BEARS KICK THE CRUNCH FOR WIN NUMBER 53

March 20, 2010

The BEARS moved within four wins of setting a new AHL record for wins in a season Saturday, defeating the Syracuse Crunch 6-2 at the Onondaga County War Memorial at OnCenter. Andrew Gordon opened the scoring early in the first period Saturday, tipping a Chris Bourque center point shot for his 33rd goal of the season. The marker came just 1:19 into the game, and also came on the power play. Syracuse tied the game a short time later at the 6:54 mark when Tom Sestito scored on a back door play, with a pass coming from Dan Fritsche. Both teams fired 10 shots on goal in the first period, with Syracuse’s Kevin Lalande and HERSHEY’S Jason Bacashihua making nine saves. Jay Beagle started the scoring in the second period with his 12th goal of the year at 9:26, which was followed by Chris Bourque’s 22nd of the campaign at 17:53. Although the shots were even at 11 in the second period, HERSHEY took a 3-1 lead into the third period, and only built onto the advantage from there. Ashton Rome, who scored in his BEARS debut Friday at home against Albany, picked up his second goal in as many games at 2:55 of the third period Saturday, and Kyle Wilson tipped a Zach Miskovic shot past Lalande at 7:56. Syracuse picked up its only other goal of the evening when Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman picked up a marker at 8:25 of the third, and Gordon picked up his second of the night to round out the scoring at 17:50. Bacashihua made 29 saves in earning the win, HERSHEY’S 53rd of the season. BEARS Radio Network Three Stars of the game: 1. Andrew Gordon (Two goals) 2. Jason Bacashihua (29 saves and the victory) 3. Ashton Rome (Goal and an assist) Notes: HERSHEY concludes four games in five days Sunday at home as the Adirondack Phantoms come to town for the final time this season. Face-off at Giant Center is 5:00 p.m. with limited tickets still available for the game. Call the Giant Center box office for the latest ticket information at (717) 534-3911. Bacashihua made his first start for HERSHEY since February 24 at Lake Erie against the Monsters. Bryan Helmer was a scratch from Saturday’s game in Syracuse, but is expected to play Sunday against the Phantoms. Steve Pinizzotto will miss the rest of the weekend’s games due to family reasons. Goaltender Michal Neuvirth is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury. Defenseman Patrick Wellar left the game in the third period with a lower body injury. He is listed as day-to-day.