By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
Another sellout crowd at PPL Center saw their beloved Phantoms extend their win streak to seven games on Wednesday night with a 4-1 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
This game was the second of two straight rivalry matchups for the Phantoms, who beat the Hershey Bears on Sunday. It was also the second straight start for rookie Alex Lyon, who dazzled yet again between the pipes for his third straight victory. Four different Phantoms scored goals to help Lehigh Valley topple another division leader within a five-day span — they defeated the North-leading Toronto Marlies on Saturday.
With rivalry games, you expect there to be animosity right off the bat and tonight was no different. Checking picked up immediately and it seemed like there was a gathering after every whistle. The Phantoms had the better of play early, out shooting the Pens, 6-2, through the first five minutes. They ended up turning that into a 16-7 shot advantage after one.
Despite that, it seemed that Carter Rowney had put Wilkes-Barre ahead with 12:38 left. He took a pass at the far circle and skated toward the slot out waiting everyone before finding the back of the net behind an out-of-place Lyon. That became the key on the play, as the officials ruled Lyon was interfered with and the goal was wiped off the board.
Lehigh Valley dominated the possession game as well, but the contest remained scoreless going into the break.
As dominating as the Phantoms were in the first, the Penguins came out and dominated in the second. Just 1:30 to the period, the Pens had four shots on goal and were pressing hard. Wilkes-Barre finally broke through to get on the board a minute later, although for a time being it seemed like the refs were going to wave this one off as well.
A net-mouth scramble led to Lyon getting knocked over again, but Thomas Di Pauli was at the near-side post to knock the puck in. The officials debated the call for quite awhile, but ultimately ruled it a goal and awarded the Pens a 1-0 lead.
Lehigh Valley got a chance to tie the game on their power play another minute later, but could not beat Tristan Jarry to tie the game. Wilkes-Barre got their own man advantage chance shortly after, but Lyon and the Phantoms held strong to keep it a one goal game.
Late in the period, Lyon's strong play paid off for the Phantoms. Danick Martel and Radel Fazleev led a rush up ice that ended with Fazleev with the puck in the far corner of the Pens zone. He threw a pass and found Corbin Knight in the slot, and Knight wasted little time throwing a shot on net. Jarry made the initial save, but Knight followed his shot, gloved it down out of mid-air and was able to place the puck on the ice and tap it in past Jarry to tie the game at 17:29.
Early in the third, the Phantoms kept the momentum coming and moved into the lead. A play along the far boards led to Mark Zengerle pulling the puck out of a pileup. He took a shot toward the net, which Jarry juggled and left in the crease. Greg Carey found the puck and put it past Jarry to give his team the lead on his eighth of the year.
Taylor Leier made it a two-goal lead just over a minute later on a very similar play. This time, Travis Sanheim took the shot and again Jarry left a rebound. Leier found it and was able to roof it top shelf over a sprawling Jarry to make it 3-1.
Penalties dominated the middle of the period, but neither team could score, keeping the Phantoms lead at two as time started to fade. T.J. Brennan put the game away for good with an empty-net goal with 1:18 to play to seal the win.
Lyon held the Phantoms in the game all night, stopping 30 of the 31 shots he faced to earn his third straight victory individually and the team's 7th straight. Lyon has faced 94 shots during his last three games, stopping 91 of them.
The Phantoms return to action on Friday night in Providence against the Bruins, and then finish their week in Bridgeport against the Sound Tigers on Saturday night.
Notes
- On this seven-game winning streak, the Phantoms have scored 32 goals while only giving up 11 to opposing teams. 15 different skaters have scored during that time.
- The Phantoms penalty killers were a perfect 5-for-5, keeping Wilkes-Barre off the board, making them 21 for their last 22 kills.
- Radel Fazleev added an assist to Knight's second-period goal, making this his fourth straight game with a point.
Quotes
Alex Lyon on the confidence he's building now that he's the No. 1 goalie: "It's been weird for me, ever since [Anthony Stolarz] has been gone. I'm much more comfortable as a starter, mainly because I've spent the last 15 years of my life as the guy who's playing every single game. Being the guy they're leaning on is easier for me than being the guy who gets spot starts."
Head coach Scott Gordon on the last three wins, the success of Alex Lyon, and the scoring depth his team has: "When you play three games in a row, against Wilkes-Barre, Toronto, and Hershey, that's got the making of a potential losing streak. And to get three in a row, obviously for us, there hasn't been any easy games, but to play the amount of hockey we've played over the last two weeks, and then go out and play what is, at the time, the first-place team, and play that well, it's pretty impressive of our guys to do that."
"He had a lot of traffic, a lot of pucks just thrown to the net, whether it was a situation where the play was off the wing, they could easily funnel to the front of the net, I thought he did a really good job making sure the pucks didn't go to the front of the net. Directing them, tying them up. They did a really good job of getting traffic to the front of the net and I think he fought through that really well."
"I think in every game we've played, we've done a really good job of generating offensive chances, last year we were really a one and a half line team, maybe two at best, this year we're a four line team that can score. Corbin Knight was a top offensive player in college, and even though he's a fourth-line player on our team, he's right up there in minutes because of his ability to kill penalties, play multiple positions. I mean right now I don't know where he's at, I think maybe he's got four, maybe five goals. This early in the year. I don't think we had five goals total on our fourth line all last year. So when you're getting that kind of production, especially from the guys you aren't expecting it from, it just makes you a harder team to play against."
