Press Release Details

TODAY'S GAME PREVIEW: BEARS at DEVILS

02/24/2013 -

TONIGHT’S GAME NOTES

HERSHEY BEARS at ALBANY DEVILS
Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 4:00 PM
Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ

REFEREES: Mark Lemelin (#41) & Graham Skilliter (#48)
LINESMEN: Matt McNulty (#26) & Luke Murray (#92)

BEARS vs. DEVILS: The BEARS head to the New Jersey shoreline for this afternoon’s game against the Albany Devils at Atlanic City’s historic Boardwalk Hall. The two teams clash for the third of four regular-season meetings. Albany is the top AHL developmental affiliate of the New Jersey Devils.

ALL-TIME: Including the time spent by the Devils in Lowell, Massachusetts, the BEARS have an all-time record of 15-4-1 against Albany.

THE LAST TIME: The two teams last met on December 29 at GIANT Center. Albany, behind two points each from Bobby Butler, Jacob Josefson and Harri Pesonen, skated past the BEARS in a 3-2 decision. The BEARS struck first in the game, when Jon DiSalvatore buried his 10^th goal of the season past Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid. Tim Sestito tied the score at the 12:18 mark of the second period, and the deadlock held until early in the third. Butler ripped his 14^th goal of the campaign past Braden Holtby for the 2-1 Albany advantage, but former BEARS forward Zach Hamill almost immediately brought the BEARS back even with his 10^th goal just 35 seconds later. The teams battled back and forth for another eight minutes until the Devils broke out of their own end on a three-on-two rush. Holtby made a nice save on Josefson and a Butler rebound, but couldn’t corral a third chance that would ultimately be knocked in by Pesonen at 11:58 for the game-winner. Kinkaid turned aside 34 HERSHEY shots for the win.

2012-13 SEASON SERIES:

Sat. October 27, 2012	ALBANY	GIANT Center	W 3-0
Sat. December 29, 2012	ALBANY	GIANT Center	L 2-3
Sun. February 24, 2013	@Albany*	Boardwalk Hall
Fri. March 29, 2013	@Albany	Times Union Center

RECENT RECAPS: Returning home for the final time in February, one night after coming back to earn a point in Binghamton, the BEARS blanked the Adirondack Phantoms 3-0 in front of a sellout crowd of 10,906. Philipp Grubauer bagged his first solo AHL shutout, making a personal-best 40 saves in earning his sixth win of the season and first-star honors. Just 2:41 into the contest, former Phantoms forward Matt Clackson sparked the crowd with a big hit on Danny Syvret, and then a scrap with defenseman Brandon Manning. Another former Phantoms forward, Jon Kalinski, fired a shot that beat netminder Scott Munroe over the shoulder, but the goal would be waved off as the whistle blew at the start of the fight. After Clackson was let out of the box, he would go right back in for an interference penalty at 12:41. While on the penalty kill, Patrick McNeill sent a harmless-looking clearing bid off of the left boards. Munroe vacated the net to play the puck, but it deflected off of the glass at an odd angle and slid directly into the empty net for a 1-0 HERSHEY lead. The BEARS outshot the Phantoms 16-7 in the first period, but would allow 20 shots on goal in the middle stanza. Grubauer turned them all aside and also got some insurance when Ryan Potulny buried the rebound of a Jeff Taffe deflection at the net front at 15:00. The goal was a big shift in momentum in the game, as moments earlier, Phantoms forward Jon Sim had the tying goal taken away as video replay confirmed that the puck was directed past Grubauer by a kicking motion with his skate. Sim would plow into Grubauer again in the third period, earning a goaltender interference penalty, and the BEARS would tack on another goal on that power play when Ryan Stoa sent a snap shot over Munroe’s glove. Grubauer made another 13 saves in the third period to preserve the victory.

With their backs seemingly against the wall last night in Binghamton, trailing 3-1 early in the second period, the Devils scored four unanswered goals en route to a 5-3 victory over the Senators. Joe Whitney scored two goals – the first goal and the insurance marker – while Steve Zalewski, Mike Sislo and Phil DeSimone all tallied one goal and one assist in the comeback. Matt Anderson also had a two-point effort with two helpers, and goaltender Jeff Frazee settled down to stop 17 third-period shots and 36 overall in earning the win.

EAST DIVISION STANDINGS (as of February 24):

POS	TEAM	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	PTS	WIN%	GF	GA
1.	Syracuse	52	32	14	2	4	70	.673	182	141
2.	Binghamton	52	31	16	1	4	67	.644	159	134
3.	W-B/Scranton	53	28	22	2	1	59	.557	125	122
4.	HERSHEY	53	25	20	3	5	58	.547	136	128
5.	Norfolk	52	23	25	3	1	50	.481	123	148

TAFFE DOUBLES UP AGAIN: C Jeff Taffe posted his second consecutive two-point effort, setting up two goals while earning second-star honors in last night’s win over Adirondack. Taffe reclaimed the top spot in the AHL assist category (34).

HE’LL TAKE IT: D Patrick McNeill scored a shorthanded goal in an unconventional way last night, dumping the puck off of the side glass and watching it roll into a vacated net. McNeill moves up to 147 career points in a HERSHEY sweater (32-115-147) and holds the ranking of eighth in all-time BEARS scoring by a defenseman.

OLEKSY HELPS TWICE: D Steve Oleksy earned his first multiple point game with the BEARS with his pair of helpers in last night’s win. He was also named the game’s third star.

HE’S PLAYING WELL: C Casey Wellman is now riding a four-game point streak after helping set up Ryan Potulny’s power play insurance marker last night. Wellman has (1-3-4) in the streak, while showing (1-5-6) in his last six games.

HOLDING THE LEAD: The BEARS have a record of 16-3-0-2 with the lead after one period, and 19-0-2-2 with the lead after two.

　

OUTSHOT? NO PROBLEM: The BEARS were outshot last night for the 35^th time in 53 games. However, the team has picked up 40 of their 58 points when outshot (18-13-2-2).


BEARS vs. DEVILS – TEAM LEADERS:

	HERSHEY	Albany
Games Played	Garrett Mitchell (53)	Tim Sestito (49)
Goals	Jon DiSalvatore (14)	Joe Whitney (14)
Assists	Jeff Taffe (34)	Matt Anderson (21)
Points	Jeff Taffe (46)	Matt Anderson (31)
+/-	Garrett Mitchell (+11)	Joe Whitney (+13)
PP Goals	Jon DiSalvatore (8)	P. DeSimone, E. Gelinas, H. Pesonen (3)
SH Goals	Garrett Mitchell (2)	Jacob Josefson (2)
GW Goals	Cameron Schilling (3)	M. Anderson, M. Tedenby, J. Whitney (3)
PIMs	Steve Oleksy (142)	Tim Sestito (88)
Wins	Dany Sabourin (7)	Keith Kinkaid (16)
GAA	Philipp Grubauer (1.73)	Jeff Frazee (2.42)
Save %	Philipp Grubauer (.940)	Jeff Frazee (.915)

BEARS vs. DEVILS – SPECIAL TEAMS:

	HERSHEY	Albany
Power Play	42-for-237 (17.7%) – 11th in AHL	27-for-232 (11.6%) – 28th in AHL
Penalty Kill	200-for-234 (85.5%) – 8th in AHL	198-for-239 (82.8%) – 17th in AHL

BEARS RECENT TRANSACTIONS:

2/24/13	ADD	G	Brandon Anderson	Reassigned by Washington (NHL) from Reading (ECHL)
2/23/13	ADD	LW	T.J. Syner	Recalled from loan to Reading (ECHL)
2/22/13	DEL	G	Sergey Kostenko	Loaned to Ontario (ECHL)
2/22/13	ADD	G	Sergey Kostenko	Recalled from loan to Reading (ECHL)
2/21/13	DEL	LW	T.J. Syner	Returned on loan to Reading (ECHL)
2/17/13	ADD	LW	T.J. Syner	Recalled from loan to Reading (ECHL)

DEVILS RECENT TRANSACTIONS:

2/24/13	ADD	D	Harry Young	Reassigned by New Jersey (NHL) from Trenton (ECHL)
2/21/13	DEL	D	Harry Young	Reassigned by New Jersey (NHL) to Trenton (ECHL)
2/21/13	DEL	LW	Jean-Sebastien Berube	Reassigned by New Jersey (NHL) to Trenton (ECHL)
2/21/13	DEL	C	Kelly Zajac	Loaned to Trenton (ECHL)
2/17/13	DEL	C	Andrei Loktionov	Recalled from loan by New Jersey (NHL)
2/17/13	ADD	C	Jacob Josefson	Returned on loan from New Jersey (NHL)

BEARS AMONG THE AHL:
C Jeff Taffe: 1^st – assists (34); T,7^th – scoring (12-34-46).
RW Barry Almeida: 2^nd (R) – shooting percentage (6/26=23.1%).
D Steve Oleksy: 3^rd (D) – PIM (142).

DEVILS AMONG THE AHL:
G Jeff Frazee: 15^th – GAA (2.42).