Phantoms Finish Weekend With Loss to Toronto
ALLENTOWN - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (8-3-2) concluded their three games in three nights weekend on a sour note Sunday, dropping a 5-1 decision to the Toronto Marlies (9-3-0) at the PPL Center.
Danick Martel scored his 13th of the year just 2:53 into the contest, but the Marlies responded with five unanswered goals and a strong 35-save performance from Calvin Pickard to get the two points.
Trevor Moore tallied two goals in the win for Toronto, while Chris Mueller (one goal, one assist) Dmytro Timashov (two assists) and Mason Marchment (two assists) each recorded two points to help pace the Marlies' attack.
Dustin Tokarski, who started Friday and relieved Alex Lyon Saturday in Binghamton, stopped 32 of 37 shots he faced in the loss for the Phantoms.
Looking Ahead: The Phantoms hit the road for their season-long six-game road trip beginning with a rare 10:30 a.m. ET school day game Wednesday in Bridgeport before finishing the week Saturday night in Hershey for a meeting with the Bears at Giant Center.
Phantoms' Lines (Starters in Bold/Italics)
Chris Conner (A) - Phil Varone - Cole BardreauDanick Martel - Mike Vecchione - Nicolas Aube-Kubel Oskar Lindblom - Mikhail Vorobyev - Colin McDonald (C) Tyrell Goulbourne - Corban Knight (A) - Radel Fazleev
T.J. Brennan - Max LamarcheWill O'Neill - Reece Willcox James De Haas - Mark Friedman
Dustin Tokarski - Alex Lyon
Scratches: Anthony Stolarz (knee surgery - out indefinitely), Sam Morin (injured), Phil Myers (injured), Greg Carey (injured) and Adam Comrie (healthy)
ROSTER NOTES
Dustin Tokarski got the start Sunday after relieving Alex Lyon Saturday night for the third period. Lyon, the second-year pro, has been enduring the dreaded sophomore slump so far this season - not looking like the goalie he was last year through the Phantoms' first 13 games this season.
Sam Morin and Phil Myers remain out with injuries on defense. John Boruk of CSN Philly reported that Flyers GM Ron Hextall told him in St. Louis over the weekend that Morin will miss "a couple weeks".
Greg Carey, who missed Saturday night's game and is "a little banged up" according to head coach Scott Gordon, missed his second straight game Sunday.
Will O'Neill was returned to the Phantoms prior to Sunday's game and returned to Lehigh Valley's lineup after making his NHL debut with the Flyers earlier this week.
Cole Bardreau left the game late in the first period after a fight, and did not return after his 17 minutes in penalties expired.
POST-GAME REACTION
Head coach Scott Gordon
Q: Good start in 1st, seemed like your guys tried to force some things late and it snowballed:
A: They scored their second goal halfway through the second period. First period for me was pretty even. Then McDonald has that breakaway when it's a 2-1 game. You could say that could have been a turning point that we could have tied the game up there. Instead, they end up coming down shortly after that they get that third goal and it's a 3-1 game.
We generated some pretty good chances considering... not that you want to use 3 games in less than 3 nights..... Their goalie made some saves too. Gotta give credit where credit is due. Not that we played our best, I thought they had a lot more energy for us for obvious reasons, these 3-in-3's as I talked to the team after the game is it's more about just playing a smarter game, a simpler game and we didn't embrace that tonight.
We played really well on Friday, played especially well on Saturday - I couldn't have asked for our guys to play any better on Saturday. We come in here and we're playing a good team and we just didn't play as smart as we could.
Q: On the high emotion in the 1st period tiring the team out more:
A: No, it's very easy to play a game and have no emotion when it's a 3-in-3. That's what you want. When that guy sucker punched Cole Bardreau and then he gave it to him. He deserved it and the guys were fired up over. We kill off that penalty - the five on three - and at that point the momentum is in our favor going off the ice and coming into the second period.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
2:53: LV - Martel (13) - Aube-Kubel 12:03: LV - (PP) Lamarche, minor (hooking) 12:28: TOR - PPG Mueller (2) - Johnsson, Marchment 16:57: LV - (PP) Aube-Kubel, minor (tripping) 17:40: LV - (PP) Bardreau, minor (instigation) 17:40: LV - Bardreau, major (fighting) 17:40: LV - Bardreau, ten-minute misconduct 17:40: TOR - Timashov, major (fighting)
2nd Period
2:47: TOR - (PP) Johnsson, minor (tripping) 3:14: TOR - (PP) Dermott, minor (hooking) 10:49: TOR - Moore (2) - Timashov, Mueller 15:37: TOR - Smith (6) - Rosen, Marchment 20:00: TOR - (PP) Soshnikov, minor (hooking)
3rd Period
12:29: TOR - Soshnikov (3) - Dermott 14:03: LV - (PP) Varone, minor (elbowing) 17:43: TOR - Moore (3) - unassisted
BOXSCORE
Lehigh Valley 1 - 0 - 0 = 1 Toronto 1 - 2 - 2 = 4
Shots
Lehigh Valley 8 - 19 - 9 = 36 Toronto 13 - 17 - 7 = 37
Goalies
LV - Dustin Tokarski (32 saves - 37 shots) BNG - Calvin Pickard (35 saves - 36 shots)
Power Play
LV: 0-for-3 TOR: 1-for-4
Penalty Kill
LV: 3-for-4 TOR: 3-for-3
Attendance: 8,027
