The Lehigh Valley Phantoms were back at the Giant Center Saturday afternoon against the Hershey Bears. The Phantoms are 3-0 against the Bears this season and looking to continue the streak.
These two teams played on Wednesday when the Phantoms overcame a one-goal deficit to beat the Bears 4-3 in Lehigh Valley. Tyler Wotherspoon, Maksim Sushko, Matt Strome, Logan Day, Ralph Cuddemi, Brennan Saulnier, Pascal Laberge, and Eamon McAdam were all scratched for the game.
The Phantoms had two chances to take the lead early in the first by both Tanner Laczynski and David Kase, but neither could find the net. The Bears were mostly in control of the first period spending time in the Phantoms’ neutral zone. Phantoms goalie Felix Sandstrom was making some good saves, keeping the Bears from scoring.
That was until the Bears would score the first goal of the game at 18:22 when Rob O’Gara made a pass to Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, who scored from the blue line to put the Bears up 1-0. Zayde Wisdom committed a slashing penalty to put the Bears on the power play. The Bears would have 1:28 left on the power play as the first period ended with a 1-0 lead and the shots advantage of 6-3.
The Phantoms were able to kill off the power-play. They remain the second-best in the AHL. However, the game quickly got out of hand shortly after. At 1:45, Brett Leason found Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, who was in front of Sandstrom, to score his second goal extending the Bears lead 2-0.
A little over a minute later, a two-on-one play developed with Garrett Pilon and Mike Sgarbossa. They took turns passing the puck before Sgarbossa scored to make it a 3-0 Bears lead. This would be it for Sandstrom as he was pulled for Zane McIntyre.
Less than a minute later, the Bears added another goal to make it 4-0. Cameron Schilling’s pass was blocked and recovered by Kale Kessy, who shot the puck to the net’s top left corner. Tyson Foerster almost scored for the Phantoms, but Zach Fucale stopped it. The Phantoms went on their first power play of the game after Kale Kessy was called for hooking. They were unable to score on the power play. The Phantoms were now 0-14 on the power play against the Bears. The Bears led 4-0 at the end of the second period with the shot advantage of 12-9.
The Phantoms put some pressure on the Bears in the third period but still could not find a way to score in this game. The Bears were killing time as the game moved along. Late in the third period, Bears winger Damien Riat was called for high-sticking, sending the Phantoms to their third power play of the game. The Phantoms finally scored ten seconds later when Tyson Foerster shot the puck that deflected off Chris Mueller’s skate to cut the Bears lead 4-1.
The Phantoms would suffer their second regular-season loss 4-1. Their record is now 5-2-2. They only had 18 shots for the entire game while the Bears had 23. Felix Sandstrom only made five saves before being pulled after giving up three goals. Zane McIntyre made fourteen saves, giving up one goal. The Phantoms continue to do a great job killing off power plays.
The Phantoms will now head back to the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza to play the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins on Monday, March 8th, at 5 pm on AHL.tv.
