GAME STORY: AHL Preseason - Hershey at Lehigh Valley 9/30/19
ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms wrap up their preseason schedule with a Monday night matchup against Atlantic Division rival Hershey.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes
Line rushes in warmup:
Andy Andreoff - Cal O'Reilly - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Mikhail Vorobyev - German Rubtsov - Maksim Sushko Isaac Ratcliffe - Kyle Criscuolo - Pascal Laberge Matthew Strome - Gerry Fitzgerald - Kurtis Gabriel
T.J. Brennan - Nate Prosser Chris Bigras - Mark Friedman Tyler Wotherspoon - James De Haas
Felix Sandstrom - Kirill Ustimenko
Scratches: J-F Berube, Reece Willcox, Greg Carey, Morgan Frost & David Kase
GAME STORY
1st Period
Having the benefit of a day off Sunday, Hershey came in to the PPL Center with fresher legs than the Phantoms and it showed in the opening minutes.
Felix Sandstrom had to come up big on the first shot he faced, stopping Philippe Maillet's breakaway. In fact, Sandstrom was busy early - facing the game's first five shots.
Pascal Laberge nearly scored a goal after breaking up Bears' netminder Vitek Vanecek's attempted clearing bid, just whiffing on the shot attempt amid pressure from a Bears defender. Obviously frustrated on his next shift while being held at top of the crease by a Bears defender, Laberge reached out with his free hand and punched a puck into the net. The goal was disallowed, of course, but it was nice to see Laberge both in the Phantoms lineup after sitting out last night and also active creating some chances.
The Phantoms got their legs under them in the second half of the period and were able to draw themselves a pair of power play attempts but were unsuccessful in grabbing the game's first goal.
That honor went to Hershey's Joe Snively with just over five minutes left before the first intermission. Colby Williams went behind the net with the puck and brought it back to the near side out in front to Snively, who beat Sandstrom to the short side with a quick snap shot to put the Bears on top 1-0 heading into the middle frame.
2nd Period
Lehigh Valley came out for the middle frame and were much more assertive than they were in the opening period. They racked up four of the period's first five shots on goal and nearly tied the game when Cal O'Reilly was robbed on the doorstep by Vanecek.
Instead, Hershey extended their lead on the following shift with Garrett Pilon feeding Casey Bailey in the bottom of the right-wing circle on a backdoor play. Bailey was able to muscle one past Sandstrom at the 5:47 mark to give Hershey the 2-0 lead.
The Phantoms seemingly got to their game as the period wore on - and they did out-shoot Hershey 11-7 in the middle frame - but Vanecek was equal to the task in the opening 40 minutes.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
11:25: HER - (PP) Burgdoerfer, minor (hooking) 14:53: HER - Snively (1) - Williams 16:15: HER - (PP) Moulson, minor (hooking)
2nd Period
5:47: HER - Bailey (1) - Pilon, Snively 7:00: LV - (PP) Fitzgerald, minor (slashing) 8:42: HER - (PP) Maillet, minor (holding)
3rd Period
2:50: LV - (PP) Prosser, minor (slashing) 16:23: LV - bench minor, delay of game face-off violation (served by Strome)
BOXSCORE
Hershey 1 - 1 - 0 = 2 Lehigh Valley 0 - 0 - 0 = 0
Shots
Hershey 9 - 7 - 8 = 24 Lehigh Valley 5 - 11 - 11 = 27
Goalies
HER: Vitek Vanecek (27 saves - 27 shots) LV: Felix Sandstrom (22 saves - 24 shots)
Power Play
HER: 0-for-3 LV: 0-for-3
Penalty Kill
HER: 3-for-3 LV: 3-for-3
