LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa – The PPL Center was filled to capacity for the fifth straight time on Saturday night, but unfortunately the Phantoms would lose their fifth straight as well. The record setting crowd of 9,046 saw a valiant effort put forth from their home team, but Lehigh Valley remained snake bitten.
For the second straight night, the first period would see no goals scored but a half decent amount of penalties dished out. Hartford controlled the play in the first and 
outshot the Phantoms 11 to 6 in the frame. Those penalties would come back to back each time they were called, with both teams having about a total half a minute on the power play. Joe RehKamp would sit for Lehigh Valley at the 4:43 mark for boarding, and then it would be evened up as Ryan Graves would be guilty of a slash at 5:10. The highlight of the period would come from the fists of Sam Morin, who after leveling Ryan Bourque of Hartford, would be pressured into a fight by Kodie Curran. Morin would get the better of Curran, but the refs thought the Hartford defenseman was doing more than just sticking up for a team mate and slapped him with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to boot. This Phantoms power play would last all of 17 seconds, as Colin McDonald would get the gate for a hook at 17:21. The teams would go into the locker room scoreless after one.
Unlike Friday night vs the Bears, the Phantoms would strike first on Saturday on a nice pass from the circle. Chris Conner would be the benefactor of the play, and the Phantoms would go up 1-0 about half way through the period. The power play for Lehigh Valley would get a chance to extend the lead as Tyler Brown went off for a hook at the 12:11 mark, but they could not solve Wolf Pack goalie Magnus Hellberg who looked like a brick wall in net after giving up Conners goal. A rush after the penalty expired would allow Hartford a shot at tying the game, and they would not miss their opportunity. A shot pass from the top of the near circle from Chris McCarthy would find the stick of Mat Bodie in front of the net. Bodie would move ever so slightly and beat Anthony Stolarz on the five hole to tie the game and set up a very important third for both teams.
A penalty to Sam Morin to start the third would prove costly to the Phantoms, as Hartfords power play would connect to give them the lead. Morin would sit for a boarding minor at the 1:05 mark, and the Wolf Pack would need just under a minute of man advantage time to score. A howling shot off the stick of Graves would smack Stolarz in the mask a pop right to Adam Tambellini who would hit the cage behind the Phantoms net minder before he could recover. Despite another power play chance of their own that generated some chances itself, the Phantoms would not be able to mount a comeback to tie the game. Hellberg would stop all but one of the 27 shots he faced on the night, and hand the Phantoms their fifth straight loss.
Hot goalies have been standing in Lehigh Valleys way for about a week now, with Justin Peters last night and Hellberg tonight. Tomorrow, they run into another in Bridgeport with either Chris Gibson(who beat Lehigh Valley in their last meeting) or Parker Milner standing in their way. The Phantoms lost all three games in their three-in-three last weekend, and are in jeopardy of doing the same this weekend if they cant get anything going tomorrow afternoon in Bridgeport.
You must be logged in to post a comment.