In its first Saturday prime-time game of the season, Lehigh Valley welcomes the Hartford Wolf Pack to the PPL Center at 7:05 for the last home game for two weeks, as the Phantoms begin a two-week road slate.
- The Phantoms (4-2-1) are coming off an overtime loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Wednesday, where they failed to capitalize on nine power play opportunities. Surprisingly, after the poor performance with a man advantage, the team is still in the top 10 in the league in power play percentage, converting on eight of 37 man-advantage opportunities.
- Hartford, also 4-2-1 sits in second place in the Northeast Division with nine points. The Wolf Pack sits behind the Albany Devils who sit on top of the Eastern Conference with a 6-0-1 record with 13 points.
- Phantoms are ranked third in the East Division with nine points and a 0.643 win percentage. Lehigh Valley has played the fewest games in the division.
- Wednesday, despite the team’s inability to score, the Phantoms’ first line—Gordon, Laughton, Leier; Hagg, Petterson—communicated well and saw a large portion of the 67 minute game, as the team ran with what seemed to be two and a half lines throughout the game.
- With three of its best defensemen out of the lineup, Lehigh Valley’s rookies Hagg and Petterson stepped in to fill the void, Wednesday. At just 19 and 20 years old, respectively, the two d-men played cohesively on a first-line defense pairing that has not seen stability since the team’s first two games. No word on if Terry Murray will start the pair again tonight.
- Scott Laughton still sits in sixth in the league in scoring with five goals.
- Rob Zepp will start tonight versus Hartford coming off his first loss of the season, Wednesday. The 33 year old has started in five of Lehigh’s seven games, with the rookie Anthony Stolarz taking two losses in his two starts this season. Terry Murray said earlier this season Zepp would be the teams’ No. 1 goaltender and act as a mentor to the developing Stolarz.
- Zepp saved 30 of 32 shots sent his way on Wednesday, and 145 total saves in his five starts. The goaltender sits on a 0.918 save percentage and 311:50 minutes already this season, ranked 26th in the league.
- No update on Mark Alt’s injury which is categorized as “upper body,” Murray said the defenseman could be out for weeks.
- Brett Hextall has been dealing with an upper body injury for two weeks. Wednesday Murray said the winger is still “uncomfortable” in practice, and could use another game before they would consider him to be available for ice time. /
