Phantoms Power Play Presented by Provident Bank – 3/9/2021

Last Week:

Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Lehigh Valley 4 – Hershey 3
The Phantoms rallied from behind in the third period at PPL Center to post another comeback win and improve to 3-0 against Hershey. Cal O’Reilly tied the game at 3-3 with under 8:00 left deflecting a point-shot from Samuel Morin. Then Derrick Pouliot’s booming slapper from the left point to the far post was the game-winner with 5:59 remaining. Isaac Ratcliffe and Tyson Foerster returned to the lineup after injury layoffs. Ratcliffe played his first game of the season and recorded an assist in what was also his first game in almost a calendar year following two surgeries on injuries sustained immediately prior to training camp.

Saturday, March 6, 2021
Hershey 4 – Lehigh Valley 1
Hershey victimized the Phantoms for the first time in four tries this season posting a Saturday afternoon victory at Giant Center. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored twice to pace the Hershey attack. Chris Mueller scored on his 35th birthday late in the game to break Zach Fucale’s bid for a second consecutive shutout. First-rounder Tyson Foerster offered a point-shot that Mueller deflected in. That assist in his third pro game served as the first career point for Foerster. It was just the second regulation loss of the year in nine games for Lehigh Valley.

Monday, February 8, 2021
Lehigh Valley 4 – W-B/Scranton 3 (OT)
Ryan Fitzgerald scored his second overtime winner of the season and the Phantoms played their league-leading sixth overtime game and improved to 4-2 in extra-period hockey contests. Zane McIntyre racked up 32 saves in a strong performance. Pascal Laberge had given the Phantoms the lead in the third period with his second goal of the season in what was also his first game back in the lineup following an injury on February 24. Brennan Saulnier scored his first career AHL goal and Samuel Morin had an impressive assist joining the offensive attack from his position on defense to spot Garrett Wilson on the backdoor on the nice set-up. Lehigh Valley’s four overtime victories are most in the AHL.

 

Next Week:

Wednesday, March 10, 2021, 7:00 p.m.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms (6-2-2) at Binghamton Devils (2-5-3) – Newark, NJ
The Phantoms conclude their stretch of three consecutive away games as they travel to Newark to take on the Binghamton Devils on Wednesday night. Binghamton has gone winless in eight straight after beginning the season with a 2-0-0 record. The Devils have gone 0-5-3 mark in their slump and have not won since the second game of the season on February 10 when they posted a 2-1 overtime win against the Phantoms in Newark. Lehigh Valley is 2-1-0 against Binghamton including a 25-save shutout by Zane McIntyre in the Phantoms’ home opener on February 20 and an overtime triumph in Newark on February 24 with Max Willman scoring the winning goal.

Saturday, March 13, 2021, 7:05 p.m.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms (6-2-2) vs. Hershey Bears (7-2-2) – Giant Center, Hershey, PA
The Phantoms welcome back more fans to PPL Center for the first time as they play their fourth game of the year in the finale of their home-and-home stretch against the Devils. Popular Phantoms alum Danick Martel is tied for the Binghamton team-lead with four goals and 34-year-old AHL veteran captain Ben Street also has four goals and seven assists for 11 points. The Devils are allowing 3.9 goals per game, worst in the Eastern Conference. Zayde Wisdom scored a pair of goals in a 3-0 win the last time the Devils visited PPL Center.

Sunday, March 14 2021, 3:00 p.m.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms (6-2-2) vs. Hershey Bears (7-2-2) – Giant Center, Hershey, PA
Lehigh Valley and Hershey will do battle for a fifth time this season in the Phantoms’ fourth excursion to Chocolate Town. The Phantoms are 3-1-0 against the Bears and are 2-1-0 at Giant Center. The last meeting between the teams did not go well for the Phantoms in just the second regulation loss of the year for Lehigh Valley sustaining a 4-1 setback at Hershey. Prior to that, the Phantoms posted a pair of overtime wins at Hershey on February 6 and February 14 with Ryan Fitzgerald and David Kase scoring the winners. Derrick Pouliot also has a winning goal against the Bears in a March 3 game at PPL Center when he broke a 3-3 tie with 5:59 left.

Fitzy Does It Again
Ryan Fitzgerald scored the overtime winner for the second time this season with his blast off the left post at Wilkes-Barre on Monday evening. He also scored in overtime in the season opener on February 6 at Hershey shortly after Wyatte Wylie had tied the game at 1-1 with the first goal of the year with just 44.7 seconds remaining. He becomes the third-ever Lehigh Valley Phantom to score two overtime goals in a season joining Andy Welinski (2019-20) and T.J. Brennan (2018-19).

Winner for Pouliot
Hard-shooting defenseman Derrick Pouliot made the most of his first goal as a Phantom with a booming slapper from the left point going to the opposite side and beating Pheonix Copley high-glove for a winning marker with just 5:59 remaining on March 3 against Hershey. The three-time AHL All-Star representative played parts of three seasons with the Penguins in Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre and has 202 career NHL games with Vancouver, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

Sammy’s Back!
Samuel Morin returned to the Phantoms and has been playing defense again for the last three games. His assist on March 3 marked his first point in 1,138 days. It had been over three years since the injury-plagued big man had recorded an assist. His last point was on January 20, 2018 in an outdoor game at Hersheypark Stadium. He left that game early with an injury and did not return to the lineup until May in the playoffs at which time he suffered the first of his two knee injuries. Morin had played just 11 games in the past two years as he has spent most of the time recovering from his two knee surgeries.