GAMEDAY: Game 55 - Lehigh Valley (27-21-6) at Charlotte (35-14-7) 7:00 p.m. ET

EDITOR'S NOTE: Inside AHL Hockey's Amanda Statland is live from the Bojangles Coliseum this weekend photographing both Phantoms games against the Checkers.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)

Greg Carey - Byron Froese - Chris Conner Connor Bunnaman - Mikhail Vorobyev - Nicolas Aube-KubelTyrell Goulbourne - Mike Vecchione - Pascal Laberge Carsen Twarynski - Steven Swavely - Mike Huntebrinker

T.J. Brennan - Mark FriedmanJames de Haas - David Schlemko Reece Willcox - Philip Samuelsson

Mike McKenna - Alex Lyon

Scratches: Sam Morin (healthy), Zach Palmquist (healthy), Cole Bardreau (injured), Colin McDonald (veteran), German Rubtsov (injured), Jori Lehtera (veteran), Alex Krushelnyski (healthy) and David Kase (injured)

GAME STORY

In a back-and-forth and high-paced first period, the Checkers opened the scoring 5:31 into the contest after Mike McKenna came up big on Janne Kuokkanen's drive to the net. The rebound ended up getting back to Josiah Didier at the center point and the Checkers' defender let loose a great shot to the top corner to put Charlotte ahead 1-0.

The Phantoms appeared to steal momentum heading into the middle frame, after Connor Bunnaman negated a Charlotte clearing attempt in the final seconds of the period. Bunnaman's shot was re-directed past Checkers' goalie Alex Nedeljkovic with 12.7 seconds left to send the two teams to the first intermission in a 1-1 tie.

Similar to Friday night, Charlotte had a surge in the middle frame and took control - re-gaining their lead and adding to it on goals from Morgan Geekie and - the first of controversial goals/no goals - Andrew Poturalski.

With just over eight minutes played in the middle frame, the Checkers broke the 1-1 tie. Catching the Phantoms on a defensive line change, Zach Nastusiak chipped a puck ahead for Geekie who scored on the breakaway attempt to put Charlotte ahead 2-1.

Poturalski appeared to give Charlotte a 3-1 lead but the play was initially waved off by the referee in position behind the net. It was reviewed over a minute of game play later at the next stoppage and deemed a good goal.

Certainly a deflating goal for the Phantoms, who were out shot 14-4 in the middle frame and headed to the final frame trailing by two instead of their normal one-goal game heading to third mantra in recent weeks.

Things didn't get better to start the third, as Charlotte rang off the seven of the first eight shots of the period and took a 4-1 lead 3:04 into the period on Julien Gauthier's 16th of the season.

McKenna stood in and gave his team a chance to get back in to the game, and to his credit they nearly did.

It started with a nice play by Mike Huntebrinker to start a rush with just over 13 minutes left. He sent a pass to a speedy Mike Vecchione at the right wing, who carried into the offensive zone before leaving a drop pass for Reece Willcox - again joining the rush and being rewarded for it. Nedlejkovic stopped Willcox's shot but Huntebrinker followed it up and was in perfect position uncontested in the slot for the put back to make it a 4-2 Phantoms' deficit with 12:57 left in regulation.

Then, a controversial no-goal that really ended the Phantoms' hope for a comeback.

On a delayed penalty call, Carsen Twarynski stuffed home a loose puck past Nedeljkovic from atop the crease but the referee in position waived off the goal with just under 10 minutes left in regulation and awarded the Phantoms the power play instead.

Instead of a 4-3 game with the Phantoms riding the momentum of two quick goals, a power play - and subsequent 5-on-3 man advantage - were unable to be capitalized on. Though they were out shot as much as 7-1 earlier in the period, they ended up out-shooting the Checkers 12-9 overall in the third period and had their chances. Just some tough luck prevented them from really making a stab at a comeback.

Gauthier tallied his second of the night in the final minute to put the finishing touches on the 5-2 loss for Lehigh Valley, who dropped both games on the weekend against the AHL's top team and find themselves in fifth place in the Atlantic Division standings - four points behind fourth place Providence while also trailing the first tiebreaker with the Bruins.

With 21 games left on the schedule, it's not going to be a breeze for the Phantoms down the stretch to get back into the postseason for the third straight year.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

5:31: CHA - Didier (2) - unassisted 19:47: LV - Aube-Kubel (12) - Bunnaman

2nd Period

5:17: LV - (PP) Froese, minor (hooking) 8:10: CHA - Geekie (15) - Nastusiak, Kuokkanen 15:35: CHA - Poturalski - unassisted 16:34: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (slashing)

3rd Period

3:04: CHA - Gauthier (16) - Didier, Lorentz 7:03: LV - Huntebrinker (2) - Willcox, Vecchione 10:02: CHA - (PP) Schilkey, minor (slashing) 10:11: CHA - (PP) Fleury, minor (tripping) 16:19: LV - (PP) Brennan, minor (cross-checking) 16:19: LV - Aube-Kubel, minor (roughing) 16:19: CHA - Bishop, minor (roughing) 19:16: CHA - Gauthier (17) - Geekie, Lorentz 19:55: CHA - (PP) Pu, minor (slashing)

BOXSCORE

Lehigh Valley   1 - 0 - 1 = 2 Charlotte  1 - 2 - 2 = 5

Shots

Lehigh Valley   13 - 5 - 12 = 30 Charlotte  8 - 14 - 9 = 31

Goalies

LV: Mike McKenna (26 saves - 31 shots) CHA: Alex Nedeljkovic (28 saves - 30 shots)

Power Play

LV: 0-for-3 CHA: 0-for-3

Penalty Kill

LV: 3-for-3 CHA: 3-for-3

Attendance: 8,302