The Hershey Bears and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms met up in Game Four of the Atlantic Division Semifinals on Saturday. In the only American Hockey League action of the day, the two perpetual rivals duked it out with a lot on the line. In the end, Hunter Shepard’s key save and Hardy Haman Aktell’s insurance marker lifted the Bears to a 5-3 decision. The Bears took the series by a 3-1 count and advance to face the Hartford Wolf Pack in the Atlantic Division Finals.
All on the Line
The Phantoms were battling to extend their season after an impressive 2-0 win on Wednesday. After a startling upset of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the first round, the sixth seed Phantoms wouldn’t quit. Their desperation was on display in the first period as the home team dominated possession and quality chances.
It all culminated in the first goal as Rhett Gardner batted a rebound out of the air for his second of the postseason. Shepard made an incredible scorpion save on Brendan Furry, but the hand-eye coordination of Gardner finished the chance. The team who scored the first goal won all three of the previous matchups of the series. Lehigh Valley was off and running in a positive start.
It was an equally important game for the Bears in their second opportunity to close out the series. With a Game Five on Sunday at home looming, Hershey responded just 17 seconds later to the goal. Chase Priskie fired a pass up the boards with Mike Vecchione tying up a defender’s stick. The puck found a streaking Ivan Miroshnichenko, who beat Cal Petersen on a breakaway to even the count at one each.
Battle of Pennsylvania
But wait! There’s more! The two teams traded goals again before the first period was over. Garrett Wilson tallied his first goal of the postseason with a shot that eluded Shepard past the glove. Hershey responded for the second time after Haman Aktell narrowly kept the puck in at the blue line. He and Logan Day combined to get the biscuit to Pierrick DubĂ©, who tallied his first playoff goal through traffic.
Hershey pulled ahead for the first time early in the second period. After being held at bay by the Phantoms’ forecheck and heavy pressure, the Bears pulled off the Uno reverse card. After winning a puck battle along the boards, DubĂ© traded passes with Miroshnichenko. The rookie forward fired a laser over the glove of Petersen to make it 3-2 for the visitors.
The Bears got one more goal in the middle stanza. Much was said about the team’s power play in the series after coming up empty in five attempts in Game Three. Hershey capitalized on their first chance on a perfect shot from Ethen Frank. The team’s leading scorer beat Petersen past the glove again to make it 4-2 Bears. Frank scored two goals in Hershey’s win in Game Two of the series.
Chaos in the Third
Lehigh Valley did not go down quietly. They’d pull back to within a goal late in the second period to set the stage for a dramatic third period. Adam Brooks capitalized on a misplay by the Hershey defenders, skating in and finding Tanner Laczynski driving to the net. Laczynski tallied his fourth of the postseason in six games.
The biggest moment in the game came just after the halfway point. Laczynski found some space and centered the puck to Hunter McDonald on the other side. He put the puck on net with a chance to tie the game. However, the cat-like reflexes of Hunter Shepard saw the netminder meet McDonald to stop the shot. It was a game-saving stop to preserve Hershey’s one goal lead.
Haman Aktell to the Rescue
Minutes after the save by Shepard, the Bears tallied the all-important insurance marker. After some stops in the defensive zone, Garrett Roe fired a pass to a streaking Miroshnichenko up the left wing. The rookie forward found a lane in close to center the puck to Vecchione on the other side. Petersen made the save on the shot, but the Bears dug the puck out from the ensuing scramble.
Hershey worked the puck back to the blue line, with Day finding Haman Aktell. The first year AHL defender used the space afforded to him by the chaos and fired a shot through a screen. He’d score over the glove again to give Hershey a 5-3 lead. Three different players scored their first Calder Cup Playoff goals in the game in a night of firsts. The defending champions dug in and held off Lehigh Valley the rest of the way to wrap up the series.
“It was nice to get the two-goal lead,” Haman Aktell said after the game. “We got a little bit of breathing room there, we had to have laser focus there. It was a great job by the guys to close it out.”
Handshakes and a Date with Hartford
The two teams shook hands at the completion the game. The time-honored tradition of hockey ended the latest installment of the fierce rivalry. Hershey advances for a date with the Hartford Wolf Pack in the Atlantic Division Finals for the second straight year. Hartford knocked off the Providence Bruins to set the stage for the rematch, which begins on Thursday in Hershey.
“I wasn’t having fun at all,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said after the game. “I wasn’t having fun until the final buzzer. That’s part of playoff hockey, there’s a lot of excitement and it’s unpredictable. (Lehigh Valley) is such a dangerous team, they’ve came back on teams down two goals and forced overtime. We didn’t want that to happen, but the guys hung in there and Shepard was there when we broke down.”
It’ll be a different kind of test for the Bears against the Wolf Pack. Hartford upset two tough teams in the first and second rounds to get to this point. Much like Lehigh Valley, the postseason has breathed new life into Hartford to play their best. Hershey now has a playoff battle under their belt to meet the challenge head-on, and they’ll need to be ready right at puck drop in the new series.
