The Lehigh Valley Phantoms visited the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza late Friday afternoon to battle the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins in their first meeting of the season. The Phantoms received some good and bad news. First, Mark Friedman was claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Second, they got back both Maksim Sushko and Isaac Ratcliffe from the Flyers. Tyler Wotherspoon, Ralph Cuddemi, Brennan Saulnier, Chris Bigras, Pascal Laberge, and Tyson Foerster were all scratched for today’s game.
Just two minutes and thirty-eight seconds into the game, the Penguins went up 1-0 when Will Reilly shot the puck that went between Zane McIntyre’s legs. The Phantoms did have an opportunity to tie the game by Chris Mueller; however, he missed the shot wide right.
The Phantoms trailed 1-0 at the end of the first period and had an 11-4 shot advantage. At times, the Phantoms looked sluggish and tired after playing just a couple of days ago.
The Penguins continued to add to their lead 4:14 into the second period. Zach Nastasiuk crossed past the puck to Jon Lizotte, who was wide-open, and he put the puck once again through the legs of Zane McIntyre for a 2-0 lead.
Twenty seconds later, the Phantoms were able to answer back. Initially, a penalty was to be called against the Penguins for tripping Zayde Wisdom. However, Wisdom stayed with the puck and made a backhand shot for the goal to cut the Penguins’ lead 2-1.
The Penguins continued to pound the Phantoms in their neutral zone. With 7:47 left, the Penguins regained a two-point lead as Jon Lizotte took a shot that deflected off the stick of Jan Drozg for the goal and a 3-1 lead.
The Phantoms had a chance to cut the lead back to one, but Matthew Strome missed the shot wide left. The Penguins maintained a 3-1 at the end of the second period with a 13-8 shot advantage.
The chances of getting back into the game got harder for the Phantoms. At 3:14 in the third period, Felix Roberts shot the puck over McIntyre’s shoulder to extend the Penguins lead 4-1.
Forty-three seconds later, Max Willman’s first shot went wide left and bounced onto the stick of Chris Mueller, who spun to shoot the puck, but it bounced off the leg of Cam Lee and right back to Willman, who finished it off for the goal to cut the Penguins lead 4-2.
Willman had a good game, his speed allowed him to get two more chances to score, but both shots were wide left. He did draw a penalty on the second attempt. However, the Phantoms were unable to capitalize on it.
Head Coach Scott Gordon pulled McIntyre for an extra man, but the Phantoms could not find the net again and would suffer their first regular season loss 4-2. The Penguins had a 7-6 shot advantage. The Phantoms’ record is now 4-1-1.
The Phantoms went 0-4 on the power play while the Penguins went 0-3. Lehigh Valley did have a slight edge in the shots total of 25-24, and Zane McIntyre made twenty saves. These two teams will go at it again tomorrow night at the PPL Center at 7:05 pm on AHL.tv.
