Game 22 Recap - Phantoms Respond With Rout of Hershey
ALLENTOWN - Things can turn around quickly for a team after a poor showing when they address the issues head on. That's exactly what the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (13-7-2) did after Wednesday night's shutout loss to Binghamton.
Friday night against Atlantic Division rival Hershey (9-10-3), the Phantoms did everything they weren't doing just 48 hours prior - out-working their opponent down low and not only chipping pucks deep but applying pressure on the forecheck and attacking the net. The players who spoke to Inside AHL Hockey after the Phantoms' 7-2 win Friday echoed those sentiments.
Lehigh Valley still had plenty of flashy goals too. Phil Varone (one goal, two assists) went forehand to backhand on a silky smooth maneuver on a breakaway in a flurry of goals in the second period - three in a span of 2:13 of game action. Corban Knight (one goal, one assist) sniped one top shelf from the right-wing circle. Greg Carey (two goals, one assist) batted one out of mid-air past Bears' goaltender Pheonix Copley in the third.
The rest were more about being rewarded for hard work around the net.
Tyrell Goulbourne stuffed home a rebound. Nicolas Aube-Kubel finished off a rebound with backhander. Greg Carey's shot in the 1st period pinballed around in traffic in the slot.
The real test comes when Laval comes to town for a Saturday night affair. Can the Phantoms, in a back-to-back situation, stay on the right path in terms of playing the way they need to.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms finish off the week welcoming the Laval Rocket to PPL Center for the new Montreal Canadiens' AHL affiliate's first-ever visit to Lehigh Valley Saturday night. The game is also the team's annual Teddy Bear Toss night.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Chris ConnerTyrell Goulbourne - Corban Knight - Colin McDonald (C) Oskar Lindblom - Mikhail Vorobyev - Radel Fazleev Danick Martel - Mike Vecchione - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
T.J. Brennan - Frank Hora James de Haas - Mark Alt Will O'Neill - Mark Friedman
Alex Lyon - Dustin Tokarski
Scratches: Anthony Stolarz (out indefinitely - knee surgery), Sam Morin (injured), Phil Myers (lower body), Cole Bardreau (upper body), Max Lamarche (injured), Matt Read (healthy/veteran) and Reece Willcox (injured)
Lineup Notes
Alex Lyon got the start in net for the second straight game this week. Dustin Tokarski will likely get the start in net Saturday night against Laval.
Sam Morin did not play Friday night. Head coach Scott Gordon confirmed Morin is in fact injured, but offered no update other than to confirm there's an injury. Morin was not sitting among the scratched players upstairs.
Defenseman Frank Hora was called up to Lehigh Valley from Reading (ECHL) in advance of Friday night's game. With Morin missing the game due to injury, Hora made his AHL debut.
RECAP
In a first period controlled for the most part by the Bears, it was the Phantoms getting a multitude of fortuitous bounces in the final minute of the period to take a 1-0 lead.
Phil Varone took a pass from James de Haas and flew up the right-wing, cutting to the slot from the right-wing circle before partially losing control of the puck. He was just able to nudge it back to Carey, who fired a quick shot from the circle. What happened to the puck after it left Carey's stick and before it ended up behind Bears' goaltender Pheonix Copley is quite an adventure.
Carey's shot was partially blocked by Bears' defenseman Aaron Ness. The puck dribbled to the net-front where it glanced off of the top of Chris Bourque's right skate and then off his stick blade before eluding Copley to put the Phantoms on the board with 22.0 left before the first intermission. The goal was credited as Carey's 10th of the season.
The Bears got a friendly bounce of their own early in the second period, which helped them tie the game up at 1-1.
Captain Garrett Mitchell tried to get out of the way of Tyler Lewington's shot from the right point, but the puck caught Mitchell's left skate before re-directing in past Alex Lyon.
It appeared the Bears re-gained the momentum they had most of the first period, but instead it was the Phantoms going off for three goals in a span of 2:13 in the middle part of the period to open the game up to the tune of a 4-1 Phantoms' lead.
First, Corban Knight stole a puck behind the net and got it to the net. Copley stopped Knight's initial attempt, but Tyrell Goulbourne was first to a loose puck atop the crease and just lifted one over Copley's right pad to give Lehigh Valley the lead back at 2-1.
The next two goals for the Phantoms came moments after Goulbourne's third of the season, and they were on back-to-back shifts just 35 seconds apart.
First, Phil Varone sneaked behind the Bears defense and accepted a great thread-the-needle pass from Oskar Lindblom for a breakaway. The Phantoms' leading scorer made no mistake about it - going forehand to backhand and just inside of the left post past Copley to extend the Phantoms' lead to 3-1 just before the midway mark of regulation.
On the next shift, Varone headed for a change as his linemates Greg Carey and Chris Conner brought a puck into the offensive zone. Knight hopped on to replace Varone and took two or three strides to the top of the right-wing circle where Conner fed him for a quick shot wired to Copley's top-left corner to complete the three quick-strike goals and give the Phantoms a commanding 4-1 lead heading to the third period.
Danick Martel was robbed in front of Copley six and a half minutes into the third period, but Nicolas Aube-Kubel got to the rebound at the side of the night for an easy backhander past Copley to make it 5-1.
The Bears didn't just roll over, as they scored to make it 5-2 moments later with Liam O'Brien picking up his fourth of the season but that's as close as Hershey would get Friday night.
Mark Alt tallied an empty-netter from his own defensive zone face-off circle, and Greg Carey batted in a centering feed from Phil Varone to complete the 7-2 final score.
POST-GAME REACTION
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
0:13: LV - (PP) Friedman, minor (delay of game) 10:08: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (unsportsmanlike conduct) 16:11: HER - (PP) Lewington, minor (tripping) 19:38: LV - Carey (10) - Varone, de Haas
2nd Period
8:21: LV - Goulbourne (3) - Knight 9:59: LV - Varone (7) - Lindblom, Friedman 10:34: LV - Knight (3) - Conner, Carey 10:59: HER - (PP) Boyd, minor (tripping)
3rd Period
6:32: LV - Aube-Kubel (6) - Martel, Vecchione 10:44: HER - O'Brien (4) - Lewington, Labrie 17:39: LV - ENG Alt (5) - unnassisted 18:01: LV - Carey (11) - Varone, Conner
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 1 - 3 - 3 = 7 Hershey 0 - 1 - 1 = 2
Shots
Lehigh Valley 9 - 19 - 13 = 41 Hershey 12 - 3 - 8 = 23
Goalies
LV - Alex Lyon (21 saves - 23 shots) HER - Pheonix Copley (34 saves - 40 shots)
Power Play
LV: 0-for-2 HER: 0-for-2
Penalty Kill
LV: 2-for-2 HER: 2-for-2
Attendance: 7,739
