BEARS RALLY TO DEFEAT DEVILS, SWEEP SEASON SERIES

February 28, 2015

HERSHEY, Pa. – Tim Kennedy and Chris Conner set a franchise record for fastest two goals by two different players – two strikes that were part of a string of four unanswered goals – and the Hershey Bears rallied to defeat the Albany Devils by a 4-2 score in front of 10,575 fans at GIANT Center on Saturday night.
 
Albany would get the jump in the first period, outshooting Hershey by a 16-6 margin but only getting one shot past Bears goaltender Pheonix Copley.  On the goal, Tim Sestito fed a pass from the right corner to Joe Whitney, who turned and slid a shot inside the far post for his 18th tally of the season at 16:22.
 
Just 46 seconds into the second, the Devils expanded their lead when Stefan Matteau ripped a low shot from the middle slot in behind Copley.  The goal came after a failed clear by Hershey.
 
But the game took a dramatic turn beginning at the 12:30 mark.  Left alone at the net front, Kennedy chipped a shot over Devils goaltender Maxime Clermont to get Hershey on the board.
 
On the ensuing center ice faceoff, Kennedy’s win found Conner jumping down the left wing.  The forward skated in and beat Clermont short side just five seconds after Kennedy’s tally, setting the new Hershey franchise record and tying the score.
 
The Bears would then take their first lead of the night at 5:06 of the third.  Garrett Mitchell collected a pass from behind the net by Conner, and backhanded the puck into Clermont from the right side of the crease.  The puck bounced over the goal line for Mitchell’s third of the season.
 
Mitchell then set up Joel Broda in the high slot for a slapper through traffic that flew past Clermont at 16:14, rounding out the scoring.
 
Copley made 24 saves to improve to 10-3-3 on the season.  Clermont dropped his first decision of the year with 22 saves on 26 shots and fell to 5-1-0.
 
With the win, Hershey extends its home point streak to 11 games (9-0-1-1) and improves to 34-14-5-2 on the season (75 points).
 
Hershey remains home to host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tomorrow, March 1 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: ; LW Liam O’Brien served the final night of a three-game suspension from the American Hockey League for his actions in last Saturday night’s game vs. Bridgeport…The Bears scratched LW Dane Byers, D Michal Cajkovsky, C Chandler Stephenson and D Patrick Wey, and dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the second consecutive game… The Devils scratched D Joe Faust, RW Cam Janssen, LW Ben Johnson, C Scott Timmins and C Kelly Zajac…The Bears ended the night 0-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill…Hershey’s former record for fastest two goals by two different players was set on March 31, 1990, by Tim Tookey and Bill Armstrong at Binghamton…The goals fell two seconds shy of the AHL record (three seconds)…Hershey swept the season series from the Devils for the second consecutive year…The Bears improved to 18-2-1-1 in calendar year 2015.