GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - Springfield at Lehigh Valley 10/19/19

ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (2-1-1) wrap up a five-game homestand Saturday against the Springfield Thunderbirds (2-4-0) at 7:15 p.m. ET.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Joel Farabee - Connor Bunnaman - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Andy Andreoff - Morgan Frost - Kyle Criscuolo Greg Carey - German Rubtsov - Gerry Fitzgerald Isaac Ratcliffe - Mikhail Vorobyev - Kurtis Gabriel

T.J. Brennan - Phil Myers Tyler Wotherspoon - Mark Friedman Chris Bigras - Nate Prosser

J-F Berube - Alex Lyon

Scratches: James de Haas, Andy Welinski, Matthew Strome, Cal O'Reilly (veteran), Maksim Sushko, David Kase and Reece Willcox

GAME STORY

1st Period

Saturday night’s first frame of action looked pretty mundane until the 10-minute mark, as a scary collision near the penalty boxes led to multiple players landing in the sin bin.

After making a drop pass, Thunderbirds wing Paul Thompson was hit hard by Phantoms wing Kurtis Gabriel. As Thompson fell to the ice after the hit, Phantoms forward Mikhail Vorobyev collided with him, forcing both of them to fall hard on the ice. Both players were a bit shaken up after the collision.

After the hit, Thunderbirds center Daniel Audette went after Gabriel, cross-checking him in the back of the head. Inexplicably, Audette did not receive a penalty for the hit. Meanwhile, multiple scrums ensued, including one between the aforementioned Gabriel and Tommy Cross, who each received a two-minute roughing minor. Gabriel, however, accumulated an extra penalty for interference.

While the feisty play did not stop there -- Phantoms forward Andy Andreoff and Thunderbirds defenseman Brady Keeper dropped the gloves for the only ‘official’ fight of the night -- the story of the period was the Phantoms’ penalty kill.

Not only did they kill off both of the Thunderbirds’ power plays, they were able to get multiple high-danger offensive scoring chances, including a 2-on-1 that ended with Vorobyev hitting the post.

J-F Berube played a solid period of hockey for the Phantoms. He stopped all 10 shots he faced. Even though there weren’t many quality scoring chances included in that total, his rebound control looked about as good as it’s been so far in his Phantoms tenure.

2nd Period

Despite the Phantoms leading the period in shots, the Thunderbirds were the better team in the frame.

The Thunderbirds recorded the first goal of the period off a Tommy Cross point shot that somehow found twine instead of hitting one of the many players impeding J-F Berube’s vision in front of the net. The Phantoms would go on to record just one shot in the first 10 minutes of action.

The Phantoms were able to garner a lot of shots on net over the final 10 minutes of the frame, including one that found the back of the net.

Isaac Ratcliffe was behind the net and made a nice cut to the net and fired a shot that found Desrosiers’ pad. The goalie wasn’t able to control that rebound and German Rubtsov was able to crash the net and poke it home for his first tally of the season.

The next minute-and-a-half, however, was a disaster.

Just 54 seconds after Rubtsov’s goal, forward Daniel Audette fired the puck past Beurbe, who was caught out of position.

And 36 seconds later, the Thunderbirds extended their lead as Anthony Greco blew past defenseman T.J. Brennan to go in alone on Berube. The Repentigny, Quebec, native was not able to contain Greco’s wrister, a shot he had no chance to stop.

3rd Period/Overtime/Shootout

After trailing by two entering the third period, the Phantoms were able to dominate the Thunderbirds. However, it wasn’t enough, as the team would go on to lose to the Thunderbirds 4-3 in a shootout.

The Phantoms accumulated the first 10 shots of the period including Nic Aube-Kubel’s first goal of the season. The 23-year-old fired a shot from a tough angle along the boards past Thunderbirds goaltender Phillippe Desrosiers to bring the team within one.

With just 7:29 remaining in the period, it was rookie Morgan Frost who found twine for the first goal of his AHL career. Greg Carey made a nice play in front of the net, batting the puck out of thin air. The puck found Frost in front and he poked it into the open net.

The Phantoms outshot the Thunderbirds 19-4 in the period, giving them all the momentum going into the five-minute overtime.

The Phantoms pinned the Thunderbirds in their own zone throughout most of the overtime period. Only Frost was able to score in the shootout as the Thunderbirds were able to score twice. The Phantoms fall to 2-1-1-1 this season.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

9:54: SPR - Cross, minor (roughing) 9:54: LV - Gabriel, minor (roughing) - served by Fitzgerald 9:54: LV - (PP) Gabriel, minor (interference) 12:40: LV - Andreoff, major (fighting) 12:40: SPR - Keeper, major (fighting) 12:40: SPR - (PP) Keeper, minor (slashing) 16:36: LV - (PP) Prosser, minor (tripping) 18:05: SPR - (PP) Roy, minor (hooking)

2nd Period

5:20: SPR - Cross (1) - Prow, Thompson 6:22: LV - (PP) Criscuolo, minor (slashing) 12:20: SPR - (PP) McCoshen, minor (hooking) 14:26: LV - Rubtsov (1) - Ratcliffe, Vorobyev 15:20: SPR - Audette (2) - Stillman, Schemitsch 15:56: SPR - Greco (2) - Byron, Toninato 19:22: SPR - (PP) Prow, minor (delay of game)

3rd Period

5:57: SPR - (PP) 8:03: LV - Aube-Kubel (1) - Criscuolo 12:31: LV - Frost (1) - Carey, Farabee

Overtime

3:02: SPR - (PP) bench minor, too many men (served by Heponiemi)

Shootout

SPR

Byron - no goal Audette - GOAL Greco - no goal Tippett - no goal Schemitsch - no goal Lowry - no goal Roy - GOAL

LV

Criscuolo - no goal Frost - GOAL Farabee - no goal Aube-Kubel - no goal Bigras - no goal Rubtsov - no goal Brennan - no goal

BOXSCORE

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

Shots

Springfield  10 - 10 - 4 - 1 = 26 Lehigh Valley  7 - 13 - 19 - 2 = 41

Goalies

SPR: Philippe Desrosiers (36 saves - 39 shots) LV: J-F Berube (21 saves - 24 shots)

Power Play

SPR: 0-for-3 LV: 0-for-6

Penalty Kill

SPR: 6-for-6 LV: 3-for-3