Phantoms Fall in OT to Penguins

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

While the Flyers were playing their cross-state rivals in Pittsburgh on Saturday night, their AHL affiliates took the ice in Allentown.

The Phantoms managed to rally back twice to force overtime, but the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins got the better of Lehigh Valley in the end with a 4-3 overtime win on Saturday night at PPL Center.

The Penguins opened the scoring late in the first. After a scrum sent T.J. Brennan and Jean-Sebastien Dea off with roughing minors, the Penguins cashed in with Tom Kostopoulos finishing a two-on-one with a nice feed from Kevin Porter.

The Phantoms answered in the second. At 8:43, Greg Carey got the Phantoms on the board with a power play goal with a great shot from the top of the right circle. It was Carey's 25th goal of the season.

Just over five minutes later, Danick Martel gave the Phantoms the lead with his 14th goal of the season. Chris Conner's centering pass took a Phantoms bounce in front of Tristan Jarry and squeezed through the netminder. Martel was able to find the puck in the crease and poke it across the line for the goal.

The Phantoms lead lasted less than two minutes, as 1:52 later, Jarrett Burton scored from out in front off a pass from Oskar Sundqvist to tie the game at two.

Just 2:04 in the third, the Penguins regained the lead. Teddy Blueger won a puck battle on the near-side boards and managed to roll the puck to the far corner for Dominik Simon. He centered quickly to Dea, who actually fanned on the shot by beat Alex Lyon.

The Phantoms got their chance to tie with a power play midway through the period and did so with Corban Knight picking up a rebound off a Greg Carey shot to make it a 3-3 game.

That helped force overtime between the top two teams in the Atlantic Division.

Both teams had their chances in overtime, with Jarry making great saves on a Scott Laughton breakaway and Will O'Neil point blast. Brennan also had space from the high slot and hit the post with a shot.

Finally, a two-on-one between Barry Goers and Simon helped end the game. Goers fed Simon with a pass and Lyon made the save, but the rebound fell in the crease and Goers was able to put it home just before Chris Conner could knock it away. The Penguins took the game with 15 seconds left in overtime.

The Phantoms are back in action on Friday night when they open up a 3-in-3 all on the road. The first game is in Springfield against the Thunderbirds at 7:05 p.m.

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