By Don Scott
The Hershey Bears hit the road for the first time this season on Saturday, and had to overcome three separate one-goal deficits, then take its only lead of the contest with one second remaining in overtime, to claim a 4-3 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Travis Boyd, making his season debut since being assigned to the Bears from Washington, blasted a shot past J.F. Berube at 4:59 of the extra period with the Bears on a power play for Hershey’s initial win of the young season.
Maksim Sushko scored on a redirection in front of Bears goaltender Vitek Vanecek just 3:26 into the game, and Beck Malenstyn evened the score at the 5:35 mark.
The Phantoms regained a 2-1 lead at 13:03, after Joel Farabee finished a cross-ice pass on a quick transition play. The Bears, on a power play, pulled even when Christian Djoos found Mike Sgarbossa all alone for an easy tap in.
Following a scoreless middle session, Isaac Ratcliffe gave Lehigh Valley its third lead, on a delayed penalty at 3:54. Hershey’s Mike Sgarbossa and Matt Moulson setup Boyd to make it 3-3 to force overtime.
Final shots were 32-26 in favor of the Bears who were 2-for-6 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Erik Burgdoerfer played in his 600th professional game, that included 272 ECHL games, 319 AHL, and eight NHL appearances dating back to 2010.
Today at 5 p.m. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton visits Giant Center and then the Bears take off on a four-game road trip with stops in Toronto, Belleville, Laval and Rochester, before hosting Utica on Saturday, Oct. 26
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