LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms looked to rebound from a deflating 4-1 loss to Albany last night as they faced the division leading Hershey Bears. Connor Carrick scored the 20,000th goal in Bears’ history as the visitors’ coasted to an easy 6-1 victory at PPL Center Saturday night.
Normally, it’s Lehigh Valley with the fast start. Tonight, the tables were reversed as Hershey jumped out to a lead just 3:30 in, with Liam O’Brien collecting his first of the 
season. He picked up the puck, flew through center ice, split the defense a ripped a wrister high over the shoulder of Anthony Stolarz. Hershey made it 2-0 7 minutes later as Chris Conner scored A weird goal, as he poked a rebound through the pads of Stolarz. The goal was reviewed, but wound up counting. Two minutes later, Taylor Leier pulled the Phantoms to within one. Philipp Grubauer left a rebound of a Nick Cousins shot just lying in the crease and Leier jammed it home. Hershey had the advantage in shots, 14-6.
In the second, Hershey poured it on and it wound up being the undoing for the Phantoms. The Bears scored 3 goals, including two in 33 seconds to effectively put the game away while chasing Phantoms’ starting netminder Anthony Stolarz. Connor Carrick made it 3-1 early in the period, as he blasted a shot from the top of the slot past Stolarz from the top of the slot. The power play goal was the 20,000th goal in Hershey franchise history. To put that in perspective, tonight was their 5,641st game.
Hershey defenseman Jon Landry made it 4-1 at 10:59. At that point, Stolarz was replaced by Rob Zepp. Unfortunately for Lehigh Valley, the fortunes remained the same. Dustin Gazley made it 5-1 33 seconds after Landry’s goal, finishing off a three on one rush with Captain Dane Byers and Kris Newbury. The goal was Zepp’s second shot faced.
In the third period, Hershey ran out the clock and in the process, managed to add insult to injury. As Chandler Stephenson added his 4th of the year to close out the scoring. As the horn sounded, the fans booed the home team off the ice.
Notes: The only change in tonight’s officials were referee Keith Kaval and Linesman Leo Boylan. Thoughts of Head Coach Terry Murray: “It wasn’t good. Penalties, turnovers, goals against. Not Good.” On how to turn things around: “Guys come to a point where you have to break through mentally. You gotta talk to yourself, a lot of self-talk. You experience situations and you develop. But sometimes you don’t break through.” On his message to the team headed into tomorrow’s contest with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton: “Go and win the game. You gotta get your head together, get ready. Just go and win the game.” On what he told the team during a timeout while down 2-0 in the first (Asked by a female reporter) “I can’t repeat that in here. If you were to leave the room, I could repeat it.” F Petr Straka, called up to the Flyers, got his first NHL point on Friday against Winnipeg, assisting on a goal by Nick Schultz.
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