Capitals to Host Second Washington AHL Showcase

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals and Verizon Center will host the second Washington AHL Showcase Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, at 5 p.m., between the Hershey Bears and the Syracuse Crunch. The game date is subject to the AHL and NHL scheduling process.

Next year’s event will mark the second-consecutive season in which Verizon Center has hosted the Washington AHL Showcase. The AHL Showcase will feature the Capitals’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Hershey Bears, as they face-off versus the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate, in regular-season AHL action. The Hershey Bears defeated the Norfolk Admirals, 2-1, in the 2012 AHL Showcase on Dec. 6, 2012, in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,506. Current Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby and defensemen Steven Oleksy, Dmitry Orlov and Tomas Kundratek helped the Bears earn the victory.

Hershey has qualified for the playoffs each of the last seven years and won the Calder Cup in back-to-back seasons as the champions of the AHL in 2009 and 2010 as well as in 2006. Hershey has reached the Calder Cup final in four of seven seasons it has been affiliated with Washington. Syracuse, in the midst of its first season of affiliation with Tampa Bay, currently leads the AHL’s Eastern Conference. In addition, the Crunch has the fifth-longest tenure of any active AHL team and will be marking their 20th anniversary next season.

For more information on 2014 Washington AHL Showcase contact 202-266-CAPS or visit WashingtonCaps.com.