GAMEDAY: Game 48 - Lehigh Valley (25-17-5) at Utica (24-19-5) 7:00 p.m. ET

UTICA, NY -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (25-17-5) kick off a three-game weekend with a Friday night visit to the Adirondack Bank Center for a face-off against the Utica Comets (24-19-5) at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

The Flyers reassigned forward Jori Lehtera to Lehigh Valley (AHL) after he cleared waivers earlier this week. Lehtera was not with the Phantoms in Utica Friday.

Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)

Greg Carey - Connor Bunnaman - Dale WeiseJustin Bailey - Mike Vecchione - Chris Conner Carsen Twarynski - Mike Huntebrinker - Colin McDonald Tyrell Goulbourne - Steven Swavely - Alex Krushelnyski

Philip Samuelsson - Phil MyersZach Palmquist - Reece Willcox James de Haas - Mark Friedman

Mike McKenna - Branden Komm

GAME STORY

FIRST PERIOD

The Phantoms played a pretty simple game in the opening period, getting pucks deep and getting the forecheck set up. Pretty standard road game stuff.

The Comets fired six of the first seven shots of the hockey game Mike McKenna's way, but the Phantoms' veteran netminder - a former Vancouver/Utica goalie earlier this season - stood tall. In fact, McKenna's arguably toughest save of the period came on the opening shift.

As the period wore on, after the Phantoms killed off a Steven Swavely interference minor, Lehigh Valley began to get on the attack more consistently and narrowed the shots on goal gap as the two teams headed into the first intermission in a scoreless tie.

SECOND PERIOD

The goals started coming in the middle frame, and they came in bunches in the early part of the period - helping the Phantoms jump out to a 2-0 lead.

On the opening shift of the period, Justin Bailey got a pass from Connor Bunnaman behind the net and somehow banked one in off goalie Michael Leighton 52 seconds into the period to get the Phantoms on the board first. For Bailey, it marked goals in four of his last five games as the recently acquired forward looks to be enjoying his new opportunity with the Flyers organization.

On the next shift after the goal, a nice individual effort from Phil Myers gave the Phantoms a 2-0 lead on goals 45 seconds apart. Myers entered the offensive zone, turned on the jets along the left-wing circle and used his long reach to take it to the net front - getting the puck around and behind Leighton for his ninth of the season.

Utica answered about five minutes later to cut the Phantoms' lead in half, and that's where the two teams stood heading into the second intermission.

THIRD PERIOD

Utica came out and tied it up at 2-2 on the opening shift of the third, with a floating wrist shot from the top of the left-wing circle by Ashton Sautner eluding McKenna on it's way in past the Phantoms goalie. Tanner Kero and Zack MacEwen added assists on Sautner's third tally of the season.

Then, the Phantoms got on their heels a bit and did Utica ever make them pay for it to the tune of two goals 28 seconds apart to turn what was a 2-1 deficit for the Comets into a commanding 4-2 lead with 15:38 left in regulation.

First, Reid Boucher picked up his 20th of the season to give Utica their first lead of the night - on a shot that just trickled under McKenna's right pad.

Tom Pyatt followed it up on the next shift with his third of the season extending the Comets' lead to 4-2.

The Phantoms showed some life, buzzing around Leighton's net in an attempt to make it a one goal game but the Comets' veteran goalie stood tall.

Meanwhile, Utica continued to add to their lead.

Brendan Gaunce re-directed a shot past McKenna from the side of the Phantoms' net to put the game out of reach at a 5-2 Comets advantage.

Entering tonight, the Phantoms were 17-0-0 when beginning the third period with a lead.

I guess there's a first time for everything.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

5:55: LV - (PP) Swavely, minor (interference)

2nd Period

0:52: LV - Bailey (14) - Bunnaman 1:37: LV - Myers (9) - Conner 2:09: UTI - (PP) Boucher, minor (hooking) 6:28: UTI - Bancks (3) - Sifers, Jasek 12:21: UTI - (PP) Sifers, minor (tripping)

3rd Period

0:30: UTI - Sautner (3) Kero, MacEwen 3:54: UTI - Boucher (20) - MacEwen 4:22: UTI - Pyatt (3) - Woods, Sautner 10:46: UTI - Gaunce (14) - Pyatt, Woods 17:05: UTI - (PP) Sautner, minor (cross-checking)

BOXSCORE

Lehigh Valley   0 - 2 - 0 = 2 Utica Comets 0 - 1 - 4 = 5

Shots

Lehigh Valley   6 - 12 - 9 = 27 Utica Comets 9 - 12 - 12 = 33

Goalies

LV: Mike McKenna (28 saves - 33 shots) UTI: Michael Leighton (25 saves - 27 shots)

Power Play

LV: 0-for-3 UTI: 0-for-1

Penalty Kill

LV: 1-for-1 UTI: 3-for-3

Attendance: