The Lehigh Valley Phantoms returned to the PPL Center Saturday night to take on the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins in front of a small crowd. The Penguins handed the Phantoms their first regular-season loss and were looking for payback.
Tyler Witherspoon, Maksim Sushko, Matthew Strome, Isaac Ratcliffe, Chris Bigras, Pascal Laberge, Tyle Foerster, and Eamon McAdam were all scratched for this game. Felix Sandstrom started at goalie, making his season debut.
Heading into this game, the Phantoms were one for twenty-five on the power play that ranked last in the league. Their penalty-killing team is ranked the second-best in the AHL. The Phantoms were so close to taking an early lead in the first period; however, Linus Sandin missed the shot wide right.
At 9:11, the Penguins took a 1-0 lead when a two-on-one developed as Felix Roberts used his speed before shooting the puck top left for the goal.
The Phantoms were able to tie the game 1-1 at 13:40 as Zayde Wisdom got the puck and made a beautiful backhand pass to Max Willman, who finished it off with a goal. Willman is now on a four-game goal streak. The Phantoms had a couple of chances to take the lead on the power play but couldn’t take advantage of either as the first period ended tied 1-1. The shot’s total was even at nine apiece.
A minute and nine seconds into the second period, the Penguins regained a 2-1 lead when Jordy Bellerive slapped the shot that hit the pad of Sandstrom and went in the net. Max Willman, at 4:27, was able to tie the game again 2-2 when he shot the puck that bounced off two Penguins players and redirected into the net for the goal. After Cam Lee was called for boarding, the Phantoms went on the power play.
At 7:26, Cal O’Reilly was fighting for the puck that was retrieved by Ryan Fitzgerald, who made a great backhand shot for the goal to give the Phantoms a 3-2 lead. The Phantoms were trying to hold off the Penguins, who were for the most part in control of this game.
At 14:43, Billy Sweezey took a shot that deflected off the stick of Nick Schilkey and over Sandstrom’s shoulder for the goal to tie the game at three apiece. Schilkey was credited for the goal. The game remained tied 3-3 after the second period ended. The Penguins dominated the shots advantage 15-8.
Twenty-three seconds into the third period, the Penguins regained a 4-3 lead. Kevin Czuczman passed the puck to Jordy Bellerive, who tried to get in the net, but Sandstrom poked it away from him, only for Sam Miletic to finish it off for the goal. Just when it looked like the Phantoms were done for the night, they got a new lease on life when Jordy Bellerive, who was called for interference to put the Phantoms back on the power play for the fifth time.
On the power play, Ryan Fitzgerald fought a Penguins player for the puck. He was going to take the shot before quickly finding Zayde Wisdom, who had an open net and scored to tie the game again at four apiece at 16:54. Wisdom now has six goals for the season.
Both teams were doing all they could to end the game in regulation to no prevail as the Phantoms once again headed to overtime. The Penguins had a 10-8 shot advantage.
It only took forty seconds to end the game, and it wasn’t in the Phantoms favor. Penguins center Frederick Gaudreau intercepted the puck. While there was another Penguin not far from him, Gaudreau took the shot that went off the glove of Sandstrom and into the net to give the Phantoms their second overtime loss 5-4. With the overtime loss, the Phantoms now fall to third place in the North Division.
The Penguins dominated the Phantoms in the shot category 36-25. Felix Sandstrom made thirty-one stops, and the Phantoms went 2/5 on the power play while the Penguins were 0/1. Despite the loss, the Phantoms have an excellent young core of players, led by Max Willman and Zayde Wisdom. They were simply out of gas, having played three games in four days.
The Phantoms will now have three days off before their next game in Newark on Wednesday, March 10th against the Binghamton Devils at 7 pm on AHL.tv.
