The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (26-21-6) concluded a four-game road trip on Friday night. They took on the Syracuse Crunch (27-19-7) from the Upstate Medical University Arena. The Phantoms came into this game tied for fourth place with the Springfield Thunderbirds.
This was the second meeting between these teams with Syracuse winning the first game back on January 14th. Since the Phantoms’ last game, they said goodbye to Isaac Ratcliffe, who was dealt to the Nashville Predators. Meanwhile, they got Olle Lycksell and Elliot Desnoyers back from the Flyers.
Cal O’Reilly, Ryan Fitzgerald, Jordy Bellerive, and Troy Grosenick were out for this game, and Sam Ersson (16-11-2, 2.65 GAA, .909 SV%) started in goal with Nolan Maier backing him up.
The Phantoms got off to a strong start with 16 shots in the first period. However, they had two chances on the power play to get on the board and could not capitalize. They did a good job disrupting plays and using their sticks to create turnovers. Neither defense protected their goalies, but both were making some terrific saves that kept the game scoreless.
Late in the first period, Syracuse struck first when Jack Thompson (9) took a shot that was blocked by Bobby Brink and the puck went into the direction of Ilya Usau (10). Usau retrieved the puck and made a shot that was redirected by Cole Koepke (5) past Ersson’s left skate and into the net. It was 1-0 Syracuse with 1:45 left.
On the replay, the goal should’ve gone to Usau as the puck went off Ronnie Attard’s stick and past Ersson’s left skate and into the net. Koepke never touched the puck but still got credit for the goal. The Crunch had six shots in the first period and the Phantoms trailed 1-0 after one period.
The Crunch extended their lead seven minutes and fifty-four seconds into the second period. Lucas Edmonds (8) had the puck as Syracuse was getting set up for a shot opportunity. Edmonds passed the puck to Declan Carlile (12), who then passed it to Ryan Jones (3). Jones skated from the left dot and riffled it over Ersson’s glove and into the net with 12:06 left.
It was now 2-0 Crunch. Syracuse dominated the second period with 11 shots on goal. Five minutes and thirty-eight seconds later, the Crunch added another goal. Once again, the Crunch was inside the Phantoms’ zone getting set up for a shooting chance led by Gabriel Fortier (13). Fortier found Alex Barré-Boulet (47) before he made a pass to Felix Robert (13). Robert did a good job staying patient and pelted the puck from the right dot off the iron and into the net. It was now 3-0 with 7:28 left.
In a humorous moment, two referees collided as the Crunch had the puck heading toward the Phantoms’ zone. Kevin Connauton back-skated and did not see the refs fall behind him and went down. The whistle was blown to check on the two officials and they were able to continue the game laughing at the incident.
It wasn’t a laughing matter for the Phantoms as they had four shots in the second period down 3-0 to the Crunch after two periods. A positive takeaway from the two periods was the Phantoms stayed out of the penalty box.
In the third period, Garrett committed two roughing penalties and one of them led to a goal. That goal came three minutes and fifty-six seconds in when Trevor Carrick’s (22) shot went off of Ersson. Then, Gage Goncalves (28) got the puck before faking a shot and passed it to Felix Robert (14) as Robert buried the shot under Ersson’s right pad and into the net for a power play goal. It was now 4-0 Crunch with 16:04 left.
Two minutes and forty-three seconds later, the Phantoms got on the board. Tyson Foerster (19) chased the puck down inside the Crunch’s zone. Two Syracuse players skated toward him and Foerster found an all-alone Kevin Connauton (7). Connauton’s shot was tipped in by Artem Anisimov (15) over the glove of Max Lagace and into the net. It was now 4-1 Crunch with 14:21 left.
There were three scuffles between the two teams in the third period. The Phantoms had two power-play chances and pulled Sam Ersson several times to try and get back into the game but could not do it. The Phantoms lost to the Crunch by the final score of 4-1. They end the four-game road trip 1-2-1 and fall to fifth place in the Atlantic Division.
The Phantoms finished the night with 36 shots, 0-4 on the power play, and Sam Ersson made 26 saves. On the other side, the Crunch had 30 shots, 1-1 on the power play, and Max Lagace made 34 saves.
The Phantoms return to the PPL Center on Saturday to start a two-game homestand. They take on the first-place Toronto Marlies at 7:05 pm on AHL.TV. Tickets for the game are available on StubHub.
