ALLENTOWN, Pa – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ came into Wednesday’s game needing to win to keep their razor-thin playoff hopes alive, and it didn’t happen. The 2014 first round draft pick, Kasperi Kapanen, had a goal and an assist, and Matt Murray had 30 saves to record his 12th shutout of the season in Allentown.
The first period started out as a furious back and forth affair, with both Murray and 
Lehigh Valley netminder Rob Zepp trading fantastic saves. And it was the Kapanen, on his first shift of his first North American game striking first at 4:43. Phantoms’ forward Petr Straka tried to make a breakout pass, and Kapanen picked him off at center ice. He entered the zone, deked around Straka, and beat Zepp with a wrist shot in the slot high to the glove side.
The best chance for the Phantoms’ came from Scott Laughton with five seconds left in the frame. He picked off an outlet pass, came into the slot and ripped a wrister high over the net.
The Phantoms nearly tied it just ninety seconds into the second period. Jason Akeson took a pass and streaked down the far side boards, he couldn’t put it home though as Murray stopped him as he was streaking across the front of the slot. The Penguins almost made it 2-0 four minutes later. Andrew Ebbett blocked a Steven Delisle point shot and took off on a breakaway, but Zepp was equal to the task.
It was at that point that things started to get chippy. At 6:25, the Phantoms’ Oliver Lauridsen and Wilkes-Barre’s Clark Seymour got matching roughing minors after a post-whistle scrum. When the penalties were over, they decided to settle differences with their fists. Both players engaged after a faceoff and exchanged solid punches, with Seymour netting the takedown.
Mark Alt had the Phantoms best chance of the period, unleashing a one-timer from the top of the near side faceoff circle, but Murray stopped it easily. Jay Rosehill took a double minor for elbowing and unsportsmanlike conduct, and the Pens effectively buried the game on the ensuing man advantage. Tom Kuhnhackl netted his eighth of the season by deflecting a Kapanen shot from the near side boards at 16:25.
In the third, the Penguins locked it down defensively. Lehigh Valley had 11 shots, but Murray wasn’t tested, as he was clearly able to see every one of them clearly. Scott Laughton nearly got the Phantoms on the board 30 seconds in, but he hit the iron from the slot. The Penguins got an empty netter shorthanded on a pure hustle play from Kuhnhackl. He blocked a shot and beat Adam Comrie to the puck, putting it into the empty net.
Notes: With the shutout, Murray is one shy of tying the AHL record, set by Jason LaBarbera of the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2003-2004. With the win, Wilkes-Barre Scranton qualified for the Calder Cup playoffs for the 13th season in a row.
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