After the Lehigh Valley Phantoms defeated the Devils in Newark Friday night 4-2. The two teams traded places for the second game at the PPL Center Saturday night. Before the game took place, Linus Hogberg was called up to the Flyers Taxi Squad, and Felix Sandstrom returned.
The scratches for the game were Ryan Fitzgerald, Zayde Wisdom, Maksim Sushko, David Kase, and Garrett Wilson.
The Phantoms got on the board at 2:34 after Isaac Ratcliffe blocked a shot and then went on a breakaway, scoring the goal to put the Phantoms up 1-0. Four minutes later, Lehigh Valley went on their first power play after Nate Schnarr was called for holding. The Phantoms failed to score on the power play. Felix Sandstrom made some excellent saves and was playing better than his last game.
With 1:06 left, Cal O’Reilly shot the puck that hit Mitens pad before Tyson Foerster recovered the puck and scored his ninth goal of the year. The Phantoms were now up 2-0. O’Reilly now had 497 career assists and moved to tenth all-time in assists. The Phantoms led 2-0 after one period with the shots in favor of the Devils 11-6.
Early in the second period, the Phantoms nearly scored twice. Egor Zamula had an open net before Mareks Mitens made a great save to keep the score 2-0. At 6:57, Chris Bigras’s shot hit Brennan Saulnier before Ralph Cuddemi scored an open net for his first AHL goal. The Phantoms lead was now 3-0.
Off the faceoff in the Phantoms’ neutral zone, the Devils answered with 9:36 left of the second period when Aarne Talvitie, a Penn State product, ripped the shot past Sandstrom to cut the Phantoms lead 3-1. Chris Mueller nearly got the goal back late in the second period, but his shot hit Mitens pad. Lehigh Valley led 3-1 after two periods, and the shots were 12-10 for the Phantoms.
A minute and thirteen seconds into the third period, the Devils cut the Phantoms lead 3-2 after Graeme Clarke scored off the faceoff. The Devils were putting pressure on the Phantoms, making it hard for Lehigh Valley to get the puck out of their zone.
Flex Sandstrom continued to have a good night making more good saves. The Devils pulled Mitens with two minutes left. However, the Phantoms were able to hang on for a 3-2 win. Binghamton dominated the third period in shots 18-4.
The Phantoms finished the night 0-1 on the power play on 22 shots, and Felix Sandstrom made 37 saves allowing two goals. Felix Sandstrom, Ralph Cuddemi, and Isaac Ratcliffe were the three stars of the game.
The Phantoms will have one game with the Devils on Monday, April 26th, in Newark at 6 pm on AHL.tv.
