Four Unanswered Goals by Lehigh Valley Sinks Binghamton Devils 5-2

Binghamton played a good first period and parts of the second before things fell apart in the final period as Lehigh Valley Phantoms scored three times en-route to a 5-2 victory over the Devils on Saturday at The Floyd. The loss was the BDevils (4-5-1-0) second on the weekend as the Phantoms (5-2-0-1) improved to 4-0-0-1 on the road.

Starter Mackenzie Blackwood (1-2-0-0, 2.75 GAA, 0.915 SV%) was engaged in a goalie battle with Lehigh Valley’s rookie Carter Hart for two periods with the Phantoms up 2-1, as both made some great saves that kept it a one goal game.

Photo provided by Alicia Strauch

Binghamton jumped on the board first when Brandon Baddock scored his first of the season off a rebound given up by Hart 5:53 into the contest. But the lead was short lived as 62 seconds after it was tied with a shot from the corner that squeezed into the net off of Blackwood’s body from Philippe Myers (3), who put the puck on net from a hard angle.

The two clubs combined for 22 shots before Lehigh Valley took the lead at 6:55 in the second. Defenseman T.J. Brennan’s snap shot from the circle beat Blackwood as the goal was a result of a shorthanded, four on two breakout in Brennan’s fourth of the season.

Phantoms made it 3-1 when forward Chris Conner (4) skated the length of the ice and picked Blackwood’s pocket up high, short side. A Nicolas Aube-Kubel (3) snapper from the slot gave the Phantoms a two goal cushion before the Devils finally answered on a Blake Pietila (2) power play tally with 6:51 remaining.

Photo provided by Alicia Strauch

However, Tyrell Goulbourne (1) would add an empty netter that made it a 5-2 final as the Devils out shot the opposition 31-24 but suffered their second loss in as many nights.

Line-Up, Game #10

Forwards: Tangradi - Seney - Lappin, Studenic - McLeod - Speers, Pietila - Sharagnovich - Quenneville, Baddock - Schmelzer - Bastian

Defensemen: Strait - Ramage, Sissins - Jacobs, Kapla - White

In Goal: Mackenzie Blackwood, Cam Johnson

Scratches: Kurtis Gabriel, Brandon Gignac

Post Game Notes

• Pietila, Kapla and Tangradi with the A’s.
• It wasn’t pretty in the third but I thought we competed in the first half of the outing but a lack of 60 minutes effort never is going to get you two points in the end, especially at this level.
• It was a tough night for defenseman Brian Strait as he got hit in the face by his own stick, received an elbow to the face from Goulborne and fell to the ice hitting his head. Strait slowly got to his feet but was wobbly and had a hard time getting to the bench. He left the ice under his own power in what looked to be a concussion of sorts.
• There was a fight in the third as Nathan Bastian hit defenseman Philip Samuelsson into the corner boards hard, as he fell to the ice. Carsen Twarynski stepped in as the two dropped the mitts and after some wrestling and a few punches, Bastian with the take-down.
• Blackwood looked okay but the defense was the opposite. Not a good combination for success. Although the Phantoms’ first, third and fourth goals Blackwood needed to be more consistent, something that has been mentioned before, like last season.
• Devils will have a nearly full week of practice coming up to work on the power play, penalty kill and taking the body near the slot as the Phantoms did all of those mentioned to perfection tonight.

Three Stars

#1. Philippe Myers (1g, 2a), #2. Phil Varone (3a), #3. Brandon Baddock (1g)

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Upcoming Games

Binghamton is off until next weekend with a home-on-home series with the same Phantoms team beginning on Friday at the Floyd.