Four is More - Phantoms Defeat Devils 4-3
BINGHAMTON - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (5-1-1) made it four wins in a row to continue their strong start to the 2017-18 season, holding on for a 4-3 win over the Binghamton Devils (3-1-1) on Saturday night to finish the weekend with a pair of wins.
With offensive defensemen T.J. Brennan and Phil Myers out with injuries, it was the remaining defensemen who stepped up their game against the Devils.
Sam Morin tallied a goal and an assist, Mark Alt added a goal and Max Lamarche stepped into the Phantoms' lineup on the back end and didn't skip a beat. Corban Knight and Nicolas Aube-Kubel also scored goals for Lehigh Valley in the win while also getting a strong performance from Alex Lyon in net for Lyon's fourth win on the season.
So far this season, the Phantoms have been ready for the opening face-off - routinely taking it to their opponent in the first period. Tonight was no different as the Phantoms racked up 22 shots on net and plenty more dangerous chances in the opening 20 minutes.
The power play continues to sputter, now an abysmal 1-for-33 on the season, but their 5-on-5 play is keeping them afloat. The Phantoms have outscored their opponents 20-7 while the game is played at even strength so far through seven games. It's thard not to love that kind of production at even strength. Hopefully for Lehigh Valley, the power play will pick it up and begin producing goals soon.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms are back in action Wednesday night at home against the Springfield Thunderbirds (0-6-0), a team searching for its first standings points of the season. Lehigh Valley will visit Springfield Friday night before hosting Hartford on Saturday to complete their three-game schedule for next week.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Steven SwavelyOskar Lindblom - Corban Knight (A) - Chris Conner (A) Danick Martel - Mike Vecchione - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Tyrell Goulbourne - Mikhail Vorobyev - Radel Fazleev
Will O'Neill - Mark Alt Mark Friedman - Reece Willcox Sam Morin - Max Lamarche
Alex Lyon - Dustin Tokarski
Scratches: Anthony Stolarz (knee surgery - out indefinitely), Phil Myers (injured), Cole Bardreau (upper body), Colin McDonald (lower body) and T.J. Brennan (injured)
RECAP
The Phantoms got the game's first 10 shots on goal, but it was the Binghamton Devils scoring on their first shot of the night to take a 1-0 lead on one of the easiest goals you'll see scored this season.
Viktor Loov gained the red line and sent a soft dump into the corner boards, and the puck took a strange carom off the boards where the zamboni door is located - bouncing right out in front to Blake Pietila who tapped home his second of the season with Phantoms' goaltender Alex Lyon behind the net awaiting the dump into the zone to make its way behind the net.
The Devils' goal came 7:45 into the first period and despite having a 10-1 shots advantage and getting a ton of early chances and hard work in the offensive, the Phantoms found themselves trailing 1-0.
The two teams traded power plays in the middle part of the period, but the Phantoms would even up the score and get rewarded for their hard work put in the opening period. Oskar Lindblom picked up his first point of the season, setting up Corban Knight out in front with a pass from behind the net. Knight took the pass from Lindblom and skated across the top of the crease before sliding a backhander over Mackenzie Blackwood's right leg-pad.
Less than two minutes later, Lehigh Valley took its first lead of the night. Phil Varone spotted an open Mark Alt at the center point and from the corner sent Alt a pass that the two would connect on as Alt's seeing-eye wrist shot eluded Blackwood to give the Phantoms a 2-1 lead with 3:39 left before the first intermission.
Binghamton would respond, getting a power play on a suspect hooking call on Tyrell Goulbourne and cashing in on the man advantage to even the score at 2-2 late in the first period. It was Bracken Kearns finishing off a net-front scramble play with 2:25 left in the opening period.
Just when it appeared as though the two teams would be heading to the second period in a 2-2 tie, Sam Morin got a pass from Radel Fazleev at the left point and stepped into one from the top of the circle - beating Blackwood clean to the spot and hitting the post before it went in past the Devils' goaltender. The go-ahead goal came with just 4.6 seconds left in the first frame.
For as entertaining and exciting as the first period was in terms of goals, hits and high-octane offensive chances being exchanged at will, the middle frame was as equally uninspiring hockey. Binghamton made some adjustments between periods, and were having success cycling the puck in the Phantoms' defensive zone - mucking and grinding like their parent club in the NHL and neutralizing Lehigh Valley's speed for the most part in a scoreless period.
It was back to a more run-and-gun kind of style in the third period with the home team Devils trailing by one goal, but it was the Phantoms capitalizing by using their speed.
Mike Vecchione got a puck up to Nicolas Aube-Kubel for a 2-on-1 rush with Danick Martel. Aube-Kubel noticed the defender cheating towards the AHL's leading goal scorer, so he skated in and rifled a shot past Blackwood to extend the Phantoms' lead to 4-2.
The Devils would get within one via a power play tally with 2:36 left in regulation, but that would be as close as they would get before losing their first game in regulation in 2017-18.
POST-GAME REACTION
Head coach Scott Gordon
Q: Run and gun 1st period, teams settled in final 40:
A: To be honest, I thought it was all us in the first period. Second period was pretty even, and I thought the third was run-and-gun. I think part of it was the penalties that were called in the 3rd period. Overall, I'm happy with the way we played. It's a tough team to play against and a tough building to play in. Guys came out and you couldn't ask for anything better. 22 shots, probably 30 if they counted them all.
Q: On taking it to them but allow a fluky goal:
A: That to me was probably the best part of the first period in that our response after that - we didn't all of a sudden fold the tents. We kept playing the same way and as a result we had all of those shots in the first period.
Q: On getting off to good start 5-1-0-1 on the season:
A: Last year we had a slow start [2-3-1]. You look back on it - we went on an 18-4 run. I talked to our team at the start of the year - you can't get in a hole early because our division is really tough and when you think about having to go 18-4 to make up for the 2-3-1 at the start of last year that was the difference for us in getting to the playoffs. We made a plan so that guys would understand how important these games are in the month of October, and the guys have been great.
ROSTER NOTES
Lehigh Valley Phantoms
Alex Lyon got the start in net tonight after Dustin Tokarski got his first start of the season on Friday night.
Defensemen T.J. Brennan and Phil Myers did not play tonight due to injury. Brennan missed his 2nd straight game, while Myers missed his first full game after leaving in the 1st period of Friday night's game against Bridgeport.
With Myers unable to play, Max Lamarche got to make his regular season debut tonight after sitting out the team's first six games as a healthy scratch.
Forwards Cole Bardreau and Colin McDonald are inching closer to making their regular season debuts, but both are still week-to-week with their injuries.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
7:45: BNG - Pietila (2) - Loov, Kearns 8:08: LV - (PP) Morin, minor (interference) 11:01: BNG - (PP) Loov, minor (hooking) 14:40: LV - Knight (1) - Lindblom 16:21: LV - Alt (1) - Varone, Carey 16:59: LV - (PP) Goulbourne, minor (hooking) 17:35: BNG - PPG Kearns (1) - Quenneville, MacDonald 19:55: LV - Morin (1) - Fazleev, Vorobyev
2nd Period
12:56: BNG - (PP) Strait, minor (hooking) 19:06: LV - Aube-Kubel, minor (tripping) 19:06: LV - Aube-Kubel, minor (fighting) 19:06: BNG - Jacobs, minor (instigating) 19:06: BNG - Jacobs, major (fighting) 19:06: BNG - Jacobs, ten-minute misconduct
3rd Period
0:25: LV - (PP) Morin, minor (tripping) 10:55: LV - Aube-Kubel (3) - Vecchione, Morin 12:52: LV - (PP) Fazleev, minor (elbowing) 13:39: LV - Morin, minor (roughing) 13:39: BNG - Blandisi, minor (roughing) 13:39 - BNG - (PP) Blandisi, double-minor (high-sticking) 16:53: LV - (PP) Vecchione, minor (holding the stick) 17:24: BNG - Gignac (1) - Cangelosi, Jacobs
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 3 - 0 - 1 = 4 Binghamton 2 - 0 - 1 = 3
Shots
Lehigh Valley 22 - 10 - 5 = 32 Binghamton 9 - 9 - 13 = 18
Goalies
LV - Alex Lyon (28 saves - 31 shots) BNG - Mackenzie Blackwood (33 saves - 37 shots)
Power Play
LV: 0-for-4 BNG: 1-for-5
Penalty Kill
LV: 4-for-5 BNG: 4-for-4
Attendance: 4,897
