PHANTOM GOAL DOWNS PENS IN OT

WILKES-BARRE, PA - Kyle Greentree was credited with a goal 1:39 into overtime, giving the Philadelphia Phantoms a 2-1 win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday night at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.

The overtime loss - the Pens' first of the season - dropped Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's record to 45-26-1-4 on the season, good for 95 points. The Phantoms moved into a virtual tie for first place in the East Division with the victory, although the Penguins hold the first tiebreaker of total wins (45 to 44).

"This is playoff type speed, intensity, physical play. It was up a notch," head coach Todd Richards said of the match-up between the division's top two clubs. "It was one of those games, there was a lot of emotion in the game, it was a fast game, a hard, physical game. We competed hard, we really played hard. It was just some certain areas where we needed to be better."

With the score tied at 1-1 in the extra frame, Jonathan Matsumoto wheeled behind the Penguins goal and shoveled the puck on net. The shot deflected off the Pens' Mark Letestu and Philly's Kyle Greentree, then clipped goaltender John Curry's mask before dinging off the cross bar and finding the back of the net for the win.

"It's dissapointing the way the game ended," said Richards. "It was a one-on-two, a two-on-three, whatever it was. We back into the zone, we allow him to come around, and he just throws it off the net, it goes off our stick and in."

Ryan Potulny opened the scoring 10 minutes into the game with a nice deflection off a Chad Anderson shot from the point.

Tim Brent evened things up eight mintues later, sticking with a loose puck in fron of goalie Michael Teslak, who was making his first professional start.

But unlike Friday night, the Penguins were unable to capitalize on a handful of power play opportunities, going 0-for-5 while Philly saw just one man advantage.

"We had our chances, had some good chances around their net. We were given enough chances on the power play," said Richards. "The first period, our power play was pretty good. Then from that point on we weren't able to execute. Sloppy coming up the ice, we weren't able to execute there, and we weren't able to get the puck in the offensive zone. So from that standpoint it was dissapointing."

Despite the loss, Richards chose to look on the bright side of things, as the Penguins still sit at the top of the standings headed into Sunday's game in Hershey.

"Where we were a month ago, where we were at the start of the year, looking up at theses guys, we've done a great job putting ourselves in a position to play this game for first place," he said.