GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - Lehigh Valley at Hartford 12/13/19

Inside AHL Hockey HQ -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms continued a road-heavy December with their first visit on the season to the XL Center to begin a three-game weekend with a home-and-home series against first place Hartford WolfPack at 7:15 p.m. ET. The two teams will reconvene in Allentown Saturday for the rematch on Teddy Bear Toss 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, Steven Swavely & Mark Friedman

GAME STORY

First Period

A revamped Phantoms' lineup entered play Friday night in Hartford.

Defenseman Chris Bigras returned to the blue line to face his former team, appearing in his first game since November 6th. Forwards Andy Andreoff (1st game since Nov 22), Maksim Sushko (1st game since Nov 27) and German Rubtsov (1st game since Nov 20) also returned to game acton

Through the opening 12 minutes, it was tough sledding for both teams. The two teams combined for three total shots on goal to that point despite the teams trading power play chances in the opening half of the period.

As the second half of the period wore on, however, Hartford started to generate more consistent offensive pressure - recording seven of the game's first eight shots on net and taking a 1-0 lead with 3:55 left before the first intermission.

Nick Ebert took a pass from Phil Di Giuseppe, and from the left point was able to skate down low before firing a bad-angle shot from below the left-wing circle. The puck banked in off of Phantoms' goaltender Alex Lyon for Ebert's fourth of the season.

After allowing the goal, Lehigh Valley - who had just one shot on goal to that point - responded with some offensive pressure of their own - firing the final four shots of the period Igor Shesterkin's way. Unforunately for the Phantoms, the Wolfpack goaltender came up big - particularly on a backhand rebound attempt from Rubtsov with just over two minutes left in the period - to help get Hartford to the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

Second Period

The Phantoms came out with a strong start to the middle frame, unlike their effort to start the contest. Unfortunately, they weren't rewarded for their early-period efforts. Shesterkin continued to backstop Hartford to perfection, making post-to-post stops and spurts of Phantoms' offensive pressure look easy.

Lehigh Valley had registered three of the period's first four shots on goal in the opening five minutes, before some bad puck luck in the defensive zone allowed Hartford to extend their lead.

A bouncing puck from the right wing inadvertently went into the skates of defenseman Andy Welinski, causing the Phantoms' blue liner to lose his footing. Lewis Zerter-Gossage was in the right place at the right time, picking up the loose puck at the side of the net and putting it past Lyon to give Hartford a 2-0 lead on an unassisted tally at the 6:46 mark of the period.

The goal proved to be the only marker of the period, as Shesterkin continued to shine and keep Lehigh Valley off the scoreboard.

Third Period

Hartford ended any chance of Lehigh Valley mounting a third period comeback on Nick Jones' third of the season - his first of two tallies in the final frame - just under eight minutes into the period. That made it a 3-0 score with 12:15 to play.

The teams subsequently traded power plays before a Phantoms' penalty in the final minute of the contest allowed Jones to score his fourth of the season to conclude the 4-0 final score.

Shesterkin stopped all 26 shots he faced for his second shutout on the season, which also marked back-to-back games without a goal for Lehigh Valley -- who have now scored just two goals in their last four games.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

4:25: LV - (PP) Criscuolo, minor (tripping) 8:48: HAR - (PP) Ebert, minor (interference) 16:05: HAR - Ebert (4) - Di Giuseppe, Lettieri

2nd Period

6:46: HAR - Zerter-Gossage (2) - unassisted

3rd Period

7:45: HAR - Jones (3) - Raddysh, LoVerde 10:02: LV - (PP) Bunnaman, minor (holding) 13:26: HAR - (PP) Keane, minor (hooking) 19:20: LV - (PP) Carey, minor (high-sticking) 19:25: HAR - PPG Jones (4) - Kean, Rykov

BOXSCORE

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

Shots

Lehigh Valley  5 - 11 - 10 = 26 Hartford   7 - 10 - 13 = 30

Goalies

LV: Alex Lyon (26 saves - 30 shots) HAR: Igor Shesterkin (26 saves - 26 shots)

Power Play

LV: 0-for-2 HAR: 1-for-3

Penalty Kill

LV: 2-for-3 HAR: 2-for-2