The second season of Phantoms hockey in the Lehigh Valley begins Saturday night when the Phantoms host the Syracuse Crunch in the season opener. The final tune-up for the season was Sunday night when the Phantoms hosted rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the final preseason game, with Lehigh Valley picking up a 4-3 win.

Rookie Danick Martel scored with just 4:23 left to play in regulation to record what would become the game-winner for the Phantoms. Lehigh Valley had jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals by Petr Straka, Nick Cousins and Tim Brent, but the Penguins came firing back in the third to tie the game 3-3 before Martel's heroics.The game was a reversal of an earlier preseason meeting between the two teams where Wilkes-Barre/Scranton held a 3-0 lead, only to see Lehigh Valley come back to tie the game before falling to the Penguins 4-3 in Wilkes-Barre."I liked the first and second periods," new coach Scott Gordon noted after the game. "There were parts of the second period that I really liked; the fact that we got the power plays and the fact that we were doing something right, because they were taking penalties."Gordon, who took over for Terry Murray after last season, has made changes to the system that have even veteran players still trying to adjust.With the regular season opener coming Saturday, the coach and his players still have some work to do to get all of the adjustments down."It's a short time to evaluate, but we've got a new system to play this year and it's going to take some time to click for everyone," admitted Straka. "I think we've done a good job so far on it and we've got one more week to make sure everyone knows what we're doing. We'll work on it and hopefully, we'll be there by Saturday."Gordon has been happy overall with how the players are picking up the system and the work ethic of his players. There hasn't been a lot of time for evaluation, but Gordon does see one key area that the team needs to focus on to be successful."The first thing that I talked to them about before the game was that our compete level has to be better than it was last night [Saturday], and I saw that in the first and second period. Not that we didn't compete in the third period, but I thought that we just didn't play as smart of a game as we did in the first and second," said Gordon.Nick Cousins, who led the Phantoms in scoring last season, likes what he's seeing even as players continue to adjust to Gordon's differences."He's got a system in place where you have to be really attentive to detail and that's what he's looking for," explained Cousins. "It's going to take a little while to get used to it, to make the adjustment, but I think we'll get better game-by-game."I think we've got a good mix of older guys and young guys, so it's going to be a fun year and I'm looking forward to it. Everything starts for real Saturday and we'll use this week to get used to it."PHANTOM FACTS: Attendance for the final preseason game was 5,476 ... After opening at home Saturday, the Phantoms play three games on the road before hosting the Providence Bruins on Oct. 24 ... Prior to Sunday's game, defenseman Matt Lashoff was signed by the Flyers and assigned to Lehigh Valley. Lashoff played last season with both the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Portland Pirates in the AHL. He's also played in 74 NHL games with Tampa Bay, Boston and Toronto, but hasn't played in the NHL since the 2010-2011 season.