The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (2-0) took on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (0-2) in Game 2 of the Calder Cup Playoffs on Friday night from the PPL Center. It was the first home playoff game for the Phantoms since 2018.
Two minutes and seventeen seconds into the first period, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton took a 1-0 lead by Valtteri Puustinen (1) with an assist from Jack Rathbone (1). The Phantoms had 10 shots on goal but trailed 1-0 after one period of play.
Nine minutes and nineteen seconds into the second period, Lehigh Valley’s Ronnie Attard (1) tied the game 1-1 on the power play with assists by Victor Mete (1) and Rhett Gardner (1). Then, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scored two goals to take a 3-1 lead by Radim Zohorna (1) on the power play, and Jack Rathbone (1). The Phantoms had 11 shots on goal but trailed 3-1 after two periods of play.
In the middle of the third period, Lehigh Valley scored two power play goals in 37 seconds to tie the game 3-3 by Emil Andrae (1) with assists by Cooper Marody (2), and Olle Lycksell (1), and Tanner Laczynski (1), with assists by Bobby Brink (1) and Emil Andrae (1).
A short time later, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Radim Zohorna (2) put the Penguins back up 4-3 at 16:12. Thirty-four seconds later, Lehigh Valley’s Tanner Laczynski (2) tied the game again 4-4 with assists by Louie Belpedio (3), and Olle Lycksell (2). The Phantoms had 11 shots on goal as the game headed to overtime tied 4-4.
Two minutes and eleven seconds into overtime, Jacob Gaucher (1) rebounded Brendan Furry’s (1) shot to score the game-winning goal for a 5-4 win. Louie Belpedio (4) also assisted in Gaucher’s goal.
Lehigh Valley finished the night with 34 shots, went 3 for 6 on the power play, committed five penalties, and Cal Peterson made 24 of 28 saves.
The Phantoms will now take on the Hershey Bears in the second round of the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs starting next Wednesday at 7 pm from the Giant Center in a best-of-five series on AHL.TV. Purchase Phantoms tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
