10 hours Ago By Staff Report
Rodrigo Abols scored the lone goal of the shootout in the final round Friday night to give the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 3-2 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza. Lehigh Valley overcame a pair of one-goal deficits in regulation to improve its record to 23-18-5-1 and defeat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the third time in nine meetings this season. The Penguins dropped to 26-12-4-1 and remain in second place in the AHL Atlantic Division standings with 57 points.
Providence also has 57 points, but the Penguins have three games in hand on the Bruins. Sam Poulin gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at the 14-minute mark of the first period, knocking the rebound of a Dan Renouf shot past Phantoms goalie Parker Gahagen. A disputed goal four minutes into the second period pulled Lehigh Valley even.
Massimo Rizzo powered toward the Penguins net and had his shot saved by goalie Joel Blomqvist. However, a Penguins defenseman knocked Rizzo on top of Blomqvist and Samu Tuomaala picked up the loose puck and shot it into the net. After the officials conferred, they ruled it a good goal to make it 1-1.
Later in the second, with the Phantoms’ Brendan Furry in the penalty box for holding, the Penguins reclaimed the lead. Just 29 seconds into the power play, Tristan Broz took a pass from Avery Hayes at the left faceoff dot and fired the shot past a diving Gahagen to make it 2-1 at 18:55. However, in the third period, with Lehigh Valley on the power play, Jacob Gaucher scored at 7:06 to tie the game at 2.
Neither team scored in the five-minute overtime and the game headed to a shootout. Gahagen stopped the three Penguins shooters — Ville Koivunen, Emil Bemstrom and Broz. Blomqvist denied Lehigh Valley’s first two shooters, Olle Lycksell and Tuomaala, but was beaten by Abols to give the Phantoms the win.
Blomqvist finished with 25 saves on 27 shots. Gahagen had 30 saves on 32 shots. The teams meet again Sunday at 3:05 p.
m. in Allentown. In between, the Penguins host the Hershey Bears on Saturday at 6:05 p.
m..
