Phantoms Beat Checkers in Preseason Finale

By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms ended their preseason on Saturday night with a 5-2 win over the Charlotte Checkers at PPL Center.

A night after getting blown out 6-1 by these same Checkers, the Phantoms showed a lot of improvement in their final tune-up before the regular season gets underway.

Lehigh Valley and Charlotte would pick up right where they left off in the third period of Friday's game, with hard-hitting, fast-paced action and a ton of penalties to start the game.

There would be four penalties called within the first six minutes of play, including a double-minor.

The first was called on Charlotte's Mike Kirkpatrick, who had two goals and an assist in Friday's game. His minor for interference would end up benefitting the Phantoms however, as Will O'Neill blasted a one-timer from the point past Daniel Altshuller to put the Phantoms on the board first. Mark Zengerle and T.J. Brennan would add the assists, giving three of the Phantoms biggest offseason pickups points to start the night.

Lehigh Valley would fail to capitalize on the four-minute minor, and a later 5-on-3, only being able to grab the one goal going to the locker room after one. 

Two more penalties started the second as the teams traded power plays yet again for the third straight stanza. Neither team would break through and the game would remain 1-0.

Despite stellar play through most of the period, Altshuller would make a costly mistake at the midpoint of the game. The netminder reached to grab a puck and missed, leaving the net wide open. Zengerle took the puck around the back of the net, and centered it out the other side to an awaiting Corban Knight ready to tap the puck into the vacant cage to put Lehigh Valley up two.

Charlotte would cut the deficit in half four minutes later, as a beautiful zone entrance passing play ended between the circles with Andrew Poturalski going cross-ice to Erik Larsson, who one-timed a perfect shot short side on Alex Lyon.

With 3:22 left in the period, Altshuller would make up for his earlier mistake, laying out with a beautiful glove save to rob Danick Martel on a breakaway to keep it a one goal game.

The Phantoms would get yet another power play opportunity early in the third, and another costly mistake for Altshuller would allow them to capitalize. A shot from Martel would handcuff Altshuller, making him juggle the loose puck. After corralling it, he tried to bat it to the boards with his stick. Greg Carey happened to be in the right place, taking the bouncing puck and firing a quick one-timer into a yawning net for the Phantoms third goal of the night and second on the man advantage.

Carey would later set up Chris Conner for a breakaway opportunity, one Conner would bury on the backhand under the right pad of Altshuller to make it 4-1.  

Clark Bishop would add a goal for Charlotte to make it 4-2 with less than four minutes to go, but the Phantoms would respond with an empty-net goal from Radel Fazleev to seal the deal.

Lyon would look strong in his first action as a Phantom, making 26 saves en route to the win. Lehigh Valley comes out of the preseason with an even 1-1 record, showing much improvement in their second tune up.