Adirondack's Offense Erupts For Seven Goals In Win Over Penguins

December 12, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release


GLENS FALLS, NY - Stefan Legein, Jason Ward and Jon Matsumoto each lit the lamp twice to lead the Adirondack Phantoms to a 7-4 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Saturday night at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

It took a while for the offense to heat up as both teams played a very defensive style in the first period. At 15:30 Tim Wallace opened the scoring by tipping a Ben Lovejoy shot from the blue line under the glove of Adirondack goaltender Michael-Lee Teslak. The Penguins' lead lasted just 57 seconds as Stefan Legein collected a rebound from a Patrick Maroon shot and fired home the puck at 16:27 to tie the game.

Legein scored his second goal of the night, his 13th of the season, just 1:45 into the second period when he stole the puck at the red line, skated in on a breakaway and beat goaltender Adam Berkhoel for an unassisted shorthanded goal. Nick Johnson tied the game at 3:36 with a shot from the right face off circle, but Adirondack was not done in the frame. Krys Kolanos scored a power play goal at 8:23, giving the Phantoms a lead that they would never relinquish. Jason Ward scored at 10:51 to put the hosts ahead 4-2, in spite of being out-shot in the period by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 15-9.

Ward tallied his second goal of the night, his fifth of the year, at 2:55 of the third period when he scored a power play goal that would eventually be the game-winning goal; Trent Daavettila recorded his first career AHL point by setting up Ward's goal with a clever pass in the low slot. With a 5-2 third period lead some may have felt that the game was over, but not the Penguins. They scored twice over a five minute span to cut the lead to one; Chris Lee made it 5-3 at 7:33 and Mark Letestu's goal at 12:53 off a rebound in front made it 5-4. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had more than one chance to tie the game, including a golden opportunity for Letestu to get his second goal of the night, but they failed to get any more shots beyond Teslak. During the closing minutes the Penguins pulled Berkhoel for the extra attacker and Jon Matsumoto ended any thoughts of overtime by scoring two empty net goals. First he found the net at 18:58 on a straight-up wrist shot from deep in his defensive zone, about 180 feet from the Penguins net, and then he scored again at 19:37, this time from the red line, for his 11th goal of the year and second of the night.

Michael-Lee Teslak stopped 28-of-32 shots to record the win in his first AHL start of the season, helping Adirondack improve to 11-12-2-0. Adam Berkhoel suffered his first loss of the year, making 17 saves on 22 shots as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton fell to 13-11-1-1. The Penguins out-shot the Phantoms 32-24 in the game and went 0-for-2 on the power play; Adirondack was 2-for-3 with the man-advantage.

The Phantoms and Penguins will again lace up the skates and duke it out on Sunday, December 13th for a 3:00 pm afternoon matinee at the Glens Falls Civic Center. Adirondack with then host the Hamilton Bulldogs on Friday, December 18th at 7:00 pm.

In the spirit of the holiday shopping season the Phantoms are offering special free domestic ground shipping on all orders made at the Phantoms Online Team Shop. This special free shipping offer will expire on Sunday, December 20th, so get your Adirondack Phantoms Merchandise today. The Phantoms Online Store can be found at http://shopphantomshockey.com.



American Hockey League Stories from December 12, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central