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AHL Hershey Bears

Season Starts On High Note

October 12, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


Despite only three days of practice as a full team and only two pre-season games with which to evaluate, the Hershey Bears Hockey Club opened the 2015-16 regular season on a high note on Saturday, claiming a 5-1 win over the Springfield Falcons in the team's only game of the week.

Expectations were already quite high for a successful power play when three-time Calder Cup champion Chris Bourque returned to the club after signing a two-year contract in the offseason. Bourque, Carter Camper, Paul Carey, Aaron Ness and Jakub Vrana went right to work and wasted no time in scoring on their first man-advantage chance of the season. Camper chipped a Carey pass behind rookie netminder Nicklas Treutle for Hershey's first tally of the campaign. Rookie Riley Barber, who came off of a terrific rookie tournament and pre-season, scored his first AHL goal to pad the Hershey lead. Springfield got on the board for what would be their only tally of the game just 12 seconds later. Brendan Shinnimin and Falcons captain Craig Cunningham led a two-on-one rush, and Cunningham finished the play by tapping the puck past goaltender Dan Ellis. The Bears' other half of special teams was also stellar, as the penalty kill knocked away 1:23 worth of a Springfield five-on-three advantage to preserve the 2-1 lead at first intermission.

Connor Carrick would make it a 3-1 game, depositing the rebound of a shot from Garrett Mitchell behind Treutle at 11:09 of the second. Barber would then net his second of the night while the teams were skating four- on-four, knocking a pass from veteran defenseman Ryan Stanton past Treutle just 4:13 later.

Springfield avoided disaster by killing off a full two minutes' worth of a five- on-three Hershey power play to garb some momentum.

After the Bears staved off yet another Falcons two-man power play, Bourque capped off his two-point night by firing one of his patented one- timers from long range into the cage with 6:51 left in regulation, for a power-play goal that put the game far out of reach.

Ten different Hershey skaters would find the score sheet, nine ended up on the positive side of plus-minus for the night, five would secure their first points with the club and Ellis would end up with 19 saves to secure his first win with the Chocolate and White.

Hershey ended up 2-for-4 on the power play, and killed off all five Springfield man advantage chances.

Mitchell, named Hershey's captain on Thursday, was joined by defenseman Mike Moore and Zach Sill as alternate captains.

HERSHEY BEARS NEWS AND NOTES

LIKE HE NEVER LEFT: Chris Bourque didn't take long to make his mark in the Hershey lineup, tallying an assist and a power-play goal in the Bears' Saturday win at Springfield. Bourque entered the season needing just one point for the 500th of his AHL career, and got it with an assist just 11:54 into

Saturday's game. He now has 501 points (172 goals, 329 assists) in the American Hockey League, with 395 (132 goals, 263 assists) coming as a member of the Bears. Incredibly, in a Hershey sweater, Bourque is producing at just over a point-per-game average, now with 395 points (132 goals, 263 assists) in 393 games played.

DID YOU PICK HIM? Carter Camper ended up as the winning wager for scoring the Bears' first goal of the season on Saturday. He added an assist later in the game for a two-point night (1-1-2), with both points coming on the power play.

WILY RILEY: Rookie Riley Barber got his AHL career off to a flying start, scoring his first two goals in Saturday's win. He is tied for second in overall rookie goal scoring, and tied for fifth in rookie points (2-0-2). He is tied for first among rookies in goals scored with just one game played, and is tied for first in rookie shooting percentage (2/3=66.7%).

VRANA'S ON: Rookie Jakub Vrana began his first full pro season with two assists in Saturday's win. Vrana, who has played only four regular-season games with Hershey, is still looking for his first regular-season goal. He has seven assists in his four regular-season games played. Vrana posted six points (2-4-6) in the 2015 Calder Cup playoffs.

ELLIS WINS DEBUT: Veteran goaltender Dan Ellis won his Hershey debut with 19 saves on 20 shots on Saturday night. He has 92 career victories in 196 career American Hockey League games played.

BEARS BULLETS: Hershey snapped a three-year opening-night winless skid with the club's 5-1 win at Springfield on Saturday...The Bears have opened the season by scoring their first goal on special teams in five of the past seven years...Saturday night's game was the Bears' first opening-night contest since 2010 in which a shorthanded goal was not scored by either team...For the first time since the affiliation began in 2005-06, the Bears and Washington Capitals opened on the same night, and both teams scored five goals in their wins...Hershey is tied for the league lead in road power play success (2/4=50%) and tied for second overall...Hershey is tied for the league lead with a perfect penalty kill (5/5)...The Bears are tied for second in goals per game (5.00), tied for third in goals against (1.00) and third in shots against (20.00).

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