Game 50 Recap: Power Play Pushes Phantoms Past Rochester
ALLENTOWN - To say that the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (30-14-6) took advantage of a three-game homestand this week would be an understatement following a 5-3 win over the Rochester Americans Saturday night. In fact, they never trailed in any of their three games this week and are now 7-1-1 in their last nine games as they close in on first place in the Atlantic Division.
Travis Sanheim (two assists) stole the show with a pretty display of passes in the second period, Mikhail Vorobyev tallied a goal and an assist and the man advantage converted twice in the form of Greg Carey and Colin McDonald goals. Cole Bardreau iced the contest with a breakaway goal with 2:21 left in regulation.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms' busy game schedule continues next week with four games beginning on Tuesday night with a trip to Bridgeport before a three-in-three weekend.
Phantoms Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Cole Bardreau - Corban Knight - Colin McDonaldRadel Fazleev - Mike Vecchione - Chris Conner Oskar Lindblom - Mikhail Vorobyev - Matt Read
T.J. Brennan - Reece WillcoxJames de Haas - Max Lamarche Travis Sanheim - Phil Myers
Dustin Tokarski - Alex Lyon
Scratches: Sam Morin (injured), Will O'Neill (veteran), Steven Swavely (healthy), Tyrell Goulbourne (healthy), Danick Martel (injured), Alex Krushelnyski (healthy) and Mark Friedman (healthy)
POST-GAME REACTION
POST-GAME RECAP
Some good end to end action in a fast moving first period kicked off Saturday night's Phantoms/Amerks game, and it wasn't until after the Phantoms killed off a late first period penalty that the game's first goal was scored.
Corban Knight stole a puck off the stick of Justin Bailey in the defensive zone at the tail end of the Phantoms' penalty kill, and started a quick rush in transition with Radel Fazleev. T.J. Brennan, fresh out of the penalty box, joined the rush as the trailer and while Fazleev executed a perfect center drive to back off the defense Brennan got the pass from Knight and fired one past Amerks goaltender Linus Ullmark to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
It became more and more evident as the teams played through the second period that Phantoms defenseman Travis Sanheim doesn't want this latest AHL stint to last much longer.
Sanheim helped set up both of the Phantoms' second period goals - a pair of power play markers from Greg Carey and Colin McDonald - to extend Lehigh Valley's lead to 3-0 heading to the final frame.
First, Sanheim collected a face-off won by Phil Varone just over 12 minutes into the middle period. Sanheim gave the puck back to Varone at the half-wall before Varone patiently waited for the backdoor play to Carey to open up. Varone threaded the needle, and Carey's one-timer beat Ullmark to the spot for Carey's 21st of the season.
Then, Sanheim collected a puck behind Rochester's net and spun it around to the other side - splitting the Amerks' penalty killers with a perfect pass across the top of the crease from the right wing corner to the left wing where Colin McDonald tapped one in past Ullmark for the Phantoms' second power play tally of the night to extend the lead to 3-0.
Rochester made things interesting in the third period, twice cutting the Phantoms' lead to two and making it a one goal game with 3:38 left in regulation but that's as close as they would get.
Each time the Amerks inched closer, the Phantoms responded in the third period.
After Matt Tennyson broke Tokarski's shutout bid 6:16 into the third period, Mikhail Vorobyev chipped in with his 5th of the season in a net front scramble just over two minutes later. Oskar Lindblom picked up an errant pass behind the net, and fed it in front to Vorobyev for the goal.
The Amerks would tally a pair of goals to cut their deficit to 4-3, but Sanheim sent a perfect stretch pass to Cole Bardreau for a breakaway that Bardreau would convert on to push the lead to 5-3.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
12:22: RCH - (PP) Fedun, minor (hooking) 15:55: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (holding) 18:02: LV - Brennan (11) - Knight, Fazleev
2nd Period
3:31: LV - (PP) Myers, minor (holding) 8:20: LV - (PP) Knight, minor (interference) 11:28: RCH - (PP) Percy, minor (tripping) 12:12: LV - PPG Carey (21) - Varone, Sanheim 13:18: RCH - (PP) Fedun, minor (delay of game) 14:49: LV - PPG McDonald (4) - Sanheim, Vorobyev
3rd Period
6:16: RCH - Tennyson (2) - Criscuolo, Griffith 8:36: LV - Vorobyev (5) - Lindblom 10:28: RCH - (PP) bench minor (too many men - served by Krause) 13:22: LV - (PP) Bardreau, minor (holding) 13:58: RCH - PPG Gill (14) - Baptiste, Tennyson 16:22: RCH - Redmond (9) - Malone, Gill 17:39: LV - Bardreau (4) - Sanheim, Tokarski
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 1 - 2 - 2 = 5 Rochester 0 - 0 - 3 = 3
Shots
Lehigh Valley 9 - 13 - 10 = 32 Rochester 5 - 13 - 9 = 27
Goalies
LV - Dustin Tokarski (24 saves - 27 shots) RCH - Linus Ullmark (27 saves - 32 shots)
Power Play
LV: 2-for-4 RCH: 1-for-4
Penalty Kill
LV: 3-for-4 RCH: 2-for-4
Attendance: 8,583
