Game 48 Recap: Phantoms Push Past Charlotte
ALLENTOWN - With a 4-1 lead and three minutes left in regulation, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms looked well on their way against Charlotte on Wednesday night. Instead, a pair of late goals had the Phantoms' staring at a one-goal lead in final 31 seconds before barely escaping a final flurry of Checkers' pressure with a 4-3 win.
While they played well up until the final minutes, the brief lapse at the end of the game left head coach Scott Gordon and the players in a sour mood after the game.
Colin McDonald tallied a goal and an assist, while Corban Knight - in his first game back from injury after an 11-game absence - and Nicolas Aube-Kubel tallied two assists each.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms continue to power through the busiest part of their regular season schedule, which includes a pair of home games on Friday and Saturday against Hershey and Rochester, respectively.
Phantoms Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Cole Bardreau - Corban Knight - Colin McDonaldTyrell Goulbourne - Mike Vecchione - Chris Conner Oskar Lindblom - Mikhail Vorobyev - Matt Read
Will O'Neill - Max LamarcheReece Willcox - Mark Friedman Travis Sanheim - Phil Myers
Alex Lyon - Dustin Tokarski
Scratches: Sam Morin (injured), Will O'Neill (veteran), Danick Martel (injured) and Radel Fazleev (healthy)
Lineup Notes
Alex Lyon was returned to Lehigh Valley from Philadelphia earlier this week, and he got the start in net for the Phantoms Wednesday night. Dustin Tokarski served as Lyon's backup, while John Muse was loaned to Reading (ECHL).
On defense, T.J. Brennan sat out of Wednesday night's game as the team's veteran scratch. Will O'Neill slotted in on the blueline in Brennan's normal spot alongside Max Lamarche.
Up front, Corban Knight returned to the lineup for his first game since January 5th in Toronto. Radel Fazleev was scratched to make room for Knight to return to game action.
POST-GAME REACTION
POST-GAME RECAP
The Phantoms got off to a quick start Wednesday night on home ice, taking a 1-0 lead on the Checkers just 2:13 into play.
Will O'Neill, back in Lehigh Valley's lineup after serving as the team's veteran scratch in their previous game, joined a rush and collected a pass from Nicolas Aube-Kubel before firing his fifth of the season past Checkers' goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic to get the scoring started for the Phantoms. Phil Varone added a secondary assist on the play.
All in all, a strong first period for Lehigh Valley despite taking the only two penalties in the period. They limited Charlotte to just five shots on goal, and the pairing of Travis Sanehim and Phil Myers was dominant in shutting down AHL All-Star Warren Foegele (21G-13A in 45GP coming in) and his linemates on the top line.
After a rather quiet first seven and a half minutes in the middle frame, the flood gates opened to the tune of three goals in a span of 2:43 of game play.
First, it was the Phantoms extending their lead to 2-0 after a brilliant one-touch, cross-ice pass to Nicolas Aube-Kubel at the offensive blue line set up Greg Carey for a rifle blast past Nedeljkovic at the 7:40 mark of the period. Carey's tally marked his 20th goal of the season.
Charlotte cut the Phantoms' lead in half at the midway mark of regulation on a bit of a weird bounce, as Julien Gauthier's shot from the right-wing circle went in past Phantoms' goalie Alex Lyon after bouncing off of Nicolas Roy atop Lyon's crease.
Despite controlling much of the play in the first half of the game, the Phantoms found themselves in a one-goal hockey game after the Checkers' goal at 9:59 of the 2nd period.
Luckily for Lehigh Valley, they extended their lead back to two goals on the next shift.
Captain Colin McDonald and his linemates Cole Bardreau and Corban Knight went to work - getting a cycle going in the offensive zone before Max Lamarche corralled a loose puck along the right-wing boards and took it to the net.
Lamarche's feed to McDonald produced a quality attempt at the net, but it was Lamarche's play at the net to bang home the rebound that gave the Phantoms their two-goal lead back at 3-1. The goal marked Lamarche's 1st tally on the season, while Knight tallied an assist in his first game back from injury.
The Phantoms didn't take their foot off the pedal to start the third period. In fact, they added an insurance marker 5:26 into the final frame to put the game out of reach. The trio of Bardreau-Knight-McDonald was at it again, as Knight dropped one back for McDonald who fired a shot past Nedeljkovic for his third goal of the season.
McDonald's goal spelled the end of Nedeljkovic's night, as Charlotte elected to swap goalies and allow Callum Booth to make his AHL debut in the final 14:34.
Charlotte would tally a power play goal with their goaltender pulled in the final minutes, and made things extremely interesting with a second extra attacker goal with 31 seconds left but ultimately fell short in their comeback bid.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
2:13: LV - O'Neill (5) - Aube-Kubel, Varone 7:12: LV - (PP) O'Neill, minor (slashing) 18:51: LV - (PP) Bardreau, minor (slashing)
2nd Period
7:40: LV - Carey (20) - Aube-Kubel, Sanheim 9:59: CHA - Roy (8) - Gauthier 10:23: LV - Lamarche (1) - McDonald, Knight 12:56: CHA - (PP) Saarela, minor (interference)
3rd Period
2:40: LV - Goulbourne, major (fighting) 2:40: CHA - Didier, major (fighting) 5:26: LV - McDonald (3) - Knight, Bardreau 12:00: CHA - (PP) Zykov, minor (kneeing) 16:00: LV - (PP) Myers, minor (slashing) 17:31: CHA - PPG - Saarela (18) - Roy, Kuokkanen 19:29: CHA - Miller (12) - Saarela, Kuokkanen
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 1 - 2 - 1 = 4 Charlotte 0 - 1 - 2 = 3
Shots
Lehigh Valley 11 - 8 - 10 = 29 Charlotte 5 - 9 - 10 = 24
Goalies
LV - Alex Lyon (21 saves - 24 shots) CHA - Alex Nedeljkovic (23 saves - 27 shots in 45:26) and Callum Booth (2 saves - 2 shots in 11:07)
Power Play
LV: 0-for-2 CHA: 1-for-3
Penalty Kill
LV: 2-for-3 CHA: 2-for-2
Attendance: 6,194
