Press Release Details

WASHINGTON AHL SHOWCASE PREVIEW: BEARS at ADMIRALS

12/06/2012 - TONIGHT’S GAME NOTES
 
WASHINGTON AHL SHOWCASE PRESENTED BY GEICO
HERSHEY BEARS at NORFOLK ADMIRALS
Thursday, December 6, 2012 - 7:09 PM
Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.

REFEREES: Ryan Fraser (#14) & Tim Mayer (#19)
LINESMEN: Tom George (#61) & Scott Pomento (#25)

SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN:  Hockey returns to the Nation’s Capital as the HERSHEY BEARS take on the host Norfolk Admirals in the Washington AHL Showcase presented by GEICO. 
 
Tonight marks the first time since April 3, 1979 that the BEARS will play a game in the Washington Capitals' home arena.  The BEARS took on the Philadelphia Firebirds, playing to a 1-1 tie.  The move was necessitated because the historic HERSHEYPARK Arena was being used to house evacuees of the March 28, 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear emergency.  The BEARS and Firebirds played the game as part of an NHL-AHL doubleheader at the former Capital Centre in Landover, MD.
 
ALL-TIME:  Tonight’s game will be the 119^th in regular-season history.  The BEARS have an all-time record of 64-46-8 (W – L/OTL – T/SOL) against the Admirals.
 
THE LAST TIMES:  The BEARS and Admirals got together twice last week, with each team earning a road victory.  The BEARS visited Hampton Roads on Wednesday, and behind a two-goal performance from Jon DiSalvatore, skated on to a 5-2 win.  Jeff Taffe assisted on both of DiSalvatore’s tallies, while Braden Holtby made 24 saves on 26 shots to earn the win.  Patrick McNeill scored his first goal of the season, a strike that proved to be the game-winner.
 
The two teams played a rematch at GIANT Center on Saturday, but this time the visiting Admirals avoided a franchise-record seven-game losing skid by dispatching HERSHEY 5-1.  Tomas Kundratek scored the lone goal for the BEARS, a goal which unleashed a record 12,497 stuffed teddy bears from the stands in HERSHEY’s annual Teddy Bear Toss Night.  The BEARS were unsuccessful on nine power play chances in the contest, while Norfolk finished with one goal on four man-advantage opportunities.
 
2012-13 SEASON SERIES:

Wed. November 28, 2012	@Norfolk	Norfolk Scope	W 5-2
Sat. December 1, 2012	NORFOLK	GIANT Center	L 1-5
Thu. December 6, 2012	@Norfolk*	Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
Wed. December 19, 2012	NORFOLK	GIANT Center
Sun. February 10, 2013	NORFOLK	GIANT Center
Sat. March 2, 2013	NORFOLK	GIANT Center
Fri. March 8, 2013	@Norfolk	Norfolk Scope
Sat. March 9, 2013	@Norfolk	Norfolk Scope

                               
RECENT RECAPS:  Following the Admirals’ victory in Chocolatetown on Saturday, the team traveled to New England for a match-up with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Sunday.  Buoyed by their play the night before, Norfolk jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the second period was halfway complete.  John Mitchell, Nate Guenin and Jordan Hendry lit the lamp before Bridgeport’s Brock Nelson broke the shutout bid of Admirals goaltender Frederik Andersen.  Kyle Palmieri added a third-period power play goal to complete the scoring.
 
Andersen allowed just one goal in back-to-back nights, and the team in front of him has now won two consecutive games after going 0-6-0-0 in their previous six, and 3-11-0-0 in their previous 13.  The Admirals are one point behind the BEARS in the East Division standings.
 
 
EAST DIVISION STANDINGS (as of December 4):

POS	TEAM	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	PTS	WIN%	GF	GA
1.	Syracuse	20	13	5	1	1	28	.800	74	55
2.	Binghamton	18	12	4	1	1	26	.722	57	44
3.	W-B/Scranton	20	13	7	0	0	26	.650	58	46
4.	HERSHEY	21	9	11	1	0	19	.452	55	62
5.	Norfolk	20	9	11	0	0	18	.450	59	65

 
PAIRS PLUS:  The defense pair of Dmitry Orlov and Patrick McNeill have combined for two goals, five assists and a plus-16 rating over their last three games.  Orlov has put together three consecutive games with a plus-3 rating, while McNeill has a point in all three games since returning from being a healthy scratch for 14 consecutive games.
 
WEEK TO REMEMBER:RW Jon DiSalvatore came off of scoring his 500^th AHL point on November 25 to record his best week of the season.  In the three games since, DiSalvatore has recorded three goals, two assists and a plus-2 rating to pull into a tie for second place in BEARS scoring (6-8-14).
 
ANOTHER WEEK TO REMEMBER:  DiSalvatore will reach another milestone in his professional career as his next game played will be the 700^th of his AHL career.  After serving as captain of the Houston Aeros for the previous three seasons, DiSalvatore was also named an alternate captain for the BEARS for the remainder of 2012-2013.
 
GOALS FROM THE BLUE:  D Tomas Kundratek scored his sixth goal of the season on Saturday against Norfolk, and is now tied for fifth among AHL defensemen in goals scored (6).  Additionally, Kundratek has scored all six of his goals on home ice.
 
HAMILL TIME:  C Zach Hamill saw his four-game point streak snapped on Saturday.  The streak was the longest by a BEARS player this season to date.  Hamill shows four goals, four assists and a plus-eight rating over his last eight games played.
 
CAPTAIN & TENURE:  Captain Boyd Kane appeared in his 312^th game with HERSHEY last night.  Kane is now tied with Norm Corcoran for 38^th place on the BEARS’ all-time games played list, and is three games behind Brian Dobbin (315) for 37^th place.  He also needs just 15 more games to reach 900 in his AHL career.
 
CLIMBING THE LADDER:  Two other BEARS players recently moved up in all-time HERSHEY history.  D Patrick McNeill recorded two goals last week to push his career total to 138 points (31 goals, 107 assists), and moved past Barry Ashbee into eighth place in all-time scoring by a BEARS defenseman.
 
Additionally, G Braden Holtby’s win on Friday against Bridgeport was the 68^th of his HERSHEY tenure, tying him with Claude Dufour (1959-60, 1964-67) for eighth place all-time in BEARS goaltender wins.
 
SHOTS WILL COME:  The BEARS outshot their opponent for just the fourth time this season on Saturday, and are now 2-2-0-0 when doing so.  The club is ranked 30^th in shots per game (24.10).
 
 
BEARS vs. ADMIRALS – TEAM LEADERS AS OF DECEMBER 4:

	HERSHEY	Norfolk
Games Played	SIX TIED (21)	EIGHT TIED (20)
Goals	Zach Hamill (7)	Peter Holland (10)
Assists	Garrett Stafford, Jeff Taffe (13)	Peter Holland (11)
Points	Jeff Taffe (19)	Peter Holland (21)
+/-	Zach Hamill (+6)	Nate Guenin (+9)
PP Goals	Tomas Kundratek, Jeff Taffe (3)	Kyle Palmieri (4)
SH Goals	Garrett Mitchell (2)	Troy Bodie, Chris Wagner (1)
GW Goals	Zach Hamill, Cameron Schilling (2)	Peter Holland (2)
PIMs	Steve Oleksy (77)	Patrick Maroon (46)
Wins	Braden Holtby (7)	Frederik Andersen (6)
GAA	Braden Holtby (2.71)	Frederik Andersen (2.52)
Save %	Braden Holtby (.917)	Frederik Andersen (.923)

 
BEARS vs. ADMIRALS – SPECIAL TEAMS AS OF DECEMBER 4:

	HERSHEY	Norfolk
Power Play	15-for-103 (14.6%) – 23rd in AHL	15-for-102 (14.7%) – 22nd in AHL
Penalty Kill	79-for-95 (83.2%) – 17th in AHL	87-for-103 (84.5%) – 10th in AHL

 
BEARS RECENT TRANSACTIONS:             

11/25/12

ADD

LW

Evan Barlow

Signed to PTO

 
ADMIRALS RECENT TRANSACTIONS:

11/26/12	ADD	D	Gabe Guentzel	Recalled from loan to Fort Wayne (ECHL)
11/26/12	DEL	LW	Garrett Klotz	Loaned to Fort Wayne (ECHL)
11/26/12	DEL	LW	Luca Caputi	Loaned to Fort Wayne (ECHL)
11/26/12	DEL	RW	Ryan Lasch	Reassigned by Anaheim (NHL) to Fort Wayne (ECHL)

 
BEARS AMONG THE AHL:                                                             
C Jeff Taffe:  T-16^th – scoring (6-13-19).
RW Garrett Mitchell:T,1^st – SH goals (2).
D Garrett Stafford:  T,5^th (D) – assists (13); T,5^th (D) – PP assists (7); T,11^th (D) – scoring (1-13-14).
D Tomas Kundratek:  T,3^rd (D) – PP goals (3); T,4^th (D) – PP points (3-6-9); T,5^th (D) – goals (6); T,16^th (D) – scoring (6-7-13).
 
ADMIRALS AMONG THE AHL:
C Peter Holland:  T,7^th – scoring (10-11-21).
D Sami Vatanen:  T,14^th (R) – scoring (3-10-13).
C Chris Wagner:  T,2^nd (R) – SH points (1-1-2); T,2^nd (R) – SH goals (1).