On Sunday afternoon in Chocolatetown, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms took on the Hershey Bears for the first time this year at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is home to the Hershey Factory, known for making Hershey’s, Reese’s, and other chocolate favorites.
The Phantoms were looking to close out the weekend with a two-game winning streak. Sam Ersson, who was sent down by the Flyers on Sunday, made it in time to start in goal for Lehigh Valley. Adam Karashik, Cooper Zech, Ryan Fitzgerald, Cooper Marody, Pat Nagle, and Kevin Connauton were all scratched for the game.
It didn’t take long for the two teams to be chirping away at one another as Zayde Wisdom and Kale Kessy said hi to each other as both players went to the penalty box for roughing. Early in the first period, the Bears dominated puck possession, similar to last night’s game in Wilkes-Barre.
Hershey took a couple of shots that Sam Ersson saved. While the defense was doing a good job protecting Ersson, they were unable to clear the puck. Hershey kept pounding their zone until they scored the first goal of the game with 3:56 left.
There was a lot of passing of the puck between players before Hendrix Lapierre (1) got control of the puck and skated with it before taking a shot that went over the left shoulder of Ersson for a 1-0 lead. Ersson had traffic in front of him. Ersson had a hard time locating the puck until it got past him. Gabriel Carlsson (1) and Vincent Iorio (1) assisted Lapierre’s goal.
The Phantoms did have a couple of chances to tie the game, but time ran out in the first period. Hershey led the shots 7-5.
A minute and 46-seconds into the second period, Phantoms forward Elliot Desnoyers got called for tripping, and Hershey went on their first power-play of the game. While Hershey got off several shots, the Phantoms’ defense held them off, and the Bears were 0/1 on the power play.
Shortly after the power play, Phantoms forward Elliot Desnoyers (2) made up for the penalty by turning on the jets as he skated past two Hershey players before shooting the puck past the right pad of Zack Fucale, tying the game 1-1 with 13:19 left.
However, not long after scoring the goal, Elliot Desnoyers returned to the penalty box for a high stick. Luckily, the Phantoms’ defense killed the power-play. Late in the second period, the Phantoms got caught with too many men on the ice, giving the Bears their third power play. Hershey had 1:46 left on the power play to begin the third period.
Hershey dominated the shots 19-9, and Phantoms goalie’ Sam Ersson made a couple of nice saves during the second period. He stopped 18 of 19 shots.
In the third period, the Phantoms killed Hershey’s third power play. However, just when it seemed the Phantoms were starting to put something together, Wyatte Wylie headed to the penalty box for hooking. It was the Bears’ fifth power play of the afternoon.
Ten seconds into the power play, Hershey took the lead. Hershey wrestled the puck away from the Phantoms on the faceoff to set up a shot. Sam Anas made a cross pass to Mike Vecchione (1), who took a shot that hit the stick of Garrett Pilon (1), and Mike Sgarbossa (1) batted the puck in the air past the right shoulder of Ersson to go up 2-1 with 10:37 left.
Once again, the Phantoms’ defense needed to help their goalie by clearing out traffic in front of him. The Phantoms continued to struggle on offense for the rest of the game. They got six shots off but couldn’t put it into the net. Late in the third period, the Phantoms got a couple of power plays but were unable to find the net, and Hershey won the game 2-1. Hershey outshot the Phantoms 28-15.
Sam Ersson made 26 of 28 saves, earning him the third star, Hendrix Lapierre was the second star, and Mike Sgarbossa was the first star of the game.
Before Lehigh Valley’s next game, they need to work on the offense this week in practice. When there are back-to-back games, they seemed to lose their legs in the second game. Meanwhile, the defense, while it is good, needs to work on creating turnovers to give the offense a chance to take some shots. Most of this game was played in the Phantoms’ half.
So far, the biggest strength of this team is the goalies. Troy Grosenick and Sam Ersson made great saves in these two games, and with Pat Nagle behind them, they can rotate them to keep them fresh this season unless they are called up to the Flyers.
Lehigh Valley will have their home opener next weekend in back-to-back games against the Cleveland Monsters starting Saturday at 7:05 pm on AHL.TV. Tickets for the game can be purchased on StubHub.
