The Lehigh Valley Phantoms continued their three-game road trip Friday night at the Blue Cross Arena against the Rochester Americans. Scratches for tonight’s game were Tyler Wotherspoon, Max Willman, Gerry Fitzgerald, Eric Knodel, TJ Brennan, and Chris Stewart. Alex Lyon started in goal, and Shayne Gostisbehere was in the lineup on a conditioning assignment from the Flyers. This is Gostisbehere’s first game back with the Phantoms in four years.
Early in the first period, a hooking call against Phantoms defenseman Chris Bigras put Rochester on the power play. Three seconds after the Bigras penalty, the Americans took a 1-0 lead shortly after the faceoff when Jean-Sebastien Dea (21) passed the puck to Rasmus Asplund (11), who found C.J. Smith (11) who shot the puck which Lyon initially stopped at first, but his movement allowed the puck into the net.
Smith’s goal would be the only goal scored in the first period with Rochester leading 1-0. The shots were fourteen to nine for the Americans. The Phantoms committed two penalties, one of which resulted in the goal. The Phantoms needed to do a better job and stop giving Rochester free plays.
The Phantoms did a better job in the second period, only giving up one power play. They also went on the power-play three-times. The Phantoms could not find a way to tie the game up while on their first two power-plays.
Their third power-play had a minute and forty-eight seconds left when the second period ended. The shots were eleven to nine for the Americans. Phantoms needed to get more aggressive in the third period to try and turn the game around.
The third period resumed with the Phantoms not being able to score during the remaining time left in the power play. However, shortly after Kyle Criscuolo (16) was able to draw a couple of Rochester players to him while finding Kurtis Gabriel (4), who went upstairs for the goal which tied the game 1-1.
The game picked up with under a minute to play in regulation when Rochester regained the lead with fifty-one seconds left. Jacob Bryson (19) had passed the puck to Andrew Oglevie (13), who slipped and lost the puck only for Sean Malone to come from behind to whack the puck upstairs for the goal to make it a 2-1 Rochester lead.
Shortly after Malone’s goal, Alex Lyon was pulled, and the Phantom quickly tied the game twenty seconds later making it 2-2 tie as Andy Andreoff (7) passed to Morgan Frost (14) who took the shot that went off the pad of goalie Andrew Hammond, only for Mikhail Vorobyev (11) to stay with the play to score the goal. Regulation time was not enough as the game was headed to overtime tied 2-2. The shots were thirteen to nine Phantoms.
The Phantoms turned the puck over to start overtime, and it only took thirty-five seconds to end the game as Casey Mittelstadt’s (12) shot hit off of Kyle Criscuolo. By the time Criscuolo and Lyon could find the puck, Jacob Bryson (2) made a backhand goal to secure the win for the Rochester Americans 3-2 in overtime over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The final shot total was thirty-five to thirty-one for the Americans. Rochester went one for four on the power-play, and the Phantoms were zero for five. The Phantom’s power-play was more like weak-play. They have to find a way to capitalize on them. Alex Lyon finishes the night going thirty-two of thirty-five saves allowing three goals while Rochester goalie Andrew Hammond was twenty-nine of thirty-one saves allowing two goals.
The three stars of the game were Phantoms forward Mikhail Vorobyev with one goal, Americans center Sean Malone with one goal, and Americans defenseman Jacob Bryson with one goal and one assist.
The Phantoms will wrap up the three-game road trip Saturday night at the Upstate Medical University Arena at Onondaga County War Memorial against the Syracuse Crunch at 7 pm.
(player stats for the year)
