CARRICK NETS FRANCHISE MILESTONE GOAL AS BEARS BLITZ PHANTOMS

January 30, 2015

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Connor Carrick added one assist to a memorable goal – the Hershey Bears’ 20,000th as a franchise – and helped his team throttle the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 6-1 on Friday night at PPL Center.

After a relatively quiet first few minutes, Hershey would strike first on a Phantoms turnover.  Taking the puck directly off of a Lehigh Valley defenseman, Liam O’Brien wasted no time in picking the upper-right corner with a snap shot past Anthony Stolarz at 3:30.

Chris Conner would make it 2-0 at 10:11, taking a pass from Carrick, skating down the right wing and taking a backhand shot that bounced over the line off of Stolarz’s right pad.

The Phantoms would battle to get back in the game just under two minutes later.  Taylor Leier would be lightly pushed into Philipp Grubauer, and before the goaltender could get back into position, Leier backhanded the rebound of a shot from Nick Cousins over Grubauer’s pad at 12:02.

But Hershey would explode for three more goals in the second, setting the club milestone in the process.  On the Bears’ third power play of the night, Carrick would wind up and fire from the center point.  His shot sailed past the blocker of Stolarz at 6:50 for his seventh of the season.

Jon Landry would end Stolarz’s night at 15:29, ripping a snap shot from the slot inside the left post for his second goal of the season.

Rob Zepp came on in relief after Landry’s goal, but was beaten on his first shot faced.  On an odd-man rush, Kris Newbury fed Dane Byers in the left circle, who in turn spotted Dustin Gazley heading to the net.  Byers feathered a perfect pass onto Gazley’s stick for an easy redirection at 16:02.

Chandler Stephenson finished the scoring by forcing another defensive-zone turnover, skating in and deking Zepp with a backhand-forehand move at 11:27.

Grubauer won his fourth consecutive start, making 24 saves to improve to 15-9-4 on the season.  Stolarz took the loss, stopping 18 of 22 in 35:29 of work.  Zepp earned no decision, allowing two goals on 13 shots in 24:31 of relief. 

The Bears return home tomorrow, January 31 with a 7:00 PM matchup against the Syracuse Crunch.  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: The Bears scratched C Joel Broda, RW Garrett Mitchell, D Mike Moore, D Nate Schmidt and D Patrick Wey… The Phantoms scratched…D Mark Alt, D Shayne Gostisbehere, C Blair Jones and C Darroll Powe…The Bears finished the night 1-for-5 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill… Three stars: 3-Grubauer, 2-Wellman, 1-Carrick… C Jim O’Brien’s second-period assist keeps him perfect with points in every game since joining Hershey (2-5-7, 7 GP)…12 different Bears players recorded at least one point in the win.