As much fun as rivalries are, for them to be at their best, both teams have to be competitive.

Unfortunately, the Hershey Bears haven’t held up their end of that deal against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season.

On Friday night, Lehigh Valley downed Hershey 5-1 to give the Phantoms a perfect 5-0 mark against their Chocolatetown rivals. They also upped their scoring advantage over Hershey to 26-10. The Bears have struggled against everybody this season, leaving them last in the Atlantic Division with a 19-25-3-4 record and just 45 points.

Not only have the Phantoms been beating Hershey, they’ve pretty well dominated them. Twice this season, Lehigh Valley has scored four goals in one period and both have come against ... you guessed it – Hershey. The latest was Friday night and the first was in the season opener when the Phantoms put up four third-period goals. Friday, it was the second period and it started when Travis Sanheim, Corban Knight and Chris Conner all scored within four minutes of each other. Later, Knight would add his second goal of the period.

Knight appears to be fully recovered from an earlier injury, but he admits that he still feels a bit of rust when he’s on the ice, even after scoring two goals and adding an assist against the Bears and having recorded five points in two games.

“I still feel like my conditioning isn’t at peak level yet, but that’ll come as I play a little bit more. I’ve been really fortunate to play with those guys and they’re making my job easy right now,” said Knight, talking about fellow linemates Cole Bardreau and Colin McDonald, who picked up assists on Knight’s goals.

While the rivalry with Hershey is somewhat subdued this season, the rivalry against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is at somewhat of a fever pitch. In the 10 meetings between the two teams, Lehigh Valley is 5-4-0-1. The Phantoms have played three more games than the Penguins and have a two-point advantage on them in the standings, but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has a better winning percentage as the two teams battle for the Atlantic Division lead.

Last season, the schedule had the two teams playing the majority of their games late in the season. The schedule had more of the games between the two teams in the first half of the season, leaving just two of the remaining 26 Phantoms games against their division rivals. The good news is that both are at home, where Lehigh Valley is 3-0-0-1 against the Pens. To make it even more intense, the two teams finish up the regular season playing each other at the PPL Center on April 14.

“Rivalries kind of shift sometimes, one team is down, one is stronger or maybe you get the other guys more than they get you for a while, but with those two teams, it’s definitely a rivalry,” said coach Scott Gordon earlier this season. “No matter what else is going on, those games are going to be tough, hard fought games and you always look for them on the schedule.”

THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG ... After making his NHL debut on Jan. 31, goalie Alex Lyon was returned to the Phantoms shortly after that. With a taste of life in the big city, he was admittedly eager to return to Philadelphia, but knew that he would need to wait his turn. Well, he didn’t have to wait long. Lyon was recalled by the Flyers again on Sunday, while goalie John Muse returned to the Phantoms from the Reading Royals to take Lyon’s place with Lehigh Valley.

ICE ON FIRE ... Lehigh Valley has gone 9-2-1 in their last 12 games and has earned standings points in nine straight home games this season, with the latest coming Saturday against the Rochester Americans. The Phantoms scored twice on power-play opportunities against Rochester, and had five different players pick up goals in the win. Travis Sanheim had a goal and two assists to record his first career three-point game.

THE ROAD AHEAD ... The Phantoms have road games at Bridgeport and Springfield before returning to the PPL Center for games Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Hartford is in town, and the first of the two remaining games against the Penguins is scheduled for Sunday.