GAMEDAY: Game 37 - Hershey (11-15-2) at Lehigh Valley (15-9-2) 7:15 p.m. ET

ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (20-13-3) continue their three-game weekend with another home matchup Saturday, welcoming division rival Hershey (15-20-2) for a 7:15 p.m. ET face-off.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Plenty of changes to the lineup in the middle game of the three-in-three weekend, though Alex Lyon remained in net for the Phantoms Saturday.

An injury to Connor Bunnaman and an illness that Taylor Leier tried to play through Friday but couldn't overcome on Saturday left Lehigh Valley with 11 healthy forwards.

Mike Huntebrinker and James de Haas, scratched Friday night, entered the lineup and T.J. Brennan moved up to forward alongside Mikhail Vorobyev and Nicolas Aube-Kubel.

Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)

Greg Carey - Mike Vecchione - Chris ConnerT.J. Brennan - Mikhail Vorobyev - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Carsen Twarynski - Mike Huntebrinker - Alex Krushelnyski Tyrell Goulbourne - Steven Swavely - Colin McDonald

Philip Samuelsson - Phil Myers James de Haas - Mark Friedman Zach Palmquist - Reece Willcox

Alex Lyon - Brenden Komm

Scratches: Cole Bardreau (injured), German Rubtsov (injured - out for season), Taylor Leier (illness), Connor Bunnaman (injury) and David Kase

GAME STORY

FIRST PERIOD

For whatever reason, the Phantoms came out a little flat in the opening period of tonight's game.  Luckily for Lehigh Valley, it didn't prove costly in the first 20 minutes of play.

Alex Lyon stopped all 15 Bears shots he faced, including a more consistent barrage as the period wore on due in part to a pair of late-period Phantoms' penalties.

SECOND PERIOD

It went from bad to worse in the middle frame for the Phantoms, who were in the penalty box early and often and victimized for three goals against in what was a largely one-sided period by Hershey. The scoring got started less than three minutes into the period.

After the Phantoms had an odd-man chance miss the mark, Hershey got a 4-on-2 of their own and converted when Juuso Ikonen fed Ryan Sproul between the circles for a quick shot past Lyon at the 2:58 mark to give Hershey the 1-0 lead.

Then, a pair of Phantoms penalties at 4:17 and 6:29 had the home team playing in their own end for quite some time. Able to kill off the penalties and keep it a 1-0 deficit, Lehigh Valley wasn't able to re-gain any kind of momentum from the PK effort.

Lehigh Valley recorded just two shots on goal until the final few shifts of the period saw them add two more on the board. But by the time they headed to the second intermission, the deficit had grown to three.

A pair of Riley Barber goals - both scored with the teams playing four-on-four - broke open the game and really put the Phantoms in a hole. Barber's second tally of the period with 3:45 left before the second intermission seemed to seal the Phantoms' fate as they stared at a 3-0 deficit heading to the third period.

THIRD PERIOD

The Phantoms had some chances to get back into the game in the third period, notably the extended 5-on-3 early in the frame, but simply weren't able to generate offensive pressure consistently enough to challenge Bears' goalie Ilya Samsonov.

There were a lot of shifts where players on the home team were simply disengaged.

It nearly got hostile in the final 90 seconds after Nicolas Aube-Kubel put a big open ice hit on a Bears forward at the blue line, but cooler heads prevailed with a rematch of these two teams coming in less than 24 hours in Hershey.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

13:28: LV - (PP) Willcox, minor (hooking) 15:27: HER - (PP) Hobbs, minor (holding) 18:51: LV - (PP) McDonald, minor (slashing)

2nd Period

2:58: HER - Sproul (4) - Ikonen, Kammerer 4:17: LV - (PP) de Haas, minor (holding) 6:29: LV - (PP) Myers, minor (cross-checking) 10:52: HER - Megna, minor (unsportsmanlike) 10:52: LV - Friedman, minor (roughing) 11:27: HER - Barber (14) - Sgarbossa, Ness 13:05: LV - (PP) Palmquist, minor (holding) 15:52: HER - Sgarbossa, minor (delay of game) 15:52: LV - Vorobyev, minor (tripping) 16:15: HER - Barber (15) - unassisted

3rd Period

2:38: HER - (PP) Ness, minor (holding) 3:47: HER - (PP) O'Brien, minor (delay of game - face-off violation)

BOXSCORE

Hershey Bears 0 - 3 - 0 = 3 Lehigh Valley   0 - 0 - 0 = 0

Shots

Hershey Bears 15 - 12 - 5 = 32 Lehigh Valley   5 - 4 - 9 = 18

Goalies

HER: Ilya Samsonov (18 saves - 18 shots) LV: Alex Lyon (29 saves - 32 shots)

Power Play

HER: 0-for-5 LV: 0-for-3

Penalty Kill

HER: 3-for-3 LV: 5-for-5

Attendance: 8,811