Game 28 Recap: Too Little, Too Late For Phantoms In 5-2 Loss In Charlotte
CHARLOTTE - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms dug themselves too deep a hole to climb out of Wednesday night in a 5-2 loss to the Charlotte Checkers to complete a two-game trip to North Carlolina.
Down 4-0 in the final minute of the second period, Matt Read tallied a power play goal to get Lehigh Valley on the board heading into the third period. In the opening minutes of the final frame, Read stole a puck in the defensive zone and created the Phantoms' second goal of the night, sending a cross-ice pass in the offensive zone for Mark Friedman who set up Radel Fazleev for a tap in goal to give the Phantoms hope with 17:24 left in regulation down 4-2.
Unfortunately for Lehigh Valley, that's as close as they would get despite dominating play in the final 20 minutes.
Charlotte tacked on an empty netter to complete their 5-2 win, lead by two goals from Patrick Brown and 35 saves by goaltender Jeremy Smith.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms return home to host the red-hot Syracuse Crunch Saturday night before traveling to Bridgeport for a Sunday afternoon matchup in Connecticut with the Sound Tigers to finish out a busy four-game week for Lehigh Valley.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Chris Conner Nicolas Aube-Kubel - Corban Knight - Danick MartelOskar Lindblom - Radel Fazleev - Matt Read Tyrell Goulbourne - Radel Fazleev - Alex Krushelnyski
T.J. Brennan - Reece WillcoxWill O'Neill - Mark Friedman Adam Comrie - James de Haas
John Muse - Dustin Tokarski
Lineup Notes
John Muse earned his 1st AHL start of the season Wednesday night after stopping all 25 shots he faced Tuesday night in relief of Dustin Tokarski, who served as Muse's backup.
Sam Morin returned from injury Tuesday night and played his first game since November 29th, but he was scratched Wednesday. Perhaps it was pre-planned to only have Morin play one game instead of back-to-back nights coming off the injury. Time will tell.
Max Lamarche was the other change on defense for Lehigh Valley Wednesday. Adam Comrie and Mark Friedman returned to the lineup on the blue line.
Mikhail Vorobyev, who left Tuesday night's game in the second period, did not play Wednesday. Radel Fazleev took Vorobyev's spot centering the third line and Steven Swavely was recalled from Reading (ECHL) to fill in on the fourth line.
RECAP
After the two teams combined for five goals in the first 8:46 of game action Tuesday night, there was a more focused effort on being tighter defensively by both sides in the first frame Wednesday.
In fact, if not for a late power play goal by Patrick Brown to give Charlotte a 1-0 lead heading into the second period, the game was played mainly on the perimeter with limited offensive chances for both teams.
Phantoms' goaltender John Muse was the team's best player in the opening period, making several stops to keep Lehigh Valley afloat while the offense was ineffective.
Things unraveled on Lehigh Valley in the middle frame.
Corban Knight took a slashing minor on the opening shift of the period, and Charlotte cashed in on the power play to extend their lead to 2-0. Valentin Zykov tallied his 14th on the rebound of an Andrew Miller shot, as the Russian-born forward put one over Muse's glove.
Less than three minutes later the Checkers made it 3-0 when Andrew Poturalski roofed one off the crossbar and in on Muse, who wasn't getting much help from the defense in front of him.
Brown tallied his second of the night to put the Checkers ahead 4-0 with five minutes left before the intermission, and it looked like Lehigh Valley wouldn't be able to get one past Jeremy Smith despite getting many more offensive chances in the middle frame than they had in the first period.
It wasn't until the final minute of the period, with the Phantoms on a power play, that Lehigh Valley would end Smith's shutout bid.
Knight got a puck to Oskar Lindblom, whose hard shot was stopped by Smith but the rebound caromed in front right to Matt Read who shoveled one into the back of the net to give the Phantoms life heading into the third period trailing Charlotte 4-1.
The Phantoms had their sights set on a comeback, and made it 4-2 early in the third thanks to Read forcing a turnover in the defensive zone and bringing the puck up ice into the offensive zone before a cross-ice pass to Mark Friedman and subsequent feed for Radel Fazleev atop the crease resulted in Fazleev's first goal of the season and cut the deficit to 4-2.
Despite a strong push back in the final frame, that's as close as Lehigh Valley would get Wednesday night. Charlotte added an empty netter in the waning moments to complete the 5-2 final score.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
10:44: LV - (PP) Conner, minor (tripping) 11:30: CHA - (PP) Carrick, minor (interference) 14:24: LV - (PP) Conner, minor (hooking) 14:42: CHA - PPG Brown (4) - Kitchon, Kuokkanen 16:55: CHA - (PP) Didier, minor (interference) 17:34: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (interference)
2nd Period
0:47: LV - (PP) Knight, minor (slashing) 1:39: CHA - PPG Zykov (14) - Miller, Carrick 4:38: CHA - Poturalski (9) - Foegele, McKeown 7:30: LV - (PP) Martel, minor (tripping) 11:44: CHA - (PP) Zykov, minor (hooking) 15:00: CHA - Brown (5) - Saarela, Kuokkanen 15:10: LV - Brennan, minor (roughing) 15:10: CHA - Poturalski, minor (roughing) 18:19: CHA - (PP) Tolchinsky, minor (slashing) 19:18: LV - PPG Read (4) - Lindblom, Knight
3rd Period
2:36: LV - Fazleev (1) - Friedman, Read 11:17: CHA - (PP) McKeown, minor (tripping) 19:10: CHA - ENG Miller (9) - Foegele
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 0 - 1 - 1 = 2 Charlotte 1 - 3 - 1 = 5
Shots
Lehigh Valley 9 - 18 - 10 = 37 Charlotte 10 - 11 - 7 = 28
Goalies
LV - John Muse (23 saves - 27 shots) CHA - Jeremy Smith (35 saves - 37 shots)
Power Play
LV: 1-for-5 CHA: 2-for-5
Penalty Kill
LV: 3-for-5 CHA: 4-for-5
Attendance: 4,621
