The Lehigh Valley Phantoms returned to the PPL Center Wednesday night against the Hershey Bears. The Phantoms have defeated the Bears twice this season and were looking to continue that streak after suffering back-to-back losses to the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins.
The Phantoms got back Tyson Foerster, Samuel Morin, and Isaac Ratcliffe for this game. Tyler Wotherspoon, Maksim Sushko, Matt Strome, Logan Day, Ralph Cuddemi, Brennan Saulnier, Chris Bigras, Pascal Laberge, and Eamon McAdam were all scratched for this game. Felix Sandstrom got the start in goal tonight.
The Phantoms got off to a strong start in the first period. They were playing most of the period in the Bears neutral zone. Tyson Foerster almost put the Phantoms up early, but he missed the shot wide right. At 9:52, the Phantoms took a 1-0 lead When Garrett Wilson was tripped, and he got the puck to Tanner Laczynski.
Laczynski was going to take a shot, but a Bears defender went to block his shot. Laczynski found an open space and passed to Linus Sandin, who finished the drive for the goal. It was Sandin’s second goal of the season.
Late into the first period, Bears defenseman Rob O’Gara was called for holding to put the Phantoms on the power play. The Phantoms were heading into the second period with 1:45 left of their power play. The shots were in favor of the Phantoms 5-3.
At the start of the second period, things started to go south for the Phantoms. Fifty-two seconds into the second period, the Phantoms were heading to the Bears’ neutral zone; however, Riley Sutter intercepted the puck to create a two-on-one with Tyson Foerster in the middle. Foerster attempted to block Sutter’s shot, but Sutter passed the puck to Martin Fehervary, who finished the play with a shorthand goal to tie the game at one apiece.
The Bears continued to put pressure on the Phantoms, creating several shot opportunities to take the lead. The Phantoms Egor Zamula tried to block a shot but took it in the leg and could not stand. Zamula would head to the locker room.
The Phantoms were able to regain the lead at 2:47 when Isaac Ratcliffe got the puck and made a shot that deflected off of Tanner MacMaster’s stick for the goal and a 2-1 lead. MacMaster was credited for the goal. Egor Zamula would return to the ice later and almost extended the Phantoms lead, but the puck hit the crossbar.
After an icing call against the Phantoms, the faceoff occurred in the Phantoms neutral zone. Riley Sutter won the faceoff, and Shane Gersich shot the puck to the far post to tie the game at two apiece. Not long after that goal, the Phantoms went on their second power play of the game after Martin Fehervary was called for holding.
Once again, the Bears were able to score on the Phantoms’ power play. Tyson Foerster turned the puck over to Brett Leason, who then found an open Axel Jonsson-Fjallby. Fjallby sprinted to the Phantoms’ zone and made a backhand goal under the pad of Sandstrom to put the Bears up 3-2. This was the second shorthanded goal given up by the Phantoms in the same period.
The Phantoms nearly tied it up on a couple of occasions but were unable to find the net. The Phantoms trailed the Bears 3-2 after two periods, with the Bears having the shots advantage 9-6. One big takeaway from the first two periods was the referees were allowing the players to play. The Bears should’ve been called twice for tripping, while the Phantoms also tripped a player and got away with the call.
Down 3-2 to start the third period, the Phantoms knew they had to come out swinging. They were able to kill off their third power play of the game. The Phantoms are currently ranked second-best in killing power plays. The Phantoms were playing better in the third period.
At 12:22, Samuel Morin shot the puck tipped in by Cal O’Reilly to tie the game at three apiece. It was O’Reilly’s first goal of the season. Nearly two minutes later, Linus Sandin recovered a missed shot and passed the puck to Garrett Wilson. Wilson then found Derrick Pouliot for the laser shot to put the Phantoms back up 4-3.
As time winded down, the Phantoms did a great job keeping the puck in the Bears’ neutral zone. The Bears tried to pull the goalie on several occasions, but the Phantoms kept coming and did not allow the Bears to make a move. Once the Bears were able to pull their goalie, there wasn’t much time left, and Phantoms kept the winning streak alive, defeating the Bears 4-3. The Bears dominated the shots advantage 14-8. The final shots stats were 26-19 in favor of the Bears.
The Phantoms continue to have problems with the power play. They went 0-4 and remained ranked at the bottom of the league. The good news is their power-play unit continues to play well as the Bears went 0-3. Phantoms goalie Felix Sandstrom made 23 saves. The three stars of the game went to Garrett Wilson (third star), Linus Sandin (second star), and Derrick Pouliot (first star).
These two teams will go at it again on Saturday, March 6th, from Hershey at 1 pm on AHL.tv.
