The Hershey Bears lose to Lehigh Valley, 7-6 despite hefty lead in the first period.
The Hershey Bears had a four goal lead going into the second period against Lehigh Valley on the road Friday and still lost 7-6 by the end of the matchup. This was Hershey’s sixth straight loss to Lehigh Valley on the road and eighth of the season.
At 5:08 in the first period Dustin Gazley would put Hershey on the board first after Chris Bourque passed the puck from behind the net to a ready Jeremy Langlois. Langlois would send a sweet backhanded pass to Gazley and Dustin would score his eighth goal of the season. This was the first night Chris Bourque was back in the line up after his trip to the USA Olympics so an assist on the play gave way for a very nice welcome back.
Lehigh Valley would tie it up just over four minutes later at 9:12 in the period with Chris Conner scoring his 200th professional career goal.
Within three minutes of the back half of the period Hershey would score four quick goals to earn a 5-1 lead. Lucas Johansen would open the scoring frenzy at 12:22 in the period, and twenty three seconds later Jeremy Langlois would make it 3-1. Nathan Walker would tally another point for Hershey at 14:01 to get his seventh goal of the season. This would lead to a Lehigh Valley goalie change as John Muse would leave the net and Dustin Tokarski would take his place.
It didn’t take long as moments later Tyler Graovac would welcome Tokarski to the game with a quick shot to the back of the net at 15:21. Hershey would head to the locker room in the lead 5-1.
In the second period Lehigh Valley would close the gap by scoring two goals in less than two minutes. At 4:58 Nic Aube-Kubel would make it 5-2 and just under a minute in a half later Phil Myers would bring Lehigh Valley within two goals, at 5-3.
Hershey wasn’t done though and would add another goal at 8:09 in the second period when Riley Barber scored making it 6-3. Joe Whitney would get his eighth assist in nine games with the Bears and Riley Barber would get a career high twentieth goal of the season.
However, Lehigh Valley would respond with two more goals before heading to the locker room for second intermission. Cole Bardreau would make it 6-4 at 9:52 in the period, and moments later at 11:59 Danick Martel would get his twentieth goal of the season to make it 6-5. At this point in the game Hershey decided to pull Vitek Vanecek and replace him with netminder Pheonix Copley.
In the third period the Phantoms would tie the game at 4:12 when Mike Vecchione took a shot at the net. Copley would stop the shot, but lose the puck between his legs, and unwittingly kick it into his own net, making it 6-6.
At 13:01 in the final stanza, Aube-Kubel would get the winning goal and his second of the night, bringing the final score to 7-6 Lehigh Valley.
Lehigh Valley would outshoot Hershey 32-30, and bring their record on the season to 23-27-4-4.
The Hershey Bears will head home to finish out the weekend with a Saturday game against the Utica Comets at 7pm. They will then host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for their final matchup of the season on Sunday with a game start of 5pm.
