By Michael Heilman

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms were looking to rebound Sunday afternoon against the Hershey Bears at the Giant Center. Scratches for the game were Tyler Wotherspoon, Max Willman, Gerry Fitzgerald, Kurtis Gabriel, TJ Brennan, and Pascal Laberge. Jean Francois-Berube got the start at goal for today’s game.

The Phantoms trailed early 1-0 as Garrett Pilon (17) stole the puck to find Liam O’Brien (10), who went upstairs past Berube’s shoulder for the goal. The Phantoms kept pace with the Bears but did not do themselves any favors as they committed three penalties in the first period and needed to clean that up quick. The Bears remained in the lead 1-0 at the end of the first period. The shots were eight to seven for the Phantoms. The Bears were going to start the second period with a minute and fifty-two seconds on the power play as there was an elbowing call against Isaac Ratcliffe.

A minute and twenty-six seconds into the second period, the Bears extended their lead 2-0 as Christian Djoos (5) shot from center point upstairs over the shoulder of Berube for the power-play goal with assists from Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (9) and Brett Leason (9).

The Phantoms cut the Bears lead with eleven minutes and forty-nine seconds left in the second period as Mark Friedman (11) passed the puck which hit off the boards, and landed in front of Morgan Frost (10), who found the open net to make it a 2-1 Bears lead. The Phantoms tied the game with under two minutes left as German Rubtsov (11) intercepted the puck and passed it to Mark Friedman (12), who then found Maksim Sushko (10). Sushko was denied on the first try but finished the play to tie the game up at 2-2. The game was tied 2-2 at the end of the second period, with the shots being twelve to three in favor of the Phantoms. The Phantoms played a better period to get back into this game.

The Phantoms couldn’t afford to let up in the third period and were keeping close ties with the Bears until the Bears regained the lead eight minutes and fifty-seconds in the third period when Bobby Nardella (3) faked the shot and went around the goal net untouched and then went upstairs to give the Bears a 3-2 lead. Brett Leason (10) and Garrett Pilon (18) assisted Nardella’s goal.

Hershey controlled the game for the rest of the way as the Bears extended the lead 4-2 when Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (10) made a backhand pass to Beck Malenstyn (7) and buried the shot for the goal. Bobby Nardella (22) assisted Malenstyn’s goal. Not backing down without a fight, the Phantoms pulled Berube with under three minutes left in the game for the extra attacker and were able to pull within one 4-3 when Andy Andreoff (7) shot the puck to the bottom right corner of the net for the goal with assists from Cal O’Reilly (19) and Chris Bigras (11).

The Bears would seal the game with ten seconds left in the game as Brett Leason (11) passed the puck to Beck Malenstyn (6), who then tapped the puck to Brian Pinho for the empty-net goal to give the Hershey Bears a 5-3 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The shots were twenty-nine to twenty for the Phantoms. The Phantoms went zero for four on the power-play while the Bears were one for four on the power-play. Phantoms goalie Jean Francois-Berube made fifteen of nineteen saves, allowing four goals and Bears goalie Phoenix Copley made twenty-six of twenty-nine saves, allowing three goals.

The three stars of the game were Bears right-winger Axel-Jonsson-Fjallby with two assists, Bears right-winger Brett Leason with three assists, and Bears defenseman Bobby Nardella with one goal and one assist.

The Phantoms will now head to the Webster Bank Arena Wednesday night against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at 7 pm.

(player stats for the year)