BEARS ROLL OVER SOUND TIGERS, TAKE SECOND IN CONFERENCE

February 15, 2015

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Dustin Gazley recorded his second consecutive two-goal game, Casey Wellman also added two goals and Pheonix Copley made 27 saves to help the Hershey Bears sweep their weekend with a 5-1 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Sunday evening at Webster Bank Arena.

After a scoreless first period, the Bears would explode for three goals in the second.  Gazley started things off at 2:02, redirecting a feed from Kris Newbury behind Bridgeport goaltender David Leggio from the top of the crease.

Chris Conner would also set up at the top of the crease on a Hershey two-man advantage.  Connor Carrick’s one-timer found Conner’s stick, and the puck found the upper-right corner for a 2-0 lead at 12:27.

Gazley’s second of the game came off of a rebound of a Chris Brown shot on a two-on-one rush.  Leggio kicked Brown’s chance right to Gazley, who drove in the rebound at 15:20.

Bridgeport would deny Copley a shutout when Cory Conacher walked the goal line on a third-period power play, and stuffed the puck behind the netminder at 9:22.

Wellman then put the game away by scoring twice in a span of 4:43 for his 16th and 17th goals of the year.  His first was set up from behind the net by Jim O’Brien.  Wellman took the pass and snapped a shot over Leggio’s right shoulder at 12:21.

The second came on a turnover by Bridgeport.  Philippe Cornet sent a pass from the left corner into the slot, where Wellman stepped into a one-timer and blew it by Leggio’s blocker arm at 17:04.

Copley improved to 9-3-3 with the win, while Leggio dropped to 7-11-0 in making 27 saves.  The Bears earned their 30th victory of the season to improve to 30-13-5-2 (67 points).  

The Bears will visit the Binghamton Senators on Friday, February 20 at 7:05 PM.  The game will be broadcast live in central Pennsylvania on abc27.2 RTV, Comcast 246, Verizon Fios 461, Blue Ridge 152 and Kuhn 67.  The game will also be carried on the Bears Radio Network (WQIC-FM 100.1, WTKT-AM 1460 and iHeart Radio 1460 AM) beginning at 6:25.

The Bears and Sound Tigers will then battle again on Saturday, February 21 at 7:00 PM in Hershey.  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 scratched LW Dane Byers, D Michal Cajkovsky, D Nate Schmidt, C Chandler Stephenson and D Patrick Wey… The Sound Tigers scratched RW Sebastien Collberg, D Kevin Czuczman, RW Colton Gillies, RW Mike Halmo, D Ryan Pulock and RW Peter Sivak …The Bears finished the night 1-for-6 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill… Three stars: 3-Copley, 2-Conner, 1-Gazley…The Bears scored their league-leading 33rd first goal, and are 23-7-3-0 when scoring first...The Bears have extended their point streak to an AHL-best 13 games (11-0-1-1), matching the club’s second-longest franchise streak set in 2001-02…The win was the Bears’ sixth consecutive on the road…RW Chris Conner extended his point streak to five games (4-4-8) with the goal, which also tied RW Stan Galiev for the Bears’ lead in game-winners (five)…Galiev extended his point streak to six games (5-4-9) despite seeing his four-game goal streak snapped.