GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - Lehigh Valley at Hershey 12/15/19

HERSHEY, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (11-11-5) look to end a nine-game winless streak on the road when they take on rival Hershey Bears (13-9-5) Sunday evening at Giant Center.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Greg Carey - German Rubtsov - Pascal Laberge Andy Andreoff - Kyle Criscuolo - Maksim Sushko Matthew Strome - Connor Bunnaman - Steven Swavely Isaac Ratcliffe - Gerry Fitzgerald - Kurtis Gabriel

Tyler Wotherspoon - Andy Welinski T.J. Brennan - Reece Willcox Chris Bigras - Nate Prosser

Alex Lyon - J-F Berube

Scratches: James de Haas, Cal O'Reilly and Mark Friedman

GAME STORY

1st Period

Through the opening 12 minutes of the contest, Lehigh Valley appeared to be weathering the storm quite well - playing in their third game in as many days while Hershey had fresher legs in their 2nd game on the weekend.

Instead, after failing to get anything going on the game's opening power play chance, Hershey grabbed momentum before tallying a late first period goal in the final two minutes of the period.

Alex Alexeyev beat Phantoms' goaltender Alex Lyon off the rush, but his shot clanked off the left post and stayed out. Moments later, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby tipped a point shot from Martin Fehervary past Lyon to give Hershey the 1-0 lead heading to the second period.

2nd Period

The back-breaking moment for Lehigh Valley came in the opening shift of the middle frame. After cutting to the slot with the puck on his stick, Garrett Pilon fanned on his shot but was able to regain control at the side of the net before firing a shot through the legs of Lyon.

The goal gave Hershey a 2-0 lead just 20 seconds into the period, and Phantoms' head coach Scott Gordon elected to pull Alex Lyon in favor of J-F Berube.

Berube, to his credit, played well upon entering the contest - stopping all eight shots he faced in the middle frame.

Lehigh Valley was able to generate some offensive pressure. Most notably, a pair of chances from Gerry Fitzgerald that Bears' goaltender Vitek Vanecek was able to prevent from reaching the back of the net.

Still, trailing 2-0 heading to the third period of the third game in as many days is not a recipe for success in the AHL. Yet, that's exactly the position the Phantoms were in heading to the third.

3rd Period

Hershey allowed the Phantoms back in the game early in the third period, taking back-to-back penalties in the opening 2:36 of the period to set up Lehigh Valley with a 5-on-3 power play chance. On the ensuing power play, Andy Andreoff buried one to bring the Phantoms within one.

Less than two minutes later, Steven Swavely was whistled for tripping - allowing Hershey to regain their two-goal lead when Bobby Nardella tallied his first career pro goal with 14:23 left to play.

Scott Gordon elected to pull Berube for the extra attacker with just under six minutes left, trying to get it back to a one-goal game. Unfortunately for the Phantoms, Bears goaltender Vitek Vanecek shut things down from there to complete the 3-1 final score.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

13:42: HER - (PP) O'Brien, minor (tripping) 18:20: HER - Jonsson-Fjallby (6) - Fehervary, Pinho

2nd Period

0:20: HER - Pilon (3) - Djoos, Snively 1:46: HER - (PP) Pinho, minor (tripping) 10:27: HER - (PP) Fehervary, minor (hooking)

3rd Period

1:03: HER - (PP) Moulson, minor (slashing) 2:36: HER - (PP) Lewington, minor (roughing) 2:49: LV - PPG Andreoff (4) - Rubtsov, Carey 4:55: LV - (PP) Swavely, minor (tripping) 5:37: HER - PPG Nardella (1) - Djoos, Maillet 16:33: HER - (PP) Fehervary, minor (delay of game)

BOXSCORE

Lehigh Valley  0 - 0 - 1 = 1 Hershey  1 - 1 - 1 = 3

Shots

Lehigh Valley  13 - 8 - 9 = 30 Hershey  9 - 9 - 3 = 21

Goalies

LV: Alex Lyon (8 saves - 10 shots in 20:18) and J-F Berube (10 saves - 11 shots) HER: Vitek Vanecek (29 saves - 30 shots)

Power Play

LV: 1-for-5 HER: 1-for-1

Penalty Kill

LV: 0-for-1 HER: 4-for-5