ICECAPS DEFEAT BEARS IN SHOOTOUT

March 12, 2012

ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland – Jason King scored once in regulation and tallied the only shootout goal, spoiling a solid night for Dany Sabourin and giving the St. John’s IceCaps a 3-2 victory over the HERSHEY BEARS on Saturday night at Mile One Centre.

After going to the penalty box five times in the first period, the BEARS’ penalty kill shined with the help of several big saves from Sabourin.  The two teams entered the intermission scoreless, with the BEARS outshot 15-4.

Another penalty kill early in the second buoyed HERSHEY, and allowed the club to take their first lead of the weekend.  With Jason DeSantis off for hooking, the BEARS were given space high in the offensive zone.  Patrick McNeill passed to his right, where Ryan Potulny one-timed a slap shot from the top of the right circle past IceCaps netminder Eddie Pasquale at 3:43.

On the sixth power play of the night for St. John’s, the hosts tied the score.  A center-point blast off the stick of Paul Postma found its way through traffic and past Sabourin at 7:56.

Tied 1-1 in the third, the IceCaps controlled the puck off of a faceoff win by Aaron Gagnon in the right circle.  The puck came back to the right point where Travis Ramsey floated a wrist shot toward the net.  King found the rebound and batted the puck into the net at 8:55, putting the hosts ahead 2-1.

But the decimated BEARS would not lie down.  With 2:41 left in regulation, Matt Pope found a bouncing puck that came off of Pasquale’s pads and slapped it into the net out of mid-air, pulling HERSHEY even.

After a scoreless overtime, the teams began the shootout with the BEARS allowed the first shot.  Cody Eakin was stopped by Pasquale, and Sabourin made a nice save on Ben Maxwell.  King scored in the second round after Kyle Greentree was unsuccessful, and both goaltenders made stops in the third and fourth rounds.  Boyd Kane had Pasquale beat with a wrist shot but the puck went off of the left goal post and gave the IceCaps the win.

Sabourin drops to 11-9-4 on the season, with 29 saves through regulation and overtime.  Pasquale improved to 19-7-0, making 28 saves.

The BEARS ended the night 1-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill.
HERSHEY returns home to take on the Adirondack Phantoms on Friday, March 16 at 7:00 PM.  The first 5,000 fans through the gates at GIANT Center will receive a free T-shirt courtesy of Penn State Hershey Medical Center.  Tickets for this and all regular-season home games are on sale by calling (717) 508-BEAR, or by visiting ticketmaster.com.