After a hard-fought one-goal game on Wednesday night in Binghamton, the Phantoms and Senators battled in Allentown to a one-goal final again on Friday night.
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms came out on top 1-0 on Wednesday with Alex Lyon picking up his first professional shutout. Friday night the game would end with a 4-3 Phantoms win. Jordan Weal led the way with two goals for the Orange and Black.
Much like their game on Wednesday, the first period would remain scoreless into the closing moments thanks to great defensive play. Binghamton pressed early, but Lyon was up to the task and turned the Senators' chances away.
It was with 1:01 left in the frame that the scoreless tie would be broken by the Phantoms. Jordan Weal took a pass from Chris Conner from below the goal line to the bottom of the near side circle. Weal flubbed on his shot, but it glanced off the shoulder of Senators goalie Matt O'Connor and in to make it 1-0.
Lehigh Valley would get an early chance in the second to extend that lead, as Nick Paul took a tripping minor with one second left in the first. While they did not score, they had the better of the play to that point.
It would be Binghamton that broke through to tie the game however at the 9:13 mark of the period. Andreas England blasted a shot from the point that appeared to be going wide. Ryan Rupert was able to get a stick on it, and deflected the puck past Lyon to make it 1-1.
The tie would last for just over two minutes as Lehigh Valley reestablishing their lead at 11:47. Cole Bardreau was in behind the Binghamton net, and found Mark Zengerle below the near side circle. Zengerle stayed parallel to the goalline, nearly on top of it, and fired a shot that just banked in of O'Connor to give the Phantoms their one-goal lead back.
The period started to settle after that with back-and-forth plays being met with great defensive efforts on both sides of the puck. Things picked up late in the period, but the score remained 2-1 as the final 20 minutes began.
The Senators came storming out of the gates in the third. Binghamton had four shots within the first four and a half minutes of the period, and one of them tied the game. The Senators broke into the Phantoms zone with numbers, and a sprawling Lehigh Valley defenseman left Phil Varone and Jack Rodewald alone in front of Lyon. Varone threw a pass over to Rodewald, who buried the feed into the open net to tie the game.
The Phantoms retook their lead just over two minutes later however, as a T.J. Brennan point shot glanced off O'Connor and stayed in the blue paint. Taylor Leier backhanded the loose puck into the net and gave the Phantoms a 3-2 lead.
The Senators tied the game back up less than two minutes later, with Varone making up for his missed opportunity earlier on a breakaway, making it 3-3.
The action-packed first half of the period lead to a chaotic second half with each team pressing to get that next goal to break the tie and ultimately win the game. That goal would come off the stick of Weal, his second of the game, off a beautiful feed from Conner. Conner took the puck along the near side boards, and skated below the goal line and behind the net. Weal followed suit, and Conner threw a no-look backhand pass to Weal at the near side post, and he tapped it up into the top part of the net to make it 4-3 Phantoms.
Lehigh Valley would give the Senators a late chance to tie. Sam Morin ended up with six penalty minutes in one play with 2:40 to play. Morin tripped up a Binghamton player, and his stick stayed caught up in equipment. This caused his stick to come up high and cut that same Senator, resulting in a double-minor for high sticking along with the trip. Binghamton did everything they could with the man-advantage, including pulling their goalie, but time would run out on their come from behind bid.
Lyon stayed strong again in net all night, making 32 saves on 35 shots. Lehigh Valley continues their weekend homestand with a game against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Saturday night.
Notes
- With the win, the Phantoms have claimed first place in the Atlantic Division from their rival, the WBS Penguins. The standings change is due to win percentage points.
Quotes
Taylor Leier on the team's ability to win one goal games compared to last year: "We found ways to win Wednesday and tonight, you go back to last year and we lost a lot of these one-goal type games, due to back-and-forth team scoring. It's been a huge confidence boost for our team to be on the right side of these games this year. They did a good job battling back, but it's nice to see the guys stick with it. We pushed back hard each time they scored."
Jordan Weal on his game winning goal, and the pass from Conner: "There's been a few times this year where that pass has almost connected, which was a big goal for the team. It was a big two points for us and now we gotta try to make it six points out of this week.
"When he is going, he's going. He's got great vision and can handle the puck really well. So I just got to get open and find good spots. It was working tonight, but now we just got to keep working, keep our heads down, and get the next one tomorrow night."
Head coach Scott Gordon on the play of Alex Lyon over the last stretch of games, and how the teams stepped up around him with Stolarz in Philadelphia: "With Alex, his first two games were as bad as we could possibly be defensively. To come off 6-5 or 5-4 in his first, and not have any of the goals really be controllable on his part, he didn't do anything majorly wrong, and then the second game he starts off really well and then he gets two 5-on-3 goals against him. So right away he's given up seven goals in less than a game and a period. That being said, they were our two worst defensive games. Now he gets back in there, since that Hershey game we lost 3-2 in Hershey, we've been really good defensively. Sometimes, with a call up like that, Stolie going up, it's a blessing in disguise for a guy like him. With Stolie here, he probably would only be playing a game a week. Now he has a chance to play two, three, maybe even four games, which helps him build his confidence in net."