GAME STORY: Lehigh Valley - 3 at W-B/Scranton - 2 (SO) 2/23/22

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (18-19-9) fell behind 2-0 in the first period against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, but like so many times this season hung around and kept themselves in a close game in the third period before forcing overtime and ultimately prevailing in the shootout in a hard-fought 3-2 decision Wednesday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

Jonathan Gruden and Filip Hallander recorded first period goals for the Penguins, while P.O Joseph added two primary assists in what ended up being all of the offense the Pens provided. Goalie Alex D'Orio was spectacular in a losing effort, stopping 36 of the 38 shots he faced - including all seven that came his way during the 3-on-3 overtime.

Maksim Sushko got the Phantoms back within one off a feed from Adam Clendening in the second period, before Hayden Hodgson cleaned up a loose puck at the net on a third period power play to tie the game and get it to overtime before Clendening scored the lone goal of the shootout to give the Phantoms the extra point in the Atlantic Division standings as Lehigh Valley inches closer to the Penguins for the sixth and final playoff spot in the division.

D'Orio was outdueled by Kirill Ustimenko, who stopped 30 of 32 and all three shootout attempts he faced to lift Lehigh Valley to a big win - his first AHL win on the season and just the second of his career. Oddly enough, Ustimenko's other career AHL win came in Wilkes-Barre against the Penguins back on February 8, 2020 just over two years and two weeks ago.

The Phantoms head to Cleveland for back-to-back games Friday night (7:00 p.m. ET) and Saturday afternoon (1:00 p.m. ET), but will likely be doing so without forward German Rubtsov who left in the third period after blocking a shot off of what appeared to be his arm and didn't return.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Lineup Notes

Kirill Ustimenko returned on loan from Philadelphia, and got the start in net for Lehigh Valley Wednesday night in Wilkes-Barre. Garrett Metcalf served as Ustimenko's backup.

On defense, Linus Hogberg returned after a one-game absence. Cooper Zech took the warmup but was the final healthy scratch.

Up front, Alex Kile suffered an upper body injury in the team's last game Sunday against Springfield and is expected to miss a few weeks.

Nick Lappin returned to the Phantoms' lineup for the first time since February 2nd.

Phantoms' Scratches: Samuel Ersson (inj), Felix Sandstrom (inj), Pat Nagle, Cooper Zech, Linus Sandin (inj), Brennan Saulnier (inj), Ryan MacKinnon, Alex Kile (inj) and Tyson Foerster (inj)

Lines/Pairings:

Connor Bunnaman - Cal O'Reilly - Hayden Hodgson Garrett Wilson - Tanner Laczynski - Charlie Gerard German Rubtsov - Matthew Strome - Maksim Sushko Jackson Cates - Adam Johnson - Nick Lappin

Linus Hogberg - Adam Clendening Cam York - Wyatte Wylie Egor Zamula - Logan Day

Kirill Ustimenko - Garrett Metcalf

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Alex D'Orio got the start in net for W-B/Scranton Wednesday night against the Phantoms. Tommy Nappier, who helped the Penguins pick up a 3-1 win in Hershey on Tuesday, served as the Pens' backup.

Penguins Scratches: Filip Lindberg, Chris Bigras, Will Reilly, Jan Drozg, Jamie Devane, Cam Lee and Felix Robert

Lines/Pairings:

Radim Zohorna - Drew O'Connor - Valtteri Puustinen Alex Nylander - Sam Poulin - Anthony Angello Filip Hallander - Michael Chaput - Nathan Legare Jordy Bellerive - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson

P.O. Joseph - Mitch Reinke Matt Bartkowski - Taylor Fedun Juuso Riikola - Mark Friedman

Alex D'Orio - Tommy Nappier

GAME RECAP

1st Period

The Penguins had an early advantage in play from the opening face-off, though probably not as lopsided as the 8-1 edge in shots they held in the opening seven minutes of a scoreless first period.

Lehigh Valley got to their game as the period progressed, with Tanner Laczynski turnstile-ing a Penguins' defender on his way to a quick shot from inside the right-wing circle for the Phantoms' best chance of the opening half of the period.

Later, the Penguins nabbed the game's opening goal on a pretty routine low-to-high play with defensemen Mitch Reinke and P.O. Joseph going tape-to-tape across the blue line before a shot from center point by the latter was re-directed in past Phantoms' goalie Kirill Ustimenko by Jonathan Gruden. Gruden's 5th of the season at 12:17 broke the scoreless tie, and gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead to go along with their edge in shots on goal and scoring chances.

Mark Friedman began to haunt his former team late in the first period.

After poking a puck out from the corner in his defensive zone, Friedman was leveled by Hayden Hodgson - deemed interference on the Phantoms' forward.

Phantoms defenseman Adam Clendening skated by and might've said something to Friedman, in which the WBS defender responded by tripping Clendening on his pass through.

The Penguins scored on the ensuing power play to extend their lead to 2-0 with 1:48 left before the first intermission, with Joseph recording his second primary assist of the period as he took it to the net before dishing to the left wing for Filip Hallander for a tap in at the side of the net.

Penguins' forward Kyle Olson was whistled for a double-minor high-sticking penalty with 1:16 to go in the opening period, and although the Phantoms headed into the intermission trailing 2-0 they had 2:44 of power play time on fresh ice awaiting them in the middle frame with a chance to get back within striking distance.

2nd Period

The Phantoms didn't get much power play time to begin the middle frame. Unfortunately, Laczynski was whistled for an offensive zone tripping minor 0:50 into the period - negating the rest of Lehigh Valley's power play.

After the penalties cycled through and the two teams went back to 5-on-5 hockey, it was back to the tight-checking, dump-and-chase pace from the first frame. Neither team was allowing easy entries into their respective defensive zones, which led to a lot of puck battles along the boards.

Lehigh Valley had a glorious chance to make it a one-goal game with 12:35 left in the period, as a puck came in front to an open Garrett Wilson atop the crease with Penguins' goalie Alex D'Orio seemingly down and out at his left post. Somehow, the Penguins goalie contorted his body back against the grain, rolling and making a glove save to rob Wilson of a goal.

Wilson had his stick in the air with both hands, his stick resting on the top of his helmet as he stared on in pure disbelief.

Though they didn't score on that sequence, the Phantoms seemed to grab momentum from there - as they went on to out-shoot the Pens 11-6 in the middle frame and later did score to get the game within one before the two teams headed to the second intermission.

Adam Clendening took a pass from Linus Hogberg at the right point, and skated to the net - winding up as if he was about to blast one toward the net. Instead, he pulled up at the last moment - sliding it cross-ice to a wide open Maksim Sushko on the backdoor for a tap in to a basically empty cage to pull the Phantoms within one, down 2-1 near the midway mark of the period.

The Phantoms continued to generate chances all the way up to the final horn of the period, but remained in a one-goal deficit heading to the final frame.

3rd Period

The Penguins responded with some jump in their step to begin the final frame, credited with the first four shots on net to begin the period, but found themselves in penalty trouble shortly thereafter as they took back-to-back penalties and gave the Phantoms a chance to even the game at 2-2.

Unfortunately for Lehigh Valley, they were unable to cash in on either man advantage chance and remained trailing in a one-goal game heading into the second half of the period.

But, the Penguins continued to take penalties - and the Phantoms made the third time the charm as Hodgson cleaned up a loose puck atop the crease for his team-leading 15th of the season to tie the game at 2-2 with 8:31 left in regulation after a nice give-and-go between Garrett Wilson and Tanner Laczynski in the corner opened things up for Hodgson to get free and head to the net.

On the shift after Hodgson's goal, the trio of Sushko, Matt Strome and German Rubtsov got caught out for a long shift thanks to an icing call. On the ensuing face-off, the Penguins maintained possession and set up a one-timer for Juuso Riikola from center point. Rubtsov got into the shooting lane to block the shot, and it appeared to strike him in the arm -sending the Phantoms forward to the ice writhing in pain before eventually heading his way to the bench and down the tunnel to the locker room.

Rubtsov didn't return for the final seven minutes, and a subsequent disappearance of another forward and/or shortened bench had Lehigh Valley finishing the game with basically three forward lines.

Still, the Phantoms managed to save their best period for last - firing 13 more shots on Penguins' goalie Alex D'Orio in the final frame with several chances to steal the win in regulation before getting to overtime in a 2-2 deadlock.

Overtime

The Phantoms flat out dominated the overtime, firing seven straight shots on net. If not for D'Orio, the Phantoms would have won it in the 3-on-3.

At the other end, Ustimenko made a huge stop and subsequent rebound save off a Penguins' 2-on-1 chance in the final minute of overtime to get the game to the shootout.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

12:17: WBS - Gruden (5) - Joseph, Reinke 16:24: LV - (PP) Hodgson, minor (interference) 18:12: WBS - PPG Hallander (5) - Joseph, O'Connor 18:44: WBS - (PP) Olson, double-minor (high-sticking)

2nd Period

0:50: LV - (PP) Laczynski, minor (tripping) 9:31: LV - Sushko (7) - Clendening, Hogberg

3rd Period

5:10: WBS - (PP) Angello, minor (boarding) 7:29: WBS - (PP) Fedun, minor (slashing) 11:07: WBS - (PP) Angello, minor (tripping) 11:29: LV - PPG Hodgson (15) - Wilson, Laczynski

Overtime

No scoring/penalties

Shootout

WBS

Nylander - no goal Puustinen - no goal O'Connor - no goal

LV

Clendening - GOAL Strome - no goal

BOXSCORE

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

Shots

Lehigh Valley   7 - 11 - 13 - 7 = 39 W-B/Scranton   14 - 6 - 9 - 3 = 32

Goalies

LV: Kirill Ustimenko (30  saves - 32 shots) WBS: Alex D'Orio (36 saves - 38 shots)

Power Play

LV: 1-for-5 WBS: 1-for-2

Penalty Kill

LV: 1-for-2 WBS: 4-for-5