On Wednesday night, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-4-1) returned to Chocolatetown for the second time this season against the Hershey Bears (7-2) from the Giant Center.
On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Flyers sent goaltender Felix Sandstrom to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Sandstrom was the starting goalie for the Phantoms against Hershey. In other news, the Phantoms sent forward Matthew Brown and goaltender Parker Gahagen to the Reading Royals.
The Phantoms made some lineup adjustments with some of the players out due to the flu or injury. The first line featured Olle Lycksell, Tanner Laczynski, and Cooper Marody. The second line had Garrett Wilson, Elliot Desnoyers, and Samu Tuomaala.
The third line consisted of J.R. Avon, Rhett Gardner, and Wade Allison. The fourth line featured Evan Polei, Jordy Bellerive, and Zayde Wisdom. On defense, Adam Ginning and Ethan Samson were on the first line. Mason Millman and Helge Grans were on the second line, and Will Zmolek and Adam Karashik were on the third line.
The scratches for the game were Emil Andrae, Ronnie Attard, Brendan Furry, Adam Brooks, Alexis Gendron, and Jacob Gaucher.
In the first period, the Phantoms had eight shots on goal. They were evenly matched with the Bears. Lehigh Valley did a good job creating turnovers, man-to-man coverage, blocking shots, hustling, and shooting.
Elliot Desnoyers, Rhett Gardner, and J.R. Avon came close to putting Lehigh Valley on the board. On the other side, the Phantoms committed two penalties but they killed off both power plays. Felix Sandstrom stopped all Hershey’s ten shots and the game was scoreless after one period.
The action picked up in the second period. At 3:57, the Phantoms were inside the Bears’ zone. Tanner Laczynski (7) passed the puck to Will Zmolek (1). Zmolek took a shot but it bounced off Hunter Shepard’s pad. However, Cooper Marody was there for the rebound before making a backhand shot into the net for a 1-0 lead.
Lehigh Valley’s lead did not last long. At 6:51, Dylan McIlrath (2) made a pass to Bogdan Trineyev (1) moving toward the Phantoms’ zone. Then, Trineyev passed the puck to former Phantom Nic Aubé-Kubel (1), who shot the puck which banked off the stick of Adam Ginning and into the net, tying the game 1-1 with 13:10 left of the second period. Hershey started to take control of the game.
The Phantoms went on the power play at 9:46 on an interference call against Vincent Iorio. However, during the power play, Nic Aubé-Kubel (2) stole the puck before quickly passing it to Bogdan Trineyev (2) for a breakaway goal through the five-hole and into the net. The Bears led 2-1 with nine minutes left.
Lehigh Valley came back. Shortly after the power play had expired, Wade Allison (2) passed the puck to Garrett Wilson (3) heading into the Bears’ zone. Wilson had the puck near the backboards before making a pass to Elliot Desnoyers. Desnoyers missed the shot but Adam Ginning (2) sprinted toward Hunter Shepard before blasting it through the five-hole and into the net, tying the game 2-2 with 8:09 left of the second period.
The game got chippy later in the second period. Shortly after the faceoff inside Hershey’s zone, Adam Ginning took a blindsided hit by Mike Vecchione and was down for several minutes. Ginning’s teammates went after Vecchione. Vecchione was ejected from the game on a game misconduct penalty plus an interference penalty. This will likely result in Vecchione being suspended for the second time this season.
Despite a five-minute power play for the Phantoms, they were unable to capitalize. The game remained tied 2-2 with one period left to play. The Phantoms had 15 shots on goal for the second period.
In the third period, Lehigh Valley’s coverage broke down at 9:23 when Dylan McIlrath (3) spotted Ivan Miroshnichenko (4) open. Miroshnichenko had Pierrick Dubé (4) with him for a 2-1 breakaway. Miroshnichenko passed the puck to Dubé, who sniped it through the five-hole and into the net, putting Hershey back up 3-2 with 10:38 left of the game.
Late in the third period, the Phantoms attacked the Bears’ zone. Elliot Desnoyers (3) used his agility to create a scoring chance but instead passed the puck to Garrett Wilson (4). Wilson found J.R. Avon (1) open from the left circle. Avon shot the puck through the five-hole and into the net, tying the game again 3-3 with 4:55 left. The score remained 3-3 and headed to overtime.
A minute and thirty-two seconds into overtime, Mike Sgarbossa (7) found Chase Priskie (1) open for a breakaway chance. Priskie turned on the jets before ending the game shooting the puck past Sandstrom’s glove and into the net. The Phantoms lost to the Bears by the final score of 4-3 in overtime.
This was a better game for the Phantoms than their last meeting against Hershey. They did a good job attacking Hershey’s zone and finished the night with 33 shots on goal. However, the defense gave up several breakaway chances, resulting in three breakaway goals. Lehigh Valley committed four penalties and Felix Sandstrom made 24 saves off 28 shots.
The Phantoms return to the PPL Center on Friday night against the Hartford Wolf Pack at 7:05 pm on AHL.TV. Purchase Phantoms tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
