For immediate release

For more information, contact: Joel Silverberg, Director of Broadcasting (865) 525-7825,  joel@knoxvilleicebears.com.

Kristian Stead made 33 saves Friday to pick up his 11th win of the season. PHOTO: Daniel Moore.

Kristian Stead made 33 saves for his 11th win of the season and the Knoxville Ice Bears defeated the Pensacola Ice Flyers 4-1 at the Pensacola Bay Center Friday night.

The Ice Bears (27-8-3) snapped a four-game skid with the win. The loss broke a two-game win streak for Pensacola (17-13-5).

Stead made his first big stop of the night with back-to-back saves on an early penalty kill. After stopping a shot from the middle with the blocker, the rebound came to his glove side, where Pensacola had a look at an open net on the rebound. Stead dove back behind towards the goal line and stopped the puck with the glove to keep the game scoreless.

Jason Price gave Knoxville a 1-0 lead right before the first intermission with his seventh goal of the year. Price worked a give-and-go with Andrew Bellant off the left side of the Pensacola zone. Bellant fed Price the puck from the half wall to the blue line. Price wound up for a blast that beat Sean Kuhn top shelf on the power play with 23 seconds remaining.

Dino Balsamo scored from the left hash at 3:11 of the second to make it 2-0 Knoxville. Bellant won a puck battle off the right boards, fed the puck to Razmuz Waxin-Engback at the top of the right circle and Waxin-Engback slipped it to Balsamo, who beat Kuhn’s blocker on the short side post for his 18th goal of the season.

Stefan Brucato made it 3-0 when he cleaned up a loose puck in front of the crease. Stepan Timofeyev skated the puck up the left circle and made his way towards the crease, but was pushed into Kuhn from behind. The scrum resulted in a loose puck by the blue ice and Brucato slapped it on net for his 13th of the year.

Pensacola answered with a rebound goal by Ivan Bondarenko 22 seconds later to cut Knoxville’s deficit to two at the second intermission.

Jared Nash won a face off in the left circle, slipped by the opposing center and fired a wrist shot over Kuhn to make it 4-1 at 1:50 of the third. Kuhn finished with 16 saves for Pensacola.

The two teams will face off again Saturday night at the Bay Center with puck drop set for 8:05 EST.

ABOUT The Knoxville Ice Bears: The Knoxville Ice Bears organization began in 2002 and was an inaugural charter member of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) in 2004. As four-time SPHL Champions, the Ice Bears are an experienced and established organization, offering the city and its’ visitors a balanced product of highlight-reel hockey, unique and exciting intermission activity and endless fan interaction, presenting the most affordable, family-friendly way to enjoy sports and entertainment. Season, Partial Season and Flex Tickets are now on sale.  For more information, visit www.knoxvilleicebears.com or call (865) 525-7825.

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