Hershey Bears Blast Lehigh Valley Phantoms 6-1

Photo: AHL

The Hershey Bears (6-6-0-2) beat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 6-1 Saturday night at the Giant Center in Hershey. This was the Bears third consecutive win. The Bears are back at it on Sunday when they host the Scranton-Wilkes/Barre Penguins at Giant Center. Puck drop is 5:00 PM.

Pheonix Copley (2-0-1, 2.86 GAA, 0.894 SV%) got the start in goal for the Bears. Alex Lyon (6-2-1, 2.97 GAA, 0.905 SV%) got the start in net for the Phantoms. The Bears forward lines and defensive pairs for the game:

Bourque-Boyd-Simpson
Gazley-Langlois-Barber
O’Brien-Sill-Mitchell
Bau-Gustafsson-Peluso
Siegenthaler-Williams
Johansen-Lewington
Labrie-Bindulis

Bears Scratches – Adam Carlson, Paul Geiger, Connor Hobbs, John Albert and Mason Mitchell.

FIRST PERIOD
After a somewhat slow start to the game, the Bears Captain Garrett Mitchell would start the scoring at the 5:13 mark of the opening frame. Mitchell would race down the right wing on a 2-on-1 breakaway with Liam O’Brien, going 5-hole with a backhander for the Bears 1-0 lead. Zach Sill would get the lone assist.

The Bears dominated a majority of the period, outshooting the Phantoms 8-1 after the first 13 minutes of the game. Mathias Bau would poke-in a rebound on the Bears first power play to stretch the Bears lead to 2-0 at the 17:32 mark.

With 36 seconds remaining in the opening frame, the Bears would make it 3-0 on another knock-in of a rebound. This time Tyler Lewington would get the tally.

The period would conclude with the Bears holding a decisive 3-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. The Bears outshot the Phantoms 16-3 for the first period.

SECOND PERIOD
A more even start to the middle frame, as Lehigh Valley amped-up their pressure in the Bears zone. The Phantoms outshot the Bears 11-0 after the first nine minutes of the middle frame. However, it would be the Bears to notch the first tally of the middle frame.

Wayne Simpson would make it 4-0 with 10:41 remaining in the second period. Travis Boyd and Chris Bourque would get the assists. This was Boyd’s seventh multi-point game of the young season.

The third period would end with the Bears leading 4-0. The Bears outshot the Phantoms 24-15 after two periods of play. Hershey was 0 for 3 and the Phantoms 0 for 2 on the man advantage for the middle frame.

THIRD PERIOD
Riley Barber would make it 5-0 on a top-shelf snipe from the slot at the 4:09 mark of the third period. This was Barber’s third goal of,the season. Jonas Siegenthaler was credited with the lone assist.

Mathias Bau would score his second of the night to make it 6-0 with a power play goal at the 9:24 mark. Travis Boyd and Chris Bourque were credited with the assists. Both Boyd and Bourque registered their third assists for the night on Bau’s second goal.

The Phantoms would ruin Copley’s shutout with a power play goal by Greg Carey with 8 minutes left in the game. The Bears would hold on for the 6-1 win.

Game highlights: