BEARS BLANK DEVILS AGAIN IN ALBANY, EXTEND POINT STREAK TO 11

February 13, 2015

ALBANY, N.Y. – Stan Galiev broke a scoreless deadlock in the second period, and Philipp Grubauer did the rest, turning aside 35 shots for his fifth shutout of the season as the Hershey Bears defeated the Albany Devils 1-0 on Friday night at Times Union Center.

The first period ended scoreless, but it was not without quality chances at both ends.  Devils goaltender Scott Wedgewood made his best stop of the period when Dustin Gazley was alone in the slot and found Jim O’Brien equally open at the left side of the crease.  Wedgewood got a toe on O’Brien’s sharp-angle chance to keep Hershey off of the board.

The Devils would later kill 42 seconds of a Hershey two-man advantage to reclaim momentum.

Albany had a glorious chance to forge ahead when Stefan Matteau’s chance from the right circle was knocked away by Grubauer right to Mike Sislo, who fired toward the net from the left circle.  Grubauer appeared to get his goal stick on the shot, but the puck fluttered and deflected wide off of the goal post.  Grubauer would then stop Darcy Zajac on two point-blank chances inside the final 30 seconds of the frame.

After killing a full two minutes of a two-man Albany power play, the Bears would finally strike with 6:46 left in the second period.  Galiev would receive a cross-crease feed from Chris Conner and from the left side of the crease, took aim at the net.  Wedgewood got a piece of the shot with his stick paddle, but the puck blooped up and down over the goal line for Galiev’s 17th of the season.

The Bears held Albany off the sheet on all eight of their third-period chances and were able to skate to victory, allowing the club to tie for the league’s longest point streak of the season at 11 games (9-0-1-1).

The Bears also won their fifth straight on the road to move their East Division-leading record to 28-13-5-2 (63 points).  

The Bears return home tomorrow, February 14 for their first matchup of the season with the Portland Pirates at 7:00 PM.  The Bears will wear special Valentine’s Day jerseys that will be auctioned off live following the game.  Individual tickets for this and all remaining home games are available at the GIANT Center box office, online at TicketMaster.com or by calling 717-508-BEAR.

NOTES: The Bears LW Dane Byers, D Michal Cajkovsky, D Nate Schmidt, C Chandler Stephenson and D Patrick Wey… The Devils scratched RW Alexandre Carrier, D Joe Faust, RW Cam Janssen, D Mike Keenan, RW Paul Thompson and C Scott Timmins…The Bears finished the night 0-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill… Three stars: 3-Wedgewood, 2-Galiev, 1-Grubauer…G Philipp Grubauer pulled into a tie with Peter Budaj for seventh in all-time Hershey shutouts with his 10th of his career…The Bears scored their league-best 31st first-goal of the season, and are 21-7-3-0 when scoring first…RW Stan Galiev’s goal tied him with Chris Conner for the team lead in game-winners (four), and was his team-leading seventh first-goal and 17th overall goal of the campaign…LW Chris Conner extended his point streak to four games (3-3-6)…The Bears blanked the Devils in both meetings at Times Union Center this season, outscoring Albany 5-0.