Justin Dowling's 12th-Round Winner Lifts Wolf Pack to 5-4

Justin Dowling ended a 12-round shootout by ripping a shot off the right post and into the net to give the Hartford Wolf Pack a 5-4 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the PPL Center in Allentown. The 12-round affair was the longest shootout in Lehigh Valley franchise history and handed Hartford two points while Lehigh Valley earned a single standings point.

The Phantoms opened the scoring in bursts, striking twice in 46 seconds to take a 2-0 lead by the 5:33 mark of the first period. Hartford cut the lead in half at 10:13 when Mackey fired a shot into traffic that eluded Carson Bjarnason for Mackey’s fourth goal of the season. Twenty-seven seconds later, Adam Sýkora pounced on a loose puck after a Brandon Scanlin dump-in and buried his tenth goal of the season at 10:40 to tie the game 2-2.

Lehigh Valley reclaimed the lead early in the second. Phil Tomasino blasted home a one-timer just 2:05 into the middle frame off a Max Guenette pass in the left-wing circle; the goal is listed as Tomasino’s ninth of the season in team documentation while other materials list it as his fourth with the Phantoms. Oscar Eklind then snuck a wraparound by Dylan Garand at 11:35 of the second to push the Phantoms ahead 4-2.

Hartford responded. The Pack rallied twice to erase deficits, with Travis Dermott’s shot deflecting off Juuso Pärssinen and tumbling into the net after a setup from Derrick Pouliot to pull Hartford back within one. Spencer Martin was knocked out of the start with the 2-0 deficit early in the first six minutes, and replacement netminder Dylan Garand steadied Hartford the rest of the way.

The shootout stretched to 12 rounds and involved 24 skaters. After a long stretch of misses and alternating conversions in earlier rounds, Jacob Gaucher put a shot high and over Garand’s pad in the top of the 12th, leaving Dowling with the final opportunity. Dowling walked in, swung right, worked toward the slot and lasered a shot off the right post and into the net to secure the extra point and Hartford’s win. The AHL posted a clip of Dowling’s winner, and FloHockey streamed the full 12-round, 24-skater shootout that was described as seeing only five goals scored.

The victory was Hartford’s third straight and shifts momentum as the Pack head next to PeoplesBank Arena to face the Providence Bruins on Wednesday, Mar. 4 with a 7:00 p.m. puck drop and Wolf Pack Pregame set for 6:45 p.m. at AHLTV on FloHockey and Mixlr. Lehigh Valley’s back-to-back set at the PPL Center concludes the following afternoon with a 3:05 p.m. puck drop, leaving both clubs to regroup after an unusual, history-making night.