By Michael Heilman
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms battled the Springfield Thunderbirds Saturday night at the PPL Center. It took a shootout to settle the score, and, in the end, the Phantoms came out with the loss 4-3.
After a scoreless first period, the Thunderbirds scored five minutes and twenty seconds into the second period as Tommy Cross (1) blasted a shot passed Phantoms goalie Jean-Francois Berube to put the Thunderbirds up 1-0. Ethan Prow (5) and Paul Thompson (1) both assisted in Cross’s goal.
The Phantoms tied the game up 1-1 with under six minutes left in the second period as German Rubtsov (1) lifted the puck to the upper left corner passed Thunderbirds goalie Phillippe Desrosiers. Isaac Ratcliffe (2) and Mikhail Vorobyev (2) both assisted in Rubtsov’s goal.
Less than a minute later, the Thunderbirds would retake the lead 2-1 as Daniel Audette (2) shot the puck past Berube. Riley Stillman (1) and Thomas Schemitsch (1) both assisted in Audette’s goal. Thirty-six seconds later, the Thunderbirds would add another goal when Anthony Greco (2) scored on a breakaway lifting the puck to the upper left corner to give Springfield a 3-1 lead. Blaine Byron (1) and Dominic Toninato (2) assisted in Greco’s goal. The Thunderbirds went into the locker room with a 3-1 lead at the end of the second period.
The Phantoms began to make a comeback eight minutes into the third period as Nick Aube-Kubel (1) shot the puck to the lower right side of the net, just getting it by Thunderbirds goalie Phillippe Desrosiers to cut the Thunderbirds lead 3-2. Kyle Criscuolo (2) assisted in Kubel’s goal.
The Phantoms would then tie the game up at 3-3 as Morgan Frost (1) got his first goal in the AHL with assists from Greg Carey (2) and Joel Farabee (1). The game remained tied at the end of the third period. Neither team could score in overtime, thus going into a shootout.
Morgan Frost was the second person to go for the Phantoms and scored. The Thunderbirds Daniel Audette scored to keep the game alive. The Thunderbirds would get the game-winning goal by Kevin Roy to give Springfield a 4-3 OT win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The three stars of the game were Thunderbirds left winger Kevin Roy, who scored the game-winning shot in a shootout, Phantoms forward Morgan Frost, who scored one goal and Phantoms right-winger Nick Aube-Kubel, who scored one goal.
Phantoms goalie Jean-Francois Berube stopped twenty-two shots out of twenty-five while Thunderbirds goalie Phillippe Desrosiers made thirty-eight saves out of forty-one.
The Phantoms will now hit the road next weekend both against the Charlotte Checkers Friday night at 7 pm and Saturday night at 6 pm from the Bojangles’ Coliseum.
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