Press Release Details
TONIGHT'S GAME PREVIEW: MONARCHS at BEARS
02/02/2013 -
TONIGHT’S GAME NOTES
MANCHESTER MONARCHS at HERSHEY BEARS
Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 7:00 PM
GIANT Center
REFEREES: Chris Cozzan (#18) & Ryan Murphy (#5)
LINESMEN: Brian Oliver (#80) & Jud Ritter (#34)
BEARS vs. MONARCHS: Welcome to GIANT Center for tonight’s matchup between the HERSHEY BEARS and the Manchester Monarchs, proudly presented by Pinnacle Health. Tonight is the first of four meetings between the two teams. Manchester is the top AHL developmental affiliate of the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.
ALL-TIME: The teams will play their 25
th all-time meeting tonight, and the BEARS hold the all-time lead at 15-9-0. HERSHEY finished with a record of 1-3-0-0 against Manchester last season.
THE LAST TIME: The BEARS and Monarchs last met as the 2011-12 season was winding down, on April 14 at Verizon Wireless Arena. The two teams traded first-period goals, with Richard Clune tallying for the Monarchs and Ryan Potulny answering with his 33
rd goal of the season and league-leading 19
th power play marker for the BEARS. But instead of the BEARS taking hold of another chance on the man advantage, the Monarchs got a shorthanded tally from Stefan Legein to take a lead, then opened up a 3-1 edge on Linden Vey’s 19
th of the season. Patrick Mullen scored with time winding down in the second period, ending the night for goaltender Daren Machesney. Newly-signed netminder Scott Greenham came on in relief and stopped everything except Justin Azevedo’s third-period power play goal, a strike that sent the Monarchs to a 5-1 victory.
2012-13 SEASON SERIES:
|
Sat. February 2, 2013 |
MANCHESTER |
GIANTCenter |
|
|
Sat. March 23, 2013 |
@Manchester |
Verizon Wireless Arena |
|
|
Sat. April 13, 2013 |
@Manchester |
Verizon Wireless Arena |
|
|
Sun. April 21, 2013 |
MANCHESTER |
GIANTCenter |
|
RECENT RECAPS: It has been one week since the BEARS last took to the ice. The club played one of its best games of the season, but was stymied by the goaltending of CCM/AHL Player of the Week Robin Lehner in a 3-2 shootout setback on the road against the Binghamton Senators last Saturday. Ryan Stoa buried his fifth of the season 7:29 into the game, a wrist shot that clanged in off of the left post. Brett Flemming picked up his first point of the season with the primary assist, while Boyd Kane also earned a helper. Mike Hoffman scored late in the period to tie up the contest, and Mark Stone put the Senators ahead early in the second period with his eighth of the season. But the BEARS battled right back, and on a nice individual effort by Steve Oleksy, the defenseman sent a slap shot through traffic and past Lehner for his second goal of the campaign. The score would stand, as Dany Sabourin turned aside all 11 Binghamton shots in the third period while Lehner was perfect on nine third-period shots. The BEARS had two glorious chances to put the game away late in regulation, when Derek Grant was handed a delay of game penalty with 1:07 left. On a dump-in off of the right glass, the puck deflected off of a support and right toward the goal line. With Lehner looking the opposite way, the puck slid across the line and through the goaltender’s skates just as time expired but never crossed the line. On the carryover four-on-three in overtime, Lehner again stood his ground. He would stop 38 of 40 shots through the first 65 minutes, and then denied all three HERSHEY opponents in the shootout. Mika Zibanejad, Stephane Da Costa and Jack Downing all scored in the shootout to help the Senators to victory. Sabourin ended the night with 28 saves on 30 shots.
The BEARS’ next two opponents faced off last night at Mohegan Sun Arena, and the host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins came away with a 4-1 victory over Manchester. Neither team mustered a ton of offense through the first two periods, but Jeff Zatkoff did what he had to do against his old squad. He turned aside all 12 of Manchester’s shots through the first two periods, while Joe Morrow netted a power-play marker and Trevor Smith and Zach Sill each scored on shorthanded breakaways to build up a big lead. Riley Holzapfel struck halfway through the third to give the hosts a 4-0 edge, but Vincent LoVerde finally broke Zatkoff’s shutout bid with 7:56 left to round out the scoring.
EAST DIVISION STANDINGS (as of February 2):
|
POS |
TEAM |
GP |
W |
L |
OTL |
SOL |
PTS |
WIN% |
GF |
GA |
|
1. |
Binghamton |
42 |
27 |
11 |
1 |
3 |
58 |
.690 |
132 |
102 |
|
2. |
Syracuse |
42 |
25 |
11 |
2 |
4 |
56 |
.667 |
143 |
117 |
|
3. |
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton |
43 |
22 |
18 |
2 |
1 |
47 |
.547 |
105 |
103 |
|
4. |
HERSHEY |
43 |
20 |
19 |
2 |
2 |
44 |
.512 |
109 |
105 |
|
5. |
Norfolk |
43 |
18 |
22 |
2 |
1 |
39 |
.453 |
105 |
127 |
BACK TO THE GRIND: The two teams’ AHL All-Stars are back in action this weekend after a fun time in Providence on Sunday and Monday. BEARS center Jeff Taffe led all Eastern Conference players with a plus-two rating and added one assist in the East’s 7-6 setback against the Western Conference in the AHL All-Star Game, while Monarchs forward Tyler Toffoli put in a solid effort in registering one goal, one assist and a plus-one rating.
STOPPED BY SABOURIN: With his 28-save performance last Saturday at Binghamton, goaltender Dany Sabourin has allowed two goals or less in five of his last six starts. He has a record of 2-2-1 in those games.
WELLAR’S BACK: Defenseman Patrick Wellar has rejoined the BEARS after being recalled from the Reading Royals on Wednesday. Wellar has recorded (2-13-15), a plus-7 rating and 45 penalty minutes in 37 games with the Royals. During his recent one-game recall on January 26 at Binghamton, Wellar went scoreless with a plus-2 rating. The game was his 200
th in a HERSHEY sweater.
100 MORE: Wellar’s 200
th HERSHEY game was also the game in which defenseman Patrick McNeill climbed closer to his milestone. McNeill’s next game will be his 300
th on the BEARS blue line. The Strathroy, ON native played his entire career – nearly six years – in Chocolatetown.
KANE JOINS 900 CLUB: Captain Boyd Kane, who played in the 1,000
th game of all the top professional leagues on January 8 at Bridgeport (ECHL-71, AHL-898, NHL-31), became the 13
th player in history to appear in 900 AHL games on January 12 against Connecticut. Ironically, Kane played his first AHL game on November 20, 1998 as a member of the Hartford Wolf Pack, the team that became the Whale after the 2009-2010 season. In BEARS history, Kane ranks tied with Brian Dobbin in all-time games played (333). Former BEARS left winger Les Duff ranks 12
th in all-time AHL games played.
All-Time Leaders, AHL Games Played
|
Rank |
Player |
Played From-To |
Seasons |
GP |
|
9. |
Ken Gernander |
1991-2005 |
14 |
973 |
|
10. |
Jim Bartlett |
1955-1973 |
16 |
955 |
|
11. |
Jimmy Anderson |
1954-1970 |
16 |
943 |
|
12. |
Les Duff |
1955-1970 |
15 |
927 |
|
13. |
BOYD KANE |
1998-Present |
15 |
906 |
|
14. |
Larry Wilson |
1951-1968 |
15 |
899 |
TOUGH TANDEM TO TOUCH: Dany Sabourin and Philipp Grubauer, along with the recalled Braden Holtby, have all combined to push the BEARS into a tie for fourth place in the AHL in goals against per game (2.44).
HOME HEAVY, ROAD HEAVY: The BEARS will play four of their first five February games at home, while five of the last six will be away from GIANT Center. Of the 11 games in the month, only four are against East Division opponents. The BEARS will finish out their regular-season series against the North Division with games at Lake Erie (2/6), Hamilton (2/15), Toronto (2/16) and Rochester (2/17).
BEARS vs. MONARCHS – TEAM LEADERS:
|
|
HERSHEY |
Manchester |
|
Games Played |
Garrett Mitchell (43) |
LindenVey (45) |
|
Goals |
Jon DiSalvatore (12) |
Tyler Toffoli (20) |
|
Assists |
Jeff Taffe (29) |
LindenVey (26) |
|
Points |
Jeff Taffe (38) |
LindenVey (37) |
|
PIMs |
Steve Oleksy (118) |
Andy Andreoff (69) |
|
Plus/Minus |
Garrett Mitchell (+9) |
Tyler Toffoli (+13) |
|
Power-Play Goals |
Jon DiSalvatore (6) |
Tyler Toffoli (5) |
|
Shorthanded Goals |
Garrett Mitchell (2) |
Andrei Loktionov (2) |
|
Game-Winning Goals |
T. Kundratek, G. Mitchell, C. Schilling (2) |
Brandon Kozun (4) |
|
Wins |
Dany Sabourin (6) |
Martin Jones (11) |
|
Goals-Against Average |
Philipp Grubauer (2.04) |
Martin Jones (2.44) |
|
Save Percentage |
Philipp Grubauer (.926) |
Martin Jones, Peter Mannino (.919) |
BEARS vs. MONARCHS – SPECIAL TEAMS:
|
|
HERSHEY |
Manchester |
|
Power Play |
31-for-193 (16.1%) – 17th in AHL |
26-for-171 (15.2%) – 24th in AHL |
|
Penalty Kill |
158-for-188 (84.0%) – 11th in AHL |
168-for-203 (82.8%) – 16th in AHL |
BEARS RECENT TRANSACTIONS:
|
1/31/13 |
ADD |
C |
Casey Wellman |
Loaned from Washington (NHL) |
|
1/31/13 |
ADD |
C |
Peter LeBlanc |
Loaned from Washington (NHL) |
|
1/31/13 |
DEL |
RW |
Mathieu Beaudoin |
Traded to Rockford (AHL) |
|
1/31/13 |
DEL |
C |
Zach Hamill |
Recalled from loan by Washington (NHL) |
|
1/30/13 |
ADD |
D |
Patrick Wellar |
Recalled from loan to Reading (ECHL) |
MONARCHS RECENT TRANSACTIONS:
None.
BEARS AMONG THE AHL:
C Jeff Taffe: T,2nd – assists (29);
T,9th – scoring (9-29-38).
D Tomas Kundratek: 2nd (D) – shooting percentage (13/78=16.7%);
3rd (D) – PP goals (6);
3rd (D) – goals (13);
7th (D) – scoring (13-13-26).
D Steve Oleksy: 3rd (D) – PIM (118).
MONARCHS AMONG THE AHL:
C Linden Vey: T,13th – scoring (11-26-37).
G Martin Jones: 14th – GAA (2.44).
G Peter Mannino: 17th – GAA (2.47).
C Andy Andreoff: 5th (R) – PIM (69).
LW Tanner Pearson: 9th (R) – scoring (10-19-29)
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