Hard Effort at Cleveland but Monsters Rally Late

Wisdom with Goal and Assist

December 12, 2024

Cleveland, OH – Zayde Wisdom (2nd) had a strong two-point game while Garrett Wilson (4th) broke a scoreless deadlock midway through the contest but Cal Petersen’s fabulous 32-save performance wasn’t enough for the Phantoms in a 3-2 setback at the Cleveland Monsters on Thursday evening. Cleveland rallied with three goals in the third including back-to-back tallies midway through the frame to overcome a 2-1 deficit.

Hunter McKown (1st) and Stanislav Svozil (2nd) lit the lamp just 120 seconds apart to turn the tables on Lehigh Valley.

The Phantoms almost knocked off the first-place Monsters despite missing two of their top forwards as Anthony Richard and Olle Lycksell were both unavailable. Defenseman Sam Sedley played in just his second career AHL game and did so as a forward.

Lehigh Valley (9-10-5) received a tremendous performance from Petersen with a number of point-blank denials and some breakaway saves as well including a right-pad stop of Roman Ahcan’s effort in the second period.

The Phantoms were outshot 25-13 in the first 40 minutes but emerged with a 1-0 lead thanks to some hard work behind the goal by Jacob Gaucher keeping the play alive eventually finding Wilson in the low-left slot to bury the game’s first of the contest at 9:49 into the second period. Wisdom found Gaucher down low to also assist on the play.

Cleveland was awarded a 5-on-3 to end the second period and begin the third and speedy, little Trey Fix-Wolansky would get the Monsters on the board with a sharp-angle top-shelf goal just as the first penalty had expired at 30 seconds into the third period to even the score at 1-1.

But Lehigh Valley quickly retook the lead on Zayde Wisdom’s top-shelf drive that rattled the top of the cage assisted by Alexis Gendron and Xavier Bernard. It was Bernard’s first point of the season and Lehigh Valley was back ahead at 2-1 just 2:17 into the third.

The Phantoms were hanging on but Cleveland got a push to score consecutive goals and change the story. McKown slipped underneath the defense and drove from the right corner across the blue paint to slide a backhander past the right skate of Petersen tying the game at 2-2 at 9:08. Exactly two minutes later, Svozil cranked it up from the top of the left circle to give the Monsters the lead.

The Phantoms had a pair of power plays in the final seven minutes of the third on puck-over-glass delay of game penalties including a chance to eventually make it 6-on-4 with two minutes left. The first of those power plays at 13:43 into the third resulted in several close chances for the Phantoms as Gendron, Rizzo and Gaucher were all denied on various sequences and Samu Tuomaala’s one-timer from the left circle was repelled by the right pad of Zach Sawchenko. The second power play was cut off prematurely when Lehigh Valley had to take a penalty to deny a breakaway. And pulling the goalie to create a 5-on-4 would not produce the tying tally for the Phantoms.

Lehigh Valley and Cleveland will rematch on Saturday at 7:30 in the finale of the four-game road trip.

SCORING SUMMARY

2nd 9:49 – LV, G. Wilson (4) (J. Gaucher, Z. Wisdom) (1-0)

3rd 0:28 – CLE, T. Fix-Wolansky (13) (D. Mateychuk, L. Del Bel Balluz) (PP) (1-1)
3rd 2:17 – LV, Z. Wisdom (2) (A. Gendron, X. Bernard) (2-1)
3rd 9:08 – CLE, H. McKown (1) (S. Svozil) (2-2)
3rd 11:08 – CLE, S. Svozil (2) (T. Fix-Wolansky, L. Del Bel Balluz) (2-3)

Shots:
LV 24 – CLE 35

PP:
LV 0/4, CLE 1/4

Goaltenders:
LV – C. Petersen (L) (4-8-2) (32/35)
CLE – Z. Sawchenko (W) (7-2-0) (22/24)

Records:
Lehigh Valley (9-10-5)
Cleveland (16-6-2)

UPCOMING

Saturday, December 14 (7:30) – Phantoms at Cleveland Monsters

Wednesday, December 18 (7:05) – Providence Bruins at Phantoms – Pregame Happy Hour, $2 Draft Beers

Friday, December 20 (7:05) – Toronto Marlies at Phantoms – meLVin Youth Winter Knit Cap presented by Reilly Children’s Hospital

Saturday, December 21 (7:05) – Phantoms at WBS Penguins

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