The Phantoms fell last night to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 5-4 in OT, in a very tight game. Coming into the game, the Phantoms were 4-1-1, coming off their first regulation loss of the year, as they fell the night before (Friday) on the road to WBS 4-2. It was a see-saw battle all night as the teams went back and forth. There were a lot of stretches where no team really had much going on, a lot of neutral zone play and not many tape to tape passes.
The story from this one lady night was the power play for Lehigh Valley which was 1-for-25 coming into the game. Following the game they are now 3-for-30 as the Phantoms went 2-for-5 with the man advantage on the night. They have a 10% success rate on the PP for the year, and the Phantoms definitely would like to build on last night’s performance going forward. This game had a lot of goals on the fast-break for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, as three of their five goals were 2-on-1 breakdowns, where the Phantoms just a bad pinch that went the other way.
Max Willman kept up his scoring streak and now has goals four straight games with a goal, as he potted another two last night after a handful of posts he hit in the home opener. Hockey has a way of playing itself out and that’s what happened tonight, as Willman had a turnover on the final goal there in OT, he slammed his stick in frustration against the glass. It was a tough play, Phantoms won the draw and he meant to drop it to Zamula, got picked off and WBS went down and scored off Sandström’s shoulder. Nothing against Willman at all, just a tough play and he knew as soon as it played out.
How about Zayde Wisdom? My goodness, this kid has so much confidence. Another goal and a primary assist on the first goal for Zayde and it was a beauty. Great backhand pass over to Willman in the slot who scored five-hole. Zayde’s goal came in the final minutes on the PP, where Ryan Fitzgerald forced a turnover in the slot and sent it right to Zayde who scored off a great a high glove shot. It was his sixth professional goal to send the Phantoms to overtime to pick up a much needed point in a back and forth game.
The Phantoms will look to bounce back and get a win Wednesday night (March 3rd) against the Hershey Bears at the PPL Center.
