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Hershey Bears News

BEARS BLITZ FALCONS IN SEASON OPENER

October 10, 2015

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Veteran Chris Bourque notched points number 500 and 501 of his AHL career with a goal and an assist and rookie Riley Barber buried his first two professional goals, helping the Hershey Bears cruise to a 5-1 win over the Springfield Falcons on Saturday night at MassMutual Center.

Opening the scoring for the Bears was Carter Camper, who snapped a perfect goal-line pass from Paul Carey behind rookie goaltender Nicklas Treutle at 8:54.

Barber would tally his first AHL goal at 11:45 to give the Bears a 2-0 advantage.  Bourque would hit his milestone by making the first pass to Chandler Stephenson, who in turn slipped a cross-zone feed to Barber.  The rookie winger held the puck on his backhand before slipping a shot between Treutle’s pads.

Just 12 seconds later however, Springfield would send its fans to their feet after connecting on a two-on-one rush.  Brendan Shinnimin faked a shot from the left circle, which drew Bears backstop Dan Ellis out of position.  Shinnimin then fed Craig Cunningham, who had a slam-dunk from the top of the crease at 11:57.

The Bears would then kill off 1:23 worth of a two-man disadvantage to hold their lead at the intermission.

Connor Carrick would make it a 3-1 contest at 11:09 of the second, following up to deposit the rebound of a shot from Garrett Mitchell.

Barber’s second of the night came while the teams were skating four-on-four.  Ryan Stanton started the play with a pass from the left point down low to Camper, who in turn found Barber alone in front.  Barber tucked the puck behind Treutle at 14:24.

Springfield dodged a big bullet shortly afterward, when the club killed off a full two minutes of a two-man advantage.

Bourque ended the scoring with a long-range one-timer off of a feed from Aaron Ness.  The puck eluded Treutle under his glove at 13:09.

Hershey finished the night 2-for-4 on the power play and was perfect on five penalty killing situations.

Ellis won his Hershey debut with 19 saves on 20 shots, while Treutle made 25 saves on 30 Bears shots.

The Bears are now off until next weekend, when the club will head to Maine to take on the Portland Pirates in a pair of games beginning on Saturday, October 17.  Faceoff from the Cross Insurance Arena is set for 7:00 PM.  Fans may listen to the game on the Bears Radio Network of affiliates WQIC-FM 100.1, WTKT-AM 1460 and WOYK-AM 1350, online at foxsports1460.com or via the iHeartRadio app for smartphones (Fox Sports 1460).

The Bears open the home portion of the schedule on Saturday, October 24 at 7:00 PM against the Hartford Wolf Pack.  The first 8,000 fans will receive a magnetic schedule courtesy of PNC Bank.  The 1980 Calder Cup championship team will be honored prior to the game in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the title.  The Bears will also wear special throwback jerseys, which will be auctioned off live following the game.

Individual tickets for this and all Bears home games may be purchased at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.

 

NOTES: ; The Bears scratched D Christian Djoos, RW Caleb Herbert and D Tyler Lewington…The Falcons scratched LW Michael Bunting, LW Greg Carey, G Louis Domingue, C Tyler Gaudet, D Justin Hache, G Marek Langhamer and D Daniel New…Hershey’s last opening-night victory came on October 7, 2011 at Binghamton, a 3-2 decision…Bourque is the seventh United States-born player to record 500 AHL points and is the 89th in AHL history.




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