Holtby, Bears Blank Devils

HERSHEY, Pa. – Zach Hamill’s first goal with the HERSHEY BEARS stood up as the game winner, Tomas Kundratek factored into all of the hosts’ scoring and Braden Holtby posted a 35-save shutout in his second game of the season to help defeat the Albany Devils 3-0 on Saturday night at GIANT Center.

The Devils applied relentless pressure over the first half of the opening period, but the BEARS did not falter. The hosts then got on the board late in the frame, when Hamill took a pass from Ryan Stoa and deked to the backhand to beat Devils netminder Keith Kinkaid at 17:10.

The BEARS earned four power play chances in the second period, including a lengthy two-man advantage. On the first opportunity, Kundratek fed a pass to the center point. Garrett Stafford collected it and slid a feed to his right. Jeff Taffe then one-timed a hard shot into the upper left corner of the net and past Kinkaid. The referee waved off the goal, and video replay was necessary to override the call and rightfully allow the goal at 5:28.

Holtby did the rest, turning aside another 16 Albany shots in the middle stanza and another 12 in the third to keep the visitors off of the board. Kundratek added an empty-net tally with 2:07 left to play to complete his three-point night.

Holtby improves to 1-1-0 on the young season, while Kinkaid stopped 19 of 21 shots and fell to 1-3-0.

The BEARS ended the night 1-for-7 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

The BEARS remain home tomorrow, October 28 for a 5:00 PM faceoff against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The first 5,000 fans will receive a team photo courtesy of Huggins Printing Company, and all fans are invited to ice level for a 90-minute post-game autograph session with the team.

Tickets for this game and all HERSHEY BEARS home games are on sale at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR, or online at TicketMaster.com.