AKESON'S OT POWER PLAY GOAL LIFTS PHANTOMS

January 4, 2014

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. – Jason Akeson scored a power-play goal 51 seconds into overtime, spoiling a solid Hershey Bears debut of goaltender Riley Gill and sending the Adirondack Phantoms to a 1-0 victory on Friday night at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
 
After a scrap between Bears defenseman Patrick Wellar and Phantoms forward Derek Mathers 2:27 into the game, Adirondack’s offense came to the forefront.  The hosts skated out to a 7-2 shot advantage but Gill jumped into an early groove, stopping all of the shots he faced.  Cal Heeter was equally good at the Phantoms’ end, turning aside a late Bears flurry to total 10 first-period saves.
 
Both goaltenders were again the story in the second and third periods frame, with both Gill (20) and Heeter (19) turning aside all of their opponent’s shots.
 
The only penalty of the night would come 25 seconds into overtime when forward Kris Newbury caught a Bears’ stick up high.  26 seconds into the power play, defenseman Bruno Gervais set up a slap shot for Akeson, who beat Gill to the stick side for the winner.
 
Gill made 33 saves on the night to earn the second star of the contest, but falls to 0-1-0.  Heeter posted his third shutout of the season, making 29 saves to improve to 12-10-0.
 
The Bears’ record stands at 13-12-3-3.
 
The team returns home to host the Rochester Americans tomorrow, 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, LW Nathan Walker and LW Derek Whitmore…Hershey finished the night without a power play chance, and were 0-for-1 on the penalty kill.