HERSHEY, Pa. — The Hershey Bears jumped out of the gate quickly in Game One of the Atlantic Division semifinals against Lehigh Valley, riding that jump to a 2-1 win.
Center Hendrix Lapierre, fresh off his first career NHL playoff games with the Washington Capitals, opened the scoring for Hershey at 3:29 of the first period. Chase Priskie and Ethen Frank added assists.
The pace of the game slowed and became what Head Coach Todd Nelson called a tight-checking game afterward.
The only penalties of the game were called at 10:10 of the second period. Lehigh Valley's Jon-Randall Avon and Hershey's Henrik Rybinski both sat for two minutes for roughing. 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 officiating was much talked about after the game. It appeared there were numerous times referees Beau Halkidis and Alex Lepkowski could have raised their arm, but chose not to.
Lehigh Valley Head Coach Ian Laperriere said it was the same for both teams.
"You know if they only put the whistle away on one side, you complain. But couldn't complain they did it on both sides," Laperriere said.
Hershey Head Coach Todd Nelson called it odd not having a power play or penalty kill in the game. "It's a tight-checking game and both teams turned over pucks because of the tight-checking," he explained.
There was no scoring until the end of the second period. At 17:17 of the middle frame, Rybinski, in his first career AHL playoff game, got a trickler past Phantoms' goaltender Cal Petersen. Matt Strome and Bogdan Trineyev got the assists, getting each member of the Bears' fourth line a point.
In the third, the Phantoms made a comeback push with about five minutes left in regulation. With Petersen on the bench, Tanner Laczynski got his third goal of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs, erasing a shutout for Hershey goaltender Hunter Shepard.
The Bears were able to hold off the Phantoms after that and hang on for the 2-1 win.
Nelson said his team needs to put together a full game the next time out. "We've just got to put together 60 minutes and clean up some of the mistakes we had," Nelson said.
Lapierre, after the game, said he noticed the difference in game flow between the NHL and AHL tonight.
"In the NHL, the guys use their brains, make a lot of smart plays. Here, it's more a grind. Pucks deep, you hit, it's a very different style of hockey," Lapierre added.
Shepard made 30 saves in his first win of the playoffs, in front of 8,038 fans at Giant Center.
The Bears and Phantoms are back in Game Two of the series Saturday night in Hershey.
You can watch the FOX43 broadcast of Game Two at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network in the greater Washington, D.C. area.