LEHIGH VAKKEY, Pa – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms ended their 2015-16 preseason schedule with a win over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins Sunday afternoon at PPL Center.
Game images by Steve.Rusyn@prohockeynews.com
The tilt was the second time in five days that the two rivals met and the games were almost mirror images of each other.
While the first goal was not potted till half way through the opening frame, the Phantoms had to kill off an early penalty called on Nick Cousins who went off for boarding just two minutes and nineteen seconds into the game, but goalie Jason LaBarbera and the orange and black were up to the task by turning away everything WBS threw at them.
Clark Seymour would go off for hooking a little over five minutes later and gave the Phantoms their first power play. While they failed to score on their first man-advantage of the night, they showed poise being very vocal and cycling the puck like they were in midseason form.
A minute and twelve seconds after the penalty expired, Petr Straka decided the game had been tied long enough and opened the scoring with a beautiful goal. Shayne Gostisbehere and Cole Bardreau had the assists, and Lehigh was off and running.
Game images by Steve.Rusyn@prohockeynews.com
Another hooking call against the Penguins, this time Oskar Sundqvist was the guilty party (at 14:44), let the Phantoms unleash the full force of their power play yet again. This time the stellar puck movement paid off, with Tim Brent benefiting on a loose puck infront after Taylor and Cousins had a whack at it.
The penalties were costly for Wilkes-Barre in the first, they nearly doubled the shot total put up by the phantoms (13-7), but trailed 2-0 after one.
Things were starting to look up for the Baby Pens early in the second, when Colin McDonalds’ hard hitting style came back to bite him.
McDonald, who was hitting everything that moved, layed out two Penguins in a row at their own blue line. Both hits were clean, but the second was called correctly for being interference as the Phantoms lead was threatened just 4:54 into the second.
Again, LaBarbera and the penalty killers came up huge, and the Pens could not seem to get anything going. The rest of the period would see mostly the physical aspect start to take the spot light. Dominik Simon would get the gate for elbowing at 9:49, but the ensuing power play for Lehigh Valley did not amount to much. Nick Cousins, who was seemingly the man of the night, would get his tally, his second point of the night, at the 15:09 mark on a beautiful feed from Danick Martel.
Game images by Steve.Rusyn@prohockeynews.com
The celebration would turn to fisticuffs only five seconds later, as Jay Rosehill and Patrick McGrath turned Sunday into fight night in Allentown. Both landing solid blows, it seemed Rosehill came out on top, and continuing the Phantoms dominance of the contest to this point.
A 3-0 lead in a game between these two? Where has that been seen before?
While it only took the Penguins eight minutes to jump out 3-0 on Wednesday night in Wilkes-Barre, the script flipped on the Phantoms Sunday afternoon.
The Penguins scored three goals in nine minutes to start the third, and had plenty of time to do more. Sahir Gill started to bring the game back to his team’s way just 2:32 into the final frame with an unassisted tally that just beat LaBarbera.
The Phantoms seemed to get the momentum to stick their way with consecutive power plays just one second apart immediately after the Pens goal.
The man-advantage looked sharp still, but failed to score and finished the night 1 for 5. Ty Loney brought his team even closer with another goal 7:44 into the period, with Gill getting his second point of the tonight with a helper, and McGrath adding the other. McGrath was not the only Pen to get himself out of the dog house by putting up a point tonight.
Game images by Steve.Rusyn@prohockeynews.com
Oskar Sundqvist, after taking a penalty earlier in the game that lead to a Lehigh goal, scored an unassisted beauty to tie the game to this point.
Less than a minute after the second fight of the game, this time between two of the scorers of the night, Brent and Loney, Martel broke the tie on a beautiful two-on-one break-out and that would seal the deal for the Phantoms. Lehigh Valley finally won a game this preseason, but these exhibition games are all about team chemistry and getting things going, and I believe that this game could do that for them.
Following the game, the first star of Sunday’s game Nick Cousins said, “We play them 12 times so”, Cousins said “It’s gonna be a long year, and we had a bit of a rivalry with them last year, so guys can be hard (hitting).”
Game images by Steve.Rusyn@prohockeynews.com
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