Saturday's Morning Skate 11/21

Phantoms getting strong play from all over their lineup. Photo credit: Nina Weiss

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms kicked off their season-high four game road trip by extending their points streak to four games after a 4-1 win in Providence Rhode Island Friday night. The Phantoms are slowly getting back to .500 hockey and Scott Gordon openly brought that up.

Elsewhere in the division, the never say lose Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins lost their first game in six weeks last night in Binghamton - snapping their franchise record 11 straight victories.

ROSTER MOVE - After Christian Marti took a big hit and left the game with an upper body injury (not a concussion), the Phantoms called up defenseman Jesper Pettersson from Reading (ECHL).

Atlantic Division Standings (through 11/13's games)

1. W-B/Scranton: 14 games played, 12-2-0-0 = 24 points (.857 PCT)
2. Bridgeport: 17 games played, 12-4-1-0 = 25 points (.735 PCT)
3. Hershey: 16 games played, 8-5-0-3 = 19 points (.594 PCT)
4. Springfield: 14 games played, 7-6-1-0 = 15 points (.536 PCT)
5. Portland: 14 games played, 7-7-0-0 = 14 points (.500 PCT)
6. Hartford: 17 games played, 7-8-2-0 = 16 points (.471 PCT)
7. Lehigh Valley: 16 games played, 7-8-0-0 = 15 points (.469 PCT)
8. Providence: 15 games played, 3-8-3-1 = 10 points (.333 PCT)

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Around The Atlantic

Lehigh Valley - 4 at Providence - 1

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (7-8-1-0) got off to a great start on their season-high four game road trip Friday night in Providence, getting a pair of goals from Kevin Sundher to take a 2-1 lead to the third period and two insurance markers in the final frame by Danick Martel and Petr Straka to seal the 4-1 victory.

Anthony Stolarz (6-3-1, 1.81 GAA, . 934 SV%) continues to play phenomenally in net, stopping 29 o the 30 shots he faced to help the Phantoms get to one game from .500 hockey and extending Lehigh Valley's points streak to four games at 3-0-1 in their last four contests.

The PBruins have now dropped seven straight games and are win-less in the month of November. Their lone goal came from Ben Sexton and Malcolm Subban surrendered four goals on 23 shots

The Phantoms continue their road trip tonight in Hartford, while Providence visits Springfield. The Phantoms and PBruins will rematch on Sunday afternoon at the Dunkin Donuts Center.

W-B/Scranton - 1 at Binghamton - 3

In Binghamton, the BSens ended the Penguins' 11-game win streak with a 3-1 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Friday night.

The BSens grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Michael Kotska and Cole Schneider and never really looked back. Dominik Simon made it a one goal game late in the 2nd period on his 6th of the season, but that's as close as the Pens would get in their first loss since October 10th.

Matt Murray stopped a respectable 28 out of 30 shots, but was out-shined by Chris Driedger who made 40 saves on 41 shots. David Dziurzynski tallied an empty net goal to seal the deal for Binghamton.

The Penguins travel to Albany for a 5 p.m. game against the Devils, while Binghamton enjoys a rare Saturday night off in advance of a Sunday afternoon game in Toronto on Sunday.

Portland - 2 at Hershey - 3

The Hershey Bears prevailed in a back-and-forth game with the Portland Pirates on Friday night at the Giant Center, getting the final strike on a shorthanded goal with less than 15 seconds to play from Connor Carrick to break a 2-2 tie that appeared to be heading to overtime.

Chris Bourque and Dustin Gazley also tallied goals for the Bears, while Justin Peters stopped 22 of 24 in the win. The Pirates got scoring from Logan Shaw and Drew Olsen, while Mike McKenna was charged the loss after allowing three goals on 32 shots.

These two teams rematch again tonight in Hershey.

Friday's Eastern Conference Scores

Syracuse - 3 at St. John's - 4 (OT)

Springfield - 0 at Albany - 4

Hartford - 3 at Utica - 2

Bridgeport - 2 at Rochester - 3 (OT)

Saturday's Eastern Conference Schedule

W-B/Scranton at Albany, 5:00 p.m. EST

Rochester at Toronto, 5:00 p.m. EST

Syracuse at St. John's, 6:00 p.m. EST

Lehigh Valley at Hartford, 7:00 p.m. ET

Portland at Hershey, 7:00 p.m. EST

Providence at Springfield, 7:00 p.m. EST

Bridgeport at Utica, 7:00 p.m. EST