GREENTREE A BRIGHT SPOT IN SETBACK AT ST. JOHN'S

March 9, 2012

ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland – Patrice Cormier’s four-point night, including a hat trick, helped the St. John’s IceCaps to a 6-1 win over the HERSHEY BEARS on Friday night at Mile One Centre.

The hosts jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Cormier took a headman pass from Arturs Kulda and broke in from the offensive blue line.  Cormier’s shot trickled through Braden Holtby’s pads and over the goal line at 7:53.

The teams were skating four-on-four when IceCaps blueliner Paul Postma took a penalty for tripping.  On the power play, Kyle Greentree slapped a cross-crease pass from Ryan Potulny behind Eddie Pasquale at 10:34, tying the game.

The IceCaps then broke through with three goals in the middle frame to take a 4-1 lead to the second intermission.  Jason Jaffray started the offense with a drive down the right wing, then cut to the top of the crease and slid a shot around Holtby at 5:10.

Cormier scored his second of the game by banking the puck off of Holtby into the net from behind the goal line at 6:43.  Holtby made a good save in front on a chance by Kevin Clark, but his teammates could not control the puck in the scrum that followed.

Clark then one-timed a pass from Ben Maxwell at the top of the crease past Dany Sabourin, who came on in relief of Holtby for a stretch of 6:10.  Holtby returned to stop the rest of the IceCaps’ second-period shots on goal.

Cormier completed his hat trick by completing a two-on-one rush led by Postma at 3:14, and Machacek finished off the scoring by tapping in Cormier’s cross-ice pass at 15:22.

Holtby takes the loss and falls to 20-15-2 on the season, while Pasquale’s 19 saves push his record up to 18-7-0.  The BEARS finished the night 1-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

The BEARS and IceCaps will faceoff again tomorrow, March 10 at 6:00 PM EST.  The HERSHEY then returns home to take on the Adirondack Phantoms on Friday, March 16 at 7:00 PM.  Tickets for this and all regular-season home games are on sale by calling (717) 508-BEAR, or by visiting ticketmaster.com.

Game Recap:  http://theahl.com/stats/official-game-report.php?game_id=1009528

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