PHANTOMS
Lehigh Valley

4-5

PENGUINS
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Carey – Varone – Aube-Kubel
Twarynski – Vecchione – Conner
Leier – Rubtsov – Kase
Goulebourne – Bardreau – McDonald[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Brennan – Willcox
Samuelsson – Myers
Palmquist – Friedman[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Hart
Lyon

Scratches:

Anthony Stolarz, James de Haas, Radel Fazleev, David Drake, Connor Bunnaman

Injury List:

Game Report

Rivalry games are always interesting, and matchups between the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins live up to entertainment expectations. These two teams do not like each other one bit, and it was evident from the first puck drop at the PPL Center on night.

Physicality played a factor early and often, as players made sure to finish their checks and deliver some hard hits along the boards. Scrums erupted after many whistles and became more and more frequent as the game went on.

The Phantoms looked a bit disorganized in the first period, susceptible to bad passing and seemingly tentative to shoot the puck anywhere near goaltender Tristan Jarry. At the other end of the ice, Carter Hart looked solid as he made some substantial glove saves. Taylor Leier and a couple of other Phantoms players came close to lighting the lamp first, but the puck just wouldn’t cross the goal line.

It was the Penguins who got on the board first thanks to some strong forechecking which caused a turnover in the corner for Linus Olund to pick up and wrist the puck past Hart. About two minutes later, however, Lehigh Valley answered when Mike Vecchione stayed with Carsen Twarynski through heavy traffic in the slot to get the puck into the back of the Penguins’ net.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton regained the lead early in the second period when Hart mishandled the puck behind the net which caused it to deflect in front. Sam Miletic was there to tap it home into a gaping, empty net before Hart could get back. But once again, the Phantoms evened the score a very short time later when Philippe Myers fired a big slapshot from the circle to beat Jarry glove side.

The penalties soon started to pile up for the visiting team but the Phantoms were unable to capitalize on any of their man-advantage opportunities until the third period, when they put two pucks in the net while the Penguins were short-handed thanks to T.J. Brennan and Greg Carey. That gave the Phantoms their first lead of the night, but it didn’t last long as Lehigh Valley started their own parade to the penalty box and allowed Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to gain momentum.

It looked like overtime was a sure thing when suddenly, just 64 seconds before the end of the third period, Hart couldn’t quite freeze the puck and it trickled through him just enough to allow Garrett Wilson to tap it into the net to give the Penguins a late-game victory.

Lehigh Valley now heads to Wilkes-Barre on Saturday for a rematch with the Penguins on their own turf, before completing their first three-in-three of the season with a road game in Bridgeport on Sunday.

▲     Philippe Myers, Greg Carey, Nic Aube-Kubel, T.J. Brennan

▼     Carter Hart, Tyrell Goulbourne, Mark Friedman, David Kase

1. Garrett Wilson  WBS
2. T.J. Brennan  LV
3. Teddy Blueger  WBS

Post-game interview with T.J. Brennan:

Post-game interview with Mike Vecchione:

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

Return to PPL Center tonight for defenseman Will O'Neill.
Will also be his 400th AHL game all-time, 116 of which game with Phantoms.
John Muse on WBS also but hasn't played.

Former WBS Penguins on Lehigh Valley include:
Colin McDonald, Chris Conner, Philip Samuelsson

— Bob Rotruck (@BobRotruck) October 19, 2018

From The Press Box Podcast | Rocket and Phantoms Review, AHL News, more [S2/E5] https://t.co/CreqP1oljO pic.twitter.com/IGtlU0CQLZ

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) October 16, 2018

Follow @theAHLReport on Twitter