The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-9-5) finished their three-game road trip Friday night at Upstate Medical University Arena against the Syracuse Crunch (6-7-3). It was the second meeting between these two teams. In their last meeting, the Crunch won in overtime 3-2.
Upstate Medical University Arena was used to film part of the movie Slap Shot, and Paul Newman’s character, Reggie Dunlop’s number seven, is retired by Syracuse.
Before the game, there were a ton of roster moves. Max Willman returned to the Phantoms while the Flyers recalled Connor Bunnaman. The Phantoms brought up Ryan MacKinnon and signed Nick Master and Wes Michaud.
MacKinnon, Master, and Michaud were scratched along with Mason Millman, Linus Sandin, Sam Ersson, Pat Nagle, Cam York, and Tyson Foerster. Tyson Foerster is out for five months with a shoulder injury. Felix Sandstrom was in goal.
The Phantoms got off to a strong start in the first period. Nine minutes into the game, Jackson Cates (2) found Max Willman (8), all alone, and scored to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead. Willman has scored six of the last seven games and is now leading the team in goals scored.
After Willman’s goal, the Crunch started to pressure and came close to tying the game several times but with no luck. The Phantoms led 1-0 after the first period with the shots 13-10 Crunch.
In the second period, the Phantoms went on the power play at 1:09 on a slashing call against Charles Hudson. The Phantoms were unable to capitalize. Meanwhile, the Crunch were starting to get momentum. Felix Sandstrom got his shoulder up to block a shot; otherwise, it was a tie game. The officiating was atrocious. Phantoms defenseman Cooper Zech was whacked twice, and no call was made. Zech took matters into his own hands but was called for slashing.
Despite killing the power-play, the Crunch tied the game 1-1 with 3:29 left after Remi Elie’s (3) shot squeezed Sandstrom’s lower right circle. Cole Koepke (6) and Gabriel Dumont (6) assisted Elie’s goal. The game remained tied 1-1 after two periods with the shots 10-8 Crunch.
In the third period, Hayden Hodges nearly broke the tie, but Max Lagace stopped his shot. Later, Max Willman got shoved into the boards by Andrej Sustr and was down for a minute. Finally, the refs blew a whistle, and the Phantoms were on the power-play on Andrej Sustr’s cross-checking call. But, once again, the Phantoms couldn’t capitalize on the power-play.
Then, the Crunch scored two goals in a minute and four seconds. First, Gabriel Dumont (8) redirected Andrej Sustr’s (2) shot for the goal to take a 2-1 lead, followed by Daniel Walcott’s (3) backhand pass that led to Gabriel Dumont’s (8) goal from the left circle made it 3-1. Gabriel Fortier (7) also assisted Dumont’s goal.
With two minutes left, Felix Sandstrom was pulled for the extra attacker. Head coach Ian Laperriere does this a lot with time left on the clock.
It didn’t work out, and Daniel Walcott (2) scored an empty-net goal that put the game away 4-1. Andrej Sustr (3) and Gabriel Dumont (7) assisted Walcott’s goal. After the goal, Walcott and Max Willman got into a fight that led to a brawl. Several players were thrown out, including Garrett Wilson and Andrej Sustr.
Willman was given a five-minute slashing penalty and a ten-minute game misconduct penalty. Garrett Wilson was given a ten-minute misconduct for continuing the altercation. Had the referees done their job, none of that would’ve happened. Instead, the players were taking matters into their own hands.
The Syracuse Crunch snapped a six-game losing streak with a 4-1 win. Meanwhile, the Phantoms’ winless streak has reached six games. The shots in the third period were 11-6 Crunch.
The Phantoms finished the night with 24 shots, 0/2 on the power-play, and Felix Sandstrom made 30 of 33 saves.
The Phantoms return to the PPL Center against the Bridgeport Islanders today at 7:05 pm.
