For the third game in a row, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (9-11-5-2) went into overtime, only to be defeated by the Hershey Bears (16-9-2-1) 4-2 Wednesday night in front of 6,032 fans at the Giant Center.
Before the game took place, the Phantoms had some bad news as Cal O’Reilly, Maksim Sushko, and Isaac Ratcliffe went on the COVID protocol. Defensemen Mason Millman and Ryan MacKinnon were added to the lineup as forwards.
Both players did a great job on short notice. Cal O’Reilly, Maksim Sushko, and Isaac Ratcliffe were scratched along with Wade Allison, Sam Ersson, and Tyson Foerster, while Pat Nagle started in goal.
Seventeen seconds into the game, the Bears rushed to the Phantoms with Garrett Pilon (10) cross-passing the puck to Joe Snively (9) for an easy goal down low for a 1-0 lead. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (8) also assisted the goal.
The Bears were dominating early in the game. With 15:00 minutes left, the Bears were again in the Phantoms zone. Pat Nagle stopped Dylan McIlrath’s (3) shot; however, the Bears kept pushing before Shane Gersich (6) finished the play flipping the puck in an open net for a 2-0 lead. Drake Rymsha (6) also assisted the goal.
The first Phantoms shot of the game came with 13:14 left by Connor Bunnaman. Up until that point, the Bears had eleven shots. With 12:42 left, Logan Day broke up a breakaway from Riley Sutter.
The Phantoms had a couple of chances to score. First, Garrett Wilson’s shot hit the post, followed by Adam Clendening setting up Charlie Gerard but Zach Fucale stopped his shot.
Hershey controlled the game the rest of the first period, nearly adding another goal from Alex Alexeyev, but his shot hit the post. With eleven seconds left, a fight broke out between Nick Lappin and Ryan Dmowski.
Both players went to the penalty box for five minutes. As time expired, there was more fighting, but no penalties were issued. The Bears led 2-0 with the shots in Hershey’s favor 15-4.
In the second period, Charlie Gerard cross-passed the puck to German Rubtsov, but Zach Fucale stopped his shot. Then, with 12:14 left, Pat Nagle came out of his net to advance the puck. Instead, he hit Cooper Zech in the face, while Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (7) got the puck, skated around Nagle, and scored an empty-net goal for a 3-0 lead.
The Phantoms were having a hard time keeping pace with the Bears. Hershey was doing whatever they wanted to the Phantoms. With 8:27 left in the second period. Hayden Hodgson appeared to have scored a goal, but the head official waved it off due to high sticking on Brennan Saulnier.
Then, the Phantoms started to cook. With four minutes left, the Phantoms attacked the Bears zone with good puck movement leading to German Rubtsov (3) up against the boards, finding Matt Strome (5) to set up Linus Sandin’s (1) goal down low that cut the Bears lead 3-1. After two periods, the Phantoms trailed the Bears 3-1. The shots were 27-13 Bears.
Forty-two seconds into the third period, the Phantoms pulled within one 3-2. Charlie Gerard (2) got a piece of Connor Bunnaman’s (2) shot down low for the goal. Nick Lappin (1) also assisted Gerard’s goal.
Throughout the third period, the Phantoms kept attacking from all directions. Finally, as the third period was winding down, head coach Ian Laperriere pulled Pat Nagle with 35-seconds left, still down 3-2 for an extra attacker.
His gamble paid off with 17-seconds left as Egor Zamula (3) from center-point blasted the puck into the net that tied the game 3-3. Adam Clendening (10) and Hayden Hodgson (7) assisted Zamula’s goal. For the third consecutive game, the Phantoms went to overtime. The shots were 32-21 Bears after three periods.
In overtime, the Phantoms rushed to the Bears’ zone, only to turn over the puck to the Bears, creating a two-on-one play. Two Phantoms dropped to the ice to block the puck. However, Joe Snively’s (10) shot hit the pad of Nagle. Garrett Pilon (11) tried to finish the play, but Snively finished it off to give the Bears a 4-3 overtime win over the Phantoms.
The Phantoms finished the night with 21 shots, 0/2 on the power play, and Pat Nagle made 30 saves.
The Phantoms continue their road trip on Friday, January 7th, against the Providence Bruins at 7:05 pm.
