BEARS SALUTE SELLOUT CROWD WITH WIN IN FINALE

April 19, 2014

HERSHEY, Pa. – Joel Rechlicz and Jeff Taffe provided the offense and David Leggio made 25 saves, helping the Hershey Bears finish off the 2013-14 regular season with a 2-1 win over the Adirondack Phantoms on Saturday night at GIANT Center.

The sellout crowd of 10,964 jumped to their feet when the Bears grabbed the game’s first goal. Rechlicz would fire a shot from the right circle that was kicked aside by Phantoms rookie netminder Tony Capobianco, and then track it down. Chris Brown backhanded the rebound toward the crease, and Rechlicz was able to grab the puck off of the goaltender’s toe save and chip it home at 9:35 for his first goal of the season.

Hershey added to their lead late in the second, when the club’s leading goal scorer Taffe added his 21^st of the season. Taffe would deposit the rebound of a long shot from the slot by Michael Latta, beating Capobianco at 16:43.

The Bears held the 2-0 lead until late in the third. Derek Whitmore – who scored the Bears’ first goal of the season on October 5 against Adirondack – beat Leggio with 5:15 left to play for the final goal of the regular season.

Leggio finished with a record of 23-18-3 on the season, while Capobianco drops to 1-2-0 in his third career appearance, ending with 24 saves on the night.

Information on season tickets for the 2014-2015 season of Hershey Bears hockey is available by stopping by the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or by going online to HersheyBears.com.

NOTES: The Bears injury scratches were RW Caleb Herbert, C Ryan Stoa and RW Casey Wellman…The Bears healthy scratches were RW Nicolas Deschamps, D David Kolomatis, C Peter LeBlanc and RW Brandon Segal…Hershey finished the night 0-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.