By Michael Heilman

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms hosted the Cleveland Monsters Sunday afternoon at the PPL Center. Earlier in the day, the Flyers called up Connor Bunnaman and sent David Kase back to the Phantoms. Subsequently, the Phantoms brought up defenseman David Drake from the Reading Royals.

There was not a lot of action in the first two periods of the game except for the penalty box. A tripping call against Cleveland defenseman Steve Johnson put the Phantoms on the power play, and they were unable to take advantage of it, the game remained scoreless 0-0 at the end of the first period.

The Phantoms committed three penalties in the second period and were able to stop the Monsters all three times to keep the game 0-0. Both goalies, Jean Francois-Berube of the Phantoms and Brad Thiessen of the Monsters, were stopping all shots that came their way. The game remained tied 0-0 at the end of the second period.

When it looked like the game was headed to overtime, the Phantoms finally broke through seventeen minutes and forty-six seconds into the third period as Cal O’ Reilly (3) put the Phantoms in the lead 1-0 with assists from Morgan Frost (9) and Mikhail Vorobyev (11). The Monsters pulled Brad Thiessen for the extra attacker; however, the Phantoms were able to put the game away on an empty-net goal by Maksim Sushko (6) with an assist from Nate Prosser (6) to give the Phantoms a 2-0 win over the Cleveland Monsters.

Cleveland Monsters outshot the Phantoms thirty-five to sixteen. The Phantoms were zero for two on the power play while the Monsters were zero for three. Phantoms goalie Jean Francois-Berube earned the shutout win with thirty-five saves while Monsters goalie Brad Thiessen was fourteen of fifteen saves allowing one goal.

The Phantoms will have a couple of days off before returning to the PPL Center Wednesday at 7:05 pm against the Syracuse Crunch.

(players stats for the year)