BEARS
Hershey

3-2

PHANTOMS
Lehigh Valley

Lineup

Starting six: 

[one_half]HERSHEY BEARS
Walker – Stephenson – Barber
Djoos – Gilbert
Copley
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]LEHIGH VALLEY PHANTOMS
Leier – Laughton – McDonald
Brennan – Hagg
Lyon[/one_half_last]

Scratches:

HERSHEY BEARS: Mattias Backman, Dustin Gazley, Christian Thomas, Colby Williams, Aaron Ness, Beck Malestyn, Garrett Pilon
LEHIGH VALLEY PHANTOMS: Will O’Neill, Radel Fazleev, Chris McCarthy, Boyd Gordon, Reece Willcox

Game Report

Long-time Pennsylvania rivals the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Hershey Bears were both battling for a spot in the postseason as they took to the ice Wednesday night at the PPL Center in Allentown.

The first period started with a Hershey power play as Robert Hagg got called for interference just 17 seconds into the game.  The Lehigh Valley penalty killers did their job, however, and play continued.  There were two additional penalties called in the period, one by each team, but no pucks were getting past goaltenders Alex Lyon or Pheonix Copley.  With one minute remaining in the opening frame, the Bears got on the board when Liam O’Brien potted a rebound off of Lyon’s pads.

The Phantoms peppered their opponents with shots in the second period, outshooting Hershey 17-7 in the frame.  Taylor Leier evened the score on the power play just 3:14 into the period and he would contribute a secondary assist on captain Colin McDonald’s goal in the third period.  But a one-goal lead wasn’t enough to keep the Bears at bay and they equalized the score at 2-2.

Physicality ramped up in the third period as well, as both team struggled to maintain puck possession in the offensive zone.  The game was forced to overtime, where Andy Miele left the game after receiving a ten-minute misconduct for abuse of officials 36 seconds in.

Both teams looked dazed and confused in overtime; players on both sides greatly overstayed their shifts during the three-on-three extra minutes, and there didn’t seem to be any organized strategy.  Travis Boyd sealed the win for Hershey when he gently tossed the puck up high into the mesh above Lyon’s should before it quickly popped back out into the crease.

▲     Sam Morin (LV), Taylor Leier (LV), Travis Sanheim (LV), Liam O’Brien (HER), Travis Boyd (HER), Riley Barber (HER)

▼     Tyrell Goulbourne (LV), Tom Gilbert (HER)

1. Travis Boyd  HER
2. Taylor Leier  LV
3. Pheonix Copley  HER

Quotes courtesy of AHL Report

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