GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - Lehigh Valley (6-2-5) at Springfield (9-6-0) 11/13/19

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (6-2-5) are in Springfield for a rare school-day game against the Springfield Thunderbirds (9-6-0) that began at 10:33 a.m. ET this morning.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Greg Carey - Cal O'Reilly - Kyle Criscuolo Maksim Sushko - Morgan Frost - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Mikhail Vorobyev - German Rubtsov - David Kase Matthew Strome - Gerry Fitzgerald - Kurtis Gabriel

T.J. Brennan - Andy Welinski Tyler Wotherspoon - Reece Willcox James de Haas - Nate Prosser

Alex Lyon - J-F Berube

Scratches: Mark Friedman (injured), Isaac Ratcliffe (injured), Connor Bunnaman (injured) and Chris Bigras (injured)

GAME STORY

1st Period

If you had any thought that since the game was being played at 10:30 in the morning in front of thousands of kids that the two teams would adjust their style of play, let the big hit from Jack Rodewald and ensuing fight between the Thunderbirds forward and challenger T.J. Brennan in the opening minute serve as a clear example that that would not be the case.

In fact, it was quite an electric atmosphere at the Mass Mutual Center in the opening minutes. Springfield had the early jump in their step, nearly tallying the game's first goal after a loose puck in Alex Lyon's crease was pushed just wide of the net.

As the period wore on, Lehigh Valley started to get to their game - nearly getting a goal of their own after Nicolas Aube-Kubel had a rebound attempt off a loose puck in the offensive zone somehow not make its way into the net.

After it looked like the Phantoms would have a 3-on-2 rush entering the offensive zone with just over seven minutes remaining in the period, a turnover at the offensive zone blue line sprung the Thunderbirds on an odd-man rush of their own. Aleksi Heponiemi got a puck up to Owen Tippett, whose attempted a pass across that was redirected past Lyon by a Phantoms' defender in front with 7:03 remaining in the first frame to put Springfield ahead 1-0.

2nd Period

Lehigh Valley wasted no time tying things up in the second period, getting the game-tying goal just 1:29 into the middle frame after Cal O'Reilly found Greg Carey at the right point. Carey ripped a shot from just inside the blue line that whizzed past Driedger for Carey's team-leading fifth of the season. Andy Welinski added a secondary assist on the play.

From there, the Phantoms were downright dominant - spending most of the first half of the period in the offensive zone on the attack. They had fired the first 13 (!) shots on goal in the period until Springfield finally tallied their first shot on goal with 10:22 left in the period.

Springfield got some momentum in the second half of the period after back-to-back Phantoms' penalties gave the Thunderbirds a brief 5-on-3 power play. Luckily for Lehigh Valley, they were able to kill off both penalties and keep the game tied at 1-1 thanks to some timely saves from Alex Lyon who had not seen any shots in the opening nine and a half minutes of the frame.

While the Phantoms tallied the first 13 shots on goal in the period, they didn't have a shot on goal in the final half of the frame. Instead, it was Springfield firing the next 14 shots on net and getting a go-ahead goal from Tommy Cross with 3.6 seconds left before the second intermission.

Third Period

The Phantoms had a chance to tie the game early in the third on their first power play opportunity of the afternoon, but were unable to do so. In fact, Lyon had to come up big on a shorthanded breakaway attempt just to keep the Phantoms within striking distance.

As the period wore on, the Phantoms started to force the issue - spending several extended shifts in the offensive zone.

Lehigh Valley appeared to tie the game with 3:22 left in regulation on a bouncing puck around the Springfield net. The original call on the ice was a goal, but after a quick review the referees overturned the original call and deemed no goal.

Head coach Scott Gordon elected to pull Lyon for the extra attacker with 1:43 left to play but to no avail as thePhantoms fell 2-1 in regulation - just their third regulation loss on the season through 14 games.

POST-GAME REACTION

Forward Cal O'Reilly

On today's game:

We had a tough game on Sunday but today we responded with a good game I thought. We had a lot of chances, a lot of pucks to the net but just about five minutes there killed us when they got those two power plays and then they started buzzing. But other than that, it was just one of those [days].

On the strong first half of the 2nd period:

Well they came out flying, we knew they would. Once we kind of settled in and got our legs I think we just started making plays and playing the way that we can when we are successful - it's making plays, getting pucks to the net and battling hard.

Tough to swallow on the no-goal with 3:24 left:

It was tough. I'm not sure if it went in or not we just all celebrated like it did. It looks like they probably made the right call. Just one of those games where nothing went in for us.

On glass half-full vs. half-empty (only 3rd regulation loss on the season, only 6 wins in 14 games):

We've had some tough OT and shootout losses but it's early in the year and there's a lot of new guys on our team here - myself included - so that takes some time to gel and for us to become a real solid team every night. Just learn to play together, and it's coming. That's the good thing.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:00: LV - Brennan, major (fighting) 1:00: SPR - Rodewald, major (fighting) 12:57: SPR - Tippett (7) - Heponiemi

2nd Period

1:29: LV - Carey (5) - O'Reilly, Welinski 10:53: LV - (PP) Welinski, minor (holding) 12:28: LV - (PP) Aube-Kubel, minor (tripping) 16:11: LV - Brennan, minor (roughing) 16:11: SPR - Toninato, minor (cross-checking) 19:56: SPR - Cross (2) - Schemitsch, Toninato

3rd Period

2:35: SPR - (PP) Byron, minor (holding)

BOXSCORE

Lehigh Valley  0 - 1 - 0 = 1 Springfield  1 - 1 - 0 = 2

Shots

Lehigh Valley  14 - 13 - 0 = 27 Springfield  11 - 14 - 0 = 25

Goalies

LV: Alex Lyon (23 saves - 25 shots) SPR: Chris Driedger (26 saves - 27 shots)

Power Play

LV: 0-for-1 SPR: 0-for-2

Penalty Kill

LV: 2-for-2 SPR: 1-for-1