GAME STORY: AHL Preseason - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Lehigh Valley 9/29/19

ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Sunday afternoon in their first home contest of the preseason. They'll wrap up their three-game preseason slate with a Monday night showdown against their other Atlantic Division rival, the Hershey Bears.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Line rushes in warmup:

Andy Andreoff - Cal O'Reilly - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Mikhail Vorobyev - German Rubtsov - Maksim Sushko Isaac Ratcliffe - Kyle Criscuolo - Greg Carey Matthew Strome - Gerry Fitzgerald - Kurtis Gabriel

T.J. Brennan - Nate Prosser Chris Bigras - Mark Friedman Tyler Wotherspoon - James De Haas

J-F Berube - Kirill Ustimenko

Scratches: Felix Sandstrom, Eric Knodel, Jeremy Beaudry, Reece Willcox, Morgan Frost, Brett Supinski, David Kase and Pascal Laberge

GAME STORY

1st Period

The first period could literally be summarized with one word.

Sloppy.

In what quickly became a special teams affair, the Phantoms and Penguins didn't appear to put their best foot forward as the puck dropped for Sunday afternoon's game. There were a lot of missed connections on passes, some no-look passes that weren't being retrieved and a lot of the typical miscommunication type plays you see in the preseason.

It wasn't until the final 91 seconds of the period that the Lehigh Valley power play got it's first full look, and they made quick work of it to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission.

T.J. Brennan, from the center point, continued a pretty display of passing and puck movement - getting the biscuit to the right-wing wall for Greg Carey. Carey fired a hard and low shot for Andy Andreoff to re-direct past Penguins goaltender Emil Larmi to put Lehigh Valley on the board with 34.4 left in the opening frame.

2nd Period

The middle frame wasn't much better in terms of how sloppy the two teams were playing.

Sometimes, it's easy to forget that it's preseason hockey. This afternoon, it was pretty evident.

One bright spot was the play of the fourth line of Matthew Strome, Gerry Fitzgerald and Kurtis Gabriel. The trio seemed to have some chemistry going, as they had quite a few shifts where they were able to cycle the puck in the offensive zone and create some chances.

Still, with only 11 shots on goal through 40 minutes, the Phantoms know they'll need to do a lot more moving forward.

Third Period

The top line came out and had a strong shift to start the final frame, and after a great cross-ice feed from Andy Andreoff found Nicolas Aube-Kubel in the left-wing circle NAK got all of a one-timer that whistled past Larmi to extend the Phantoms' lead to 2-0.

From there, the Penguins tilted the ice in their favor - getting some extended shifts and scoring chances in the offensive zone. Luckily for Lehigh Valley, J-F Berube stood tall in net - getting whistles when he needed to and getting some good protection by his blueliners at the net front.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was eventually able to end Berube's shutout bid, as Ryan Haggerty got the Penguins on the board with 6:56 left, but the Phantoms responded less than a minute later when Mikhail Vorobyev was able to get his shot from the slot through Larmi to re-gain the Phantoms' two-goal lead at 3-1 to complete the final score.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

9:35: LV - (PP) Andreoff, minor (high-sticking) 10:53: LV - Friedman, minor (roughing) 10:53: WBS - Angello, minor (roughing) 12:11: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (cross-checking) 12:48: WBS - (PP) Agozzino, minor (holding) 18:29: WBS - (PP) Oleksy, minor (slashing) 19:25: LV - PPG Andreoff (1) - Carey, Brennan 19:44: LV - (PP) Wotherspoon, minor (hooking)

2nd Period

6:45: LV - (PP) Gabriel, minor (head contact) 10:04: WBS - (PP) Czuczman, minor (tripping) 12:26: LV - (PP) Strome, minor (cross-checking)

3rd Period

0:56: LV - Aube-Kubel (1) - Andreoff, Friedman 3:38: WBS - (PP) Scarfo, minor (cross-checking) 4:10: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (cross-checking) 13:04: WBS - Haggerty (1) - Warsofsky, Palve 13:42: WBS - (PP) Czuczman, minor (holding) 13:52: LV - PPG Vorobyev (1) - Brennan, O'Reilly 15:54: WBS - (PP) Blandisi, minor (holding) 18:25: WBS - Blandisi, minor (slashing) 18:25: LV - Fitzgerald, minor (roughing) 19:03: LV - (PP) Criscuolo, minor (hooking)

BOXSCORE

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

Shots

W-B/Scranton  9 - 4 - 10 = 23 Lehigh Valley  3 - 8 - 11 = 22

Goalies

WBS: Emil Larmi (19 saves - 22 shots) LV: J-F Berube (22 saves - 23 shots)

Power Play

WBS: 0-for-7 LV: 2-for-6

Penalty Kill

WBS: 4-for-6 LV: 7-for-7