BEARS DISPATCH DEVILS ON THE BOARDWALK

January 12, 2014

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Riley Gill made 29 saves, Brandon Segal scored in his fifth consecutive game, and three of their Hershey Bears teammates recorded multiple-point games in a 4-1 victory over the Albany Devils on Sunday evening at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall

After coming up short on their first power play of the game, the Bears were finally able to solve Devils netminder Keith Kinkaid on their second chance. Ryan Stoa was set up on the goal line, and took a pass from Casey Wellman. Immediately Stoa fed the right faceoff dot, where Segal ripped a one-timer high over Kinkaid’s glove at 14:42.

The Bears opened up the game in the second period, starting with a goal just 1:09 into the frame. Kinkaid committed to a shot from the right circle from Peter LeBlanc, but the puck deflected across the ice to Casey Wellman, who wasted no time in burying the shot for his second point of the night.

The only blemish on Gill’s record came at 12:06 of the second, and it wasn’t from a shot he could face. Dan Kelly’s blast from the left wall sailed wide left and off the back boards. The puck then caromed right to Artem Demkov at the bottom of the right circle for an easy slap-in, which cut the Bears’ lead in half.

But just 1:50 later, Jeff Taffe would collect a deflected puck from a Dustin Gazley chance and beat Kinkaid with a wrist shot from the right circle, restoring the Bears’ two-goal cushion.

Gazley then finished the scoring - and Kinkaid’s night in goal - when he backed out of the right corner toward the slot, collected a perfect pass from Michael Latta and ripped a wrist shot past Kinkaid’s glove at 16:04.

Scott Wedgewood came on in relief to start the third, and turned aside all five shots he faced. Gill was perfect on all 14 Devils chances in the final frame.

Gill improves to 1-1-0 with the win, while Kinkaid was tagged with the loss, falling to 14-7-1 with 12 saves on 16 shots through two periods. Wedgewood earned no decision.

The win snaps the Bears’ four-game road winless streak, and moves the club’s record to 17-13-3-3.

The Bears will make their first visit of the season to the OnCenter War Memorial Arena to take on the Syracuse Crunch on Friday, January 17 at 7:00 PM. The club returns home to host the Bridgeport Sound Tigers next Saturday, January 18 at 7:00 PM. Tickets for this and all Bears home games are available at the GIANT Center box office, online at TicketMaster.com or by calling (717) 508-BEAR.

 NOTES: The Bears injury scratches were RW Stanislav Galiev, D Tomas Kundratek, RW Garrett Mitchell, LW Nathan Walker and D Patrick Wey…The healthy scratches were D David Kolomatis, LW John Mitchell, RW Joel Rechlicz and LW Derek Whitmore…RW Brandon Segal’s goal extended his scoring streak to five games, tied for the longest streak in the AHL this season…RW Casey Wellman has recorded six points (3-3-6) in his two games played at Boardwalk Hall…The Bears’ win at the Hall was their first neutral-site victory since a 2-1 win over the Norfolk Admirals at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. on December 6, 2012 in the Washington AHL Showcase…Hershey finished the night 2-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.