BEARS DISPATCH PENGUINS IN SHOOTOUT

December 28, 2013

HERSHEY, Pa. – David Leggio made seven of his 30 saves on the night in overtime, and then stopped all but one in the shootout to help the Hershey Bears close out 2013 with a 2-1 shootout victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 10,708 fans at GIANT Center.

Neither team was able to find the back of the net in a feisty first period, that featured 52 combined penalty minutes. The Bears emerged from the stanza with a 12-9 shot advantage.

The Penguins would end up getting the first goal on a play at the Bears’ net front. With Denver Manderson and Barry Goers carrying into the Hershey zone, Mike Carman crashed the net and one-handed a rebound past Leggio at 7:27.

The Bears had the answer just over five minutes later. A hard forecheck from Nicolas Deschamps knocked the puck from a Penguins defenseman in the left corner, and it ended up behind the net. Ryan Stoa grabbed it there, and sent a pass into the right circle. David Kolomatis one-timed a blast over Penguins goaltender Eric Hartzell at 12:31, tying the game with his fifth goal of the season.

The Bears had the edge in scoring chances in the third period, but Hartzell had the answer to all 14 shots.

In overtime, the Bears were outshot 7-1 but Leggio turned all his shots aside.

Casey Wellman and Ryan Potulny would beat Hartzell in the shootout, and Leggio denied all but Tom Kostopoulos to pick up the victory.

Leggio improves to 8-10-2 on the season, while Hartzell falls to 4-2-1 with 32 saves.

The Bears improve to 13-12-2-3 on the campaign.

Hershey hits the road for their first game of 2014 with a matchup against the Adirondack Phantoms on Friday, January 3. Faceoff from the Glens Falls Civic Center is at 7:00 PM.

The team returns home to host the Rochester Americans on Saturday, January 4 at 7:00 PM. The first 5,000 fans will receive a Philipp Grubauer bobblehead figurine courtesy of Metro Bank. Individual tickets for this and all Hershey Bears home games are on sale at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or by visiting TicketMaster.com on the internet.

Information on season tickets, group tickets and flex plans for the 2013-2014 Hershey Bears regular season is available by calling (717)508-BEAR.

NOTES: The Bears injury scratches were D Julien Brouillette, RW Stanislav Galiev, D Tomas Kundratek, RW Garrett Mitchell and D Patrick Wey…The healthy scratches were LW Josh Brittain, D Brett Flemming and LW Derek Whitmore…Hershey finished the night 0-for-3 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill…The Bears have won three consecutive shootouts to improve to 4-3 on the season.