GAMEDAY: Game 73 - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (35-27-10) at Lehigh Valley (35-30-7) 3:15 p.m. ET

ALLENTOWN, PA -- While the Lehigh Valley Phantoms are all but eliminated from post-season contention, it didn't stop them from putting a halt to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins' playoff aspirations. Sunday's massive 10-6 win over the Penguins also puts their bitter Atlantic Division rival on the ropes.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)

Tyrell Goulbourne - Byron Froese - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Greg Carey - Corban Knight - Chris Conner Carsen Twarynski - Cole Bardreau - Pascal LabergeDavid Kase - Connor Bunnaman - Colin McDonald

T.J. Brennan - Reece Willcox Phil Samuelsson - Phil MyersJames de Haas - Mark Friedman

Phantoms' Scratches: David Schlemko (injured), Mikhail Vorobyev (injured), German Rubtsov (injured), Jori Lehtera (veteran), Mike Vecchione (injured) and Rob Michel (healthy)

GAME STORY

FIRST PERIOD

For about a minute - well 62 seconds to be exact - it looked like the Phantoms had reverted to their old ways.

An awful decision by Phil Myers to from the bottom of the circle in his own end up through the middle was picked off by Jimmy Hayes and although Alex Lyon made a big stop for his first save of the game the rebound was put home by Jake Lucchini just 21 seconds into the contest to put the Penguins ahead 1-0.

A poor job by Mark Friedman tracking Sam Miletic on the left wing allowed the Penguins forward to be wide open coming down the wing, and he picked up a rebound goal of his own 1:02 into the game to put the Phantoms in a big 2-0 hole.

It was just as bad, if not worse, than you could imagine. It was THAT bad.

But, little did we know at the time that the Phantoms would rattle off FOUR unanswered goals and head to the first intermission up 4-2. Hockey is a crazy game sometimes, isn't it?

The comeback started with a laser of a shot from Greg Carey just beyond the right-wing circle that beat Penguins' goalie Tristan Jarry to the top shelf. Reece Willcox and T.J. Brennan added assists on Carey's team-leading 28th of the season and cut the Phantoms' deficit in half at the 5:01 mark.

It turned out to be a pretty important goal, as the Phantoms flipped the script from there.

A tangle of bodies in front of Jarry on the next shift allowed Chris Conner's shot from atop the left circle to bank in past the Penguins' goalie to tie the game at 2-2 with 14:15 left in the period. James de Haas and Corban Knight picked up assists on Conner's 15th of the season.

Less than three minutes later, Myers flipped a puck out of the D-zone and up to Conner at center ice. The speedy winger did the rest, entering the zone on the ensuing odd-man rush - faking a pass to the middle and picking the far corner on Jarry from the right-wing to give the Phantoms a 3-2 lead with 11:18 left in the period.

The Penguins tried to push back, and controlled large portions of play in the second half of the period, but it was the Phantoms getting a late period power play and cashing in when T.J. Brennan's shot rebounded into the slot for Connor Bunnaman to pick the top corner on Jarry for his 18th of the season. Carey added a secondary assist on the power play tally.

Just like that, a 2-0 deficit in the opening minute became a 4-2 lead heading into the middle frame.

SECOND PERIOD

Things didn't slow down in the middle frame either. Ex-Phantoms goalie John Muse replaced Tristan Jarry in the Penguins' net to begin the period, but didn't fare much better than his counterpart.

The Phantoms extended their lead to 5-2 after Corban Knight won an offensive zone face-off back to Phil Myers and then proceeded to deflect Myers' blast from the center point  4:10 into the period.

On the next shift, Penguins forward Jon Lizotte tallied his first career pro goal in his pro debut to cut the Phantoms' lead to 5-3.

Things got chippy as the period wore on. Just after the midway mark, Mark Friedman and Ben Sexton got into an altercation which saw the Phantoms' defender drop his gloves and wrestle the Penguins forward to the ground.

Then, we had a lengthy goal review to determine that Carsen Twarynski's shot on Muse - that clearly hit the white bar in the back of the net holding up the top shelf - was indeed a good goal. That extended the Phantoms' lead back to three - a 6-3 count.

Upon exiting the penalty boxes at the first whistle after the minor penalties had expired, Sexton dropped his gloves and tried to get even with Friedman only to have Tyrell Goulbourne step in and drop his gloves. The scene between the benches was possible foreshadowing for the third period.

Before the two teams got to the intermission, however, Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored on Muse on a late period break-in to give the Phantoms a commanding 7-3 lead heading into the final frame.

THIRD PERIOD

Lehigh Valley added to their commanding lead 2:33 into the third to make it an 8-3 game and you got the sense that the remaining time in regulation would be spent brawling and scrumming it up amongst two rivals.

That was simply not the case. In fact, the Penguins made it a hockey game by tallying THREE goals in a span of 2:16 shortly after. That 8-3 Phantoms' lead turned to 8-6 in almost the blink of an eye.

Goals from Chris Summers, Jake Lucchini (his 2nd of the game) and Ethan Prow gave the Penguins life and momentum for the final 14 minutes of regulation.

Luckily for Lehigh Valley, they didn't fold up like a cheap tent.

Carsen Twarynski tallied a penalty shot goal with 2;29 left to make it 9-6, and captain Colin McDonald added an empty netter to complete the wild 10-6 final.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

0:21: WBS - Lucchini (3) - Hayes 1:02: WBS - Miletic (11) - Haggerty, Lafferty 5:01: LV - Carey (28) - Willcox, Brennan 5:45: LV - Conner (15) - de Haas, Knight 8:42: LV - Conner (16) - Myers 10:44: LV - (PP) Myers, minor (holding) 17:35: WBS - (PP) Erixon, minor (slashing) 18:24: LV - PPG Bunnaman (18) - Brennan, Carey

2nd Period

4:10: LV - Knight (3) - Myers 4:32: WBS - Lizotte (1) - Lucchini, Hayes 6:43: LV - (PP) Kase, minor (cross-checking) 10:02: LV - Friedman, minor (roughing) 10:02: WBS - Sexton, minor (roughing) 10:02: WBS - (PP) Cramarossa, minor (roughing) 11:53: LV - PPG Twarynski (8) - Myers, Conner 12:24: WBS - Sexton, ten-minute misconduct (instigating 46.11) 12:24: LV - Goulbourne, ten-minute misconduct 15:16: LV - Aube-Kubel (16) - Bunnaman

3rd Period

2:33: LV - Kase (7) - de Haas, Aube-Kubel 3:44: WBS - Summers (3) - Miletic, Haggerty 5:29: WBS - Lucchini (4) - Prow, Cramarossa 6:00: WBS - Prow (18) - Miletic, Lafferty 13:54: WBS - Johnson, major (fighting) 13:54: LV - Friedman, major (fighting) 15:09: WBS - (PP) Summers, minor (cross-checking) 17:31: LV - Twarynski (9) - Penalty Shot 18:44: LV - ENG McDonald (10) - unassisted

BOXSCORE

W-B/Scranton 2 - 1- 3 = 6 Lehigh Valley  4 - 3 - 3 = 10

Shots

W-B/Scranton  16 - 17 - 16 = 49 Lehigh Valley  13 - 8 - 11 = 32

Goalies

WBS: Tristan Jarry (9 saves - 13 shots in 20:00) and John Muse (13 saves - 17 shots in 40:00) LV: Alex Lyon (43 saves - 49 shots)

Power Play

WBS: 0-for-2 LV: 2-for-3

Penalty Kill

WBS: 1-for-3 LV: 2-for-2

Attendance: 8,615