Phantoms Double-Up Devils at PPL Center
March 27, 2021
Lehigh Valley, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms racked up a season-high six goals with two in each period in a 6-3 victory over the BInghamton Devils on Saturday night at PPL Center to sweep the weekend home-and-home series.
Ryan Fitzgerald (7th, 8th) scored two goals to take the team lead. Wade Allison (3rd) and Max Willman (7th) both registered three-point nights with a goal and two assists apiece. Tanner Laczynski (6th) scored yet again for his sixth goal in the last four games.
Alex Lyon turned in a 22-save performance in his third consecutive start and second straight win. This was Lyon’s first win at PPL Center in over 13 months dating back to February 28, 2020 in a 5-3 win against the Charlotte Checkers.
Lehigh Valley (10-3-2) has won five of its last six and improves to 4-1-1 at PPL Center. The Phantoms are 4-0-1 against the Devils this season.
Chris Bigras (1st) scored from the right point just barely more than a minute into the game on a drive that eluded Devils goalie Evan Cormier five-hole and the offenses for both teams were off and running.
Connor Carrick (1st) scored for the Devils just a couple minutes later on a center-point slapshot and then Ben Thomson (2nd) drove through a go-ahead goal from the top of the left circle for a 2-1 lead.
Ryan Fitzgerald scored the first of his two goals with a power-play conversion after a failed clearing try by the Devils. Fitzgerald had momentum carrying him away from the slot as the puck was knocked out to him by Allison. He spun from above the right dot and snapped a drive off the left post and in for a 2-2 tie.
The Phantoms retook the lead 4:25 into the second period on some hustle and determination from Max Willman who flew up the left-wing drawing a couple defenders. While going down he was still successful in connecting with an open Allison in the slot who buried his third goal in five games with a laser off the post and in. Bigras led Willman out o the zone to receive his second point of the game.
Binghamton tied it at 8:22 into the second period on a power-play shot from close to the left boards by Travis St. Denis (1st) that found daylight to the far post on Lyon’s glove side to forge a 3-3 deadlock.
The Phantoms closed the scoring with the last three goals of the game to put the contest away. Wade Allison hustled up and stole the puck behind the Devils goal and wheeled a pass to Laczynski in front who navigated through traffic to his backhand to find an opening with 2:24 remaining in the second period and a 4-3 lead.
Max Willman one-timed a laser from the right dot on a strong cross-ice feed by Chris Mueller at 8:19 into the third to finally give the Phantoms a little breathing room in the form of a 5-3 cushion. And, just 92 seconds later,, Fitzgerald stripped a defenseman of possession and drove to the net working the puck around to his backhand to tuck the final score of the night past the left skate of Cormier.
Binghamton had six power play in the game thus significantly testing the league’s top penalty kill unit again but the Phantoms held Binghamton to just the single man-advantage marker and held the Devils to 1-for-11 on the weekend series.
The homestand continues at PPL Center with games on Wednesday and Saturday against the Hershey Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Tickets are on sale to the general public for all Phantoms home games at PhantomsHockey.com and PPLCenter.com
Scoring:
1st 1:08 – LV, C. Bigras (1) (L. Hogberg, M. Willman) 1-0
1st 3:30 – BNG, C. Carrick (1) (C. Darcy, M. Studenic) 1-1
1st 10:23 – BNG, B. Thomson (2) (T. Irvine, J. Jacobs) 1-2
1st 14:21 – LV, R. Fitzgerald (7) (W. Allison, T. Foerster) (PP) 2-2
2nd 4:25 – LV, W. Allison (3) (M. Willman, C. Bigras) 3-2
2nd 8:22 – BNG, T. St. Denis (1) (N. Foote, N. Schnarr) (PP) 3-3
2nd 17:36 – LV, T. Laczynski (6) (W. Allison) 4-3
3rd 8:19 – LV, M. Willman (7) (C. Mueller) 5-3
3rd 9:41 – LV R. Fitzgerald (8) 6-3
Goalies:
LV – Alex Lyon (22/25) (2-1-0)
BNG – Evan Cormier ( 20/26) (2-2-3)
Shots:
LV 26 – BNG 25
Power Plays:
LV 1/2 – BNG 1/6
Records:
