One series down: Hershey Bears close out Lehigh Valley to continue march to Calder Cup
The Hershey Bears took a big step toward repeating as Calder Cup champions Saturday night by closing out the Atlantic Division semifinal series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, winning in Allentown, 5-3.
That gave Hershey a 3-1 victory in the best-of-5 series. The Bears’ next opponent will be the Hartford Wolfpack in the Atlantic Division finals, another best-of-5 affair. Hartford closed out its Atlantic Division semifinal series on Friday night 3-1 over the Providence Bruins. Dates and times will be announced.
Ivan Miroshnichenko gave Hershey its first lead since the series moved to Allentown when he scored while most of his teammates were in a line change. His second tally of the game, assisted by Pierrick Dube, put the Bears ahead 3-2 just 2:36 into the second period.
Hershey built some breathing room with 9:03 left in the second with a power-play goal by Ethen Frank. Frank, who scored twice in a 5-1 Game 2 victory, shot over the goalie’s glove for a 4-2 advantage. Joe Snively and Hendrix Lapierre assisted.
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The Phantoms got back in it with a score off a bouncing puck on Hershey’s side of the ice. Tanner Laczynski put it in the net with an assist by Adam Brooks, pulling the home team within 4-3 with 3:43 left in the second.
The Bears protected that lead in the third period, including killing a penalty midway through the third period. That penalty kill included a diving save by goalie Hunter Shepard, who finished with 29 saves.
With 5:08 to go in the game, Hardy Haman Aktell scored after Phantom goalie Cal Peterson made the initial save. Mike Vecchione made the assist.
The game was tied 2-2 after a back-and-forth first period.
The Phantoms, who had won Game 3 with a pair of power play goals, opened the scoring with a goal scored during a delayed penalty. Rhett Gardner flipped the puck in with 10:59 remaining in the first period, with assists from Brendan Furry and Bobby Brink.
But the Bears were only down for 17 seconds. Miroschnichenko scored on a breakaway with an assist from Chase Priskie to even the score 1-1.
Lehigh Valley regained the lead 2-1 with a shot from the blue line by Garrett Wilson with 7:42 left in the first period. Jacob Gaucher and Cooper Marody assisted.
Again, Hershey tied it, though not quite as quickly this time. Dube scored with 4:52 on the first-period clock with assists by Logan Day and Aktell.
The Bears finished with 28 shots and were 1-for-4 on the power play.
In last year’s Atlantic Division finals, Hershey swept Hartford 3-0 on the way to winning the 12th Calder Cup in team history. The last time before that series that the Bears made it to the final eight teams in the tournament was 2016.
The Bears are the last team to win back-to-back Calder Cups, taking the trophy in 2009 and 2010. They also went back-to-back in 1958 and 1959.
Hershey won 8 of the 12 regular-season matchups with the Phantoms before winning this series.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Hershey Bears score win vs. Lehigh Valley to take AHL playoff series
