BEARS RETURN FAVOR, BLAST MONARCHS

March 28, 2015

HERSHEY, Pa. – Dustin Gazley turned in a three-point performance that included two goals, linemates Chris Brown and Kris Newbury added two points each and Philipp Grubauer bounced back with a 40-save performance to help the Hershey Bears take care of the Manchester Monarchs by a 6-2 score on Saturday night at GIANT Center.

The Bears came out with intensity and determination in the first period of this rematch, and scored the game’s first three goals.  Starting things off was Tim Kennedy, who caught a Chris Conner deflection and slammed it past Jean-Francois Berube at 6:51.

Just two minutes later Gazley cut into the left faceoff circle, collected a pass from Connor Carrick and shot the puck off the heel of his stick past Berube for a 2-0 lead.  A net-front scrum would put the Monarchs on a power play after the goal, but the Bears’ penalty kill held serve.

After the clubs traded power play chances, Brown made it a 3-0 game after Gazley sent him in behind the Manchester defense.  Brown waited for Berube to commit, and while the netminder was down, Brown flung the puck into the open right side at 17:01 for his 17th goal of the season.

Michael Mersch later followed up his five-point game on Friday by depositing a dropped puck behind Grubauer at 18:21, getting the Monarchs on the board before the intermission. 

The Bears would score two more in the middle period, ending Berube’s night.  Garrett Mitchell ended up on a breakaway from the right faceoff circle after a Liam O’Brien steal.  The puck was tipped to Chandler Stephenson, who sent Mitchell in alone.  He deked to the backhand and beat Berube at 9:25.  Just over three minutes later, Gazley buried his second of the game off a rebound of a Brown shot for a 5-1 advantage.

Colin Miller would strike for the Monarchs’ only power play goal on seven chances early in the third period.  Collecting a pass from Nic Dowd, Miller took a hard wrist shot that got past Grubauer at 1:59.

Jim O’Brien then rounded out the scoring at 13:19.  Upon exiting the penalty box, O’Brien circled into a three-on-two rush.  Newbury passed across to Andre Burakovsky, who in turn dropped a pass into the slot.  O’Brien skated to the puck, cut in and fired a slapper past the arm of backup goaltender Patrick Bartosak for his seventh goal of the season.

Grubauer improved to 26-15-4 with the win.  Berube fell to 32-9-4, making 13 saves on 18 shots in 32:34 of work.  Bartosak earned no decision with eight saves on nine shots in 27:18 of relief work.

Hershey departs for Connecticut for a 3:00 PM face-off against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers tomorrow, March 29.  Fans may listen to the game beginning with the M&C Foreign Car Parts pre-game show at 2:20 PM on the Bears Radio Network of affiliates WQIC-FM 100.1, WTKT-AM 1460, WOYK-AM 1350 and via the iHeart Radio app (1460 AM).


The Bears then return home to host the Worcester Sharks on Wednesday, April 1 at 7:00 PM.  All fans in attendance receive a complimentary one-day pass to HERSHEYPARK, valid through July 31, 2015.  Limited tickets remain for this game.  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, LW Philippe Cornet, D Christian Djoos, D Tomas Kundratek, D Jon Landry, D Dmitry Orlov, G Vitek Vanecek and LW Aaron Volpatti… The Monarchs scratched C Andrew Crescenzi, D Kevin Gravel and D Nick Ebert… The Bears finished the night 0-for-3 on the power play and 6-for-7 on the penalty kill…13 different Hershey skaters found the score sheet tonight, and all four forward lines produced at least one goal…Hershey scored its 42nd first-goal of the game, and improved to 30-9-3-0 when scoring first…C Tim Kennedy scored the first goal, and has produced goals in four of his last five games…C Jim O’Brien extended his point streak to three games (3-2-5), and the Bears have improved to 19-3-1-1 with O’Brien in the lineup…Chandler Stephenson extended his point streak to three games (1-2-3)…Hershey improved to 24-7-3-1 at GIANT Center.