The Hershey Bears looked to sweep the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Wednesday night at Giant Center after winning the first two games in the opening round of the Calder Cup Playoffs in Lehigh. Unfortunately for Hershey, this would not be the case as they fell to Lehigh 2-1 in overtime.
After an overtime goal by Nathan Walker in game one and last minute heroics by Chris Bourque in game two, the Bears had a lot of momentum on their side heading into Wednesday night’s contest.
Aside from the momentum the Bears had coming into this game, the Phantoms were without their top two goalies, Alex Lyon and Anthony Stolarz, due to injury. Martin Ouellette would get the start for game three with Carter Hart, fresh out of junior, backing him up. Phoenix Copley would get the start for the Bears.
Jonas Siegenthaler was inserted into Hershey’s line up due to Aaron Ness being sidelined with a lower body injury for Wednesday’s game.
After a scoreless first period, Stanislav Galiev would open the score for the Chocolate and White at the 11:35 mark of the second period. The Phantoms had their fair share of scoring chances during the second period as well. Chris Conner had a wrap-around chance that went right through the goal crease. Riley Barber also had a goal that was saved by the skate of Phantoms defenseman Samuel Morin just before it could cross the goal line. Hershey would take the 1-0 lead into the locker room.
The Phantoms would not go away quietly. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck in order to spark a team back to life. Colin McDonald would provide that spark for his team at the beginning of the third period. McDonald fired a slap shot from the red line that got past Copley to tie the game at one.
Later in the third, the Bears thought they had scored after Ouellette gave up a rebound and the puck was tapped in the net. This would not be the case as the ref lost track of the puck and blew the play dead.
The game would head to overtime. Chris Conner would make the overtime period short as he would score on a breakaway chance to give the Phantoms the 2-1 win and extend the series to Saturday in Hershey. The Chocolate and White are still up in the series 2-1 over the Phantoms.
Game 3 Photos
Highlights
