CRUNCH POWER PAST BEARS

November 14, 2014

SYRACUSE, N.Y.– Kevin Lynch scored his first AHL goal as part of five unanswered strikes by the host Syracuse Crunch, in a 5-1 win over the Hershey Bears on Friday night at the War Memorial.

The combination of Casey Wellman and Kris Newbury clicked yet again to get the Bears on the board first.  Wellman stole the puck along the half-wall with help from Nathan Walker.  His quick shot from a sharp angle deflected through a few bodies and in front of the Syracuse net.  Newbury waited until goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy committed, and then backhanded a shot into the net at 5:58 for his ninth goal of the season.

Syracuse captain Mike Angelidis later tied the game, taking a short pass from Yanni Gourde and beating Philipp Grubauer with a snap shot to the stick side from the left circle at 8:59.

Lynch later scored to put the hosts in front.  He collected a pass from behind the net, worked to him by Jerome Samson.  His shot from the left circle deflected off of a stick and past Grubauer at 14:11.

The Crunch padded their lead at the 4:19 mark of the second period.  More hard work down low by Angelidis freed the puck from the trapezoid.  He quickly slid a pass in front and Henri Ikonen one-timed the puck behind Grubauer for the two-goal edge.  Syracuse held their lead at the intermission thanks to three consecutive penalty kills in the frame.

The Bears then got into penalty trouble themselves in the third.  Minors to Wellman and Walker gave the Crunch a full two minutes of two-man advantage time.  Moments after Jonathan Marchessault one-timed a slap shot off the crossbar, Nikita Nesterov did the same, but his shot banked into the net at 9:18 for a 4-1 advantage.

The Bears pulled Grubauer in favor of a sixth attacker with just shy of four minutes left to play, and while the team worked their fourth power play.  The Crunch would successfully deny the Bears again, and then Marchessault would find the empty net with 2:22 left in the period to wrap up the scoring.

Grubauer made 20 saves on 24 shots to fall to 4-4-1 on the season.  Vasilevskiy turned aside 21 of 22 Hershey shots and improved to 2-2-3.

Hershey returns home to host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Sunday, November 16 at 5:00 PM.  All fans in attendance will receive a one-day pass to HERSHEYPARK valid through July 31, 2015.  Tickets for this game and all home contests may be purchased at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com. Information on group tickets and season tickets for the 2014-2015 Hershey Bears regular season is available by calling (717) 508-BEAR.  Many different flexible plans are offered and start as low as $170.

NOTES: The Washington Capitals recalled RW Chris Brown after the team’s morning skate…The Bears scratches were RW Chris Conner, D Michal Cajkovsky, RW Stanislav Galiev, D Mike Moore and D Patrick Wey…Syracuse scratched RW Michael Blunden, D Joey Mormina and RW Eric Neilson…Three stars: 3-Smith, 2-Marchessault, 1-Angelidis…Hershey finished the night 0-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill…C Kris Newbury extended his road point streak to a league-high six games with his first-period goal.