GAMEDAY: Game 47 - Lehigh Valley (25-16-5) at Hershey (21-20-3) 7:05 p.m. ET
ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (25-16-5), fresh off their 7-5 win in Bridgeport Friday night, look to sweep the weekend with a road matchup in Hershey against Atlantic Division rival Hershey Bears (21-20-3) at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Steven Swavely - Chris Conner Carsen Twarynski - Mike Vecchione - Dale Weise Tyrell Goulbourne - Colin McDonald - Justin BaileyMike Huntebrinker - Josh MacDonald
Philip Samuelsson (A) - Phil MyersT.J. Brennan - Reece Willcox James de Haas - Mark Friedman Zach Palmquist
*Mike McKenna - Branden Komm
Scratches: Alex Lyon (injured), Cole Bardreau (injured), Nicolas Aube-Kubel (injured), German Rubtsov (injured), Connor Bunnaman (injured), Alex Krushelnyski (healthy) and David Kase (injured)
Hershey Bears Lineup Notes
Bears' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Liam O'Brien - Mike Sgarbossa - Riley Barber Shane Gerisch - Jayson Megna - Brian Pinho Beck Malenstyn - Garrett Pilon - Nathan WalkerSteven Whitney - Hampus Gustafsson - Juuso Ikonen
Aaron Ness - Tyler Lewington Joey Leach - Ryan SproulTobias Geisser - Connor Hobbs
Ilya Samsonov - Vitek Vanecek
GAME STORY
FIRST PERIOD
The Phantoms looked like a team that played the night before coming in to face a Bears team that looked just like a team who was idle the night before and waiting. The trap that the regular season schedule created played out about how you'd expect it to in the first half of the first period.
Hershey was dominant in large stretches both early and often, spending a majority of the period on the attack.
Branden Komm, who was pulled 6:36 into his last start in Hershey after allowing three goals on four shots, performed admirably amidst waves of Bears pressure. If not for Komm, it could have been a lot worse in the opening 10 minutes.
The Bears' persistence paid off with 11:39 left in the opening frame, after Tyler Lewington got a puck to Aaron Ness and the Bears defender made a nice deke at the Phantoms' defensive zone blue line. The smooth move opened up a 2-on-1 that Ness was able to thread the needle to the left-wing circle for a quick shot by Nathan Walker - beating Komm to the far-side on the glove hand. Walker's 11th of the season gave the Bears a 1-0 lead in front of their home crowd at Giant Center.
Lehigh Valley's forecheck - which was giving the Bears fits in the opening five minutes - was unable to regain the momentum it appeared to be generating earlier in the period. The Phantoms were simply hemmed in their own end more often than not, and battling their way along on the road in a hostile environment.
Furthermore, a late 1st period penalty by Tyrell Goulbourne put the Phantoms on the penalty kill & playing defense-first to conclude the opening frame. All in all, Lehigh Valley luckily escaped to the intermission only trailing by one.
SECOND PERIOD
It looked like it was going to be a long night for the Phantoms when Ryan Sproul opened the second period scoring on a play paying homage to vintage Mario Lemieux. Sproul, from behind the net, threw a puck toward the net that somehow banked in past Komm off the Phantoms' goalie's left pad just 3:23 into the middle frame.
The goal extended the Bears' lead to 2-0 and the ice tilted even more in the home team's favor. The Phantoms were certainly up against all odds from that point on.
Still, despite being largely out-chanced and out-possessed the Phantoms found a way to claw back into the game - cutting the deficit in half with 12:41 left in the period before a big scrum broke out following Carsen Twarynski's 6th of the season off the rush.
The bad blood began in the Phantoms' defensive zone where a hit by Mike Vecchione drew the ire of the Bears and the home crowd when he blasted Mike Sgarbossa into the boards. The Bears forward tried to turn away from the hit, but ended up putting himself in a vulnerable position facing the boards. Vecchione didn't let up and hit him in the numbers.
Mark Friedman swooped in and sent the puck ahead for Twarynski in transition and the forward blazed down the left wing, opting to shoot on the ensuing odd-man rush and getting the Phantoms on the board and back in the hockey game.
After the goal, Liam O'Brien skated across the ice to start a scrum with Dale Weise. The result was a Phantoms' power play, as Hershey took an extra penalty in the process.
Despite all that had transpired in the opening 40 minutes, the Phantoms found themselves in a one-goal game heading to the third.
THIRD PERIOD
Typically in the third period, the referees ease up on the ticky-tack penalties and allow the game to finish with some pace.
Not the case tonight.
A penalty-filled period had the Phantoms on the power play late in the contest looking for an equalizer, but Hershey willed their way to the win - killing off 1:22 of 5-on-3 time in the final 2:28 to hold on for the 2-1 victory.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
8:21: HER - Walker (11) - Ness, Lewington 17:36: LV - (PP) Goulbourne, minor (slashing)
2nd Period
3:23: HER - Sproul (6) - Ikonen, Whitney 4:13: LV - (PP) Friedman, minor (cross-checking) 8:19: LV - Twarynski (6) - Friedman 8:19: LV - Vecchione, minor (unsportsmanlike) 8:19: HER - Barber, minor (unsportsmanlike) 8:19: HER - (PP) O'Brien, minor (roughing) 13:02: LV - (PP) Weise, minor (slashing) 13:02: LV - Myers, ten-minute misconduct (abuse of officials) 19:01: LV - (PP) Palmquist, minor (holding)
3rd Period
0:28: LV - (PP) de Haas, minor (delay of game) 8:25: LV - Samuelsson, major (fighting) 8:25: HER - Malenstyn, major (fighting) 9:13: LV - Bailey, minor (roughing) 9:13: HER - Sgarbossa, minor (roughing) 9:13: HER - (PP) O'Brien, minor (roughing) 16:54: HER - (PP) O'Brien, minor (boarding) 17:32: HER - (PP) Lewington, minor (high-sticking)
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 0 - 0 - 1 = 1 Hershey Bears 1 - 1 - 0 = 2
Shots
Lehigh Valley 5 - 7 - 0 = 12 Hershey Bears 12 - 12 - 0 = 24
Goalies
LV: Branden Komm (22 saves - 24 shots) HER: Ilya Samsonov (11 saves - 12 shots)
Power Play
LV: 0-for-3 HER: 0-for-5
Penalty Kill
LV: 5-for-5 HER: 3-for-3
Attendance: 8,538
