By Michael Heilman

The Phantoms returned to the PPL Center for game two against the Charlotte Checkers. Kirill Ustimenko started at goal, and the scratches were Kurtis Gabriel, Reece Willcox, and Chris Stewart.

Checkers left-winger Steven Lorentz (20) stole the puck from Morgan Frost and went top shelf for the goal to put Charlotte up 1-0 with 11:30 left to play in the first period. The Phantoms only got off seven shots in the first period as the Checkers remained in the lead 1-0 at the end of the first period. The Phantoms failed to capitalize on four power-play opportunities while only committing one penalty. The shots were seven to six for the Phantoms.

Four minutes and forty-six seconds into the second period, the Checkers extended the lead 2-0 off of the faceoff as Morgan Geekie (20) found Max McCormick (16) who then made a cross pass to Cavan Fitzgerald (2) who shot the puck from the left side down of the net for the goal.

With 3:09 remaining in the second period, the Checkers extended their lead 3-0 as a scramble for the puck resulted in a goal by Blake Winiecki (1). Terry Broadhurst (6) and Roland McKeown (19) assisted Winiecki’s goal. The Checkers remained in the lead 3-0 as the second period ended with the shots eighteen to five for Charlotte. The Phantoms committed one penalty in the second period.

The Checkers continued to add a cushion to their lead 6:34 into the third period as Max McCormick (17) found Cavan Fitzgerald (1) then Fitzgerald made a cross pass to Oliwer Kaski (13) who then lasered the puck over the right shoulder of Kirill Ustimenko for a 4-0 lead.

The Phantoms finally responded as Connor Bunnaman (2) passed the puck to Andy Welinski (11), who then passed the puck to James De Haas (2) who went around Checkers left-winger Terry Broadhurst with the forehand flip shot to the upper left corner over goalie Callum Booth to cut the Checkers lead 4-1.

After De Haas’s goal, the Phantoms pulled Ustimenko for the extra attacker. The Phantoms cut the lead in half 4-2 as Andy Welinski (12) made a low pass to Cal O’Reilly (23) then found Andy Andreoff (10) for the tip-in goal with 4:20 left in the third period.

Andreoff's 10th marker of the season gets the #LVPhantoms back within two with under five minutes to play in the third. pic.twitter.com/D7NOdjfjjf — LehighValleyPhantoms (@LVPhantoms) March 1, 2020

The Phantoms left Ustimenko on the bench for the rest of the game in an attempt to get back into this game, but they ran out of time as the Phantoms split the weekend series with the Charlotte Checkers losing 4-2. The Phantoms had a couple of opportunities on the power-play but could not find a way to score. They did show some signs of life as they outshot the Checkers eleven to four in the third period.

The shot totals for the game were twenty-eight to twenty-three for the Checkers. The Phantoms were zero for five on the power-play while the Checkers went zero for two. Kirill Ustimenko finished the night with twenty-four of twenty-eight saves allowing four goals while Checkers goalie Callum Booth went twenty-one of twenty-three saves allowing two goals.

The three stars of the game were Phantoms left-winger Andy Welinski with two assists, Phantoms defenseman James De Haas with one goal, and Checkers defenseman, Cavan Fitzgerald, with one goal and one assist.

The Phantoms will be back in action next Friday at 7:05 pm against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers from the PPL Center.

(player stats for the year)