GAME STORY: 2019-20 Season - W-B/Scranton at Lehigh Valley 11/29/19

ALLENTOWN, PA --  The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (8-7-5) look to avenge Wednesday night's drubbing at the hands of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (12-6-2) with Friday night's rematch at the PPL Center.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Line rushes for #LVPhantoms in warmup tonight vs. #WBSPens:

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

T.J. Brennan - Reece Willcox Tyler Wotherspoon - Andy Welinski Nate Prosser - Mark Friedman

J-F Berube - Alex Lyon

Scratches: James de Haas, Andy Andreoff, Maksim Sushko, German Rubtsov, Connor Bunnaman, Chris Bigras and Kyle Criscuolo

GAME STORY

1st Period

The first frame was the most action-packed period of hockey the Phantoms have played at PPL Center in quite some time.

Four goals, one official fight and a bunch of punches thrown throughout the period led to quite the feisty opening 20 minutes. And what do you know, the night began with a Phantoms' power play goal -- but not before an old-school donnybrook at center ice between Kurtis Gabriel and Jamie Devane.

With Lehigh Valley on the man advantage, all five skaters on the ice touched the puck for the Phantoms in the offensive zone before Matthew Strome re-directed T.J. Brennan's point shot to get the power play on the board to give the home team a 1-0 lead. Cal O'Reilly added a secondary assist on the goal that came 5:29 into the contest.

On the next shift, the Phantoms made it 2-0.

Mark Friedman got a puck to Carsen Twarynski for a shot that just missed the mark, but Twarynski centered it in front and the trailing Pascal Laberge cleaned it up for his third goal in his fifth AHL game of the season. Two goals 21 seconds apart had the Phantoms off an running under six minutes into the game.

Just over two minutes later, Twarynski was at it again - getting a pass from Steven Swavely and firing a wrist shot from the right-wing past Penguins Emil Larmi to extend the Phantoms' lead to 3-0 with 11:52 remaining in the opening period.

The power play was at it again later in the period, and Twarynski's strong play continued as he got open in the middle and buried another shot off a feed from Mark Friedman to make it a 4-0 score with 3:29 left before the first intermission.

The physical play was present throughout the period, but tempers flared late in the period when Friedman and Penguins' forward Thomas Di Pauli came together at the side of J-F Berube's net. Di Pauli dropped his gloves and started hammering away at Friedman, who eventually stood in and fought back once he realized there was no escaping the confrontation.

Again as the final horn of the period sounded, the two teams butted heads at center ice. With a 4-0 Phantoms' lead heading to the second period, things could get ugly in the middle frame between two rivals if the score doesn't get any closer.

2nd Period

After taking a 4-0 lead in the first 20 minutes, teams have a tendency to take their foot off the proverbial gas as the game wares on. At least for the start to the middle frame, that wasn't the case for Lehigh Valley Friday night.

Andy Welinski made a nice move at the right point to elude a Penguins' defender and get down low before getting a puck toward the net for Isaac Ratcliffe to finish off 1:01 into the period to make it a 5-0 Phantoms lead.

Things calmed down from there, until the Penguins got a late-period power play and were able to convert when Thomas Di Pauli's blast from the top of the left-wing circle glanced off of Jamie Devane at the top of the Berube's crease.

Still, the Phantoms appeared to be in control heading to the third period on top of the Penguins 5-1.

3rd Period

Lehigh Valley seemed to have things wrapped up as the third period was nearing its midway mark and they led by four goals.

Then, three Penguins goals in a span of 2:47 - two from Andrew Agozzino and one from Anthony Angello - made things super interesting in the final seven-plus minutes.

With the ice heavily tilted in their favor, Penguins' head coach Mike Vellucci took his timeout with 3:14 left to play and pulled his goaltender. Just as the final two minutes of regulation were approaching, Adam Johnson beat Berube from a bad angle to tie the game at 5-5 with the extra attacker on the ice.

After trailing 5-0 early in the second period, the Penguins did the unthinkable in the third to force overtime.

Overtime

J-F Berube, for what it's worth, came up big several times in the first period tonight with his team ahead early and building a lead. Though most won't remember that after the third period, he showed up in overtime - robbing Johnson 1:11 into the 3-on-3 to keep the game going.

Late in extra session, while on a delayed penalty, Nicolas Aube-Kubel worked a puck out of the corner and got it back to Mikhail Vorobyev at the center point. Vorobyev returned it to Aube-Kubel, who spotted T.J. Brennan coming on the ice and fed him the puck for what ended up being the game-winning shot past Larmi to allow the Phantoms to get two points.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

2:50: WBS - Devane, major (fighting) 2:50: LV - Gabriel, major (fighting) 4:34: WBS - (PP) Angello, minor (tripping) 5:29: LV - PPG Strome (1) - Brennan, O'Reilly 5:50: LV - Laberge (3) - Twarynski, Friedman 8:08: LV - Twarynski (1) - Swavely, Willcox 8:46: LV - (PP) Laberge, minor (goaltender interference) 14:42: WBS - (PP) Almari, minor (boarding) 16:31: LV - PPG Twarynski (2) - Friedman, Laberge 18:28: WBS - Di Pauli, minor (roughing) 18:28: LV - Friedman, minor (roughing) 18:28: LV - (PP) Friedman, minor (unsportsmanlike)

2nd Period

1:01: LV - Ratcliffe (2) - Welinski, Fitzgerald 9:43: WBS - (PP) Bellerive, minor (slashing) 17:52: LV - (PP) Gabriel, minor (high-sticking) 19:18: LV - Prosser, minor (roughing) 19:18: WBS - Angello, minor (roughing) 19:26: WBS - PPG Devane (1) - Di Pauli, Haggerty

3rd Period

9:22: WBS - Agozzino (9) - Miletic, Abt 11:06: WBS - Angello (4) - Berger, Abt 12:09: WBS - Agozzino (10) - Miletic, Almari 18:00: WBS - Johnson (2) - Noesen, Agozzino

Overtime

4:00: LV - Brennan (1) - Aube-Kubel, Vorobyev

BOXSCORE

W-B/Scranton  0 - 1 - 4 - 0 = 5 Lehigh Valley  4 - 1 - 0 - 1 = 6

Shots

W-B/Scranton  14 - 10 - 16 - 3 = 43 Lehigh Valley  12 - 6 - 6 - 2 = 26

Goalies

WBS: Emil Larmi (13 saves - 18 shots) LV: J-F Berube (23 saves - 24 shots)

Power Play

WBS: 1-for-3 LV: 2-for-3

Penalty Kill

WBS: 1-for-3 LV: 2-for-3