The Hershey Bears’ regular season leading goal scorer, Ethen Frank, found the net twice for the Bears in Saturday’s first period to push the Bears to a 5-1 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Game Two of the Atlantic Division Semifinals. With assists from linemate Joe Snively on both goals, Frank tied his goal total from the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs in just one period.
Hunter Shepard, the AHL’s 2023-24 most outstanding goaltender, made 30 saves in the victory. Shepard has made 30 stops in each of the series’ first two games.
Frank’s first of the night opened the scoring for the Bears just under five minutes into the game. Snively sent the puck to Frank at the right side of the neutral zone and he took off on a breakaway. Frank faked forehand and finished the puck with his backhand past Phantoms’ goaltender Cal Petersen to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
The Nebraska native found his second just 3:31 later. With chaos in front of the goal, Snively sent the puck to Frank on the left side of the net, where he chipped the puck over Petersen’s glove.
Hunter Macdonald’s first pro career goal put the Phantoms on the board with just over a minute left in the first. Macdonald fired a rebound shot past Shepard, cutting the Bears’ lead in half going into intermission.
The Bears kept the scoring going in the second with a goal from Henrik Rybinski. The 22-year-old, who scored his first career playoff goal in Wednesday’s matchup, redirected a wrister from Bogdan Trineyev past Petersen to give Hershey a 3-1 lead.
The Bears found their next from AHL playoff veteran Alex Limoges. The Penn State alum got the puck in front from Hendrix Lapierre and buried it past Petersen for his first goal of the 2024 playoffs.
The Phantoms earned a penalty shot in the third period taken by Bobby Brink, who played 57 games with the Philadelphia Flyers this season. Brink fired to Shepard’s right side, but the Bears’ goaltender stuck his right leg out to deny a late tally.
Hendrix Lapierre sealed the win for Hershey with an empty netter with 3:30 left in the match.
The Phantoms did not go down easily from there though, starting a line brawl behind Shepard’s net just 30 seconds later. The chaos will continue Wednesday, as the Bears will head 75 miles east to the Phantoms’ home base of Allentown, PA, and attempt to win series.
Here was the lineup from Game Two:
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