By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms dropped Wednesday night's rivalry game to the Hershey Bears, 3-2, in overtime.
The Phantoms could have lowered their magic number to clinch a playoff spot from six to four with a regulation win, but only dropped it to five with the overtime loss. Hershey's win makes it even more of a logjam for the final three Atlantic Division spots in the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs, with the four teams battling only being separated by four points.
The opening period of Wednesday night's game was well-contested by both sides. Each team managed nine shots on goal over the first 20 minutes, but Hershey would ultimately get on the board first.
A faceoff at the far-side dot in the Phantoms end saw Travis Boyd win the puck back to Jakub Vrana. Vrana, who was positioned in the slot, rifled a shot toward the Lehigh Valley net. Alex Lyon made the initial save, but the rebound came back out off his pad. Liam O'Brien happened to be in the right place at the right time, and backhanded a shot passed a sprawling Lyon to make it 1-0 with just a minute left in the period.
Lehigh Valley got an early power play chance to start the second, with O'Brien, Hershey's goal scorer, going off for tripping just 2:10 into the middle stanza. The Phantoms man advantage went to work, and tallied the game-tying marker just a minute into their opportunity.
A point-to-point pass from Travis Sanheim found Scott Laughton, who had cycled to the top of the zone thanks to the tremendous pressure the Phantoms were putting on the Bears PK. Laughton took the pass in stride, walking in from the blue line to the top of the far-side dot. From there, he unloaded a slap shot toward Pheonix Copley. The shot caught the stick of Taylor Leier, and deflected up over Copley's glove side shoulder to knot the game at one.
Lehigh Valley kept the pressure up, outshooting the Bears 17-7 despite being short-handed twice themselves. The Phantoms had Hershey pinned in their own zone for about 50 or 60 seconds, peppering Copley with a battery of shots. But the Bears netminder and defense held on.
Lehigh Valley kept mounting the pressure in the third, throwing even more pucks at the Bears net. A play along the near-side wall by Leier got the puck back to the point to Sam Morin, who came in fresh off his NHL debut on Tuesday night. Morin hacked a shot through traffic, and Colin McDonald, who also just came back from a stint with Philadelphia, tipped it home to make it 2-1 Phantoms just about half way through the final frame.
Hershey finally got some established pressure of their own five minutes later, and eventually was able to tie the game. The Bears started cycling the puck just as well as the Phantoms had previously, and looked dangerous. Christian Djoos found his defense partner Tom Gilbert along the far-side boards and slid him a pass. Gilbert then saw Riley Barber cutting down the middle of the slot and hit him right on the tape. Barber cut across the hash marks, and sniped one passed Lyon to the glove side to knot the game back up again.
Hershey kept the pressure on, outshooting Lehigh Valley 10-3 over the final frame. It was the Phantoms turn to stand tall, only allowing the one goal to leave the game tied 2-2 going into overtime.
End to end action took over the extra session, with each team getting a few chances. Boyd eventually ended the game, cutting to the front of the net after burning down the far side. He sneakily put the puck five-hole past Lyon, with the only person in the arena who saw it cross the line being the closest ref to the goal. The OT winner, plus his assist on the opening goal, gives Boyd 15 points in 12 games against the Phantoms this season, the most by any Hershey player.
The OT loss dropped the Phantoms magic number to five however, with Lehigh Valley needing those five points over their final five games. The Phantoms play host to their other big rival, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, on Friday night at PPL Center.
Notes
- Updated Atlantic Division standings
- *Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 98 pts
- Lehigh Valley 93 pts
- Providence 91 PTS
- Bridgeport 90 pts
- Hershey 89 pts
- The final four teams on that list are fighting for three spots with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton having clinched. Separation from second to fifth is only four standings points.
Quotes
- Taylor Leier on how close the division is at this point in the season: "All five teams in our division that are in this race are all capable and more than deserving of being there. It's too bad that rules in place because I think every team is worthy of being in the playoffs and I think all of our records show it. I think our fifth place team would be first in the North division. It's too bad, but one team can't make it, so we have to muster up these points before the season ends."
3 Stars
1. Travis Boyd (HER) – Goal, Assist, +1
2. Taylor Leier (LV) Goal, Assist
3. Pheonix Copley (HER) 28 saves, Win
