By Michael Heilman

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms finished up their three-game road trip Saturday night against the Syracuse Crunch. Scratches for tonight’s game were James de Haas, Tyler Wotherspoon, Max Willman, Gerry Fitzgerald, TJ Brennan, and Chris Stewart. Mark Friedman returned to the Phantoms, and Kirill Ustimenko got the start at goal after being promoted from the Reading Royals.

The Phantoms went on the power-play five minutes and seventeen seconds into the first period on an interference call against Crunch defenseman Luke Witkowski. The Phantoms could not take advantage of the five on four power-play, and the game remained scoreless 0-0. Five minutes and thirty-three seconds later, the Crunch jumped to a 1-0 lead as Mathieu Joseph (12) made a backhand pass to Alex Barre-Boulet (23) to bury the shot for the goal. Mathieu Joseph and Ross Colton (27) assisted Boulet’s goal.

The Phantoms committed two penalties in the first period but did not allow the Crunch to do any damage as Syracuse was up 1-0 at the end of the first period. The shots were twenty to nine for the Crunch. The Phantoms needed to do a better job creating shot opportunities and keeping the puck in the Crunch’s zone.

While there were no goals scored in the second period, the Phantoms continued to shoot themselves in the foot committing four penalties. The Phantoms penalty-killing unit once again did their job to prevent the Crunch from doing damage. The Phantoms had an opportunity to tie the game when a slashing call was made against Luke Witkowski which sent the Phantoms to the power-play, but they couldn’t do anything with it. The game remained 1-0 Crunch as the second period ended. The shots were eight to six for the Crunch.

Syracuse extended their lead 2-0 with nine minutes and twenty-seven seconds left in the third period when Ross Colton (28) made his way to Kirill Ustimenko, who poked the puck out of Colton’s stick only for Dominik Masin (2) to follow through with the shot that went under the glove of Ustimenko for the goal. Ross Colton and Luke Witkowski, (4) assisted Masin’s goal.

Breaking up that shutout bid. pic.twitter.com/BTOzbHe1dk — LehighValleyPhantoms (@LVPhantoms) February 23, 2020

The Phantoms pulled Ustimenko for the extra attacker and were able to cut the Crunch’s lead to one 2-1 when Shayne Gostisbehere (1) initially shot the puck that hit a Crunch player, Chris Bigras (12) who recovered the shot and took a shot himself before Carsen Twarynski (5) finished the play for the goal. Ustimenko was pulled one more time, but time ran out as the Syracuse Crunch defeated the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 2-1.

While the Phantoms fought hard in the third period, they did not help Ustimenko in this game. The shots were thirty-eight to twenty-four for the Crunch. The Phantoms were zero for two on the power-play but gave up seven penalties. Luckily, the Phantom’s power-play unit killed off all seven penalties as this game could’ve been a lot worse.

Phantoms goalie Kirill Ustimenko kept the Phantoms in the game finishing the night thirty-six of thirty-eight saves allowing two goals while Crunch goalie Spencer Martin almost had a shutout going twenty-three of twenty-four saves allowing one goal.

The three stars of the game were Crunch defensemen, Dominik Masin, with one goal, Crunch goalie Spencer Martin with twenty-three saves, and Crunch center Alex Barre-Boulet with one goal.

The Phantoms will return home to the PPL Center next weekend for back-to-back home games against the Charlotte Checkers Friday at 7:05 pm and Saturday at 7:05 pm.

(player stats for the year)