ICECAPS
St. John’s

3-2

PHANTOMS
Lehigh Valley

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Carr – McCarron – Thomas
Andrighetto – Hudon – Holloway
McNally – De la Rose – Dumont
Crisp – Gregoire – Neilson[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Barberio – Ellis
Bennett – Dietz
Didier – Thrower[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Fucale
Tokarski

Scratches: Brett Lernout, Joel Hanley, Ryan Johnston (hernia), Mark MacMillan, Nikita Scherbak (undisclosed), Tim Bozon (shoulder), Markus Eisenschmid
Injured reserve:

Game Report

Sylvain Lefebvre was true to his word. The IceCaps head coach promised that his club would be better on Friday and his troops delivered.

It was a much better start with the St. John’s IceCaps outshooting their hosts 12-10 in the scoreless first period. As happened on Wednesday, Sven Andrighetto opened the scoring rifling a wrister just 30 seconds into the second period.  Charles Hudon was the beneficiary of a great pass from Bud Holloway to score a power-play goal at 6:56 of the second giving the IceCaps a 2-0 lead.

It was the second assist of the game for Holloway.

Lehigh Valley’s Chris Conner scored the next two goals of the game to bring the Phantoms even with just under six minutes gone in the third period.

Mike McCarron scored the game-winner as he batted a rebound out of the air on the backhand. Even Phantoms goalie Anthony Stolarz was impressed telling The Morning Call, “For me, it’s just a slow shot coming in. Those are the hardest to control. I actually did a good job to get it off the ice, heading to the corner. McCarron made a nice play to whack it in the back door.”

The play was ruled onside by the lone linesman on the ice (the second linesman exited for undisclosed reasons in the third period) but the call was disputed by the Phantoms.

Compared to their game on Wednesday in this same building, St. John’s was stronger in all areas of the ice. A solid forecheck, an improved physical game and good goaltending each contributed to the win.

The only area lacking in this game was discipline. Lefebvre said that taking too many penalties has been an issue all season. The penalty-killers limited Lehigh Valley to one power-play goal on four opportunities.

It was the first game of the year for defenceman Josiah Didier and Dalton Thrower and forwards Brandon McNally and Eric Neilson. Thrower took exception when Fucale was driven into the back of the goal in the first period by Lehigh Valley forward Petr Straka.  Midway through the second, Neilson took on Phantoms heavyweight Derek Mathers.

This was a well-played hockey game on both sides. The IceCaps were relentless on the puck all over the ice. Their pace and work effort were the difference.

Next up for the IceCaps is the Hershey Bears on Saturday night.

▲     Sven Andrighetto, Bud Holloway, Mike McCarron, Zach Fucale, Mark Barberio, Darren Dietz, Christian Thomas

▼

1. Mike McCarron  STJ
2. Chris Conner  LV
3. Bud Hollway  STJ

• “We had more energy, that’s for sure, a better start too. “
• “Even we’re up 2-0 and 2-1 after the second period, that’s where we gotta get it done. We made a nice play on the 2-on-1 but we fought, we battled and when we got the third goal we played really well. We kept the play in deep. We kept the puck towards the back of the net and we controlled the play and ground them out and taking energy out of them.”
• “It was a great team effort tonight.”
• “In the second period I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit by taking bad penalties. But our PK has been good all year so far. We have to give those guys credit for the dirty job that they have to do.”
• “I felt that 5-on-5 tonight we controlled the play pretty much the whole night.”
• “We have to play our game and that was more our game that we played tonight.”
• “That’s playing fast and using our speed and getting pucks behind their defencemen especially with the ‘D’ corps that they have. They have experience with (Andrew) MacDonald and (Davis) Drewiske and (Matt) Lashoff but we have to put the puck behind them.”
• “It’s not easy to go back for defencemen now-a-days where you can’t hold up. You gotta skate. You gotta make it tough on them. With the skills up front we’re going to score goals. If you have them take penalties on you then our power-play is playing pretty well right now and scoring some goals.”
• “[Jacob De la Rose] is good at both positions (centre and left wing.) I think he may feel a bit more comfortable at centre. But I think that, at centre right now, he’s using more of his legs and speed and reach. And he’s good on faceoffs. I liked his game tonight.”
• “[Sven Andrighetto] has played well especially tonight and last game. I didn’t like his penalties in the second period. You know what it’s a learning process here. ‘If you take one, don’t take two’ and he knows that. He was having a great game. I told him ‘Don’t let that screw your game up.’ But he played well in the third period. He’s playing more aggressive and playing more involved physically. By that I mean he keeps the puck and he battles for the puck and that makes him a better hockey player.”
• “Since the start of the season we’ve taken too many penalties. We have to cut that down for sure. Because we’re a team that should have the other team take penalties on us because of our speed and our skills. A lot of those penalties were taken with our ‘D’ zone coverage. If you take a penalty on the forecheck or taking hooking penalties 200 feet from your net, those are bad penalties and those are tough to kill.”
• “Hershey is a good team. It’s not going to be an easy game, we know that. I that that winning the game tonight is a big booster for us. We just have to dig deep and find energy. We know we don’t have that long to travel but we need to regroup here and find the energy tomorrow.”

Post-game interview with Sylvain Lefebvre

Post-game interview with Sven Andrighetto

Audio from interviews conducted by Amy Johnson for IceCaps Hockey Report | Rocket Sports Media.

Quotes and audio courtesy of Rocket Sports Media

Exciting game here in Allentown tonight – night and day difference between the #IceCaps performance Wednesday and today. @IceCapsReport

— Amy (@FlyersRule) October 31, 2015

Nikita Scherbak won't be playing tonight but he was kind enough to pose for a photo. Thanks @nikscherbak ! #allhabs pic.twitter.com/3TedZIF5fl

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) October 30, 2015

Warmups are underway at the @pplcenter in Allentown! @IceCapsAHL v @LVPhantoms coming up. @IceCapsReport @AllHabs pic.twitter.com/m5EkGyCcwH

— Amy (@FlyersRule) October 30, 2015

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