Game Story: W-B/Scranton - 3 at Lehigh Valley - 2 (3/8/24)

Game Story: W-B/Scranton - 3 at Lehigh Valley - 2 (3/8/24)

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - In another back-and-forth battle of rivals Friday night at the PPL Center, it was the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins overcoming a 2-1 deficit in the third period on their way to a 3-2 victory - getting the better of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the first of back-to-back games scheduled between the two teams on the weekend.

Austin Rueschhoff gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead with a first period power play tally, before Lehigh Valley's Rhett Gardner tallied two goals in the middle frame to turn the tides and give the Phantoms a one-goal lead heading to the final frame.

That's when the Penguins seized control, tying things back up early in the final frame on a snipe from Lukas Svejkovsky before Corey Andonovski re-directed the game-winner in past Phantoms goaltender Cal Petersen (18 saves) with 2:08 left to play.

These two teams, engaged in a physical "chippy" battle, will rematch in Wilkes-Barre Saturday night.

Post-Game EXTRA!

Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere

On these Phantoms/Penguins matchups being a battle to the end

Yeah, it is. We just didn't play to the end, and I'm disappointed in that. Like, it's breakdowns. You put guys out there that you trust and it's in the back of your net. That's unacceptable at this time of the year."

On the game-winning goal from Corey Andonovski

"The winning goal drives me nuts. It's just... like, you know when the puck is in neutral zone - we talked about bad ice - and we just need to be a little bit more assertive and [sure] enough they're in our zone and it's in the back of our net."

W-B/Scranton Penguins  head coach JD Forrest

Thoughts on tonight's win

"I thought when we scored the goal early in the first there, the power play right away, we kind of kind of fell into that trap, we have been falling into with an early lead. We've been doing a nice job getting early lead, and got away from our game a little bit, we got some good penalty kills. And then I think even before the five on three that they had, I thought we started finding our game, I don't know, 12...11 minutes left in the second period, they just happen to get a five on three. And all those are tough, they made a nice play on it. We almost had it out. And then we continued it from there, we didn't get frustrated with it. We had some big plays there down the stretch. So I think that it was about halfway through the game, we started finding the type of type of style we needed to get to and, yeah, that was the difference."

Penguins forward Corey Andonovski

On the message between second and third periods.

"I think the message is always just stick with it. We knew at times it wasn't our best hockey, but when we did have some O-zone chances and some O-zone time, we're able to kind of work them around a little bit. And, you know, we just kind of wanted to get back to that game plan, especially heading into the third down one. So didn't really want to take our foot off the gas at all. But, you know, kind of just stick to our guns and glad we came out on top."

GAME STORY

The Penguins were opportunistic early in the first period, grabbing a 1-0 lead after a quick strike from the power play.

After Sam Poulin was kicked out of the faceoff dot to begin the man advantage, Radim Zohorna won the ensuing draw clean back to Ty Smith at the left point.

Smith shuffled it across to the right point for Vinnie Hinostroza, who fired a shot from the top of the right wing circle.

Petersen made the initial save for Lehigh Valley, but Rueschhoff was in position for the rebound - quickly tapping it in past the Phantoms' goaltender for his eighth of the season just five seconds into the power play and 4:28 into the contest.

While the Penguins were able to jump out to an early 1-0 lead, Lehigh Valley responded early in the middle frame after failing to tie the game moments prior on an early-period power play opportunity.

Instead, Victor Mete stepped up in the neutral zone to force a turnover and spring the Phantoms on a counter attack.

Mete got the puck to the right wing for Brendan Furry, who threaded the needle on a cross-ice feed to Gardner for a quick shot past Blomqvist to knot things up 3:39 into the middle frame.

Gardner was done there, getting the Phantoms a go-ahead power play goal on a 5-on-3 man advantage with 3:39 left before the second intermission.

After a lengthy 2-on-2 battle in the corner, Cooper Marody came out of the scrum with the puck - setting up a series of short quick passes in tight by the net that saw the puck go from Marody to JR Avon and back across the grain to Garnder on the backdoor for a tap in for his eighth of the season.

The back-and-forth battle continued as Svejkovsky elected to shoot on an early third period 2-on-1 opportunity - sniping one past Petersen to tie the game back up at 2-2 with 17:42 left in regulation.

Things started to take a turn for the physical play from there, as a scrum broke out 5:52 into the period after Jagger Joshua was high-sticked in the face.

The result was a four-minute power play for the Penguins, though the black and gold were unable to take advantage - leaving things knotted a two apiece heading into the final 9:46 of regulation.

The physical battle ensued, and it was the Penguins coming through with a big goal with 2:08 left to play when Ryan Shea spotted Andonovski in a soft spot in the Phantoms' defensive zone - sending a sneaky hard-pass through traffic for Andonovski to re-direct in past Petersen to break the 2-2 deadlock.

Lehigh Valley pulled Petersen for the extra attacker, but to no avail.

The two teams rematch Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Joel Blomqvist got the start in net for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Friday night.

With goaltender Magnus Hellberg traded in exchange for goaltender Ludovic Waeber this afternoon, the WBS Penguins added Jaxon Castor to a PTO to serve as the team's backup goaltender.

Ty Smith was traded to Carolina, but with the Hurricanes not having an AHL affiliate the Canes loaned Smith to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. So, while he's no longer a member of the Penguins organization, he's sticking around with WBS for now.

The Penguins added several prospects in return for trading Jake Guentzel to Carolina, with forward Vasili Ponomarev joining Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after putting up 29 points (8G-21A) in 39 games with the Chicago Wolves.

Forrest said Ponomarev had to return to Chicago (the Wolves were on the road at the time of Ponomarev being traded) and that he would be arriving to Wilkes-Barre on Saturday "late tomorrow" with the team targeting Wednesday's home game against the Phantoms for his WBS Penguins debut.

Forward Tanner Laderoute joined the Penguins on a PTO from ECHL-Wheeling and was on the left wing on the fourth line Friday night.

Penguins Scratches: Marc Johnstone, Peter Abbandonato, Matt Filipe, Sam Houde, Dillon Hamaliuk and Vasili Ponomarev

Lines/Pairings:

Radim Zohorna - Joona Koppanen - Corey Andonovski Vinnie Hinostroza - Sam Poulin - Austin Rueschhoff Jagger Joshua - Raivis Ansons - Lukas Svjekovsky Tanner Laderoute - Justin Addamo - Avery Hayes

Ty Smith - Xavier Ouellet Ryan Shea - Jack St. Ivany Jack Rathbone - Dmitri Samorukov

Joel Blomqvist (Backup: Jaxon Castor)

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Lineup Notes

Cal Petersen got the start in net for Lehigh Valley Friday, with Parker Gahagen serving as the team's backup goaltender.

Forward Wade Allison was traded prior to Friday afternoon's NHL trade deadline, as he's heading to the Nashville Predators organization in exchange for forward Dennis Gurianov. Gurianov is staying with the Flyers for the rest of the season, as he wasn't assigned to Lehigh Valley this afternoon.

Phantoms Scratches: Tanner Laczynski and Elliot Desnoyers

Lines/Pairings

JR Avon - Rhett Gardner - Samu Tuomaala Brendan Furry - Jacob Gaucher - Cooper Marody Garrett Wilson - Adam Brooks - Zayde Wisdom Evan Polei - Matt Brown - Adam Karashik

Emil Andrae - Louie Belpedio Victor Mete - Helge Grans Will Zmolek - Ethan Samson

Cal Petersen (Backup: Parker Gahagen)

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

4:23: LV - (PP) Avon, minor (holding) 4:28: WBS - PPG Rueschhoff (8) - Hinostroza, Smith

2nd Period

0:24: WBS - (PP) Koppanen, minor (tripping) 3:39: LV - Gardner (7) - Furry, Mete 15:42: WBS - (PP) Poulin, minor (tripping) 16:59: WBS - (PP) St. Ivany, minor (high-sticking) 17:21: LV - PPG Gardner (8) - Avon, Marody

3rd Period

2:18: WBS - Svejkovsky (1) - Joshua, Rathbone 5:52: LV - (PP) Samson, double-minor (high-sticking) 5:52: LV - Brooks, minor (roughing) 5:52: WBS - Svejkovsky, minor (roughing) 8:25: WBS - Joshua, minor (tripping) 8:25: LV - Belpedio, minor (cross-checking) 17:52: WBS - Andonovski (5) - Shea, Zohorna

BOXSCORE

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

Shots

W-B/Scranton  8 - 5 - 8 = 21 Lehigh Valley  9 - 7 - 13 = 29

Goalies

WBS: Joel Blomqvist (27 saves - 29 shots) LV: Cal Petersen (18 saves - 21 shots)

Power Play

WBS: 1-for-4 LV: 1-for-3

Penalty Kill

WBS: 2-for-3 LV: 3-for-4

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