By Michael Heilman

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms returned to the PPL Center for a Sunday afternoon clash with the Hershey Bears. Today’s scratches for the Phantoms were Greg Carey, German Rubtsov, Carsen Twarynski, Chris Bigras, TJ Brennan, and Pascal Laberge. Jean Francois-Berube got the start for the Phantoms.

The Phantoms found themselves trailing a minute and nine seconds into the first period as Philippe Maillet (20) made a cross-pass to Matt Moulson (17) in front of an empty net to put the Bears up 1-0. Joe Snively (9) also assisted Moulson’s goal.

The Bears then went on the power-play after a high-sticking call against forward Mikhail Vorobyev. The Bears would get another goal two minutes later as Philippe Maillet (21) past the puck to Christian Djoos (22), who found Garrett Pilon (14) and scorched the puck into the net for a 2-0 Bears lead. The power-play goal ended the Phantoms twenty-three penalty-killing streak in eight games. The Phantoms trailed 2-0 at the end of the first period and had a lot of work to do. The shots were eleven to six for the Bears.

The Phantoms bounced back two minutes and fifty-six seconds into the second period as David Kase (10) past the puck to Mikhail Vorobyev (13), who past the puck to Steve Swavely (1) and went under the legs of Bears goalie Vitek Vanecek to cut the Bears lead in half 2-1. The Phantoms were on fire, taking shots left and right. They made adjustments, and it showed. The Phantoms were able to tie the game with three minutes and fourteen seconds left in the second period as Isaac Ratcliffe (5) stole the puck from Bears defenseman Alex Alexeyev and squeezed the puck under the legs of Bears goalie Vitek Vanecek to tie the game 2-2. The Phantoms dominated the second period to tie the game 2-2 as the second period ended. The shots were twelve to five for the Phantoms.

The Phantoms created more chances for themselves in trying to take the lead, but Vitek Vanecek was stopping the shots that came his way. A tripping call against defenseman Nate Prosser put the Bears on the power-play for the fourth time. The Bears made easy work to regain the lead 3-2 as a tic-tac-toe goal as Christian Djoos (23) made a cross pass to Bobby Nardella (19) to find Matt Moulson (18) and in for his second goal of the game.

The Phantoms were running out of gas, Mikhail Vorobyev turned the puck over to Beck Malenstyn (6) who made a pass to Riley Sutter (3) who then passed the puck to Brett Leason (2) with the backhand goal to make it a 4-2 Bears lead with five minutes and fifty-three seconds left to play in the third period.

After the goal, the Phantoms pulled Berube for the extra attacker and created plenty of chances to score, but Vitek Vanecek continued to make saves. After several chances again for the Phantoms to score, the Bears put the game away as Philippe Maillet (22) passed the puck to Brian Pinho (14) who rushed for the puck with Phantoms players on him and scored the empty-net goal as the Phantoms go down to the Hershey Bears 5-2. The loss snaps the Phantoms three-game winning streak.

The Phantoms recovered after a bad first period and played well in the second period, but ran out of gas in the third. The Bears are in first place for a reason and are a really good hockey team. While the Phantoms outshot the Bears thirty-three to twenty-one, they must work on converting power-play opportunities as they finished zero for four while the Bears were two for four.

Phantoms goalie Jean Francois-Berube finished the day going sixteen of twenty saves, allowing four goals, and Bears goalie Vitek Vanecek was thirty-one of thirty-three saves allowing two goals.

The three stars of the game were Phantoms center Steve Swavely with one goal, Phantoms forward Isaac Ratcliffe with one goal, and Bears left-winger Matt Moulson with two goals.

The Phantoms will be back at the PPL Center for two games Friday at 7:05 against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Saturday at 7:05 pm against the Hartford Wolf Pack before wrapping up the weekend at the Giant Center against the Hershey Bears at 5 pm.

(player stats for the year)