The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-8-5) continued their three-game road Saturday in Toronto against the Marlies (8-5).
Pat Nagle made his first start for the Phantoms, and the scratches were Mason Millman, German Rubtsov, Linus Sandin, Wyatte Wylie, Sam Ersson, Charlie Gerard, and Tyson Foerster.
Three minutes and fifty seconds into the first period, Morgan Frost (3) maneuvered the puck which faked out Semyon Der-Arguchintsev before shooting the puck to the top of the left circle for a 1-0 lead. Garrett Wilson (7) and Cam York (5) assisted the goal.
Then, with 3:47 left, Isaac Ratcliffe passed the puck to Jackson Cates (1), but his shot hit the pad of Michael Hutchinson before Ratcliffe (2) finished the play by pushing the puck into the net for a 2-0 lead. Hutchinson didn’t know where the puck was located at the time Ratcliffe scored the goal. The Phantoms led 2-0 after the first period and led the shots 11-4.
In the second period, Hayden Hodgson poked the puck away from a Marlies player then passed it to Connor Bunnaman, but Hutchinson made the save. As the period wore on, the Marlies were on the hunt. With 6:59 left, Brett Seney (3) made a backhand pass to Joseph Duszak (9), who then made a cross pass to Marc Michaelis (3) with an open net in front of him that cut the Phantoms lead 2-1.
Late in the second period, the Phantoms went on the power play after Joseph Duszak was called for holding. The Phantoms had thirty seconds left on the power-play after the second period ended up 2-1. The shots were even at eight apiece.
In the third period, the Marlies had momentum. With 16:26 left, Curtis Douglas (4) went around the net to set up Josh Ho-Sang (4) for the shot that hit the skate of Richard Clune (1) and redirected into the net that tied the game 2-2.
The Phantoms had a scary incident with 15:47 left when Joey Anderson boarded Adam Clendening headfirst into the boards. Clendening gingerly got up and went to the bench. He would return to the game a short time later. Anderson was issued a five-minute boarding and ten-minute game misconduct, ending his day.
The Phantoms were unable to get the lead back. They were tired and stalling. Morgan Frost set up Garrett Wilson for the shot late in the third period, but Michael Hutchinson stopped it. For the second straight game, the Phantoms went to overtime tied 2-2 with the shots 6-3 Toronto.
In overtime, the Marlies won the game 3-2 after Joseph Duszak (10) banked a pass off the wall to the direction of Josh Ho-Sang (8), who did a great job with his stick work confusing Cam York, who was on him and quickly fired past Nagle for the goal.
The Phantoms finished the day with 26 shots, 0-4 on the power-play, and Pat Nagle made 16 of 19 saves. The Phantoms are now 2-6-1-1 on the road this year.
The Phantoms will wrap up the three-game road trip next Friday, November 26th, against the Syracuse Crunch at 7 pm.
