The Bears took on the Phantoms in Hershey Sunday night to finish off another weekend home and home with Lehigh Valley. The Bears took out the Phantoms 3-2 in overtime last night, after a goal with 2.8 seconds left from Henrik Rybinski tied it at 2 and then Chase Priskie finished the comeback in OT with only 22 seconds left.

We did see a couple of changes for the Bears from last night. Alex Limoges is back on the IL, so Spencer Smallman moved up to the second line. Zac Funk came in for Smallman on the third line. On defense, Jon McDonald came in for Jake Massie- this was McDonald’s season debut. And Hunter Shepard got the start after Clay Stevenson helped the Bears to win last night.

First Period

The Bears started off the period with a penalty- Ethan Bear got called for a hook only 1:33 into the period. But the Bears would kill the penalty and more. Bogdan Trineyev finished off a two-on-one with Henrik Rybinski and got the shorthanded goal to put the Bears up 1-0.

It should have been 2-0, but Pierrick Dube was robbed by Phantoms goalie Parker Gahagen. Lehigh Valley went immediately down the ice and tied the game up with a goal from Jon-Randall Avon right in front of the net. This goal came with some controversy as the refs took a long look at the goal. The original call stood though and the score was all tied up at one.

The most noticeable moment from the period though was the five minute major and coinciding ejection that Sawyer Boulton received for the Phantoms after he left the bench to start a fight with Brennan Saulnier. That’s a big no no and that would cause the Phantoms to be down a man for the rest of the game.

On that 5 minute power play for the Bears though it would be the Phantoms PK that took advantage first. On a shorthanded two-on-one of their own, Zayde Wisdom put the puck home and the Phantoms suddenly had the lead. The Bears would convert right at the end of the 5 minute power play opportunity though. Mike Vecchione finished off a rebound in front and tied the game back up at two. That’s how the period ended with the Bears holding a 10-9 shots advantage.

Second Period

It was another period of action between these two rivals, with the Bears striking first once again. Luke Philp broke his recent goalless streak, making it 3-2 Bears just under 5 minutes into the second. After 10 minutes of little action then, the game really turned up the action.

First the Bears took a 4-2 lead thanks to another Ethen Frank snipe, which is his 17th of the season, putting him near the top of the AHL leaderboard. The Phantoms would respond almost immediately, with Rhett Gardner tipping the puck home after some solid zone time for Lehigh Valley. That made it 4-3 with 3:50 left in the period.

Then, a potential game changing moment occurred. Zac Funk was pushed after the whistle which led to the expected scrum. In the middle of it though, Spencer Smallman was called for a five minute major cross checking penalty, which put the Phantoms on the powerplay and saw Smallman ejected.

And the Phantoms would convert early in their power play time, With Alexis Gendron sniping one home to tie the game up at 4. The Bears PK held on for the remainder of the period, but Lehigh Valley would start the third with a 1:56 of power play time remaining in Smallman’s major penalty.

Third Period

The Bears would kill off that 1:56 remaining on the PK and the score, for the first time all game, would stay the same for most of the period.

That would be until with 3:07 left in the third, the Bears won a board battle and Pierrick Dube found Ethen Frank in front for Frank’s second of the night. That gave the Bears a 5-4 lead that they did not let go of, finishing off the weekend sweep of the Phantoms and their third straight win of the season.

With two goals tonight, Ethen Frank now leads the AHL with 18 so far on the season. The Bears are now 17-5-3 on the season and will hit the road for a Northern road trip this week- they will take on Hartford in Connecticut on Wednesday and then travel to Syracuse for a Friday matchup before returning home that same night to play the Checkers the next day here at home on Saturday, December 14.

Postgame Quotables

Head Coach Todd Nelson on the team’s response following his comments last Saturday against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton: “The response against Wilkes in their building was really good, I thought we played a really strong game. We played well last night in what was a really tight game. Tonight’s game was a little slopier, I thought we turned the puck over too many times. Against a team like Lehigh, you can’t do that, so with stuff like that that is in our control we still have to clean it up.”

Ethen Frank on his hot start to the season: “I’m feeling pretty good. There’s still some things off the puck I’m trying to focus on and get better at to round out my game. But I’m going to keep giving credit to the other four guys on the ice that are making it easy. Dube in particular tonight with that pass at the end, he put it through three sticks to find me. They’re really helping me out and I just get to shoot the puck.”