On Friday night, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (15-15-6-2) welcomed back Isaac Ratcliffe, Morgan Frost, and Cam York to the lineup against the Providence Bruins (17-12-3-3) in front of a home crowd at PPL Center.
Felix Sandstrom started in goal, and the scratches were Cooper Zech, German Rubtsov, Nick Lappin, Alex Kile, Tyson Foerster, Sam Ersson, and Pat Nagle.
The Phantoms didn’t waste any time getting to the Bruins zone in the first period. Linus Sandin had a chance two minutes in the game, but his shot hit the right pad of Troy Grosenick.
Then with 17:25 left, Cal O’Reilly (9) from the corner fired the puck that was deflected off the stick of Bruins defenseman Tyler Lewington to take a 1-0 lead. Wyatte Wylie (7) assisted the goal.
The Phantoms kept pounding the Bruins zone with plenty of chances to add to their lead. With 5:15 left in the first period, Wyatte Wylie (8) did an excellent job drawing Troy Grosenick away from his net before passing the puck to Morgan Frost (4), who buried the shot to the left side for a 2-0 lead. For Frost, he is on a three-game goal streak.
The Phantoms were back in the Bruins zone not long after the goal. This time, Maksim Sushko (5) had the puck and made a backhand pass to Hayden Hodgson (10), who sneaks the puck past Grosenick for a 3-0 lead. Cal O’Reilly (19) earned the secondary assists.
Felix Sandstrom made several great saves, and the Phantoms led 3-0 after the first period with the shots 10-9 Phantoms.
In the second period, the Phantoms had a couple of chances to add to their lead. Then with 15:50 to go, the Bruins started to gain momentum.
Six seconds later, Jack Studnicka (12) made a pass to Jesper Froden (9), who already had his stick ready to fire from the center point and scored which cut the Phantoms lead 3-1.
The Bruins were pounding the Phantoms’ zone; however, Felix Sandstrom continued to make great saves. Late in the second period, Hayden Hodgson was called for boarding, giving the Bruins a power-play. The Bruins had fifteen seconds left of the power-play at the end of the second period, with the Phantoms leading 3-1. The shots were 21-20 Phantoms.
Three minutes into the third period, Linus Sandin (7) set up a screen, sending the puck to Wyatte Wylie’s (2) way before shooting the puck on the left side past Grosenick got the goal back 4-1. Morgan Frost (13) earned the secondary assists.
The Phantoms and Bruins went back and forth with chances. Finally, at 7:59, the Phantoms went on their third power-play of the game thanks to a slashing call against Jack Studnicka.
On the power-play, Isaac Ratcliffe (7) set up Hayden Hodgson (11) for a slapshot goal to the right circle that made it 5-1 with 10:17 left in the game.
As time was winding down, the Bruins were aggressively attacking the Phantoms. This time, the Phantoms’ defense was ready to stop any momentum they tried to generate. Even if the Bruins got off a shot, Sandstrom made the saves. The Phantoms beat the Bruins 5-1.
The Phantoms were disciplined and only committed one penalty in the game. Lehigh Valley finished the night with 35 shots, 1/3 on the power-play, and Felix Sandstrom made 25 of 26 saves. It was great to have the team back together and it showed with passing, shots taken, and aggressive play that resulted in the win.
The Phantoms are back on the road today at 5:05 pm against the Hartford Wolf Pack from the XL Center.
