The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (22-27-7-4) wrapped up a six-game road trip Saturday night in Belleville, Canada, against the Senators (30-24-3). This was the second meeting between these two teams.
Coming into this game, the Phantoms trailed the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by ten points for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 17 games left in the regular season. The Phantoms and the Penguins play each other three more times this season.
However, they have to get hot for the Phantoms to get into the playoffs. Currently, they are on a two-game losing streak.
It’s hard for the Phantoms to get hot when they’ve lost some of their firepower from the recent trades and callups. Now is the time for the current Phantoms players to step up and make a statement.
The good news the Phantoms got before the game were the return of Egor Zamula, Nick Lappin, and Ryan MacKinnon to the lineup. At the same time, Garrett McFadden, Ryan Fitzgerald, and Maksim Sushko were scratched.
Also scratched for the game were Linus Hogberg, Sam Ersson, Kirill Ustimenko, and Jackson Cates. Pat Nagle (7-3-3-1) started in goal with Felix Sandstrom as the backup. Meanwhile, Mads Sogarrd (15-13-1) was in goal for the Senators.
Five minutes and four seconds into the first period, Linus Sandin got drilled against the boards by Jonathan Aspirot and immediately headed to the bench holding his shoulder. He would head to the locker room a short time later and did not return to the game.
Meanwhile, the Phantoms were firing on all cylinders. With 8:11 left, Senators defenseman Colby Williams cross-checked Brennan Saulnier, which put the Phantoms on their first power-play.
The Phantoms capitalized with 6:42 left as Tanner Laczynski (5) took a shot from the right side that bounced off goalie Mads Sogaard.
The puck bounced around before Garrett Wilson (13) retrieved it and pushed the puck past Sogaard’s left side and into the net for a 1-0 lead. Egor Zamula (22) earned the secondary assist.
Late in the first period, Isaac Ratcliffe got caught with a cross-check from behind on Cole Reinhardt, leading to a Senators power-play. Luckily, the Phantoms killed the power-play and were up 1-0 after one period. The Phantoms dominated the first period and led the shots 20-10.
Three minutes and thirty-seven seconds into the second period, the Phantoms knocked on the Senators’ door. Ryan MacKinnon (1) took a shot that hit the right pad of Sogaard. Then, Nick Lappin (4) came right behind MacKinnon and fired the puck past Sogaard’s right side and into the net for the 2-0 lead. Wyatte Wylie (13) earned the secondary assist.
With 13:46 left, Senators forward Jake Lucchini was on the breakaway, and Wyatte Wylie hooked him for a penalty. The Phantoms got lucky as that should’ve been a penalty shot for Lucchini. Two seconds later, off the faceoff, Garrett Wilson was called for a delay of game. It was a bad call by the referees that now made it a 5-3 advantage for the Senators.
Three seconds after the Senators’ power-play expired, Jake Lucchini, from behind the net, made a pass from the left side to Parker Kelly (5). Kelly pushed the puck past Nagle’s right side into the net that cut the Phantoms lead 2-1.
With 2:07 left, Adam Clendening roughed up Scott Sabourin from behind, leading to another Senators power-play. Zach Senyshyn (13) was behind Pat Nagle’s net during the power-play.
He made a quick pass to Jake Lucchini (17), who slapshot the puck to the top right corner and into the net that tied the game 2-2 with 3:56 left. The Phantoms had a late charge as time expired. The game remained tied 2-2 after two periods with the shots 28-23 Phantoms.
There were a lot of penalties in the second period. However, the Phantoms did a good job killing three of the four power-plays. Adam Clendening needs to learn to pick his battles, so he does not give the other team an advantage.
Five minutes and twenty-five seconds into the third period, Pat Nagle left his net to secure the puck. However, he got tangled up with Wyatte Wylie, and the Senators couldn’t capitalize with an empty net in front of them. Nevertheless, Nagle made several nice saves throughout the third period, and there was a lot of back-and-forth action.
Late in the third period, Logan Day missed a shot wide left. The Phantoms were missing a lot of shots wide since the first period. No one scored in the third period, and the game went to overtime tied 2-2. The shots were 34-31 Senators.
In overtime, Brennan Menell was taken down by Zac Leslie, putting the Phantoms on the power-play. However, they were unable to take advantage.
With 3:02 left, Wade Allison had a chance to end the game, but Sogaard stopped it. No one scored in overtime, and the game went to a shootout.
In the fifth round, Senators forward Cole Reinhardt scored. Phantoms forward Brennan Menell needed to score to keep the game going but missed the shot, and the Senators defeated the Phantoms 3-2. However, the Phantoms earned a point in the standings.
The Phantoms finished the night with 33 shots. They had only 13 shots in the last two periods. They were also 1/4 on the power-play, and Pat Nagle made 34 of 36 saves.
The Phantoms return to the PPL Center next Friday, April 1st, against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at 7:05 pm. Tickets for the game can be purchased courtesy of our friends at StubHub.
