By Michael Heilman

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms began their home-and-home series Friday night at the XL Center against the Hartford Wolf Pack. These two teams last faced each other on November 30th when the Phantoms defeated the Wolf Pack 2-1. The Phantoms were also looking to win one for Oskar Lindblom, who just hours before game time was diagnose with Ewing’s sarcoma.

Both of these teams got off to a slow start in the first period. There were a couple of penalties, one on Phantoms Center Kyle Criscuolo and Wolf Pack Defenseman Nick Ebert. The first goal of the game came at sixteen minutes and five seconds from Wolf Pack Defenseman Nick Ebert (4) to give the Wolf Pack a 1-0 lead with Phil Di Giuseppe (8) and Vinni Lettieri (12). The Wolf Pack led 1-0 at the end of the first period.

The Phantoms had issues playing defense as Lyon was left alone to stop the shots that came his way. The Wolf Pack would once again score six minutes and forty-six seconds into the second period as Lewis Zerter-Gossage (2) extended the Wolf Pack’s lead 2-0. The Wolf Pack controlled the offense and left the Phantoms scrambling to find answers as the Wolf Pack remained in the lead 2-0 at the end of the second period.

The Wolf Pack would further their lead in the third period seven minutes and forty-five seconds as Nick Jones (3) scored to make it a 3-0 Wolf Pack lead with assisted from Darren Raddysh (9), and Vincent LoVerde (6). The Phantoms continued to play with a lack of defense and could not get anything going at all. The Wolf Pack headed to their third power play of the game as Phantoms left-winger Greg Carey was called for high-sticking at nineteen minutes and twenty seconds. Five seconds later, the Wolf Pack would put the game away as Nick Jones (4) scored his second goal of the game with Joey Keane (12) and Yegor Rykov (2) assisted Jones’s goal to give the Hartford Wolf Pack a 4-0 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The Wolf Pack won the shots on goal total with thirty while the Phantoms had twenty-six. The Phantoms were zero for two on the power play while the Wolf Pack were one for three. Phantoms goalie Alex Lyon made twenty-six of thirty saves, allowing four goals and Wolf Pack goalie Igor Shesterkin made all twenty-six saves.

The three stars of the game were Wolf Pack defenseman Nick Ebert with one goal, Wolf Pack center Nick Jones with two goals, and Wolf Pack goalie Igor Shesterkin with twenty-six saves.

These two teams will go at it again Saturday at 7:05 from the PPL Center before the Phantoms wrap up the weekend Sunday at the Giant Center against the Hershey Bears.

(players total for the year)