GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - Lehigh Valley (8-6-5) at W-B/Scranton (11-6-2) 11/27/19

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (8-6-5) face rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (11-6-2) on Thanksgiving Eve at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Greg Carey - Cal O'Reilly - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Carsen Twarynski - Gerry Fitzgerald - David Kase Maksim Sushko - Mikhail Vorobyev - Pascal Laberge Isaac Ratcliffe - Matthew Strome - Kurtis Gabriel

T.J. Brennan - Reece Willcox Tyler Wothersooon - Nate Prosser James de Haas - Mark Friedman

Alex Lyon - JF Berube

Phantoms' Scratches: Andy Welinski (injured), Steven Swavely (healthy), Andy Andreoff (veteran) German Rubtsov (injury), Connor Bunnaman (injury), Chris Bigras (injury) and Kyle Criscuolo (injury)

GAME STORY

1st Period

It was certainly an eventful start to Wednesday's contest between the Phantoms and Penguins. The first two shots on net also registered as goals.

Just 1:22 into the contest, Mikhail Vorobyev forced a Penguins defensive zone turnover and helped Lehigh Valley to an early 1-0 lead. Vorobyev picked the pocket of a Penguins' defender, then side-stepped the sliding blueliner before centering for Tyler Wotherspoon for a quick shot past Casey DeSmith.

On the following shift, Kurtis Gabriel was whistled for tripping - giving the Penguins an opportunity to get the early goal back -- and they did just that.

On a pretty display of puck movement, Andrew Agozzino started a tic-tac-toe play with Adam Johnson that ended with Stefan Noesen burying a cross-ice pass atop the crease for his team-leading 13th goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 2:49 into the period.

It seemed the Penguins were able to exploit the Phantoms' coverage in the defensive zone with relative ease. If not for some big stops early in the period by Phantoms' goaltender Alex Lyon - including a poke check on a pass across on a 2-on-0 breakaway against - Lehigh Valley might've been in some serious trouble.

Later in the period, after all the dangerous chances the Penguins had previously, it was a spinning shot from a bad angle in the right-wing circle that eluded Lyon and allowed the Penguins to take a 2-1 lead with 6:05 left before the first intermission.

The score held up as the two teams headed the first intermission. Shots for the period were 7-4 in favor of the Penguins.

2nd Period

The Penguins were ready for the middle frame, buzzing early and extending their lead on Noesen's second of the night 3:44 into the middle frame.

Noesen took a pass from Sam Miletic and did the rest as his shot on Lyon hit the goalie's left shoulder, blooped up into the air and landed in the back of the net.

On the next shift, Matthew Strome blocked a point blast from a Penguins' defender and was unable to get back up. Play was stopped, and he was helped to his feet and exited the game not putting any weight on the leg he blocked the shot with.

Lehigh Valley was able to get back within one moments later, after Vorobyev fed Pascal Laberge for a shot that went off the post and in. Isaac Ratcliffe, appearing in his first game back after missing the previous six games due to injury, added a second assist on Laberge's 2nd tally with the Phantoms this season.

With the game at a 3-2 score in favor of the Penguins, a controversial no-call saw the Penguins take a 4-2 lead with 8:07 left.

Alex Lyon took a puck off his mask, which resulted in said goalie mask coming off of Lyon's head. However, the play wasn't blown dead and Joseph Blandisi put in the rebound, causing Lyon and the Phantoms' bench to go into a frenzy of rage.

While the Phantoms managed just four shots on goal in the first frame, they peppered DeSmith with 16 shots in the middle frame. Still, Lehigh Valley headed to third trailing by two.

Third Period

It simply wasn't meant to be for Lehigh Valley tonight.

They had two power play chances in the opening 12 minutes of the period, but were unable to get back within a goal.

Instead, Thomas Di Pauli scored a pair of goals in the final 3:10 of the contest - one empty netter and one on a mini-breakaway in the final minute - to turn a 4-2 game into a 6-2 blowout win for the Penguins.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:22: LV - Wotherspoon (1) - Vorobyev 1:47:3LV - (PP) Gabriel, minor (tripping) 2:49: WBS - PPG Noesen (13) - Johnson, Agozzino 4:14: LV - (PP) bench minor, too many men (served by Twarynski) 13:55: WBS - Johnson (1) - Almari, Czuczman

2nd Period

3:44: WBS - Noesen (14) - Miletic 5:05: LV - Laberge (2) - Vorobyev, Ratcliffe 9:25: LV - (PP) Aube-Kubel, minor (boarding) 11:27: LV - (PP) Wotherspoon, minor (tripping) 11:53: WBS - PPG Blandisi (3) - Agozzino, Johnson 12:25: WBS - (PP) Czuczman, minor (cross-checking)

3rd Period

3:54: WBS - (PP) Haggerty, minor (slashing) 7:29: LV - (PP) Vorobyev, minor (tripping) 11:19: WBS - (PP) Blandisi, minor (hooking) 16:50: WBS - ENG Di Pauli (2) - unassisted 19:15: WBS - Di Pauli (3) - Lucchini, Devane

BOXSCORE

Lehigh Valley  1 - 1 - 0 = 2 W-B/Scranton  2 - 2 - 2 = 6

Shots

Lehigh Valley  4 - 16 - 11 = 31 W-B/Scranton  7 - 13 - 12 = 32

Goalies

LV: Alex Lyon (26 saves - 31 shots) WBS: Casey DeSmith (29 saves - 31 shots)

Power Play

LV: 0-for-3 WBS: 2-for-5

Penalty Kill

LV: 3-for-5 WBS: 3-for-3