Game 35 Recap: Penalties Plague Phantoms In Loss To Charlotte
ALLENTOWN - While the Phantoms likely left the rink feeling pretty well about how they played after Friday night's win against Charlotte, Saturday was a different story.
Head coach Scott Gordon didn't shy away from showing some displeasure with his team's performance during his post-game press conference, calling the team's first period "lazy" and going on to say that self-inflicted wounds - like some undisciplined and untimely penalties as well as turnovers - led to their demise in what ended up being a 5-2 loss to the Checkers on the back end of a two-game weekend series.
Despite a sluggish start in the first period, the Phantoms found themselves ahead 1-0 in the first period thanks to Will O'Neill's power play tally midway through the period.
In fact, the Phantoms held the 1-0 lead into the final five minutes of the second period thanks to some stellar stops from Alex Lyon - playing in back-to-back games for Lehigh Valley after going four weeks between starts coming into the weekend.
A turnover turned into a breakaway led to Charlotte tying the game late in the second period, and a boarding major assessed to Max Lamarche led to a 5-on-3 power play goal to give Charlotte the lead heading into the third period.
The sloppy play continued in the final frame, and prevented the Phantoms from any real chance to tie things back up.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms don't play again until next weekend, when they hit the road for a pair of games in Rochester Friday night and Toronto on Saturday.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Tyrell Goulbourne Danick Martel - Corban Knight - Nicolas Aube-KubelOskar Lindblom - Mike Vecchione - Chris Conner Alex Krushelnyski - Steven Swavely - Radel Fazleev
T.J. Brennan - Max LamarcheWill O'Neill - Mark Friedman Reece Willcox - Phil Myers
Alex Lyon - Dustin Tokarski
Scratches: Sam Morin, Cole Bardreau, Colin McDonald, Mikhail Vorobyev, Matt Read and James de Haas
Lineup Notes
After not playing in a game for four weeks while with Flyers, Alex Lyon got the start again Saturday night - playing in back-to-back games in his return to Lehigh Valley.
Mark Alt cleared waivers and was reassigned to Lehigh Valley Saturday afternoon, but he did not play for the Phantoms tonight.
Only one lineup change, as Max Lamarche returned to the lineup on defense and it was James de Haas's turn to sit as the seventh defenseman.
POST-GAME REACTION
GAME RECAP
Coming off a 3-1 loss to the Phantoms last night, Charlotte was more than ready for the opening face-off Saturday. They drew an early power play on the opening shift, and immediately went to work creating several offensive chances.
The Checkers controlled large portions of the 1st period, throwing 16 shots toward Alex Lyon in the opening 20 minutes including seven of the game's first nine shots in the first five minutes of the contest.
Luckily for Lehigh Valley, Lyon stood tall amid some flurries of heavy pressure by the Checkers and kept Charlotte at bay.
It wasn't until the midway mark of the period that the game saw its first goal, and it was the Phantoms capitalizing on their first power play of the night.
Mike Vecchione won a puck battle down low and got the puck to the left point to Phil Myers, who slid it across the top to Will O'Neill. O'Neill skated in to the right-wing circle before blasting a slap shot that trickled through Checkers' goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic with 9:54 left in the first frame to put the Phantoms on top 1-0.
Still, the Checkers were bringing it the rest of the period only to be shut down by Lyon. The play of the Phantoms' netminder was crucial in keeping Lehigh Valley ahead 1-0 heading into the middle frame.
The Phantoms had a better start to the middle period, but it was a largely uneventful stanza until the final five minutes before the second intermission.
Nicolas Roy took a pass from Julien Gauthier and stormed in on a breakaway, beating Lyon and tying the game at 1-1 with 4:17 left in the 2nd period.
A Danick Martel interference minor on the next shift put Lehigh Valley on the penalty kill, and an unfortunate play shortly thereafter really put the Phantoms in a bind.
Checkers forward Andrew Poturalski got a pass and was heading down low before stopping in the corner and turning away from the puck, putting himself in a defenseless position for an incoming check from Max Lamarche.
The hit didn't look pretty, as Poturalski was sent headfirst into the boards, but it was clear that the play wasn't malicious with regards to intent. Lamarche saw a puck carrier going into the corner and appearing to head down low and went towards the puck. The forward turned at the last second, and Lamarche didn't have time to let up on a body check he was delivering.
Lamarche was assessed a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct, putting Charlotte on a two-man advantage that they wasted no time converting.
Nine seconds into the 5-on-3, Patrick Brown passed back to the point and Aleksi Saarela stepped into a one-timer that was lasered into the top shelf to put Charlotte ahead 2-1 with 2:30 left in the period.
The third period was a particularly sloppy period for the Phantoms. The two teams exchanged power plays twice, but the home team was unable to generate much pressure to find the equalizer.
Charlotte put the game out of reach with 2:30 left in regulation, as Warren Foegele made it a 3-1 Checkers lead on his 17th of the season.
Oskar Lindblom made a nice move to the net for his 11th goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Charlotte would go on to tally a pair of empty net goals to complete their 5-2 victory.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
0:32: LV - (PP) Lamarche, minor (high-sticking) 8:40: CHA - (PP) Schilkey, minor (hooking) 10:06: LV - PPG O'Neill (4) - Myers, Vecchione 12:21: LV - (PP) Martel, minor (hooking)
2nd Period
2:24: CHA - (PP) Ferrantino, minor (delay of game) 15:43: CHA - Roy (6) - Gauthier 16:08: LV - (PP) Martel, minor (interference) 17:21: LV - Lamarche, major (fighting) 17:21: LV - (PP) Lamarche, major (boarding) 17:21: LV - Lamarche, game misconduct 17:21: CHA - Roy, major (fighting) 17:30: CHA - Saarela (13) - Miller, Kitchon
3rd Period
3:47: CHA - (PP) Samuelsson, minor (cross-checking) 4:58: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (holding) 7:39: LV - (PP) Carey, minor (slashing) 11:14: CHA - (PP) Robertson, minor (hooking) 17:30: CHA - Foegele (17) - McKeown, Brown 18:02: LV - Lindblom (11) - Goulbourne, Varone 18:37: CHA - ENG Poturalski (10) - unassisted 19:12: CHA - ENG Brown (6) - Foegele
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 1 - 0 - 1 = 2 Charlotte 0 - 2 - 3 = 5
Shots
Lehigh Valley 7 - 13 - 8 = 28 Charlotte 16 - 14 - 13 = 43
Goalies
LV - Alex Lyon (38 saves - 41 shots) CHA - Alex Nedljkovic (26 saves - 28 shots)
Power Play
LV: 1-for-6 CHA: 1-for-5
Penalty Kill
LV: 4-for-5 CHA: 5-for-6
Attendance: 8,050
