The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (9-7-4) continued their three-game road trip on Saturday by returning to the XL Center against the Hartford Wolf Pack (14-4-2) 24 hours after getting crushed 7-2 on Friday night.
The starting lineup featured Olle Lycksell, Tanner Laczynski, and Samu Tuomaala on the first line. Garrett Wilson, Elliot Desnoyers, and Wade Allison were on the second line. J.R. Avon, Brenden Furry, and Cooper Marody were on the third line, and Alexis Gendron, Jacob Gaucher, and Jordy Bellerive were on the fourth line.
On defense, Emil Andrae and Helge Grans were on the first line. Victor Mete and Ronnie Attard were on the second line, and Adam Ginning was paired up with Mason Millman on the third line.
Felix Sandstrom (1-0-1, 3.82 GAA, .820 SV%) started in goal for the Phantoms. The scratches for the game were Adam Karashik, Ethan Samson, Evan Polei, Zayde Wisdom, Rhett Gardner, and Adam Brooks.
At 8:51 in the first period, Harford’s Riley Nash tripped Cooper Marody sending the Phantoms on their second power play of the game. The Phantoms did not score on their first power play but converted on the second try.
Inside the Wolf Pack’s zone, Ronnie Attard (5) took a shot that hit the skate of Garrett Wilson (8). The puck went in the direction of Wade Allison (3), who chipped it over the left pad of Dylan Garand and into the net for a power play goal. Lehigh Valley led 1-0 with 9:24 left of the first period.
At 13:43, Lehigh Valley struck again. Mason Millman (3) passed the puck to Tanner Laczynski (12). Laczynski skated to center point before making a great pass to Helge Grans (1). Hartford’s Brennan Othmann attempted a diving block but Grans got the puck using his speed. Then, Grans rifled the puck over the left shoulder of Dylan Garand and into the net for a 2-0 lead with 6:17 left of the first period.
For the rest of the first period, the two teams traded punches. At 17:36, Garrett Wilson, and Helge Grans fought Hartford’s Brennan Othmann and Mac Hollowell respectfully. Later at 18:31, Cooper Marody fought Anton Blidh and both players were given a 10-minute game misconduct and roughing penalties.
The Phantoms did a good job with puck movement. They also did a nice job staying aggressive, forcing turnovers, and covering their guys. Lehigh Valley had 11 shots on goal and led 2-0 after one period of play. Goaltender Felix Sandstrom stopped 14 shots by Hartford.
A minute and four seconds into the second period, Lehigh Valley’s Ronnie Attard was called for hooking Karl Henriksson. It was a bad call as Attard barely got Henriksson. Nine seconds later off the faceoff inside the Phantoms’ zone, Alex Belzile (13) made a pass to Nikolas Brouillard (10). Then, Brouillard found Brennan Othmann (7) wide open. He fired the puck through the five-hole and into the net, cutting Lehigh Valley’s lead down to 2-1 with 18:47 left.
Twenty-four seconds later, Hartford tied the game. Off the faceoff inside the Phantoms’ zone, Brandon Scanlin (5) made a pass to Matej Pekar (1). Then, Pekar got the puck to Matt Rempe (3), who fired the puck that banked off Sandstrom’s left pad and rolled into the net, tying the game 2-2 with 18:23 left of the second period.
Late in the second period, Hartford moved the puck well when Anton Blidh (3) found Karl Henriksson (3). Hendrikson passed the puck to Mac Hollowell (18), who took a shot that Hendriksson tipped over Sandstrom’s left shoulder and into the net for a 3-2 lead with 3:08 left.
Lehigh Valley had 12 shots on goal, including close calls by Emil Andrae and Tanner Laczynski. The Phantoms’ defense did not do a good job covering Hartford. They allowed 14 shots on goal and trailed 3-2 after two periods of play.
Lehigh Valley had five shots in the first four minutes of the third period. At 5:29, Lehigh Valley’s defense was caught sleeping when Hartford’s Brett Berard (5) dangled around several players. His first shot hit Adam Ginning’s stick but he recovered it and fired it past Sandstrom’s left skate and into the net for a 4-2 lead. Alex Belzile (14) and Bobby Trivigno (2) assisted Berard’s goal.
Twenty-five seconds later, Lehigh Valley’s offense responded when Jacob Gaucher (1) fought a Hartford player to gain control of the puck before sending it to Emil Andrae (5). Andrae made a cross-ice pass to Jordy Bellerive (1), who rifled it past the left skate of Dylan Garand and into the net cutting Hartford’s lead to 4-3 with 13:58 left.
Later in the third period, Lehigh Valley tied the game. Shortly after the faceoff, Elliot Desnoyers got control of the puck before passing it to Wade Allison (4). Allison made a pass to Ronnie Attard (6) before Attard pelted the puck which was tipped in through the five-hole by Garrett Wilson (5) and into the net, tying the game 4-4 with 3:59 left.
Late in the third period, Hartford’s Connor Mackey elbowed Elliot Desnoyers on the head and he was down for several minutes. As a result, the Phantoms went on the power play. In the final seconds, Cooper Marody nearly ended the game but Hartford goaltender Dylan Garand made a great save as time expired, sending the game to overtime. The Phantoms had 30 seconds of power play time to begin overtime.
Lehigh Valley were unable to score in overtime. Three minutes and fifty-two seconds into overtime, Mac Hollowell (19) passed the puck to Nikolas Brouillard (11). Hartford moved the puck well when Brouillard found Brennan Othmann (8) wide-open. He fired the puck through the five-hole and into the net for the game-winning goal.
Lehigh Valley lost in overtime to the Wolf Pack by the final score of 5-4. Lehigh Valley had 36 shots on goal, committed three penalties for 28 minutes, went 1 for 5 on the power play, and Felix Sandstrom made 34 saves off 39 shots.
The Phantoms wrap up the road on Sunday against the Providence Bruins at 3:05 pm on AHL.TV. Purchase Phantoms tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
