GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - Hartford at Lehigh Valley 12/14/19

ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (10-11-5) aim to avenge last night's 4-0 shutout loss to Atlantic Division leading Hartford WolfPack (16-4-7) when the two teams rematch Saturday night at the PPL Center.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Greg Carey - Kyle Criscuolo - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Andy Andreoff - German Rubtsov - Pascal Laberge Maksim Sushko - Connor Bunnaman - Isaac Ratcliffe Carsen Twarynski - Gerry Fitzgerald - Kurtis Gabriel

Tyler Wotherspoon - Andy Welinski Chris Bigras - Nate Prosser T.J. Brennan - Reece Willcox

Alex Lyon - J-F Berube

Scratches: James de Haas, Matthew Strome, Cal O'Reilly & Mark Friedman

GAME STORY

1st Period

Entering Saturday night's contest, the Phantoms had been shutout in their previous 161 minutes and 19 seconds of action. With the team returning home to rematch Hartford following a 4-0 shutout loss the night before, fans were eager to throw their teddy bears and stuffed animals onto the ice in the team's annual Teddy Bear Toss night.

Luckily for those in attendance at PPL Center, they didn't have to wait long.

Nate Prosser cleared a puck into the offensive zone, where Kurtis Gabriel was first to a loose puck behind Hartford's net. Gabriel spotted Chris Bigras at the left point and rimmed the puck around to the Phantoms' defender before heading to the net to screen WolfPack goaltender Adam Huska. Bigras fired a well-placed shot past Huska just 1:22 into the contest, giving the Phantoms an early 1-0 lead and ending their recent scoreless woes.

After about an 11-minute delay to clean up the stuffed toys from the playing surface, the two teams settled into the game and the tight-checking, hard fought style from last night's contest reappeared.

Later in the period, Andy Andreoff took a holding minor in the offensive zone and - during the lengthy delayed call - Greg Carey was whistled for a slashing infraction. The two penalties gave Hartford a full two minutes of five-on-three but the Phantoms penalty kill and goaltender J-F Berube stood tall and allowed the home team to keep their 1-0 lead into the second half of the period.

The Phantoms had a second stint of five-on-three penalty kill time later in the period, but after killing off Tyler Wotherspoon's tripping minor German Rubtsov and Nicolas Aube-Kubel teamed up for a shorthanded tally to extend Lehigh Valley's lead to 2-0 with 4:03 left before the first intermission.

Fresh out of the penalty box, Wotherspoon broke up a play at the Phantoms' defensive zone blue line and got the puck ahead to Rubtsov who led a 2-on-1 rush with Aube-Kubel before centering for NAK's fifth goal of the season - and first in his last 15 games.

2nd Period

It was a rather uneventful middle frame for both teams, as the Phantoms and WolfPack continued to play a back-and-forth game.

While the Phantoms were shorthanded four times in the first, they began the middle frame with carryover power play time as well as had two other man advantage opportunities but were unable to extend their lead any further as they headed to the second intermission with the same 2-0 lead they had when the period began.

3rd Period

Lehigh Valley was buzzing to begin the third period - most notably an early period chance by Maksim Sushko from the slot - but credit to Huska for making three pretty difficult stops in the opening minute of the period to keep Hartford in the game at a 2-0 deficit to that point.

Instead, it was Hartford tallying a goal 2:22 into the period on Ryan Gropp's first of the season to make it a one-goal game.

At the point, the feeling had to start creeping into the minds of Phantoms' fans and players alike. Another one-goal game, and another low scoring affair. It's becoming the norm of the 2019-20 season for Lehigh Valley.

Credit to J-F Berube, who went right back to making the necessary stops to prevent Hartford from getting the game evened up.

Later in the period, after a series of extended offensive zone time, Reece Willcox got a puck at the center point and shuffled it to the top of the left-wing circle for a one-timer from Gerry Fitzgerald that whistled past everyone on its way into the back of the net - extending the Phantoms' lead to 3-1 with 7:22 left to play.

Still, Hartford wouldn't go away quietly - making the most of a power play chance as Vinni Lettieri's 10th of the season once again made it a one-goal game with 3:24 to go.

The Wolfpack pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, but Maksim Sushko hit the empty net to complete the 4-2 final score.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:22: LV - Bigras (2) - Gabriel, Prosser 6:56: LV - (PP) Andreoff, minor (holding) 6:56: LV - (PP) Carey, minor (slashing) 12:50: LV - (PP) Wotherspoon, minor (tripping) 14:08: LV - (PP) Sushko, minor (tripping) 15:57: LV - SHG Aube-Kubel (5) - Rubtsov, Wotherspoon 18:52: HFD - Di Giuseppe, minor (roughing) 18:52: HFD - Di Giuseppe, major (fighting) 18:52: LV - Brennan, minor (roughing) 18:52 LV - Brennan, major (fighting) 19:54: HFD - (PP) Ebert, minor (slashing)

2nd Period

5:51: HFD - (PP) Beleskey, minor (tripping) 7:42: HFD - (PP) Geertsen, minor (cross-checking)

3rd Period

2:22: HFD - Gropp (1) - Gettinger, Nieves 11:38: LV - Fitzgerald (2) - Willcox, Brennan 15:49: LV - (PP) Prosser, minor (hooking) 16:36: HFD - PPG Lettieri (10) - O'Regan, Keane 18:24: LV - ENG Sushko (4) - Wotherspoon, Berube 19:32: HFD - (PP) Keane, minor (high-sticking)

BOXSCORE

Hartford 0 - 0 - 2 = 2 Lehigh Valley 2 - 0 - 2 = 4

Shots

Hartford  10 - 9 - 9 = 28 Lehigh Valley  7 - 8 - 18 = 33

Goalies

HFD: Adam Huska (29 saves - 32 shots) LV: J-F Berube (26 saves - 28 shots)

Power Play

HFD: 1-for-5 LV: 0-for-4

Penalty Kill

HFD: 4-for-4 LV: 4-for-5