PETERS JOINS BEARS, BLANKS DEVILS

January 9, 2015

ALBANY, N.Y. – Goaltender Justin Peters, loaned for conditioning by the Washington Capitals earlier in the day, stopped all 24 shots he faced while Chris Brown scored twice to help the Hershey Bears defeat the Albany Devils by a 4-0 count on Friday night at Times Union Center.

The Bears got the jump on their hosts on strong work by the top line.  Chris Conner carried the puck behind the Albany net, and sent a sharp-angle backhand pass into the left faceoff circle.  Chris Brown grabbed the feed and wasted no time in one-timing the puck over the arm of Devils goaltender Scott Clemmensen at 7:44.

Stan Galiev then opened up the Bears’ lead just 2:03 later.  Sprung between the two Devils defensemen on a long pass from Connor Carrick, Galiev skated in alone and snapped a shot high over Clemmensen’s glove.

Leading 2-0 in the second and skating on their first penalty kill of the night, the Bears nearly opened up a bigger lead.  Chandler Stephenson blocked a shot and was joined by Dane Byers on a two-on-none rush.  Stephenson beat Clemmensen through the pads, but Byers was flagged for interference, negating the goal and putting the Bears down two men.  The visitors would kill the penalties and keep their lead at the second intermission.

Brown converted another pass from Conner just 44 seconds into the third for a power-play goal and a 3-0 lead.

Philippe Cornet then finished the rebound of a shot from Jim O’Brien, who made his Hershey debut, with 2:41 left to play to seal the win.

Peters earned the game’s first star honor with the win, while Clemmensen fell to 2-4-1 with 22 saves on 26 shots.

The Bears return home to host the Norfolk Admirals tomorrow, January 10 at 7:00 PM.  The first 5,000 fans will get a Nathan Walker snow globe courtesy of Metro Bank.  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 C Joel Broda, D Michal Cajkovsky, G Philipp Grubauer, D Mike Moore, C Kris Newbury, LW Tim Spencer, LW Nathan Walker and D Patrick Wey… The Bears finished the night 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill… Three stars: 3-Conner, 2-Brown, 1-Peters …Hershey scored the game’s first goal for the 24th time, which ties for the AHL lead… G Justin Peters won his 99th career AHL game and posted his 14th shutout in the league; his first AHL home game was a 3-2 Albany River Rats win over the Hamilton Bulldogs on October 14, 2006…The Bears now have six shutouts as a team this season…C Jim O’Brien made his Bears debut and earned his first point on the Bears’ fourth goal…The game was the first for Hershey in Albany since March 29, 2013…The Bears are 15-3-0-1 in their last 19 games against the Devils.