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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — When a team pulls the goaltender and puts six forwards on the ice at the end of a game, chances are there’s going to be a goal at one end of the ice.
Fortunately for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, that goal wound up in Lehigh Valley’s net.
After spotting the Phantoms a 4-1 lead in the first half of Wednesday’s game, the Penguins mounted a lengthy comeback that culminated in the game-tying goal with four seconds left and an overtime game-winner from Carter Rowney.
The 6-4 win is the second in a row for the Penguins and it marked the end of a big day for Rowney, who signed his first NHL contract before the game and then later capped it off with a two-goal performance.
Jean-Sebastien Dea scored the game-tying goal after head coach Clark Donatelli pulled goaltender Franky Palazzese, who inked a PTO with the Penguins earlier in the day, for the extra attacker and opted to go with six forwards on the ice.
The move was met with approval from Tom Kostopoulos, whose assist on Dea’s goal was one of five on the night for the Penguins’ captain.
“Everyone wanted the puck,” Kostopoulos said. “I liked it because it worked. Great call.”
Rowney said the Penguins never felt like they were out of the game, and a talk in the locker room after the second period confirmed it.
“We had belief in the locker room,” he said. “We knew we could take it to that team and that’s exactly what we did.”
After falling into a three-goal hole, the Penguins took over in the final two periods to outshoot Lehigh Valley 30-12 and force a 5-5 tie at the end of regulation.
After scoring once in their last two games, the Phantoms wasted no time getting on the board. Kevin Goumas connected from the slot on the Phantoms’ second shot of the game at 5:54 to take a 1-0 lead in the opening period.
The Penguins answered with a goal from Steve Oleksy – his second of the season, to tie it, but after that, it was all Lehigh Valley.
Cole Bardreau beat Penguins netminder Brian Foster from the right faceoff circle to make it 2-1 to close out the first period. A little over a minute into the second Phil DeSimone made an easy tap-in from the side for a 3-1 lead.
An Adam Comrie power-play goal made it 4-1, but the Penguins showed some life when Rowney tipped a Will O’Neill wrist shot during a man advantage to cut the Phantoms’ lead to 4-2.
At the end of the period, Lehigh Valley scored their second power-play goal in as many chances with a Danick Martel shot from the corner post to go up 5-2.
While the first half of the game nearly did the Penguins in, the second half produced a better result.
After giving up five goals on 20 shots, Donatelli pulled Foster for Palazzese, who appeared in his first AHL game.
With a change in net, the Penguins changed their attack in the third period and pressured the Phantoms relentlessly.
It paid off.
Kael Mouillierat put home a rebound during a power play at 5:30 to make it 5-3, and rookie Jarrett Burton raced down the side and connected with a wrister less than a minute late to cut Lehigh Valley’s lead to 5-4.
“We had to get that goal,” said Donatelli about Mouillierat’s goal. “You could feel the momentum building and guys were starting to get more aggressive in getting shots to the net.”
Dea forced overtime in dramatic fashion when he snuck in from the side and poked home a Kostopoulos pass with five seconds remaining for the 5-5 tie.
Late in the overtime period, Kostopoulos set up Rowney for the game winner in front of the Phantoms crease to seal the 6-5 win.
NOTES
– Pittsburgh signed Rowney to a two-way NHL deal on Wednesday. Rowney has career highs in goals (19) and points (41) this season.
– Palazzese, 22, has a 2.86 goals against average and a .904 save percentage in 35 net appearances for the Nailers in 2015-16. He backed up Foster on Wednesday.
Palazzese drove in from Wheeling on Wednesday and stopped all four shots he faced in relief of Brian Foster.
“I knew I had a really good team in front of me. I know they can score goals so I said if I can just keep it at five we could come back, and we did just that,” Palazzese said.
– G Tristan Jarry (illness), D Harrison Ruopp, F Anton Zlobin, D Niclas Andersen (illness), F Tyler Biggs (injury), F Sahir Gill (injury), D Dominik Uher (injury) and F Oskar Sundqvist (injury) were scratched for the Penguins.
