The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (10-12-5-2) saw their nine-game points streak come to an end Saturday night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (10-15-1-3) at the PPL Center.
The Phantoms were coming off a 4-3 win against the Penguins Friday night. This was the sixth meeting between these two teams this year.
Felix Sandstrom was in goal, and the scratches for the game were Logan Day, Brennan Saulnier, Ryan MacKinnon, Hayden Hodgson, Garrett Wilson, Tyson Foerster, Sam Ersson, and Pat Nagle. Day, Hodgson, Nagle, assistant coaches Riley Armstrong, and Jason Smith are on the COVID protocol.
Former Flyers player Danny Briere filled in as an assistant coach, and Max Willman was back in the lineup for Lehigh Valley.
Early in the first period, Connor Bunnaman and Max Willman had chances to score but were stopped by Tommy Nappier. With 9:14 left, the Penguins struck first when Felix Robert (8) made a cross-ice pass to an oncoming Valtteri Puustinen (11) who made a backhand shot to the lower right side of the net for a 1-0 lead. Matt Bartkowski (3) picked up the secondary assist.
With 1:12 left in the first period, Adam Clendening’s shot was stopped by Nappier. The Phantoms only had three shots at the end of the first period down 1-0. The shots were 13-3 Penguins.
In the second period, the Penguins were doing whatever they wanted. They spent most of the period in the Phantoms zone while Felix Sandstrom was blocking the shots that came his way with players in front of him.
With 10:09 left, Sandstrom did a split to block Taylor Fedun’s (6) shot. However, Sam Poulin (5) rebounded the puck, spun around, and went top shelf for the goal. The Penguins led 2-0, and Matt Bartkowski (4) picked up the secondary assist on Poulin’s goal.
Less than a minute later, Mitch Reinke’s (5) cross-ice pass set up Felix Robert (8), who quickly snipes to the top post for a 3-0 lead. Pierre-Olivier Joseph (11) picked up the secondary assist on Joseph’s goal.
With 8:37 left, the Penguins were on the attack when Jordy Bellerive (10) passed the puck to Nathan Legare (3) for another snipe shot from the far post for a 4-0 lead. Sam Houde (3) also assisted Legare’s goal.
The Penguins were in control of the game, while the Phantoms showed frustration on the ice. The Phantoms were mismanaging the puck, slipping on the ice, and unable to control the puck.
Late in the second period, the Phantoms went on the power play on a slashing call against Kyle Olson. The Phantoms were down 4-0 after two periods with the shots 27-9 Penguins. Lehigh Valley had twelve seconds left on the power play.
The Phantoms were unable to score on the power-play to begin the third period. However, they started to show some signs of life with Alex Kile and Max Willman taking shots. At 9:59, the Phantoms went on the power play after Jordy Bellerive was called for tripping.
With 9:04 left, Adam Clendening (13) went through the Penguins and took a shot. The puck hit the pad of Tommy Nappier and bounced in front of Connor Bunnaman (5), who finished the play for the power-play goal, cutting the Penguins lead 4-1.
The Phantoms had a little bit of momentum on their side. A short time later, the Phantoms went back on the power play, this time an interference call against Jonathan Gruden. With 4:34 left, Adam Clendening (14) took a shot and was rebounded by Wade Allison (1) and scored on a sharp angle put back that cut the Penguins lead 4-2. Cal O’Reilly (13) picked up the secondary assist.
The Phantoms pulled Sandstrom with 3:35 left, and the Penguins put the game away with an empty-net goal by Taylor Fedun (2) for a 5-2 lead. The Phantoms made one more rush put the horn sounded, and the Phantoms nine-game points streak ended in a 5-2 loss.
The Phantoms finished the game with 22 shots, 2/7 on the power-play, and Felix Sandstrom made 30 saves.
The Phantoms have one more home game before their road trip today against the Toronto Marlies at 3:05 pm.
