By Michael Heilman

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms returned to the PPL Center Wednesday night to take on the Syracuse Crunch. Before the game, the Flyers made some moves sending forward Joel Farabee and Reading Royals goaltender Felix Sandstrom to the Phantoms while the Flyers brought up goaltender Alex Lyon in place of the injured Carter Hart.

Three minutes and fifteen seconds into the first period, the Phantoms struck first as Maksim Sushko (7) with assists from Eric Knodel (1) and Kyle Criscuolo (4), put the Phantoms in the lead 1-0. Three minutes later, the Crunch tied the game 1-1 on a power-play goal by Ross Colton (8) with assists from Ben Thomas (9) and Cory Conacher (19). The Phantoms regained the lead 2-1 on a goal from Morgan Frost (7) with assists from Pascal Laberge (3) and Chris Bigras (7). Less than ten seconds later, the Crunch once again tied the game 2-2 as Alex Barre-Boulet (16) scored with assists from Boris Katchouk (8) and Danick Martel (11). A highly contested first period with the game tied 2-2 as the first period ended.

Syracuse did not waste time fifty-one seconds into the first period as Danick Martel (13) put the Crunch in the lead 3-2 with assists from Taylor Raddysh (12) and Ben Thomas (10). The Phantoms went on the power play halfway through the second period when a goaltender interference call against Crunch right-winger Mathieu Joseph. The Phantoms were unable to score on the power play. With under two minutes left, Phantoms left-winger Max Willman (1) scored his first goal of the season to tie the game 3-3. Neither team was backing down as the game remained tied 3-3 at the end of the second period.

Two minutes and forty-two seconds into the third period, a double minor and high sticking call against Crunch center Otto Somppi put the Phantoms on a four-minute power play. Less than a minute later on the power play, Morgan Frost weaved past several Crunch defenders and delivered a beautiful shot under the legs of Crunch goalie Spencer Martin to give the Phantoms a 4-3 lead with assists from Eric Knodel (2) and Jean Francois-Berube (2).

The Phantoms went on another power play after a cross-checking call against Crunch center Ross Colton. Fifty-two seconds later, the Phantoms extended their lead to 5-3 on a goal by Greg Carey (10) with assists from Cal O’Reilly (14) and Chris Bigras (8). An interference call against Phantoms forward Maksim Sushko put Syracuse on the power play. The Crunch cut the Phantoms lead to one 5-4 on a goal by Cory Conacher (14) with assists from Alex Barre-Boulet (19) and Ross Colton (18).

The Crunch did not make things easy for the Phantoms as they pulled goaltender Spencer Martin for the extra attacker. The Phantoms defense stepped up when they needed to and prevented the Crunch from tying the game. The Phantoms won a hard-fought 5-4 win over the Syracuse Crunch.

The Phantoms did a compelling job tonight with all the changes made before the game. The Phantoms had a total of thirty-three shots, and the Crunch had twenty-seven. The Phantoms were two for seven on the power play while the Crunch were two for four. Phantoms goalie Jean Francois-Berube was twenty-three of twenty-seven saves allowing four goals, and Crunch goalie Spencer Martin was twenty-eight of thirty-three saves allowing five goals.

The three stars of the game were Crunch left-winger Danick Martel with one goal and one assist, Phantoms left-winger Max Willman with a goal, and Phantoms forward Morgan Frost with two goals.

The Phantoms will have the day off tomorrow before returning to the PPL Center Friday night against the Binghamton Devils at 7:05 pm.

(total for the year)