GAMEDAY: Game 28 - Syracuse (15-8-2) at Lehigh Valley (16-9-2) 7:15 p.m. ET
ALLENTOWN, PA -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (16-9-2) welcome the Syracuse Crunch (15-8-2) for their first and only scheduled visit to the PPL Center this season.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes
Same lineup for the Phantoms as their game Wednesday night versus Hershey.
Radel Fazleev cleared unconditional waivers, and has moved on from the Phantoms to pursue other playing opportunities.
Michael Huntebrinker took warmups as the extra forward, while it was James de Haas as an extra defender on the ice for the warmup on Wednesday.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Connor Bunnaman - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Alex Krushelnyski - Mike Vecchione - Chris Conner Taylor Leier - Mikhail Vorobyev - Carsen Twarynski Tyrell Goulbourne - Steven Swavely - Colin McDonald
T.J. Brennan - Mark Friedman Philip Samuelsson - Phil MyersZach Palmquist - Reece Willcox
Alex Lyon - Brenden Komm
Scratches: James de Haas (healthy), Cole Bardreau (injured), German Rubtsov (injured - out for season), Phil Varone (healthy) and Michael Huntebrinker (healthy)
GAME STORY
FIRST PERIOD
The two teams weren't scoring goals off the hop tonight, but that's not to say they didn't have their chances. The teams traded power plays in the opening half of the period - two for the Crunch and one for the Phantoms - with both goaltenders needing to come up with some tough saves to keep the game scoreless.
A couple close calls late in the first period on Phantoms' goalie Alex Lyon nearly broke the scoreless tie.
First, T.J. Brennan got caught up ice and the Crunch transitioned into a 2-on-1 against Mark Friedman. Friedman got a piece of the pass coming across, but the pass made its way to the right wing for a shot that - luckily for Lehigh Valley - hit the right post and bounced up the middle of the Phantoms' D-zone.
Another sequence with a little over three minutes left before the intermission saw a shot from the center point change directions on Lyon - squeaking through his equipment and heading for the back of the net. Brennan, with an alert heads-up play, was able to reach behind his goalie and pull the puck out of the crease to avoid damage.
The play was later reviewed at the next stoppage, but a quick review confirmed the no-goal call on the ice.
SECOND PERIOD
With the kinds of chances these two teams were exchanging, it was only a matter of time before one of them found the back of the net. The game's opening goal didn't take long once the middle frame got underway.
Greg Carey fed a neutral zone pass through the middle to Colin McDonald, springing the captain on a mini-breakaway from the blue line. A nice move by McDonald pulled the Crunch goaltender Connor Ingram out of his crease, and the Phantoms' captain deked and scored to give his team the 1-0 lead 4:34 into the second stanza.
The fast-paced, end-to-end action continued from the opening period - and both goalies continued to make some challenging saves to keep it a 1-0 game.
It wasn't until a bit of a broken play that the Crunch were able to tie the game with just under four and a half minutes left before the intermission.
Dominik Masin, from the center point, passed over to the right to Cameron Gaunce for a hard shot that Phantoms' forward Carsen Twarynski was able to get a piece of. Unfortunately, the puck hit off Twarynski's stick and changed direction Lyon - hitting the top shelf for Gaunce's sixth tally of the season.
In the final minute, the Phantoms appeared to re-gain the lead after a pass came across the top of the crease from left to right for Connor Bunnman. Bunnaman one-timed the puck, the red light went on and the goal horn sounded. The players even huddled in the corner to fist bump. Meanwhile, Crunch goalie Connor Ingram was racing to the referee in the corner - waving his goalie glove and signaling he somehow had made the glove save and the puck didn't go in. Simply an incredible save, and equally important as the game went to the third tied 1-1.
THIRD PERIOD
A pretty passing display gave the Phantoms a go-ahead goal early in the third period, with a tic-tac-toe play from Mark Friedman to Connor Bunnaman to Greg Carey for Carey's team-leading 15th tally of the season.
Unfortunately for the Phantoms, the Crunch tied the game on the next shift - needing just 11 seconds to tie the game back up at 2-2 on bar-down shot from Ross Colton atop the crease.
Lehigh Valley continued to pressure offensively, and they got plenty of odd-man rushes and even more tic-tac-toe passing displays. At one point, Ingram was sliding from left-to-right-to-left and appeared to injure himself with all the over-extending he was doing. Play was stopped temporarily after a whistle, but the Crunch goalie stayed in the game.
It was thrill-a-minute hockey right to the final horn of regulation. Phil Myers made a great play defensively to break up an odd-man rush, and in transition Mike Vecchione chipped a puck into the middle and had a mini-breakaway in the waning seconds of regulation but had his stick broken by a slash on his chance.
Time expired with no penalty, or penalty shot, and the hectic game continued in overtime.
OVERTIME/SHOOTOUT
With the amount of chances the two teams exchanged five-on-five, did you think the open ice in the 3-on-3 would be any less thrilling?
A total of seven shots went on net in that 5-minute overtime session between the two teams, and again Lyon and Ingram stood tall and made some terrific saves to get it to the shootout.
Taylor Leier kicked off the shootout with a goal, but the Phantoms were unable to get a second one to win it. Cory Conacher scored in the bottom-half of the third round to force the sudden death 4th round before Carter Verhaeghe went post and in in the fifth round to secure the win for Syracuse.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
2:49: LV - (PP) Friedman, minor (slashing) 6:03: SYR - (PP) Masin, minor (holding) 9:03: LV - (PP) Vorobyev, minor (slashing)
2nd Period
4:34: LV - McDonald (3) - Carey, Brennan 15:39: SYR - Gaunce (6) - Masin, Verhaeghe 15:56: SYR - Yan, minor (boarding) 15:56: LV - Aube-Kubel, minor (roughing) 17:35: SYR - (PP) Volkov, minor (roughing)
3rd Period
5:02: LV - Carey (15) - Bunnaman, Friedman 5:13: SYR - Colton (3) - Bourke, Thomas
Overtime
No scoring
Shootout
LV
Leier - GOAL Vorobyev - no goal Aube-Kubel - no goal Vecchione - no goal Conner - no goal
SYR
Somppi - no goal Raddysh - no goal Conacher - GOAL Barre-Boulet - no goal Verhaeghe - GOAL
BOXSCORE
Syracuse 0 - 1 - 1 - 0 - 1 = 3 Lehigh Valley 0 - 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 = 2
Shots
Syracuse 14 - 6 - 6 - 3 - 1= 30 Lehigh Valley 11 - 17 - 10 - 4 - 0 = 42
Goalies
SYR: Connor Ingram (40 saves - 42 shots) LV: Alex Lyon (27 saves - 29 shots)
Power Play
SYR: 0-for-2 LV: 0-for-2
Penalty Kill
SYR: 2-for-2 LV: 2-for-2
Attendance: 6,999
