BEARS BATTLE PAST SOUND TIGERS

February 21, 2015

HERSHEY, Pa. – Chris Conner scored a shorthanded goal that ended up as the game-winner and added an assist, while linemate Tim Kennedy also chipped in two points to help the Hershey Bears hold on for a 4-3 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Saturday night at GIANT Center.
 
Joel Broda started things off just 1:59 into the game, jumping on a puck that trickled through Sound Tigers’ goaltender Kevin Poulin and slamming it home.
 
The Bears earned a power play shortly afterward, and capitalized when Kennedy walked into the slot out of the right circle and clanged a shot off of the left corner post and behind Poulin at 6:29. 
 
Bridgeport got on the board at the 10:21 mark when defenseman Matt Carkner wound up for a slap shot, and his shot deflected into the air off of Kennedy.  The puck was then backhanded out of mid-air by Cam Reid, and rolled in past Bears starter Pheonix Copley.
 
Two consecutive penalties would give the Bears a short-lived two-man advantage, and with one second remaining on the five-on-three, Stan Galiev ripped a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Conner and past an outstretched Poulin, for his 12th power play goal and 20th overall goal this season.
 
The second period featured just one goal but 166 combined penalty minutes.  Bridgeport center Alan Quine got the goal, when he turned around in the slot and fired a shot past Copley’s arm at 9:27 to bring the visitors back within one.
 
At the 15:40 mark –after Copley was bumped into by Justin Courtnall and after Brett Gallant earned a roughing minor that gave the Bears a power play chance – a line brawl involving all five opponents and goaltenders ensued.  When the dust settled, David Leggio and Philipp Grubauer came on in relief of the starters and Bridgeport would kill the power play chance of Hershey.
 
The Bears led 3-2 for the first half of the third period, and got the insurance goal at the expiration of a four-on-four situation.  The Bears ended up shorthanded for over a minute, but it was Conner who took a feed from Kennedy and skated down the right wing.  He spun around a Sound Tigers defensemen, quickly turned to the forehand and chipped a shot past Leggio’s blocker at 10:53 for a 4-2 lead.
 
Bridgeport again clawed back with 3:36 remaining in regulation.  A slap shot by Aaron Ness would be deflected right into Grubauer, but the puck squirted loose and came to Harry Zolnierczyk for a slam-dunk from the bottom of the right circle.
 
The Sound Tigers pulled Leggio for a sixth attacker but could not find the equalizer.
 
Grubauer earned the win, making 12 saves on 13 shots in 23:20 of relief work.  The win was his 20th of the season (20-10-4).  Leggio took the tough loss, allowing just Conner’s goal on five shots in 22:33 of relief.  His record drops to 7-12-0.
 
The Bears’ record now stands at 31-14-5-2 (69 points).

The Bears remain home to host the Providence Bruins tomorrow, February 22 at 5:00 PM.  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: D Cameron Schilling was recalled by the Washington Capitals earlier in the day…The Bears scratched LW Dane Byers, D Michal Cajkovsky, D Nate Schmidt, C Chandler Stephenson and D Patrick Wey… The Sound Tigers added C Cam Reid on a PTO earlier in the day and scratched RW Sebstien Collberg, RW Mike Halmo, D Matt Lashoff, C Carson McMillan and C Lukas Sutter… The Bears ended the night 2-for-8 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill…Hershey won for the 20th time at home (20-5-3-1) and extended its home point streak to nine games (7-0-1-1)…LW Chris Conner extended his point streak to eight games (6-5-11) with his two-point effort and took over the Bears’ lead in game-winners (six)…The Bears set new season highs for penalty minutes (94) and penalty minutes by an opponent (98)…Hershey is now unbeaten in regulation in 11 consecutive Saturdays (8-0-2-1), and is 13-3-2-1 in the middle of the weekend.