AHL Preseason 2021: Lehigh Valley - 1 at W-B/Scranton - 2 (10/6/21)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms, under new head coach Ian Laperriere, opened their four-game preseason slate on the road Wednesday night against in-state rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Rolling out a lineup featuring the 11 players at Phantoms' training camp on a tryout basis, it was their time to shine and attempt to make a good first impression.

Though the Phantoms came up short in a 2-1 final score, there was plenty that Laperriere was pleased with when he spoke to InsideAHLHockey.com after the game.

"I loved the battles. Mistakes are normal this time of the year, but there was a lot of young guys trying to impress us to stick around for the next couple days or weeks," Laperriere said post-game. "I'm pretty impressed about the effort. Again, it wasn't perfect. But they showed a lot of character. I wanted them to have some push back, and they did show that tonight."

A Quick Recap

The Phantoms had the better of play through most of the opening frame, out-shooting the Penguins 7-5 and spending a lot of time in the offensive zone. Unfortunately, a late period goal by Jamie Devane sent the two teams to the locker room with the Penguins in front 1-0.

Former Phantoms' defenseman Chris Bigras sent a centering feed for Jamie Devane at the top of Kirill Ustimenko's crease where the Pens' enforcer shifted from his backhand to forehand to lift a puck over the Phantoms' goalie's left pad with 1:06 left before the first intermission.

The Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the opening shift of the middle frame, with Sam Houde sending a backhand pass to the top of the crease for Jan Drozg, who finished the play in front to extend the Penguins' lead.

After successfully killing off two penalties in the opening frame, the Phantoms got a chance of their own on the power play - and made the most of it - to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Samu Tuomaala worked a puck back to Quinn Schmiemann, and the Phantoms' defender whistled a wrist shot past Penguins goalie Tommy Nappier to get Lehigh Valley on the scoresheet. Charlie Gerard added a secondary assist on the power play tally for Lehigh Valley.

Ustimenko finished with 11 saves on 13 shots in 40 minutes of work. Pat Nagle entered the game for the third period, stopping all seven shots he faced to keep Lehigh Valley within a goal.

A back-and-forth final frame produced no goals and a lone penalty - a Phantoms' bench minor for too many men in the final two minutes of play - ending the preseason affair with a 2-1 Penguins' win.

Who Stood Out?

Outside of the few 'regulars' in tonight's lineup (Brennan Saulnier, Maksim Sushko & Max Willman) that you'd expect to look comfortable in AHL action, there were a few standouts from Wednesday's preseason opener.

Samu Tuomaala

Yes, it's only the AHL preseason. And yes, tonight's lineups weren't full of regular AHL'ers.

But, Tuomaala was arguably one of the most noticeable guys on the ice Wednesday night in what was his AHL debut.

"He's got great speed, a great shot," Laperriere said of Tuomaala. "It's an adjustment for him to go from the bigger ice to the small ice, but he's only 18 years old. I'm impressed by him. He had a good camp in Philly. He's got a bright future."

The Flyers' 2nd round pick from 2021 is attempting to force his way onto the AHL roster this fall instead of being sent to junior hockey in the OHL. And while his speed was certainly evident, he did plenty of good things in multiple facets of the game Wednesday night.

In the first period - as the first man in on a forecheck -  Tuomaala forced a turnover and got a puck to the slot for Nick Master, whose chance from the slot was either partially blocked or fanned on.

In the middle frame, he had a strong shift in the offensive zone - putting his skating and puck-handling skills on full display as he literally circled the perimeter of the entire offensive zone before feeding a puck to Max Willman for a scoring chance. The extended pressure in the offensive zone later forced a Penguins' defenseman to accidentally clear a puck out of play to give the Phantoms their first power play of the night.

On that power play, Tuomaala earned a primary assist on what ended up being the Phantoms' lone goal of the night. He got a puck from Charlie Gerard and got it up top for Quinn Schmiemann's shot from the left point.

It just seemed like Tuomaala was creating a lot of scoring chances, and doing a lot of good things out there.

Laperriere noted that there's a little bit of a language barrier for Tuomaala, as he doesn't speak much English and it sometimes takes him a little longer to understand what they're communicating to him, but overall he's impressed by how Tuomaala continues to improve on an almost day-by-day basis.

"He needs to be stronger, and get bigger but you can't do that overnight," Laperriere told Inside AHL Hockey after Wednesday's game. "He's getting better. Even in Philly, the first day he was okay, then he got better the second day and he just kept improving. I'm expecting the same thing here. You never know, maybe we'll keep him."

Quinn Schmiemann

One of several tryout players looking to impress, Quinn Schmiemann had an eventful first game of pro hockey.

"I thought it was a good first game to get into," he told Inside AHL Hockey post-game. "A little bit bigger bodies compared to juniors, and the play happens a little quicker but overall thought it was a good first game."

In the first period, he was challenged to a fight pretty unexpectedly - at least according to Schmiemann.

"Yeah, I don't even know what happened there," Schmiemann admitted. "I kind of just made a play and the next thing you know this guy's swinging at me. I don't really know what happened there, but no harm no foul it was all good."

In the middle frame, he scored the team's lone goal on the night - a power play tally from the left point.

"I was just trying to get the puck to the net," Schmiemann explained. "[The Penguins' penalty killers] were playing the flanks a little too heavy, so I was just trying to filter the puck toward the net."

"Before the game we talked about being a shooting power play," he added.

Overall, he had a pretty solid night.

After being an invite at the Flyers' training camp on a tryout basis, the NHL club assigned him to Lehigh Valley ahead of AHL training camp which got underway on Saturday with what Laperriere explained were two-a-day practices leading into Tuesday's 'day before game' skate.

Laperriere was impressed with Schmiemann's performance Wednesday.

"That's what training camp is all about, especially the guys on PTO's - they don't have a contract - they want to get noticed," Laperriere said. "Scoring goals is one thing, but he got into a fight there [too]."

All in all, Schmiemann said it's been a busy last few weeks for him - between skating and working out every day and trying to 'be a sponge' and learning about the pro game.

As a 20-year-old, the defenseman is AHL-eligible this season and is working toward earning an AHL contract in this preseason. He certainly took a step in the right direction in the opening exhibition match.

"I just need to play my game, do what I do best - going out on the ice and making simple plays," Schmiemann said. "It's been going well, and I'm just taking it day by day."