ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Springfield Thunderbirds (2-9-1-1) could not withstand an offensive blitz from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (9-3-0-1) in a 7-3 defeat on Friday night inside PPL Center.
For two teams that have each allowed more than 30 shots per game, the opening half of the first period started innocently enough. Matt Luff had the best early chance to break the scoreless game when he rang a rising forehander off the crossbar in the opening minutes after beating Aleksei Kolosov over the shoulder.
The Phantoms’ team speed paid off for the game’s ultimate first tally at 10:12 when Alexis Gendron accelerated past the defense, accepted a feed from Devin Kaplan, and slid a forehander under the legs of Vadim Zherenko to give Lehigh Valley the 1-0 jump.
Springfield’s first power play of the evening provided the stage for a response at 14:45 as veteran Chris Wagner uncorked a well-placed one-timer from the right slot that escaped Kolosov’s blocker side, evening the score, 1-1. Juraj Pekarcik and Milan Lucic picked up the assists, with Lucic recording his first point as a T-Bird on the goal, while Wagner added his first goal and point as a T-Bird.
The tie score only lasted for 61 seconds, though, as Anthony Richard answered back for Lehigh Valley after Zherenko dove post-to-post to keep a Carl Grundstrom bid from crossing the goal line. Richard cleaned up the loose as he entered the low slot area, and the go-ahead goal stood as the 2-1 game carried into the middle frame.
Lehigh Valley threatened to blow the game open early in the second when Zayde Wisdom capitalized on a Springfield turnover to beat Zherenko from the left side at 3:29 to extend the Phantom lead to 3-1.
However, the T-Birds showed some bite back at 6:07 to get back within one. With the Phantoms in the midst of a delayed penalty, Springfield got Zherenko to the bench and, with six attackers on the ice, Logan Mailloux slipped into an open space on the left side and one-timed a Luff pass through Kolosov to make it a 3-2 game on the blueliner’s first goal with Springfield.
25 seconds later, the T-Birds’ number 25 joined the first-goal party as Sam Stange let a point wrister fly through traffic, squeezing through Kolosov and tying the score, 3-3, at 6:32.
With the T-Birds now thinking about jumping to the lead, they pushed the tempo in the offensive end, but a good defensive poke check sent Lane Pederson alone on a breakaway toward Zherenko. The T-Birds’ backstop denied Pederson, but Alex Bump arrived at the blue paint to cash in the rebound at 7:50, restoring the Lehigh Valley lead, 4-3.
Both teams’ defenses settled down to stop the chaotic four-goal, 4:21 stretch of play, and Lehigh Valley entered the second intermission just as they did after 20 minutes, nursing a one-goal advantage.
Lehigh Valley’s top line continued inflicting harm in the third, as a misfired shot from Bump turned into a tap-in goal for Denver Barkey at 4:15 of the third to make it 5-3. Grundstrom joined the scoring party at 10:20 to make it a 6-3 score, and Barkey added one more from Bump at 11:04 for good measure.
The T-Birds continue their Pennsylvania weekend on Saturday with a 6:05 p.m. tangle with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins inside Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.
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