The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (17-16-5-2) continued their six-game homestand on Saturday night from the PPL Center against the Toronto Marlies (17-14-5-1). The Phantoms were 1-0 against Toronto this season.
The good news coming into this game was Wade Allison returned to the lineup after missing five games with an injury. However, Garrett Wilson was not in the lineup after sustaining a lower-body injury on Friday night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
The starting lineup featured Bobby Brink, Rhett Gardner, and Samu Tuomaala on the first line. Brendan Furry, Elliot Desnoyers, and Wade Allison were on the second line. J.R. Avon, Jacob Gaucher, and Cooper Marody were on the third line, and Evan Polei, Adam Brooks, and Zayde Wisdom were on the fourth line.
On defense, Emil Andrae and Helge Grans were on the first line. Victor Mete and Ethan Samson were on the second line, and Adam Ginning was paired up with Ronnie Attard on the third line.
Parker Gahagen (4-3-2, 2.63 GAA, .909 SV%) started in goal for the Phantoms. The scratches for the game included Adam Karashik, Louie Belpedio, Tanner Laczynski, and Garrett Wilson.
Lehigh Valley got off to a sluggish start in the first period. They did not get their first shot on goal until two minutes into the game. The puck was bouncing all over the ice and Lehigh Valley had problems controlling it. Toronto was aggressive forcing a couple of turnovers that almost led to two goals.
At 4:13, Toronto won the faceoff in their zone. Marshall Rifai (9) got the puck to Ryan Tverberg (17), which started a two-on-one advantage with Kieffer Bellows (17) alongside him. Helge Grans was the lone player to protect Parker Gahagen. Lehigh Valley’s Emil Andrae tripped trying to poke-check Tverberg but tripped on his skates. Then, Tverberg made a quick cross-ice pass to Bellows, who fired the puck past the left skate of Gahagen and into the net for a 1-0 lead with 15:47 left of the first period.
As the first period went along, the Phantoms slowly started to get their rhythm going. They started to put pressure on Toronto forcing a couple of turnovers. After having six shots on goal with no luck, the Phantoms finally cashed in at 18:15.
Lehigh Valley’s Adam Ginning (9) passed the puck to Samu Tuomaala (22) inside the Marlies’ zone. He skated near center point before shooting the puck that bounced off the pads of goaltender Keith Petruzzelli. Then, Bobby Brink (2) was there for the rebound chipping the puck through the five-hole and into the net tying the game 1-1 with 1:45 left of the first period.
The Phantoms had seven shots on goal and the game remained tied 1-1 after one period of play. Lehigh Valley goaltender Parker Gahagen made 11 saves off 12 shots on goal.
In the second period, the Phantoms were outplayed by Toronto. Lehigh Valley was missing a ton of shots wide of the net and continued to have problems controlling the puck. The Phantoms had 11 shots on goal. At 7:16, Toronto’s Zach Solow led the charge into the Phantoms’ zone. Toronto quickly got set up for a scoring chance when Solow passed the puck to Mikko Kokkonen (6).
Next, Kokkonen passed the puck to Josiah Slavin (7), who took a shot from the left side as the puck bounced off Gahagen’s left pad. However, Robert Mastrosimone (2) was on the other side for the rebound before shooting the puck past Gahagen’s stick and into the net for a 2-1 lead with 12:44 left of the second period.
Lehigh Valley committed a couple of penalties in the second period. While they killed the first power play, they were not successful on the second. At 11:39, Toronto won the faceoff inside the Phantoms’ zone. Max Lajoie (13) passed the puck to Joseph Blandisi (21). Blandisi took a shot when the puck hit the skate of Kyle Clifford (8) and rolled past Gahagen’s right skate and into the net for a 3-1 lead with 8:21 left of the second period. The power play lasted six seconds.
Late in the second period, the Phantoms made a push with five shots on goal. They had problems trying to get the puck past goaltender Keith Petruzzelli, who made several great saves to keep Toronto ahead. The Phantoms trailed 3-1 after two periods of play and Parker Gahagen made nine saves off 11 shots on goal.
Lehigh Valley came right out of the gate with seven shots on goal in the first three minutes of the third period. Then, Toronto got called for back-to-back hooking penalties by Logan Shaw and Tommy Miller making it a five-on-three power play for 28 seconds. The Phantoms took advantage of both penalties.
At 5:59, Lehigh Valley’s Emil Andrae (17) passed the puck to Cooper Marody (26). Marody moved the puck around before passing to Bobby Brink (3). Then, Brink fired the puck which hit the stick of Max Lajoie before sailing over the glove of Keith Petruzzelli and into the net cutting the Marlies lead down to 3-2 with 14:01 left of the game.
Then at 7:40, Emil Andrae (18) led the charge into the Marlies’ zone before jamming on the brake to make a long cross-ice pass to Wade Allison (8). Allison rifled the puck over the right shoulder of Keith Petruzzelli and into the net tying the game 3-3 with 12:20 left in the game.
For the rest of the third period, Toronto made a push but the Phantoms were terrific blocking the shots while protecting Parker Gahagen. The Phantoms had 11 shots on goal but the game remained tied 3-3 heading to overtime.
In overtime, the Phantoms came close to ending the game with shots by Ronnie Attard, Samu Tuomaala, and Cooper Marody but Keith Petruzzelli made the saves. Despite their best effort, the Phantoms could not put the game away and it went into a shootout.
In the shootout, Toronto’s Alex Steeves scored after Bobby Brink missed his shot in the first round. In the second round, Lehigh Valley’s J.R. Avon scored while Kieffer Bellows missed. Samu Tuomaala had a chance to end the game but he came up empty. Toronto’s Logan Shaw scored the game-winning goal and the Phantoms lost to the Marlies in a shootout by the final score of 4-3.
The Phantoms had 33 shots on goal, committed five penalties for ten minutes, went 2 for 4 on the power play, and Parker Gahagen made 27 saves off 30 shots.
Lehigh Valley continues their homestand on Wednesday night against the Hershey Bears at 7:05 pm on AHL.TV. Purchase Phantoms tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
