The Lehigh Valley Phantoms returned to the Giant Center Sunday afternoon to battle the Hershey Bears. The Phantoms were looking to get back on the winning track after losing in overtime to Binghamton Wednesday night.
Sixteen seconds into the game, Garrett Pilon of the Bears made a long pass to Joe Snively, who shot the puck that hit the far post and went into the net to put the Bears up 1-0. Pilon was not given the assist; instead, it was given to Reece Willcox and Lucas Johnansen. That stat should change soon.
The Phantoms began to put pressure on the Bears, keeping the puck in the Bears zone. At 8:33, David Kase found Logan Day. Day buried the shot to tie the game 1-1. With under a minute left in the first period, Chris Mueller attempted a shot that bounced off the goalie’s pad and went into Zayde Wilson’s direction. Wilson finished the play with a backhand shot into the net to put the Phantoms up 2-1 with 24 seconds left. As the first period ended, the Phantoms had 14 shots while the Bears had 10.
Two minutes and forty seconds into the second period, Ralph Cuddemi passed the puck to Logan Day. Instead of Day taking the shot, he passed it over to Matthew Strome for the backhand goal that extended the Phantoms lead to 3-1.
After the goal, the Bears began to make a comeback. With 6:57 left in the second period, Joe Snively found Cameron Schilling, who found an open left side of the net to cut the Phantoms lead 3-2. Hershey outshouted the Phantoms 11-5.
Three minutes later, the Bears had the puck and were in the Phantoms’ zone. Martin Fehervary found Mike Sgarbossa, who smacked it in to tie the game at three apiece. The Phantoms were able to hold off the Bears for the remainder of the period and kept the score tied 3-3.
Five minutes and fifty-two seconds into the third period, Rob O’Gara was attempting to keep the puck in the Phantoms’ zone. He made a backhand toss that hit the bar and went into the net to give the Bears a 4-3. With 5:16 left in the third period, Tyler Wotherspoon tried to get the puck into the Bears zone. The puck bounced off O’Gara’s glove, and Zayde Wisdom retrieved the puck and scored to tie the game at four apiece.
Both teams gave it all they had towards the end of the third period, and for the third straight game, the Phantoms were headed to overtime. Two minutes and fifty-three seconds into overtime, David Kase shot the puck that hit the post. Zayde Wilson retrieved the puck and passed it back to Kase, who scored to give the Phantoms a 5-4 win.
The Phantoms were outshot in the shot’s category 36-29. Zane McIntyre made thirty-two saves, and the Phantoms went zero for three on the power-play. David Kase earned the first star, Zayde Wilson earned the second star, and Bears winger Joe Snively earned the third star.
The Phantoms will have one more road game as they head back to Newark to take on the Devils next Friday, February 19th, at 7 pm on AHL.tv.
