STOLARZ, PHANTOMS BLANK BEARS

December 20, 2014

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Jason Akeson scored both goals but Lehigh Valley Phantoms goaltender Anthony Stolarz was the star, stopping all 32 shots he faced in helping his team shut down the Hershey Bears by a 2-0 count on Friday night at PPL Center. 

In a complete reversal of how things started in the last game featuring the two teams, the Bears would come out flying.  Stolarz faced 16 shots from a variety of different areas, and turned them all aside.  The Bears allowed just one shot to get to Philipp Grubauer, a long point shot from Brett Flemming, and he got it through traffic with his left pad.

Lehigh Valley would finally break the scoreless deadlock just past the halfway point of the middle frame.  On Hershey’s second power play of the game, an errant pass attempt back to the point would be picked off by Brett Hextall.  Hextall sprung Akeson on a breakaway from the blue line, and Akeson would beat Grubauer low to the glove side at 10:50.

The Bears threw everything they had at Stolarz, who was actually beaten twice by rookie forward Andre Burakovsky – but both shots rang off the goal post. 

Akeson would race after a loose puck and tuck it into the empty net with less than two seconds remaining to seal the win. 

Stolarz improves to 5-5-0 with the win, while Grubauer – with 16 saves on 17 shots – falls to 9-8-3.

The Bears return home to face the Springfield Falcons tomorrow, December 20 at 7:00 PM.  Face-off will be delayed, as the third class of the Hershey Bears Hockey Club Hall of Fame will be inducted in a pre-game ceremony.  The team will wear special Hall of Fame Night jerseys to be auctioned off live following the game, and all fans in attendance will receive a commemorative Hershey Bears Hockey Club Hall of Fame chocolate bar courtesy of the Hershey Company.  Individual tickets for this and all remaining home games are available at the GIANT Center box office, online at TicketMaster.com or by calling 717-508-BEAR.

NOTES: ; C Andre Burakovsky was reassigned by the Washington Capitals earlier in the day…The Bears scratched RW Chris Brown, D Michal Cajkovsky, LW Philippe Cornet, RW Dustin Gazley, D Mike Moore, LW Tim Spencer, C Chandler Stephenson and D Patrick Wey…The Phantoms scratched D Shayne Gostisbehere, RW Derek Mathers, D Jesper Pettersson and G Rob Zepp… The Bears finished the night 0-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill… Three stars: 3-Grubauer, 2-Akeson, 1-Stolarz.