Bears force extra time but fall in shootout

January 25, 2016

HERSHEY, Pa. – Chris Bourque’s 20th goal of the season came at an opportune time as the league’s leading scorer earned the Hershey Bears a big point in a 6-5 shootout setback against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Monday night at GIANT Center.

Despite getting four power play chances in the opening period, the Bears would find themselves down by a goal at the intermission.  On the fourth opportunity, Phantoms forwards Taylor Leier and Cole Bardreau took off on a two-on-one chance.  Leier’s hard shot from the right wall was blockered down by Peters and the puck dropped off of the goal post.  Bardreau jumped in and slammed the puck home at 19:12 for a 1-0 Phantoms lead.

A wild second period followed, with each team scoring three goals in succession.  The Bears first rattled off three in a span of 3:01 to take a 3-1 lead.  Mike Moore started it off with a long-range wrist shot from the left point that got past the glove of Anthony Stolarz at 7:11.

Madison Bowey, who set up Moore’s goal, would cruise into the slot to one-time a feed from Sean Collins through Stolarz’s pads at 8:41, putting the Bears in front.

Scott Gomez would then make a perfect, long-range pass to hit Paul Carey in stride behind the Phantoms’ defense.  Carey buried his chance under the crossbar for a 3-1 edge at 10:45.

But Lehigh Valley would storm back.  Bardreau made a similar play as he did to score his first goal, diving to backhand the rebound of a shot from Colin McDonald past Peters at 13:19.

Davis Drewiske later tied the game, getting open at the top of the crease to tuck a pass from Chris Conner under Stolarz’s pads at 17:39.

Conner made another strong play to feed a cutting Taylor Leier on the Phantoms’ third power play chance of the game.  Leier stuffed a one-time shot at Peters’ pads and the puck slid over the line at 18:52 for a 4-3 Phantoms lead.

McDonald scored the Phantoms’ second power play goal of the game, snapping a shot off of a Conner feed over Peters’ shoulder at 4:14 of the third period.

Hershey then made it a 5-4 game on Travis Boyd’s ninth of the season.  The rookie corralled a bouncing puck in the slot and ripped it past Stolarz at 13:06 before the goaltender could track it down.

Bourque’s heroics came on the Bears’ eighth and final power play chance of the game.  After taking one shot that deflected off the mark, he collected a feed from Gomez and blew a shot past Stolarz from the center point at 14:17 for the equalizer.

Peters came up big on two overtime chances for the Phantoms.  Early on, he made a reaction save as a puck bounced toward him off of a teammate.  Inside the final 15 seconds, he smothered a Conner bank-shot attempt on the goal line that needed replay to confirm.

Leier and Nick Cousins would bury their shots in the shootout while Stolarz stopped Christian Djoos and Boyd, and the Phantoms took the victory.

Peters finished with 26 saves but fell to 9-6-5 on the season.  Stolarz also made 26 saves through 65 minutes and improved to 13-10-3.  The Bears finished 1-for-8 on the power play and 3-for-5 on the penalty kill.

With the win, Hershey’s unbeaten streak reaches six games (4-0-1-1).

The Bears hit the road for upstate New York and the team’s first matchup of the season against the Albany Devils on Wednesday, January 27.  Face-off from the Times Union Center is set for 7:00 PM.  Fans may catch the broadcast beginning with the M&C Foreign Car Parts pre-game show at 6:20 PM on the Bears Radio Network of affiliates WQIC-FM 100.1, WTKT-AM 1460, via the iHeartRadio app (Fox Sports 1460 Harrisburg) or online at FoxSports1460.com.  Fans may also watch the game for a small fee at AHLLive.com.

The Bears return home on Saturday, January 30 for a 7:00 PM matchup against the Syracuse Crunch.  The first 4,000 fans through the gates will receive a Bears knit cap courtesy of PSECU.  Tickets are available at the GIANT Center box office, by calling 717-508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.

NOTES: ; Tonight’s game was rescheduled from Saturday night due to the recent severe winter weather…The Bears scratched RW Chris Brown, RW Dustin Gazley, RW Caleb Herbert, D Joey Leach, D Tyler Lewington and C Chandler Stephenson...The Phantoms scratched C Tim Brent, D Andrew MacDonald, RW Michael Parks, D Logan Pyett, LW Jay Rosehill, LW Petr Straka and C Kevin Sundher…The Bears played their league-leading eighth shootout of the season, and the third against the Phantoms…Bourque recorded the 10th goal of his last 10 games and has points in 18 of his last 20 (14-13-27)…Bourque is back tied for the AHL scoring lead (20-22-42) and has also tied for the league lead in goals…Hershey recorded its 17th point when trailing after two periods (6-11-1-4) and 13th when trailing at home (5-5-1-2), both tops in the AHL.