and into the back of the net as HERSHEY scored on the power play. Jonas Johansson and Matt Hendricks each recorded assists on the goal. The River Rats recorded 11 first period shots to HERSHEY'S eight, and the BEARS took a 1-0 lead to the dressing room. The first 20 minutes also featured four separate fights, including two that Pete Vandermeer participated in. Trevor Byrne fought Tim Conboy at the 20:00 mark after Conboy ran Tomas Fleischmann into the boards. Tyler Sloan also fought Cody McCormick.

Albany would come out in the second period and score twice to even the score. Defenseman Johnny Boychuk scored on a slap shot from the left point at 5:35 to get the Rats on the board before Matt Murley tied the game at the 9:03 mark. HERSHEY would regain the lead just 47 seconds later at 9:50 from Johansson and Lawrence Nycholat. With a 3-2 lead late in the second, Albany took advantage of a power play and scored to tie it up before intermission. Kyle Cumiskey scored on the back door after a pass from Ben Guite at 18:54. The Rats outshot the BEARS 21-10 in the second period and scored three times to send the game to the third period all tied at 3-3.

HERSHEY would take an early third period lead when Dave Steckel scored his ninth goal of the season. The goal at 2:05 gave the BEARS a 4-3 lead. Laing then scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the year at 9:55 to vault the BEARS to a 5-3 advantage. Trevor Byrne would score his first of the year at 10:26 before Laing finished off his hat trick at 19:20 The three goal effort was Laing's first in a BEARS uniform, and it put the game on ice.

Notes: HERSHEY'S first-ever game was played November 5, 1938 at HERSHEY Sports Arena against the Providence Reds. The BEARS won the game 2-1. Louis Robitaille missed the game after an injury that occurred in practice Tuesday. Alexandre Giroux arrived in time for the game Wednesday after skating in Washington Tuesday. Giroux played nearly seven minutes in Washington's 5-4 loss against Tampa Bay. Former HERSHEY players Jeff Finger, Johnny Boychuk, Scott Kelman, Shane Willis and Cody McCormick played against the BEARS Wednesday. The Colorado Avalanche announced this week that the club is pulling its secondary affiliation from Albany after the current season. The Avalanche will place their primary AHL affiliate in Cleveland in 2007-08; the first full affiliation Colorado has had since departing HERSHEY after the 2004-05 campaign. The 21 shots HERSHEY allowed in the second period was a season high. The win was the 16th in a row for the BEARS against Albany. Laing's hat trick was the second by a HERSHEY skater this season. Alexandre Giroux scored three times against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton November 26.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 20, 2006


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