GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - W-B/Scranton at Lehigh Valley 11/1/19

ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-1-3) host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (4-4-1) to kick off the Phantoms' first three-in-three weekend of the season.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Greg Carey - Cal O'Reilly - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Andy Andreoff - Morgan Frost - David Kase Kyle Criscuolo - Connor Bunnaman - Maksim Sushko Isaac Ratcliffe - Mikhail Vorobyev - Kurtis Gabriel

T.J. Brennan - Andy Welinski Tyler Wotherspoon - Reece Willcox Sam Morin - Mark Friedman

Alex Lyon - J-F Berube

Scratches: James de Haas, Nate Prosser (veteran), Matthew Strome, Gerry Fitzgerald and Chris Bigras

GAME STORY

1st Period

The Phantoms and Penguins were a little scrambly in the opening shifts, and Lehigh Valley nearly took a 1-0 lead. After a hustle play on the forecheck by Isaac Ratcliffe forced a turnover, Penguins defenseman Zach Trotman attempted to get a stick on a loose puck and pushed it to his own net - forcing Penguins' goalie Casey DeSmith to make an awkward save with his glove against his back to prevent the puck from going in.

Lehigh Valley got the game's first power play after Nicolas Aube-Kubel was tripped coming off the boards at the top of the right-wing circle, and NAK himself nearly put one past DeSmith after a nice move at the net front. With the Penguins goalie seemingly down and out, Aube-Kubel struck the post on his attempt at a partially empty net.

Later in the period, the Penguins got their first crack at the man advantage as Tyler Wotherspoon was whistled for a tripping minor with 7:00 left in the first frame. They were able to execute a breakout on their power play chance, with the puck ending up on the left wing on Adam Johnson's stick as the forward entered the zone with speed. Johnson fed it to the slot for Jordy Bellerive and although Phantoms' goalie Alex Lyon came up with the initial stop, Sam Lafferty was in perfect position at the top of the crease to stuff home the rebound with 5:42 left to give the Penguins the 1-0 lead.

In the final minute, the Penguins extended their lead to 2-0 after a fortunate bounce.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel got a puck and wheeled back towards the center point before firing a shot right into the shin pads of Penguins' defender Jon Lizotte . The loose puck darted to Sam Miletic, who quickly flipped a pass up the middle of the ice for Stefan Noesen. The Pens' sniper raced in on a breakaway the other way, beating Lyon with a quick shot with 57.7 left before the first intermission.

2nd Period

The Penguins made it 3-0 just under five minutes into the middle frame, and you started to get the feeling that maybe tonight was not going to be a good night for the Phantoms.

As the period wore on, the teams combined for three total shots on goal in the opening half of the period. It was a rather uneventful period hockey until the final six minutes of the stanza.

Lehigh Valley got a much-needed power play chance with 5:42 left before the second intermission, and although they didn't score on the ensuing man advantage they were able to break DeSmith's shutout bid a mere four seconds after the power play expired.

T.J. Brennan misfired on a shot from the left point, but the puck bounced off the end boards and back to the right point to Andy Welinski. Welinski quickly flung the puck on net and David Kase got a piece of it, re-directing it past DeSmith for Kase's first goal on the season to cut the Phantoms' deficit to 3-1 heading to the third.

As the period ended, David Warsofsky slashed Kurtis Gabriel in an attempt to draw the Penguins a power play for the final frame. Instead, the plan backfired and it was Warsofsky ending up with the only penalty - giving Lehigh Valley a power play on fresh ice to start the third.

3rd Period

The penalty proved costly for the Penguins as Lehigh Valley opened the third on the power play, breaking a 1-for-their-last-21 streak by capitalizing on the man advantage to make it a one-goal game with 18:17 left in regulation.

Morgan Frost found Greg Carey open in the slot and though DeSmith was able to come up with a big stop, the rebound darted right to Andy Andreoff for a quick put back. Andreoff's third of the season narrowed the gap to 3-2.

From there, the Phantoms continued to pressure and search for a game-tying goal. After managing just 11 shots on net through the opening 40 minutes, the Phantoms fired 11 pucks on net toward DeSmith in about 15 minutes in the final frame.

It wasn't until Scott Gordon elected to pull Alex Lyon for the extra attacker with just over two minutes left that the Phantoms were able to break through and tie the game up. The pairing of T.J. Brennan and Andy Welinski continued to get in on the offensive, as Welinski

Overtime

The Phantoms had a great chance to end it in overtime when they were awarded a power play with 2:57 left in the period, but were unable to score the winning goal.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

4:59: WBS - (PP) Johnson, minor (tripping) 13:00: LV - (PP) Wotherspoon, minor (tripping) 14:18: WBS - PPG Lafferty (1) - Bellerive, Johnson 19:02: WBS - Noesen (10) - Miletic, Lizotte

2nd Period

4:49: WBS - Angello (3) - Agozzino, Lizotte 14:15: WBS - (PP) Angello, minor (holding) 16:19: LV - Kase (1) - Welinski, Brennan 20:00: WBS - (PP) Agozzino, minor (slashing)

3rd Period

1:43: LV - PPG Andreoff (3) - Carey, Frost 1:54: LV - (PP) Gabriel, minor (charging) 4:24: LV - (PP) Aube-Kubel, minor (interference) 11:12: WBS - Warsofsky, minor (roughing) 11:12: LV - Brennan, minor (roughing) 17:59: LV - Carey (2) - Brennan, Welinski

Overtime

2:03: WBS - (PP) Trotman, minor (roughing) 4:58: LV - (PP) Lyon, minor (delay of game - served by Brennan)

Shootout

LV

Frost - GOAL Vorobyev - no goal Sushko - no goal

WBS

Noesen - GOAL Blandisi - GOAL

BOXSCORE

W-B/Scranton  2 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 1 = 4 Lehigh Valley  0 - 1 - 2 - 0 - 0 = 3

Shots

W-B/Scranton  8 - 4 - 9 - 2 = 24 Lehigh Valley  7 - 4 - 13 - 4 = 28

Goalies

WBS: Casey DeSmith (25 saves - 28 shots) LV: Alex Lyon (20 saves - 23 shots)

Power Play

WBS: 1-for-4 LV: 1-for-4

Penalty Kill

WBS: 3-for-4 LV: 3-for-4