YORK, CRUNCH SNAP BEARS' WINNING STREAK

February 22, 2014

HERSHEY, Pa. – Allen York stopped a barrage of 39 Hershey Bears shots, including 20 in the middle period, while Jon DiSalvatore and Vladislav Namestnikov each tallied two points in a 5-0 victory on Saturday night at GIANT Center.

Syracuse would jump out to a fast start, flying to a big shot advantage and later grabbing the game’s first goal on a fluke play. Defenseman Luke Witkowski’s shot from the left point was handled by netminder Philipp Grubauer, but Grubauer’s attempt at batting the puck over the goal frame inadvertently ended up in the net at 3:53.

Former Bears forward DiSalvatore would stake Syracuse to a 2-0 lead at 9:26, driving to the net and tipping a Mike Angelidis pass into the upper right corner.

The Bears fired 20 shots on York in the second, but the goaltender was spectacular. Richard Panik would add to the Crunch lead when his pass attempt from the left side of the Hershey net deflected in off of a Bears stick at 11:39, while Syracuse worked their fifth power play of the game.

Syracuse made it a 4-0 game at 7:07 of the third, when Namestnikov grabbed the rebound of a point shot from Charles Landry and backhanded it past Grubauer.

The Crunch then put it away when Tanner Richard faked a pass from the left wing, and then passed across the slot for a one-timer by Max Parent at 12:54 to round out the scoring.

Grubauer made 24 saves and fell to 11-6-1 on the season. York’s 39 saves improved his record to 4-4-3 overall.

The loss snapped the Bears’ 12-game home winning streak and five-game overall winning streak. The team’s record now stands at 29-17-3-3.

The Bears will take on the Syracuse Crunch as the visiting team at the Washington AHL Showcase tomorrow, February 23. Faceoff from Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. is set for 5:00 PM.

Hershey returns home to host the Charlotte Checkers for a pair of games next Saturday, March 1 at 7:00 PM and Sunday, March 2 at a special 4:00 PM start time. Tickets for these and all remaining home games are available by calling (717) 508-BEAR, by stopping into the GIANT Center box office or by visiting TicketMaster.com.

NOTES: The Bears injury scratches were D Tomas Kundratek, RW Garrett Mitchell and D Cameron Schilling…The healthy scratches were RW Stanislav Galiev, LW John Mitchell, D Steve Oleksy, LW Nathan Walker, D Patrick Wellar and LW Derek Whitmore…Hershey finished the night 0-for-3 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill.