PHANTOMS
Lehigh Valley

0-7

THUNDERBIRDS
Springfield

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

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

[one_half_last]Brennan – Friedman
de Haas – Myers
Palmquist – Samuelsson[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Hart
Stolarz

Scratches:

Alex Lyon, Radel Fazleev, David Drake, David Kase, Reece Willcox

Injury List:

Game Report

After playing just one game so far this season, their home opener which they won, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms had almost a week to wait until game number two in which they hosted the Springfield Thunderbirds. The product the Phantoms put on the ice on this night looked more than a bit rusty after so much time between games.

From the start, it was obvious that the penalty boxes were going to be busy all night. Springfield was able to fend off all four of the Phantoms’ power play opportunities, but Lehigh Valley gave up a total of five goals while the Thunderbirds had the man advantage.

Carter Hart started in goal for the home team, but was pulled from the game in the second period after the fourth goal got by him. He was replaced by backup goaltender Anthony Stolarz. Much of the problem was defensive breakdowns, and a poorly organized penalty killing unit, however Hart didn’t look strong on a couple of goals – especially a soft wrister from the perimeter with just five seconds left in the first period.

Try as they might, the Phantoms just couldn’t do anything to generate any offense. On the few occasions they were able to get in close to the net and get a quality shot off, netminder Samuel Montembeault was right there to stop it.

Puck control was bad. Power play time looked bad. The penalty kill was bad. Overall, Lehigh Valley had breakdowns at every position and Springfield took full advantage.

The highlight of the evening for many fans happened during the first intermission, when fan favorite mascot MeLVin appeared on the ice with none other than his new counterpart from Philadelphia: Gritty.  The crowd went wild, to say the least.

Both teams loaded up their respective buses immediately following the game and hit the road toward Springfield, where they’ll rematch tomorrow night for the Thunderbirds’ home opener.

▲     Phil Varone, Philip Samuelsson

▼     Mark Friedman, Mike Vecchione

1. Samuel Montembeault  SPR
2. Ludwig Bystrom  SPR
3. Henrik Borgstrom  SPR

Post-game interview with Colin McDonald:

Post-game interview with Phil Varone:

Interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for AHL Report

Don't worry @GrittyNHL, @FUNWITHmeLVin will never let go… pic.twitter.com/diONWN1SBR

— LehighValleyPhantoms (@LVPhantoms) October 13, 2018

Warm up for tonight's game to the same music the players do. Subscribe to our 2018-19 Warm Up Playlist on Spotify and turn it up to 11!

🎧→ https://t.co/QFluaGncjo pic.twitter.com/VV7gstQvds

— LehighValleyPhantoms (@LVPhantoms) October 12, 2018

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