Bears Stay Hot- Milner, Galiev Star in Victory

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It was a rough start to the year, but the Hershey Bears seem to be returning to form after a 5-2 victory over the St. John’s IceCaps at Giant Center Saturday evening.

Hershey’s Stan Galiev, who scored his second professional hat trick and first of his AHL career last night in Binghamton, was one of five Hershey players to score a goal, while Parker Milner earned his first victory for Hershey on Giant Center ice stopping 29 of 31 shots.

After giving up an early goal to Charles Hudon, the Bears went on the attack offensively with Paul Carey, Tyler Lewington, and Ryan Bourque all scoring before the midway point of the first period.

Lewington cleared the puck out of the zone to Carey who skated through the neutral zone and ripped a shot from the offensive zone face-off dot that beat Yann Danis. Then, Lewington got his own goal after forcing a turnover in the offensive zone and back-handing it into the net for his second of the season.

Later in the first, Ryan Bourque caused a turnover in the neutral zone and skated in for his first goal of the season.

With a 3-1 lead after the first period, Stan Galiev recorded his 12th goal of the season and fourth of the weekend when he followed Brad Malone into the zone and Malone dropped the puck off to Galiev for the 4-1 lead.

St. John’s cut the lead to two later in the second after Carey turned the puck over and Chris Terry scored, but the Bears regained the three-goal cushion before the end of the period. While on the power play, Galiev took a shot from Ovechkin’s office that was stopped, but Danis was unable to secure the puck and Christian Thomas skated in for his team-leading 17th goal of the season.

The three stars of the game were Paul Carey, Stan Galiev, and Patrick Milner.
Hershey hosts the IceCaps again tomorrow. That game is a 2:00 start due to the Super Bowl.