The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (29-22-6) visited the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza on Friday night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (23-25-9). It was the ninth meeting of the season with the Phantoms leading the season series 4-3-1 coming into this game.
Since the Phantoms’ last game, Tyson Foerster and Elliot Desnoyers were recalled by the Philadelphia Flyers on emergency conditions. The Phantoms got some good news as Cal O’Reilly and Jordy Bellerive returned from their injuries. O’Reilly was on the third line while Bellerive was on the fourth line.
Sam Ersson (17-11-2, 2.61 GAA, .909 SV%) started in goal with Nolan Maier backing up him. The scratches for the game were Troy Grosenick, Ryan Fitzgerald, Will Zmolek, and Alex Kile.
In the first period, the Phantoms had seven shots on goal. It took three minutes and thirty-seven seconds for the Phantoms to get on the board. Garrett Wilson (19) made a quick pass to Cooper Marody (17) while the Penguins were in the middle of a line change and he sprinted toward the Penguins’ zone. He had Mitch Reinke on him before Marody found Ronnie Attard (9) and Attard fired the puck over the left shoulder of Dustin Tokarski and into the net. It was 1-0 Phantoms with 16:23 left.
Afterward, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got aggressive. They created turnovers and the Phantoms spent the majority of the first period chasing the puck. The Penguins almost tied the game with Tyler Sikura but he missed the open net. Sam Ersson did not see the puck and luckily it did not go into the net.
As the first period ended, Garrett Wilson was called for interference and the Penguins were going to start the second period on the power play. The Phantoms led 1-0 after one period.
A minute and forty-nine seconds into the second period, Jordy Bellerive hooked Corey Andonovski and the Penguins had eleven seconds of a five-on-three power play. The good news, the Phantoms killed off the first power play but the bad news was the Penguins scored on the second power play.
The Penguins won the faceoff inside the Phantoms’ zone and made several passes before Sam Houde (11) fired the puck over Ersson’s right shoulder and into the net. The game was tied 1-1 with 17:25 left.
Moving ahead, the Phantoms had their own five-on-three power play for a minute and thirty seconds. The Phantoms were disorganized, not in their right positions, making too many passes, and not enough shooting. It was not a good power play for the Phantoms, who quickly went to 0-2.
Then, with 24 seconds left of the second period, the Phantoms took the lead. Adam Brooks (10) won the faceoff inside the Penguins’ zone before Kevin Connauton (9) took a shot. The puck went off of Dustin Tokarski’s left pad and bounced off of the endboards as Cooper Marody (7) stayed with the play before making a sharp-angle shot over Tokarski’s left pad and into the net. The Phantoms led 2-1 after two periods. They had 13 shots in the second period and led the overall shots 20-14.
Forty seconds into the third period, Cooper Marody got called for tripping but the Phantoms killed the power play. Fourteen minutes and twenty-five seconds in the third period, former Phantom Mark Friedman took down Olle Lycksell and he was awarded a penalty shot.
Unfortunately, Lycksell tried to get Tokarski to budge but he didn’t and Lycksell did not score. The Penguins attacked and made their best efforts to try and tie the game but Sam Ersson was having a terrific game. He made several stops to keep the Phantoms ahead.
With 2:18 left, the Penguins pulled Tokarski and the Phantoms took advantage with two empty-net goals by Cooper Marody (8) and Max Willman (8) for a 4-1 lead. Adam Brooks (11) assisted Marody’s goal and Adam Ginning (13) assisted Willman’s goal. The Phantoms defeated the Penguins by the final score of 4-1. They have now won three straight games and are now 5-4-1 in their last ten games.
The Phantoms finished the night with 26 shots, 0-3 on the power play, and Sam Ersson made 25 saves. On the other side, the Penguins had 26 shots, 1-3 on the power play, and Dustin Tokarski made 22 saves.
The Phantoms return to the PPL Center on Saturday to start a five-game homestand. They take on the Belleville Senators at 7:05 pm on AHL.TV. Tickets for the game are available on StubHub.
