Phantoms Post-Game EXTRA! 2019-20 Season: W-B/Scranton - 2 at Lehigh Valley - 4

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (5-2-4) continue to chug along through a busy stretch of their schedule in November, winning a mid-week matchup with Atlantic Division rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (5-5-2).

The Phantoms enjoy a rare Friday night off before a home and home series with the Hershey Bears beginning Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. ET at PPL Center before a Sunday 5 p.m. ET face-off at Giant Center in Hershey.

Tonight's Game Story -> http://insideahlhockey.com/article/game-story-2019-20-season-w-bscranton-at-lehigh-valley-11619

Post-Game Reaction

Head coach Scott Gordon

On tonight's game

"Tonight, it was a hard first two periods for us because of the way they were playing. I thought in the third period we pulled it together and got the desired outcome."

On Criscuolo's big night (two goals)

"He's been playing well all year long so he deserves it."

On Greg Carey, three goals and an assist in his last four games played

"On Kyle's goal, a lot of the work [Carey] did coming down the boards and getting possession down low. He's getting some good looks on the power play now, guys are finding him so that's encouraging. For me, it's only a matter of time before they start going in on the power play."

Three Things

1. Scott Gordon Breaks Down Penguins' Frustrating Style Of Play

The way Scott Gordon talked about it in his post-game presser, he sounded like he had won a chess match against Penguins' head coach Mike Vellucci. The Phantoms are 2-0-1 on the season against the Penguins so far, with still another nine meetings on the regular season schedule.

He went into great detail about how the Penguins' strategy on the breakout gave his team fits in the opening two periods and how the team was able to counter it in the third period.

I went and posted his full response below, to my follow-up from his initial comments about it being a "hard first two periods"

"Part of it, it's hard to play against a team that their breakout plan is to flip pucks into the neutral zone. They threw a lot out, iced pucks and you're trying to get your defensemen to play with good gaps, trying to do the right things offensively but you have to adjust because of the fact that at any given time there's a puck that's going to go flying over your head and there's no defending that. Unless you stay on the defensive side, and you're taking yourself out of the offensive picture. If you miss the shot wide, they are taking off on that and it just makes it hard."

"For two periods, we didn't get enough pressure on them to take away the time and space for them to be able to do that. In the third period we did. The third period, when they tried to do that 1. they didn't have enough speed to go chase it down and 2. we had good recognition of the situation to be able to create a turnover. A lot of our offense was created off of those plays where they turned it over trying to make the same play that they had success on in the 1st and 2nd period. To our players' credit, we hurried them up and didn't allow them to get out as quick, and when they did get out we were able to pick them off because we had people back in the right places.

"That's a hit or miss style of play. We saw in the 1st and 2nd they were having success with it and our guys countered in the 3rd and made up the difference."

2. Veterans Leading The Way

While Morgan Frost was relatively quiet, seeing his seven-game points scoring streak come to an end tonight, the Phantoms were paced by their veteran players.

Defenseman Andy Welinski opened the scoring, and since returning from an NHL preseason injury has tallied five points (one goal, four assists) in five games.

Greg Carey tallied a goal and added an assist on Kyle Criscuolo's game-winning goal in the third period. Carey has four points in his last four games (three goals, one assist).

Criscuolo had a game-high three points (two goals, one assist) tonight after entering the game with three points on the season coming in.

Cal O'Reilly and T.J. Brennan tallied two assists each tonight, with Brennan having five assists in his last four games played.

Goalie J-F Berube was also strong in net, stopping 22 of 24 and picking up his third straight win in as many starts.

3. Sam Morin Leaves Game With Injury

Assigned by Philadelphia on a two-week conditioning stint timed for a busy stretch in the schedule for Lehigh Valley, Sam Morin appeared in his third game with the Phantoms Wednesday but did not finish the game after coming out of the corner in the defensive zone stretching and flexing his leg on his way to the bench.

Morin did not return for the third period, as the Phantoms finished the game with five defensemen and rotated the pairings in the final frame.

Post-Game Video Interviews with Goaltender J-F Berube and forwards Kyle Criscuolo and Greg Carey below!