The storied rivalry between the Hershey Bears and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms shifted venues for the first of six matchups at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Bears entered play with two wins in the season series at Giant Center, and a crowd of 8,512 took in the third iteration on Saturday. It was a physical affair on this night, but Clay Stevenson stopped all 24 shots fired his way and Hershey earned a 2-0 win.
Orange, Black, and Blue
Hershey entered play with a myriad of lineup changes as their National Hockey League affiliate in Washington was bit by the injury bug in recent time. Starting goaltender Hunter Shepard was in net for the Capitals as well as captain Dylan McIlrath among several others. The Bears have a ton of depth that stepped up to fill the void as Dmitry Osipov stepped up to fill McIlrath’s skates as a physical element. The versatile skater helped bring the tempo up a notch early in the second as he hit Elliot Desnoyers hard and fought Ronnie Attard. Osipov is fighting for a lineup spot signed to a professional tryout agreement before the season started.
The Bears got the first goal of this game as Mike Vecchione tallied his fifth of the season on a bit of a broken play. The puck bounced around towards the net, with Mike Sgarbossa directing the puck to Vecchione, and his shot found the net. Sgarbossa’s assist extends his point streak to six games and moves his total to 13 points on the season.
The only other tally of the night came off the stick of Pierrick Dube, who has scored four of his five goals this season against Lehigh Valley. After a scare in the first period where he was shoved from behind into the boards by Emil Andrae and stayed down for a little while, Dube struck back with a goal on a wraparound just over halfway through regulation time. A primary assist for Logan Day served as his 100th career AHL point against his former squad.
Feat of Clay
It’s Stevenson’s second shutout of his AHL career and second clean sheet against the Phantoms in as many tries. Stevenson even tried for a little more history for the Bears with a crack at the empty net, which went awry. It’s one of the few achievements that has not graced the league’s oldest franchise in its 86th season. In his last three starts, Stevenson has stopped 82 of the 83 shots fired his way with his 1.67 goals against average sitting fourth in the AHL and second among rookie goaltenders.
Saturday’s game is the first of a home-and-home set between the two rivals, with the rematch taking place on Sunday afternoon at Giant Center. It’ll be the fourth matchup of the regular season series as the two teams tangle for positioning in the Atlantic Division. Hershey’s 9-3-0-0 record, good for 18 points, has them atop the AHL in the early stages of the season as a good reflection of a strong start. Sunday is Hershey’s take on Hockey Fights Cancer Night as an emotional time in the Sweetest Place on Earth on and off the ice.
Saturday’s game started a stretch of five games in eight days for the Bears in a busy leadup to the Thanksgiving holiday. They’ll gather around the table (in this case, the ice) with some of their closest Atlantic Division opponents leading up to the holiday in a full week of play, trying to pass a big time early test.
