The Lehigh Valley Phantoms will look to close out their best-of-three Calder Cup playoff first round miniseries with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Game 2 on Friday night at PPL Center (7:05 p.m. EDT). The Phantoms dominated much of Game 1 on Wednesday en route to a 5-2 victory at Mohegan Arena.
Making his Calder Cup playoff debut, Alex Bump led the way offensively for Ian Laperriere’s team with a pair of goals while Olle Lycksell notched a goal and an assist. Rodrigo Abols and Anthony Richard also tallied in the win. Jett Luchanko notched a pair of assists. Defenseman Emil Andrae chipped two helpers as well.
Phantoms goalie Parker Gahagen (28 saves) flirted with a shutout until late in the third period before the Baby Pens scored twice. The Phantoms went 1-for-3 on the power play in Game 1 and were a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Avery Hayes and Gabe Klassen scored goals in the final minutes of regulation to cut the Phantoms' final margin of victory from 5-0 to 5-2. Baby Pens goaltender Joel Blomqvist allowed three goals on 26 shots while Taylor Gauthier yielded two tallies on seven shots in third period relief duty,
By virtue of the Game 1 win, the Phantoms will have two opportunities to win the short series. If Lehigh Valley is unable to do so at home on Friday, the series will return to Wilkes-Barre for a deciding Game 3 on Sunday afternoon (3:05 p.m. EDT).
The Phantoms' Game 1 lineup is likely to carry over into Friday's match, as the onus to make adjustments falls more on Kirk MacDonald's club than on Laperriere. The Game 1 combinations were as follows:
15 Olle Lycksell – 56 Jacob Gaucher – 74 Zayde Wisdom
29 Nikita Grebenkin – 18 Rodrigo Abols – 21 Alex Bump
17 Garrett Wilson – 77 Jett Luchanko – 90 Anthony Richard
43 Oscar Eklind – 22 Rhett Gardner – 54 Givani Smith
19 Hunter McDonald – 7 Louie Belpedio
6 Emil Andrae – 5 Ethan Samson
37 Adam Ginning – 3 Helge Grans
37 Parker Gahagen
[40 Cal Petersen]
Scratches (healthy and injured, inclusively): 4 Ty Murchison, 8 Ben Gleason, 13 Brendan Furry, 16 J.R. Avon, 20 Cooper Marody, 27 Samu Tuomaala, 32 Eetu Makiniemi, 34 Carson Bjarnason, 36 Sawyer Boulton, 46 Alex Ciernik, 55 Xavier Bernard, 72 Alexis Gendron, 73 Massimo Rizzo, 91 Elliot Desnoyers.
