GAME STORY: Lehigh Valley - 0 at Hershey - 2 (5/2/21)

HERSHEY, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (15-6-4) found themselves dominated territorially for most of the game Sunday against rival Hershey Bears (20-6-2), but credit to Phantoms' netminder Felix Sandstrom (40 saves on 41 shots) for keeping things a one-goal hockey game into the final two minutes of play.

Brett Leason tallied the lone goal in the second period, before Axel Jonsson-Fjallby added an empty net marker to complete the 2-0 win for Hershey.

Bears' goalie Hunter Shepard made the most of his AHL debut, stopping all 28 shots he faced to pick up his first AHL win and shutout in one fell swoop.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Felix Sandstrom returned to the Phantoms and got the start Sunday in Hershey.

Cam York also returned to the lineup after missing two games with a lower body injury.

Up front, Brennan Saulnier returned for Pascal Laberge, the latter of which blocked a shot in Saturday's game and came up a bit gimpy.

Lines/Pairings:

Ryan Fitzgerald - Cal O'Reilly - Tyson Foerster Garrett Wilson - Chris Mueller - Linus Sandin Isaac Ratcliffe - Connor Bunnaman - Zayde Wisdom Brennan Saulnier - Tanner MacMaster - Max Willman

Tyler Wotherspoon - Linus Hogberg Egor Zamula - Derrick Pouliot Cam York - Chris Bigras

Felix Sandstrom - Zane McIntyre

Phantoms' Scratches: Eamon McAdam, Mason Millman, Maksim Sushko, Logan Day, Ralph Cuddemi, Pascal Laberge and David Kase

GAME RECAP

1st Period

The story of the opening 20 minutes was Phantoms' goaltender Felix Sandstrom, who was under fire most of the period - facing and stopping all 17 shots that came his way to keep Lehigh Valley afloat in a period that Hershey simply dominated.

The Bears continued to gain momentum as the period wore on, aided by back-to-back Phantoms penalties in the middle of the period.

Sandstrom continued to bail his team out amidst relentless pressure, keeping the game scoreless heading into the middle frame.

There was a bit of a scrum late in the period after Tanner MacMaster and Philippe Maillet became tangled just inside of the Phantoms' offensive zone blue line. After a few swipes at each other, Bears' captain Matt Moulson bolted in and joined the party - dropping his gloves and taking MacMaster down to the ice in a wrestling match.

Instead of just assessing some matching roughing minors, we ended up with Moulson getting 17 minutes worth of penalties and MacMaster with a minor and a major. Talk about overkill.

2nd Period

Lehigh Valley was much better in the middle frame.

Even though they were again out-shot in the period (by a 14-12 margin), they had several prime scoring chances - including some extended 5-on-3 power play time - but were unable to get one by rookie goaltender Hunter Shepard - making his AHL debut with Hershey Sunday afternoon.

Isaac Ratcliffe was again noticeable on most of his shifts this evening, creating scoring chances with regularity. He had a great chance on a power play in the middle frame, taking a pass from Cam York and splitting the defense before unfortuantely losing the handle on the puck as he went to shoot on Shepard.

Hershey later took the 1-0 lead after an offensive zone face-off win near the midway mark of regulation.

Brett Leason got the puck from Shane Gerisch and skated to the middle before floating a quick shot past Sandstrom on the Bears' 27th shot of the hockey game.

Still, Sandstrom kept his team in the game this afternoon - getting to the second intermission with a 1-0 score was no simple feat.

3rd Period

The Phantoms had their chances to even the score, but give a lot of credit to Shepard - in his 1st AHL start - for coming up with some pretty big stops when his team needed it most to prevent Lehigh Valley from getting on the scoresheet.

Scott Gordon elected to pull Sandstrom for the extra attacker with 2:20 left to play, and the Bears hit the empty net to complete the 2-0 final score.

There was an interesting exchange between Tyson Foerster and Bears defender Eddie Wittchow in the final seconds after Foerster caught Wittchow with a decent (& clean!) hit behind the Bears net - knocking Wittchow off his skates.

Wittchow got up, looked up at the scoreboard to see the final seconds ticking off and proceeded to skate right into Foerster after a whistle along the right-wing wall - delivering several heavy cross-checks up high to Foerster and causing the two teams to come together for one final scrum.

Foerster was later seen sticking his tongue out at Wittchow, smiling and laughing the predatory play from the Bears defender before heading to the locker room to serve out his roughing minor in the closing seconds.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

6:46: LV - (PP) Pouliot, minor (delay of game, puck over glass) 8:58: LV - (PP) Bunnaman, minor (holding) 16:00: HER - (PP) Erkamps, minor (holding) 18:39: LV - MacMaster, minor (slashing) 18:39: LV - MacMaster, major (fighting) 18:39: HER - Moulson, minor (instigating, served by Morelli) 18:39: HER - Moulson, major (fighting) 18:39: HER - Moulson, ten-minute misconduct (instigating)

2nd Period

0:37: LV - (PP) O'Reilly, minor (hooking) 4:38: HER - (PP) Erkamps, minor (interference) 6:18: HER - (PP) Alexeyev, minor (hooking) 9:58: HER - Leason (7) - Gersich 11:31: HER - (PP) Gersich, minor (tripping)

3rd Period

5:10: LV - (PP) Wisdom, minor (cross-checking) 9:14: HER - (PP) Maillet, minor (high-sticking) 12:39: HER - (PP) Maillet, minor (slashing) 18:10: HER - ENG Jonsson-Fjallby (8) - Gersich, Schilling 19:49: LV - (PP) Foerster, minor (cross-checking) 19:49: HER - (PP) Wittchow, minor (roughing)

BOXSCORE

Lehigh Valley    0 - 0 - 0 = 0 Hershey Bears  0 - 1 - 1 = 2

Shots

Lehigh Valley    3 - 13 - 12 = 28 Hershey Bears  17 - 14 - 11 = 42

Goalies

LV: Felix Sandstrom (40 saves - 41 shots) HER: Hunter Shepard (28 saves - 28 shots)

Power Play

LV: 0-for-6 HER: 0-for-4

Penalty Kill

LV: 4-for-4 HER: 6-for-6