The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (4-4-1) returned to the PPL Center on Friday night against the Hartford Wolf (5-2-1) for the third time this season, two of them at home.
Since the Phantoms’ last game on Wednesday, more transactions took place on Thursday. First, with the Flyers losing Carter Hart due to a mid-body injury, they recalled goaltender Cal Peterson to backup Sam Ersson.
In addition, the Flyers loaned defenseman Victor Mete to Lehigh Valley. Mete was not in the lineup. Next, the Phantoms recalled goaltender Parker Gahagen and defenseman Darren Brady from the Reading Royals.
With the roster changes, the lineup was tweaked from Wednesday night. The first and second lines remained untouched with Olle Lycksell, Tanner Laczynski, and Cooper Marody on the first line, followed by Garrett Wilson, Elliot Desnoyers, and Samu Tuomaala on the second line.
On the third line, J.R. Avon and Rhett Gardner were paired up with Wade Allison, and the fourth line featured Evan Polei, Brendan Furry, and Jordy Bellerive.
On defense, Adam Ginning and Ethan Samson were on the first line, Mason Millman and Helge Grans on the second line, and Will Zmolek and Darren Brady on the third line. Felix Sandstrom (0-0-1, 3.90 GAA, .857 SV%) made his second start for the Phantoms.
The scratches for the game were Adam Karashik, Emil Andrae, Ronnie Attard, Zayden Wisdom, Adam Brooks, Alexis Gendron, Jacob Gaucher, and Victor Mete.
In the first period, the Phantoms had numerous chances to score but were whiffling on some of the shots. They had eight shots on goal in the first period. At 6:14, Evan Polei and Matt Rempe dropped the gloves and both men got in several good punches before the refs pulled them apart.
The Phantoms did a good job attacking the zone, creating turnovers, and did a decent job with man-to-man coverage. However, the Phantoms had problems turning the puck over and it cost them.
At 7:48, Wade Allison had the puck leading the rush into the Wolf Pack’s zone. He jammed on the brakes before missing a pass to Darren Brady. Hartford’s Brennan Othmann (5) was there for the turnover. He quickly got the puck to Alex Belzile (6) which started a 2-1 odd-man rush with Ben Harpur (1). Lehigh Valley defenseman Will Zmolek chased down Alex Belzile but Belzile quickly passed the puck to Harpur, who chipped the puck over Sandstrom’s left pad and into the net. It was 1-0 Hartford with 12:10 left of the first period.
For the rest of the first period, the two teams chirped a lot but no punches were thrown. The game remained tied 1-1 and Felix Sandstrom made six saves off seven shots. The Phantoms committed one penalty in the first period. Before the second period started, Parker Gahagen replaced Felix Sandstrom, who was not on the Phantoms bench. It was later confirmed by Phantoms GM Alyn McCauley that Sandstrom left the game with an upper-body injury.
At 4:09 of the second period, the Phantoms got on the board. Garrett Wilson (5) led the charge inside the Wolf Pack’s zone. He skated around the goal net before making a pass to Mason Millman (1). Millman took a shot from the left circle in which Elliot Desnoyers (2) tipped it in over Dylan Garand’s glove and into the net. The game was tied 1-1 with 15:51 left of the second period.
Later in the second period, the Phantoms went on their first power play of the game on an interference call against Mac Hollowell. It took a minute and six seconds for Lehigh Valley to take the lead. Tanner Laczynski (8) was deep inside Lehigh Valley’s zone. He made a long pass to Samu Tuomaala (4) near the right boards.
Tuomaala had a Wolf Pack player on him with Olle Lycksell (8) next to him. Tuomaala made a nice pass to Lycksell, who fired the puck over Dylan Garand’s left pad and into the net for a 2-1 lead with 9:11 left of the second period. It was Lycksell’s team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Shortly after the goal, Lehigh Valley added another one at 11:31. Mason Millman (2) forced a turnover before passing the puck to Samu Tuomaala (5). Tuomaala led the charge into the Wolf Pack’s zone before making a pass to J.R. Avon (2), who made a nice backhand shot past Garand’s left skate and into the net for a 3-1 lead.
Thirty-two seconds later, Hartford’s Brett Berard (3) had the puck inside their zone. He made a pass to Mac Hollowell (8), who then made a long pass to Matt Rempe (1). Rempe turned on the jets before shooting the puck through the five-hole and into the net. It was now 3-2 Phantoms with 8:08 left of the second period. The two teams combined to score three goals in 62 seconds.
With 11 seconds left of the second period, Ethan Samson went to the penalty box for slashing. The Wolf Pack had 1:50 left of power play time to begin the third period. The Phantoms had seven shots on goal in the second period and led 3-2 with one period left to play.
A minute and forty seconds into the third period, Hartford’s Brett Berard (4) made a cross-ice pass to Jake Leschyshyn (1), who sniped the puck through the five-hole and into the net for a power-play goal which tied the game 3-3. Then, at 4:17, Hartford took the lead off the faceoff in the neutral zone. Mac Hollowell (9) won the faceoff and Blake Hillman (1) retrieved it. Hillman skated toward the Phantoms’ zone before making a cross-ice pass to Ryder Korczak (1). Korczak made a slapshot from the right circle over Parker Gahagen’s glove and into the net for a 4-3 lead with 15:43 left in the game.
Not long after the goal, the Phantoms tied the game at 6:46 when Will Zmolek (2) took a shot from the left circle inside the Wolf Pack’s zone where Rhett Gardner (2) deflected it over the glove of Dylan Garand. The game was tied 4-4 and Darren Brady (1) picked up the secondary assists. The Phantoms had four shots on goal in the third period and the game went to overtime tied 4-4.
A minute and nine seconds into overtime, Samu Tuomaala held the puck while the Phantoms changed players. He passed the puck to Elliot Desnoyers (4). Desnoyers made a nice pass to Samu Tuomaala (2), who shot the puck over Dylan Garand’s right pad and into the net which gave the Phantoms a 5-4 win over the Wolf Pack. Adam Ginning (3) was credited with the secondary assist.
The Phantoms had 21 shots on goal, committed four penalties, went 1 for 2 on the power play, and Parker Gahagen made 23 saves off 26 shots. The Phantoms hit the road on Saturday against the Springfield Thunderbirds at 7:05 pm on AHL.TV. Purchase Phantoms tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
