GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - Hartford at Lehigh Valley 2/15/20

ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (22-23-6) look to continue plugging away Saturday night against Atlantic Division foe Hartford (28-13-10).

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Lines/Pairings:

Greg Carey - Cal O'Reilly - David Kase Andy Andreoff - Morgan Frost - Max Willman Maksim Sushko - Mikhail Vorobyev - Isaac Ratcliffe Carsen Twarynski - Kyle Criscuolo - Kurtis Gabriel

James de Haas - Andy Welinski Eric Knodel - Nate Prosser David Drake - Reece Willcox

Alex Lyon - J-F Berube

Phantoms scratches: Tyler Wotherspoon, Steven Swavely, Mark Friedman, German Rubtsov, Gerry Fitzgerald, Chris Bigras, T.J. Brennan, Pascal Laberge and Chris Stewart

GAME STORY

1st Period

For the second straight night, Andy Welinski opened the scoring and gave the Phantoms a 1-0 lead. Tonight's goal came after good work along the boards from Max Willman and Morgan Frost. From behind the net, Frost got the puck out to Welinski in the right-wing circle for a quick shot that beat Hartford goaltender Tom McCollum to the short side 5:11 into the contest.

Lehigh Valley dominated large portions of the period, though they were unable to extend their lead before the end of the period. They spent a majority of the period in the offensive zone, out-shooting Hartford 14-4 in the opening 20 minutes.

Equally impressive was the Phantoms' penalty kill in the opening period, tasked with a double-minor to kill off after Willman was tagged for high-sticking with 8:01 left in the period. Not only did the Phantoms kill off the four minutes, they barely allowed Hartford across the blue line into the zone.

The Phantoms nearly made it 2-0 in the final minute of the period, with Willman getting a Grade-A scoring chance. Seeing how well Willman has played since joining Lehigh Valley, it makes you wonder how he slipped under the radar coming out of college.

2nd Period

After all the hard work by Lehigh Valley in the opening period, it only made sense that Hartford would score 12 seconds into the middle frame and even the game at 1-1. Lyon made the initial save, but the rebound darted up in the air and landed atop the crease where Shawn McBride stuffed it home for his second goal on the season.

Still, the Phantoms went right back to work and re-took the lead just over four minutes later while on a power play.

Hartford tried to transition while shorthanded, but were unsuccessful - leaving Andy Andreoff alone at the far blue line. Greg Carey connected with Andreoff on a stretch pass, before Andreoff let a drop pass to Cal O'Reilly. O'Reilly did the rest, putting the puck through his legs to get to around a defender before sliding one between the legs of the WolfPack goaltender for his fifth goal of the season.

Hartford, despite being largely outplayed for a majority of the contest, continued to hang around - getting to their game in the second half of the middle frame before tying the game back up at 2-2 with 4:27 left before the second intermission. Nick Jones batted in a rebound of a Joey Keane shot past Lyon for Jones' seventh goal on the 2019-20 campaign.

Lehigh Valley got the lead back before the second intermission, and it came after Morgan Frost was kicked out of an offensive zone face-off. Andreoff came in to take the draw, with Frost lined up behind him on the edge of the left-wing circle. Andreoff won the draw straight back, and Frost dropped to one knee before blasting a quick shot past McCollum with 1:15 left in the period to give Lehigh Valley a 3-2 lead heading to the third.

Third Period

After an uneventful eight minutes to start the third period, Hartford once again evened up the score on a bit of a fortuitous bounce. Mason Geertsen shot a puck from the point well wide of Lyon's net, but the puck caromed off the end boards right to Matt Beleskey for an easy tap-in at the side of the net.

The Phantoms had their chances in the second half of the period, getting three straight power plays to close out regulation. Unfortunately for Lehigh Valley, they were unable to find a go-ahead goal and the game went to overtime.

Overtime/Shootout

What began as a rather anti-climatic 3-on-3 overtime period ended with fireworks.

Alex Lyon came up big on a clean breakaway in the final minute moments after the Phantoms nearly won the game at the other end of the rink.

The two teams went five rounds in the shootout, but it was Hartford escaping with the shootout win and two points in the standings.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

5:11: LV - Welinski (7) - Frost, Willman 11:59: LV - (PP) Willman, double-minor (high-sticking) 15:51: HFD - (PP) Lettieri, minor (slashing)

2nd Period

0:12: HFD - McBride (2) - Ronning, Raddysh 3:05: HFD - (PP) Raddysh, minor (interference) 4:24: LV - PPG O'Reilly (5) - Andreoff, Carey 5:58: LV - Twarynski, minor (roughing) 5:58: HFD - Ronning, minor (roughing) 16:33: HFD - Jones (7) - Keane, Fogarty 18:45: LV - Frost (9) - Andreoff

3rd Period

8:12: HFD - Beleskey (15) - Geertsen, Keane 8:52: LV - (PP) Prosser, minor (tripping) 10:12: HFD - (PP) Keane, minor (interference) 13:43: HFD - (PP) Beleskey, minor (holding the stick) 17:58: HFD - (PP) O'Regan, minor (tripping)

Overtime

*No Scoring/Penalties

Shootout

LV

O'Reilly - no goal Frost - no goal Andreoff - GOAL de Haas - no goal Criscuolo - no goal

HFD

Kravtsov - no goal Gettinger - no goal O'Regan - GOAL Lettieri - no goal Fogarty - GOAL

BOXSCORE

Hartford   0 - 2 - 1 - 0 - 1= 4 Lehigh Valley  1 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 3

Shots

Hartford   4 - 10 - 10 - 2 = 27 Lehigh Valley  14 - 7 - 9 -2 = 32

Goalies

HFD: Tom McCollum (29 saves - 32 shots) LV: Alex Lyon (23 saves - 26 shots)

Power Play

HFD: 0-for-3 LV: 1-for-5

Penalty Kill

HFD: 3-for-5 LV: 3-for-3