Phantoms Finish Weekend with Four Points

Bears Blank Lehigh Valley 4-0 on Sunday Night

March 2, 2025

Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ bid for a perfect three-game weekend came up short by way of a 4-0 loss to the Hershey Bears on Sunday at GIANT Center. Keith Petruzzelli, under siege for most of the night, held steady with 23 stops including several highlight reel saves.

The Phantoms (28-21-7) finish the weekend with a productive four out of six standings points before traveling to Charlotte for a two-game set. Olle Lycksell’s nine-game point streak came to a close, as well as Lehigh Valley’s nine-game streak of scoring three or more goals.

The Bears (33-14-5) opened the scoring at 8:03 on its first power-play chance of the night. Ivan Miroshnichenko received a pass from Ethan Bear and blasted home a perfect shot from the left face-off dot past Petruzzelli.

Hershey doubled its lead to 2-0 nearly five minutes later by executing a 3-on-2 rush. Hendrix Lapierre finished a slick passing play with Nicky Leivermann and Miroshnichenko by tapping the puck into an open cage at 13:01.

Lehigh Valley saw two power-play opportunities in the first period but were unable to generate threatening chances in the Bears’ zone.

Leading 2-0 after 20 minutes, Hershey added insurance 4:42 into the new period on Dalton Smith’s first tally of the season. Moments after Petruzzelli made a flurry of remarkable stops, Smith fired a seeing-eye shot to open a 3-0 hole.

The Phantoms’ deficit grew to 4-0 at 7:06 of the final period shortly after a defensive zone face-off. A draw won by Lapierre resulted in Brad Hunt setting up Vincent Iorio with a blast from the slot.

Hunter Shepard soon after punctuated his second shutout of the season with a late breakaway stop on Oscar Eklind.

The Phantoms will return to PPL Center on Friday, March 14 for St. Patrick’s Day fun against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, followed by Kids Takeover Day on Sunday, March 16.

SCORING SUMMARY

1st 8:03 – HER, I. Miroshnichenko (16) (E. Bear, H. Lapierre) (PP) (0-1)
1st 13:01 – HER, H. Lapierre (4) (N. Leivermann, I. Miroshnichenko (0-2)

2nd 4:42 – HER, D. Smith (1) (E. Bear, G. Roe) (0-3)

3rd 7:06 – HER, V. Iorio (4) (B. Hunt, H. Lapierre) (0-4)

Shots:
LV 21 – HER 29

PP:
LV 0/4, HER 1/5

Goaltenders:
LV – K. Petruzzelli (L) (3-3-0) (23/27)
HER – H. Shepard (W, SO) (19-8-2) (21/21)

Records:
Lehigh Valley (28-21-7)
Hershey (33-14-5)

UPCOMING
Saturday, March 8 (4:00) – Phantoms at Charlotte Checkers

Sunday, March 9 (1:00) – Phantoms at Charlotte Checkers

Friday, March 14 (7:05) – W-B/Scranton Penguins at Phantoms – St. Patrick’s Day Fun

Sunday, March 16 (3:05) – W-B/Scranton Penguins at Phantoms – Kids Takeover

The post Phantoms Finish Weekend with Four Points appeared first on Lehigh Valley Phantoms.