The Hershey Bears met up with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday night for the second of 12 meetings in 2023-24. The Phantoms had revenge on the mind after being blanked by a 4-0 count a few nights prior, pushing the pace in this iteration of the interstate rivalry. However, the Bears had a few tricks of their own up their sleeve, getting the job done behind Chase Priskie’s first goal in a Hershey sweater in overtime. The Bears took the 4-3 final score and banked two more points to rank atop the American Hockey League as November gets underway.
Lighting the Lamp
The scoring would start in an avalanche in the second period. Lehigh Valley pushed with a renewed fervor in the middle stanza after being blanked by Hunter Shepard for the fourth consecutive period of play. They’d break through early on as Cooper Marody stashed a rebound of a Will Zmolek shot past the Calder Cup MVP of last summer’s postseason to make it 1-0.
Hershey had an answer in a bit of an unorthodox form. Facing the recently assigned Felix Sandstrom in goal, the Bears got a bit of a fortunate break when former Phantom Nic Aube-Kubel haunted his former team. Dangling the puck into the slot, Aube-Kubel lost the handle on the move but saw the puck hit the skate of defender Adam Ginning and past Sandstrom to even the count at one. The goal is Aube-Kubel’s first as a Hershey skater and his first AHL tally since his time in Lehigh Valley during the 2019-20 season.
Bogged Down
The team from the Sweetest Place on Earth took the lead a couple minutes later as Aube-Kubel stopped the puck in the neutral zone. He took a hit but lifted the pass up to a streaking Bogdan Trineyev, who beat Sandstrom with a nice move for his second goal in as many games. Both Trineyev and Aube-Kubel finished with multiple points on the night as the team’s checking line had a big night in terms of production.
The Phantoms did not back down in this game. They’d come back and tie the score at two goals apiece as Ginning struck back at the tail end of a power play with a blast through a massive screen. The goal was his second of the season and came only 51 seconds after the Trineyev goal. Ginning would find himself in the middle of the next big event as he’d be on the receiving end of a hit by Mike Vecchione in neutral ice. The hit came a bit after an offsides call and landed the former Phantom a match penalty and put his team a man down for five minutes.
Shepard and the Bears endured the penalty kill and entered the final frame even at two. The teams traded goals from Hershey’s Pierrick Dube and Lehigh Valley’s Jon-Randall Avon’s first AHL goal on the power play to finish regulation even at three apiece. After a long defensive stand in their own zone, the Bears forced a turnover and Chase Priskie scored his first goal in the Chocolate and White on a breakaway to land his team the extra point. The goal is Priskie’s 100th point at the AHL level.
“They Can’t All Be Picassos”
“We were flat tonight for whatever reason. We found a way, and like I’ve said before, they can’t all be Picassos out there. Sometimes you have to grind it out, and that’s what the guys did. The guys found a way to kill off five minutes in the second period, the game was sloppy a bit. That’s two Wednesdays in a row that I think we’ve been pretty flat, so we’ll have to take a look as a coaching staff as to how we’re preparing our guys. The onus is on our guys to take it into their own hands.”
The Bears suffered some significant losses in Wednesday’s game. In addition to Vecchione’s early exit, the team lost forward Jimmy Huntington to injury after the first period. Hershey’s National Hockey League affiliate, the Washington Capitals, saw longtime forward Nick Backstrom step away from the game on Wednesday in addition to a prior recall of Hendrix Lapierre. The Bears had six forwards sitting as healthy scratches who will likely be inserted into the lineup on a regular basis. Nelson was quick to point out how important strong depth options are at the AHL level.
“That’s why we have the depth that we have. The guys who aren’t playing are disappointed, but now they’re going to get an opportunity. We’ll have to wait and see how everything shakes out, but we’ll be down two guys, possibly three. Everybody in that room can play and contribute to our hockey team. That’s why we carry extra guys around. Our depth carried us last year and it’s going to carry us again this year.”
It leaves Hershey in a tricky situation. Nelson’s club had just found chemistry amongst its lineup that has possibly been thrown into a blender. Despite this, the Bears still found a way to stick with it and emerge with two points as the outcome still remains favorable. Priskie’s goal is the icing on the cake of an effort build from contributions by multiple players on their roster.
Hershey’s busy stretch hits its apex as the Chocolate and White visit the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday night followed by a visit from the Bridgeport Islanders a day later. They’ll enjoy some time off before rematching with the Phantoms in a home-and-home set next weekend.
