By Michael Heilman

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms were back in action Friday night at the PPL Center against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Kirill Ustimenko started at goal and scratches for the game were James de Haas, Maksim Sushko, Gerry Fitzgerald, and Chris Stewart.

Fifty-five seconds into the first period, a cross-checking call against Sound Tigers center Cole Bardreau sent the Phantoms on the power-play. The Phantoms capitalized on the four on three power-play as Greg Carey’s (13) shot missed, but was recovered by Chris Bigras (13) who then passed the puck to Morgan Frost (12) who made a bullet shot past Sound Tigers goalie Christopher Gibson to put the Phantoms up 1-0.

Two minutes later, the Sound Tigers tied the game 1-1 when Grant Hutton (11) made a pass to Seth Helgeson (8) for the shot, but it was tipped in by former Phantom right-winger Colin McDonald (5) for the goal. The Sound Tigers would take a 2-1 lead four minutes later as Christopher Gibson (1) passed the puck to Parker Wotherspoon (22), who went around Andy Welinski to shoot the puck that was tipped in by Oliver Wahlstrom (9) for the goal. The Phantoms almost tied the game up minutes later when Isaac Ratcliffe had a breakaway but shot wide left, and the game remained 2-1.

Morgan Frost (13) would score his second goal of the game with forty-one seconds left to tie the game 2-2. Sixteen seconds later, Sound Tigers forward Nic Pierog (2) put Bridgeport back up 3-2 as the first period ended. The shots were twelve to eleven for the Sound Tigers. The Phantoms committed two penalties, and the penalty-killing unit prevented the Sound Tigers from doing any more damage.

In the second period, the Phantoms penalty-killing unit had to kill off their third penalty of the game, keeping the Sound Tigers in check while maintaining a 3-2 lead. However, the Phantoms were called on their fourth penalty of the game, this time a hooking call against Mikhail Vorobyev. The Sound Tigers made good on the power-play when Travis St. Denis (14) found Sebastian Aho (26), who made a pass to Kieffer Bellows (19) for a one-timer into the net for the goal to extend Bridgeport’s lead 4-2 with 5:56 left in the second period.

Gabriel with the Hustle. 🏃

Bunnaman with the Muscle. 💪



Twarynski with the… goal? 🚨



¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/UxLYdAXp84 — LehighValleyPhantoms (@LVPhantoms) March 7, 2020

The second period had just 1:23 left when the Phantoms made it a one-goal game. Kurtis Gabriel (4) passed the puck to Connor Bunnaman (3) who found Carsen Twarynski (6) all alone in front of the net when he went top shelf to cut the Sound Tigers lead 4-3 as the second period ended. The shots were thirteen to nine for the Phantoms. Once again, the Phantoms committed two penalties with one of them, resulting in a goal while failing to take advantage of another power-play opportunity.

The Phantoms battled back in the third period to tie the game 4-4 with nine minutes and .48 seconds left. David Kase (12) found Morgan Frost (16), who shot the puck that hit the stick of Andy Andreoff (11) and in for the goal. Andreoff was credited with the goal.

Just as the Phantoms had momentum on their side, the Sound Tigers quickly got it back with 7:19 left in the third period as Kieffer Bellows (20) picked up his second goal of the game and put the Sound Tigers back up 5-4. With less than two minutes left in the game, the Phantoms pulled Kirill Ustimenko for the extra attacker. Unfortunately, pulling the goalie hasn’t worked this season, and tonight’s game was no different. At the 1:25 mark, Sound Tiger’s Robert Carpenter (3) put the game away with an empty-net goal for a 6-4 Sound Tigers lead. A major fight broke out with .40 seconds left as Chris Bigras hit Robert Carpenter that started a brawl. It will be interesting to see if Bigras gets suspended for the hit. The shots for the third period were fourteen to ten for the Sound Tigers.

This game could have been worse given that the Phantoms committed seven penalties with one of them, resulting in a goal. The Phantoms were one for two on the power-play while the Sound Tigers went one for seven. The total shots of the game were thirty-five to thirty-four for the Sound Tigers.

Kirill Ustimenko finished the night twenty-nine of thirty-four saves allowing five goals while Sound Tigers goalie Christopher Gibson made thirty of thirty-four saves allowing four goals. The three stars of the game are Sound Tigers right-winger Colin McDonald with one goal, Sound Tigers left-winger Kieffer Bellows with two goals, and Phantoms forward Morgan Frost with two goals and one assist.

It will be interesting to see how these two teams play each other on Sunday, but for now, the Phantoms will head to Binghamton, NY, to take on the Devils at 4:05 pm.

(player stats for the year)