Hunter Shepard tallied his 15th career AHL playoff win Wednesday against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Game One of the Atlantic Division Semifinals. Shepard made 30 saves in the Hershey Bears’ 2-1 victory.
Shepard, the reigning AHL playoff MVP, was less than five minutes away from recording his fourth career AHL playoff shutout before getting beat by Lehigh Valley’s Tanner Laczynski late in the third. He also survived a final-minute, empty net push from the Phantoms.
The 28-year-old netminder made several big stops in the game, including one in tight on Cooper Marody. The save, in the dying seconds of the first period, kept the score 1-0 and sent the Bears into the first intermission with a lead.
Hershey initially got on the board for the first time in the 2024 AHL playoffs through Hendrix Lapierre. The 22-year-old centerman celebrated his first game back with the Bears with a deflection goal just 3:29 into the first frame.
Henrik Rybinski doubled Hershey’s lead with just 2:43 remaining in the second period. Rybinski, playing in his first career AHL playoff game, stuffed home a rebound past goaltender Cal Petersen created by a great power move from linemate Bogdan Trineyev.
Rybinski grabbed his first career AHL playoff goal as the fill-in for an injured Riley Sutter on the team’s fourth line.
Laczynski made things interesting in the third, scoring just as Lehigh Valley pulled their netminder for the first time. The Bears would hold on after that though and take Game One.
This is the first time that the Bears and their in-state rivals are meeting in the postseason since 2017 and the sixth time in the history of the two franchises. Hershey is now 15-11 in those games and holds a 4-1 series record in the five previous matchups. The winner of three of the series has gone on to win the Calder Cup that season.
In the history of the Bears-Phantoms playoff rivalry, every team that has won Game One went on to win the series. The Bears are 55-19 all-time in series when they secure the first victory.
Here are the lines from the win:
Tonight's Game 1 projected lineup 📝
Catch tonight's broadcast:
📺@MonSportsNet (DC region)
🖥️ https://t.co/HaxQBmLCRZ
📻@FroggyValley, @foxsports1460am, @CapitalsRadio pic.twitter.com/MI5lBdqrnD— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) May 1, 2024
Below is the Bears’ press release:
BEARS OPEN SERIES WITH 2-1 WIN OVER PHANTOMS
Lapierre, Rybinski score for Hershey
(Hershey, PA – May 1, 2024) – The Hershey Bears (1-0) opened the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs with a 2-1 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (2-1) to take a 1-0 series lead in Game 1 of the Atlantic Division Semifinals in front of a crowd of 8,038 on Wednesday night at GIANT Center.
Hendrix Lapierre started the scoring for Hershey at 3:29 of the first period when he deflected Chase Priskie’s shot from the blue line past Cal Petersen. Ethen Frank earned a secondary assist.
Henrik Rybinski extended the Hershey lead to 2-0, stuffing a loose puck past Petersen at 17:17 of the second period for his first career playoff goal after Bogdan Trineyev drove the net from the left wing, the puck glanced off of Matt Strome, and Rybinski stashed it home.
Tanner Laczynski got the Phantoms on the board at 15:28 of the third period with a shot that beat Hunter Shepard upstairs on the goaltender’s glove-side.
Shots finished 31-28 in favor of the Phantoms. Shepard went 30-for-31 in the win for Hershey; Petersen took the loss for Lehigh Valley with a 26-for-28 effort. Both teams were assessed matching roughing minor penalties midway through the second frame, the only infractions during the game; this was the first Bears playoff game on record dating back to 1980 that did not feature a power play opportunity for either team.
The Bears continue the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs when they host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Game 2 of the Atlantic Division Semifinals on Saturday, May 4 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center.
