Offense From The Defense - Phantoms Outlast Bridgeport in Overtime
ALLENTOWN - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms certainly gave their home fans at PPL Center an entertaining game Saturday night in their first home game in three weeks. Despite trailing for much of the game, the Phantoms stormed back late in the third period - tallying back-to-back goals in the second half of the period and taking their first lead of the game with 4:50 left in regulation on Will O'Neill's second goal of the season.
Bridgeport tied the game with 10 seconds left in regulation, but O'Neill finished off a 2-on-1 rush in overtime to give the Phantoms a much-needed win to kick off a six-game homestand.
Looking Ahead: Following their six-game road trip, the Phantoms opened up a six-game homestand Saturday night which continues next week with games on Wednesday against Binghamton, Friday versus Hershey and Laval's first-ever visit to the PPL Center on Saturday.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Greg Carey - Phil Varone - Chris Conner Tyrell Goulbourne - Corban Knight - Colin McDonald (C)Oskar Lindblom - Mike Vecchione - Alex Krushelnyski Radel Fazleev - Mikhail Vorobyev - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
T.J. Brennan - Phil MyersJames de Haas - Mark Alt Will O'Neill - Mark Friedman
Alex Lyon - Dustin Tokarski
Scratches: Anthony Stolarz (out indefinitely - knee surgery), Cole Bardreau (injured), Max Lamarche (injured), Matt Read (healthy/veteran), Frank Hora (healthy) and Reece Willcox (undisclosed)
RECAP
It was another sluggish start for the Phantoms Saturday night at the PPL Center - their first home game in nearly three weeks after a six-game road trip.
For the fourth time in their last five games, Lehigh Valley surrendered the game's opening goal in the opening minutes of play. Kane Lafranchise got a shot off from the left point that was re-directed by Ryan Bourque at the side of the net where Tanner Fritz tapped one in past Alex Lyon just 1:22 into play.
All in all, it was a first period to forget for Lehigh Valley. They were out-shot 12-5 and spent most of the period being beat to loose pucks and out-worked by a Bridgeport team that is known as a blue-collar group to begin with.
Things opened up a bit midway through the second period.
Bridgeport's Kyle Burroughs took a pair of penalties nearly back-to-back in the opening eight minutes, and the Phantoms capitalized on the latter of those two to tie the game up at 1-1.
Oskar Lindblom got a puck in the slot from Phil Varone, and made a slick backhand pass to Greg Carey cutting to the net. Carey went to the top shelf on Sound Tigers' goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis - popping the water bottle en route to his ninth goal of the season and fourth this week.
Bridgeport answered back less than two minutes later to regain the lead at 2-1, as Michael Dal Colle blocked down a Sebastian Aho shot from the right point while attempting to re-direct the puck, and settled it down quickly inside the right-wing circle before beating Lyon for his second goal of the season.
Just 1:21 after Dal Colle's goal, Mark Alt tied things back up at 2-2. For the second straight night, Alt stepped into one from the right point and blasted one past Gudlevskis for his fourth of the season. After tallying five goals in his previous 118 AHL games, Alt now has four goals in his last eight games.
The Sound Tigers scored what appeared to be a deflating goal with 47.7 seconds left before the second intermission to re-gain the lead at 3-2 and take the one-goal lead into the third period.
In fact, Bridgeport did a decent job of keeping the Phantoms at bay and drawing themselves back-to-back power plays in the opening eight minutes of play.
It wasn't until the final six and a half minutes of regulation that the Phantoms kicked it up a notch and started to get in on the attack.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel turned on jets in the neutral zone and cut to the middle before using a screen to beat Gudlevskis to tie the game at 3-3 with 6:39 left in regulation.
Will O'Neill pinched in and stepped into a slap shot from the left-wing circle with 4:50 left in regulation to give Lehigh Valley their first lead of the night at 4-3.
Credit to the Sound Tigers, who never quit and actually forced overtime - scoring an extra attacker goal at a net-front scramble with 10 seconds left. Travis St. Denis got the last whack at the puck before it crossed the goal line behind Lyon.
Despite allowing a goal in the opening 1:22, another with less than a minute left in the second period and one more with just 10 seconds left in the third period the Phantoms didn't allow what could be deflating goals to keep them from getting the two points Saturday night.
Corban Knight broke up a 2-on-1 rush by the Sound Tigers, and sprung O'Neill and Mikhail Vorobyev on a 2-on-1 chance the other way. O'Neill made the most of it, patiently waiting out Gudlevskis and the defenseman cheating towards Vorobyev expecting a pass before firing one past the Bridgeport goaltender for his second of the night - and the game winnner.
POST-GAME REACTION
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
1:22: BST - Fritz (4) - Bourque, Lafranchise 6:24: LV - (PP) Knight, minor (tripping) 9:24: BST - (PP) Lafranchise, minor (interference) 11:19: BST - (PP) Dal Colle, minor (tripping) 15:51: LV - (PP) O'Neill, minor (holding)
2nd Period
4:59: BST - (PP) Burroughs, minor (slashing) 8:23: BST - (PP) Burroughs, minor (tripping) 9:24: LV - PPG Carey (9) - Lindblom, Varone 11:11: BST - Dal Colle (2) - Aho, Helgeson 12:32: LV - Alt (4) - Vorobyev, Fazleev 14:30: BST - (PP) Stevens, minor (high-sticking) 19:13: BST - Gionta (1) - Burroughs, Stevens
3rd Period
6:12: LV - (PP) Goulbourne, minor (tripping) 8:20: LV - (PP) Varone, minor (hooking) 13:21: LV - Aube-Kubel (5) - Brennan, Fazleev 15:10: LV - O'Neill (2) - Brennan, Fazleev 19:50: BST - St. Denis (6) - Toews, Fritz 20:00: LV - Varone, minor (roughing) 20:00: BST - Holmstrom, minor (roughing)
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 0 - 2 - 2 - 1 = 5 Bridgeport 1 - 2 - 1 - 0 = 4
Shots
Lehigh Valley 5 - 10 - 7 - 2 = 24 Bridgeport 12 - 9 - 18 - 0 = 39
Goalies
LV - Alex Lyon (35 saves - 39 shots) BST - Kristers Gudlevskis (19 saves - 24 shots)
Power Play
LV: 1-for-5 BST: 0-for-4
Penalty Kill
LV: 4-for-4 BST: 4-for-5
Attendance: 8,022
