Game 60 Recap: Phantoms Sweep Three-Game Weekend With Shootout Win In Hershey
HERSHEY - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (38-15-7) battled from beginning to end in their first of three straight three-game weekends Sunday evening in Hershey, completing the clean sweep of the weekend with a 3-2 shootout victory at Giant Center - their sixth straight win over rival Hershey to conclude the 12-game regular season series with a 10-2-0 record against the Bears.
It was a battle from start to finish in a good back-and-forth game between bitter rivals in the Atlantic Division.
Corban Knight opened the scoring on a shorthanded breakaway, and Mikhail Vorobyev drew the Phantoms even at 2-2 late in the second period with his fourth point (two goals, two assists) on the weekend.
John Muse, who was pulled Friday versus Hershey after surrendering four goals on 10 shots, got the start Sunday vs the Bears and played a strong game - stopping 22 of the 24 shots he faced.
Playoff Update: New for the stretch run! The Phantoms' win drops their magic number to clinch a playoff spot down to 18 points. With two games against Bridgeport next weekend, Lehigh Valley could really solidify their spot with a pair of wins against the Sound Tigers Friday and Saturday, which would be an eight point swing.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms will have a week of practice leading up to another three-in-three weekend beginning Friday night against Bridgeport.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Chris Conner Danick Martel - Mikhail Vorobyev - Corban KnightRadel Fazleev - Mike Vecchione - *Cole BardreauTyrell Goulbourne - xxxxxxxx - Alex Krushelnyski
T.J. Brennan - Mark Friedman Will O'Neill - Max LamarcheTravis Sanheim - Phil Myers James de Haas
John Muse - Dustin Tokarski
Scratches: Anthony Stolarz, Sam Morin, Colin McDonald, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Reece Willcox
POST-GAME REACTION
POST-GAME RECAP
The opening five or so minutes of Sunday's game looked very much like the third game in three days for the Phantoms and Bears.
Hershey controlled the first seven and a half minutes of play, and headed to the game's first power play of the evening when Phil Myers inadvertently cleared a puck out of the defensive zone and into the stands.
However, it was the Phantoms stealing momentum courtesy a Corban Knight shorthanded breakaway goal to get Lehigh Valley on the board first at the 7:54 mark of the opening frame.
Knight made a heads up play in the neutral zone, getting a stick on a Bears' passing attempt and disrupting the play. Cole Bardreau got the puck and pushed it ahead for Knight to send him to the races and Knight made no mistake about it - going backhand to forehand and over the left pad of Bears' goaltender Pheonix Copley.
Late in the first period, Hershey evened things at 1-1 after terrible communication from Phantoms defensemen T.J. Brennan and Mark Friedman at the offensive zone blue line. Riley Barber split the defense with a stretch pass for the small and speedy Joe Whitney, who was left unmarked. Whitney came in on a breakaway and beat Phantoms' goalie John Muse to tie the game up.
Brennan and Hershey's Tyler Lewington dropped the gloves at the end of the first frame, and the chippy play between the two teams carried over into the second period.
Hershey took their first lead of the night just under five minutes into the middle frame, as Tim McGauley registered his first career AHL point on a feed in front to Wayne Simpson for a quick strike power play goal with Tyrell Goulbourne in the box for a hooking minor.
The feisty play continued in the middle period, as a Jeremy Langlois tripping minor sparked a scrum that saw Mark Friedman chop at Bears' forward Chris Bourque. Bourque elected not to accept Friedman's challenge, and Bourque's teammates came to his aid. After it looked like things settled down, Danick Martel gave a light push to Jonas Seigenthaler and was whistled for a roughing minor.
Neither team scored on the four-on-four play, but things began opening up to the tune of what seemed like endless odd-man rushes back and forth as if it was a three-on-three overtime period.
When things settled down and Lehigh Valley got back to playing their game, they tied things up at 2-2 with 6:04 left before the second intermission.
Bardreau took a puck from Mike Vecchione and fed it in front to Mikhail Vorobyev, who sniped one to the top corner past Copley for his seventh of the season. It marked four points (two goals, two assists) on the weekend for Vorobyev, who is really starting to figure things out in the North American pro game in his rookie season in the AHL.
There weren't any goals scored in the third period, but for the third game of a three-in-three for both teams it was quite an entertaining 20 minutes of hockey between two bitter rivals playing to the final horn.
The Phantoms caught a break when Riley Barber was called for tripping with 1:07 left in regulation, but Lehigh Valley couldn't cash in on the man advantage.
In fact, nobody broke the 2-2 tie in overtime period either so it was on to the shootout where Corban Knight's goal in the third round prolonged the skills competition before Mikhail Vorobyev came out for the fifth round and finished the clean sweep of the weekend for the black and orange.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
7:31: LV - (PP) Myers, minor (delay of game) 7:54: LV - SHG Knight (13) - Bardreau 16:09: HER - Whitney (12) - Barber 18:07: HER - (PP) O'Brien, minor (hooking) 20:00: HER - Lewington, major (fighting) 20:00: LV - Brennan, major (fighting)
2nd Period
3:04: LV - (PP) Goulbourne, minor (hooking) 4:51: HER - PPG Simpson (12) - McGauley, Gazley 7:40: LV - Martel, minor (roughing) 7:40: HER - Langlois, minor (tripping) 13:56: LV - Vorobyev (7) - Bardreau, Vecchione
3rd Period
6:48: LV - (PP) Martel, minor (tripping) 18:53: HER - (PP) Barber, minor (tripping)
Overtime
No scoring
Shootout
LV
Conner - no goal Brennan - no goal Knight - GOAL Varone - no goal Vorobyev - GOAL
HER
Simpson - no goal Bourque - no goal Whitney - GOAL Gazley - no goal Barber - no goal
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 = 3 Hershey 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 = 2
Shots
Lehigh Valley 8 - 11 - 13 - 3 = 36 Hershey 7 - 11 - 4 - 2 = 24
Goalies
LV - John Muse (22 saves - 24 shots) HER - Pheonix Copley (33 saves - 35 shots)
Power Play
LV: 0-for-2 HER: 1-for-3
Penalty Kill
LV: 2-for-3 HER: 2-for-2
Attendance: 9,653
