The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (15-13-5-1) returned home to the PPL Center on Friday night to start a two-game homestand against the Hartford Wolf Pack (18-9-5) for the final time of the season. The Phantoms were 1-3-1 against Hartford this season.
Before the game, there was one transaction report as defenseman Mason Millman was re-assigned to the Phantoms on Friday from the Reading Royals (ECHL).
The starting lineup featured Olle Lycksell, Tanner Laczynski, and Samu Tuomaala on the first line. Garrett Wilson, Elliot Desnoyers, and Cooper Marody were on the second line. J.R. Avon, Rhett Gardner, and Wade Allison were on the third line, and Jordy Bellerive, Jacob Gaucher, and Adam Brooks were on the fourth line.
On defense, Emil Andrae and Ronnie Attard were on the first line. Victor Mete and Ethan Samson were on the second line, and Adam Ginning was paired up with Mason Millman on the third line.
Felix Sandstrom (5-3-2, 3.27 GAA, .879 SV%) started in goal for the Phantoms. The scratches for the game included Helge Grans, Adam Karashik, Louie Belpedio, Evan Polei, Brendan Furry, and Zayde Wisdom.
Lehigh Valley did not get off to a bad start in the first period. There were a ton of whistles and the defense gave up five shots on goal in the first five minutes of the game. After a bad start, Lehigh Valley’s offense started to click and Hartford had one shot on goal for the remainder of the first period.
At 7:32, Harford’s Brett Berard hooked Ethan Samson which put the Phantoms on their first power play of the game. Lehigh Valley had one shot on goal and 0 for 1 on the power play. However, the offense kept coming. Garrett Wilson had a couple of chances to score along with J.R. Avon, Samu Tuomaala, and Olle Lycksell also had chances to score but to no prevail.
At 14:47, Lehigh Valley’s Ronnie Attard (12) kept the puck in the Wolf Pack’s zone. He spun around before shooting it which was tipped in through the five-hole by Olle Lycksell (13) for a 1-0 lead with 5:13 left of the first period.
Then at 18:26, Hartford’s Connor Mackey went to the penalty box for a delay of game when the puck went over the glass and out of play with no one touching it. Lehigh Valley took advantage.
At 19:32, Cooper Marody (22) made a pass to Tanner Laczynski (16) inside the Wolf Pack zone before Laczynski made a nice backhand pass to Olle Lycksell (14), who rifled the puck over the right pad of Louis Domingue and into the net for a 2-0 lead with 28 seconds left of the first period. Lehigh Valley had 14 shots on goal and led 2-0 after one period of play.
Hartford had three shots on goal in the first two minutes to begin the second period. At 4:39, Hartford moved the puck well inside the Phantoms’ zone. Brennan Othmann (15) made a pass to Mac Hollowell (26) before Hollowell fired it missing wide of the net.
Next, Brandon Scanlin (5) rebounded the puck before passing it back to Hollowell. Then, Hollowell passed the puck back to Scanlin, who cut across the ice before shooting it over Sandstrom’s left pad and into the net cutting Lehigh Valley’s lead down to 2-1 with 15:21 left.
Hartford had seven shots on goal. For the rest of the second period, the teams had scuffles, a prelude to more fireworks. Lehigh Valley’s Adam Ginning (boarding) and Ethan Samson (slashing) went to the penalty box which led to Hartford retaliating.
At 6:57, Hartford’s Mac Hollowell cross-checked Email Andrae hard into the boards which led to Ronnie Attard going after him but the refs held him back. Then at 10:54, Matt Rempe elbowed Victor Mete near the boards with Adam Ginning going after him, and the two traded punches before being sent to the penalty box.
The big scuffle happened at 16:08 when Hartford goaltender Louie Domingue gave a cheap shot to Garrett Wilson. Wilson hit Domingue with the stick, followed by Domingue hitting Wilson and the two started fighting. Both players were kicked out of the game for fighting and a game misconduct.
Lehigh Valley’s offense had seven shots on goal including a close one by Wade Allison while Hartford had 11 shots on goal but the Phantoms maintained a 2-1 lead after two periods of play.
At 2:41 of the third period, Lehigh Valley’s Emil Andrae (14) got the puck to Adam Brooks (2) to start a rush toward the Wolf Pack’s zone. Brooks made a long shot in the neutral zone where the puck bounced off the pads of Dylan Garand.
However, Lehigh Valley’s Jacob Gaucher (3) rushed to get the rebound before zipping the puck over the left pad of Garand and into the net for a 3-1 lead with 17:19 left of the third period.
With 9:24 left in the game, Lehigh Valley’s Wade Allison injured his ankle after taking a big hit by Matthew Robertson in the corner. Allison had trouble getting up before hobbling back to the locker room and did not return for the rest of the game.
At 12:07, Lehigh Valley threatened to add another goal. The Phantoms moved the puck well inside the Wolf Pack zone with Tanner Laczynski (17) sending the puck to Samu Tuomaala (18). Next, Tuomaala passed the puck to Victor Mete (1). Then, Mete fired the shot wide left but the puck bounced behind Dylan Garand before Garand kicked into the net and the Phantoms lead grew to 4-1 with 7:53 left in the game. It was Mete’s first goal AHL goal in five years. Lehigh Valley’s offense had 11 shots on goal and went on to beat the Wolf Pack by the final score of 4-1. They finish the season series against Hartford with a record of 2-3-1.
Lehigh Valley had 33 shots on goal, committed three penalties, went 1 for 4 on the power play, and Felix Sandstrom played a great game on his birthday making 30 saves off 31 shots.
The Phantoms conclude the two-game homestand on Saturday against the Hershey Bears at 7:05 pm on AHL.TV. Purchase Phantoms tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
