Jakub Vrana Nets First AHL Goal, Hershey Bears Score 10 to Secure Series Victory

May 2, 2015 11:29 pm

The Hershey Bears had a big night on Friday. They won 10-4, completing the best-of-five series against the Worchester Sharks in round one in four games.

Casey Wellman led the way with three goals and an assist, Chris Brown scored twice, Nate Schmidt, Cameron Schilling, Tim Kennedy, and Jakub Vrana all had three points in the game. Vrana also scored his first AHL goal.

The other goal-scorers included Dustin Gazley and Liam O’Brien.

Both Stanislav Galiev and Philipp Grubauer left the game with upper-body injuries. Galiev was injured on a play that resulted in a game misconduct penalty for the Sharks’ Evan Trupp. The Bears scored three goals on the ensuing five-minute powerplay.

For Vrana (#39 in white), his goal against Worcester was his first in seven games in North America.

On one of his assists, Vrana Kuznetsov’ed the Sharks by going behind the net and dropping the puck off to Wellman who had all day and an empty net to complete his hat-trick.

Via Chocolate Hockey, Vrana now has nine points through his first seven games in the AHL (1-8-9 overall, 1-2-4 playoffs).

Despite not completing the game, Philipp Grubauer was the goalie of record, becoming one of just five goalies in history to record victories in the AHL and NHL playoffs in the same year.

ICYMI, Philipp Grubauer of @TheHersheyBears joined an exclusive group last night @NHL @PR_NHL @TheAHL @CapitalsPR pic.twitter.com/oRuLv0yUPO

— AHL Communications (@AHLPR) May 2, 2015