GAME STORY: Lehigh Valley - 1 at Laval - 5 (3/25/22)

For the second straight game this week, an underwhelming performance from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms turned into a 5-1 blowout loss Friday night to the Laval Rocket as the team's already slim playoff hopes took another crushing blow. Coupled with a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins win in Belleville, the Phantoms' deficit to the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division has now reached double digits with just 17 games left on their regular season schedule.

Garrett Wilson scored a late first period power play goal that, at the time, tied the game up at 1-1 but from there the Rocket went on to tally four unanswered goals and never looked back. It was another night where the team hung their goaltender, Felix Sandstrom (30 saves - 35 shots), out to dry.

Cedric Paquette led the way with two goals, while Jean-Sebastien Dea (one goal, one assist, former Phantoms forward Danick Martel and Jean-Christophe Beaudin each tallied a goal in a convincing win for Laval. Kevin Poulin stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced in the win.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms Roster Notes

Felix Sandstrom got the start in net Friday night in Laval, his 10th straight appearance as well as his ninth start in the team's last 10 games. Pat Nagle, called up from Reading earlier this week, served as Sandstrom's backup while Kirill Ustimenko tends to a minor injury.

Captain Cal O'Reilly played in his 1,000th career pro game Friday night. In his 16th season of pro hockey, O'Reilly has now amassed 809 AHL games, 145 NHL games and 46 KHL games. He's still playing at a high level in the AHL, matching his career-high in goals from his rookie season in 2005-06 already this season with still 17 games left to play.

Newly acquired defenseman Brennan Menell made his Phantoms debut Friday, as did defenseman Garrett McFadden. Defensemen Egor Zamula and Linus Hogberg were out due to injury.

Up front, Ryan Fitzgerald made his 2021-22 season debut for Lehigh Valley.

Phantoms Scratches: Samuel Ersson, Kirill Ustimenko, Egor Zamula, Linus Hogberg, Jackson Cates, Nick Lappin and Ryan MacKinnon

Lines/Pairings:

Adam Johnson - Cal O'Reilly - Wade Allison Garrett Wilson - Tanner Laczynski - Linus Sandin Isaac Ratcliffe - Matt Strome - Ryan Fitzgerald Brennan Saulnier - Charlie Gerard - Maksim Sushko

Adam Clendening - Brennan Menell Cooper Zech - Wyatte Wylie Garrett McFadden - Logan Day

Felix Sandstrom - Pat Nagle

GAME RECAP

1st Period

It was a bit of a slow start offensively for Lehigh Valley in the first frame. They only managed one shot on goal in the opening 15 minutes.

Overall, it was low-event hockey in the opening half of the period as the two teams combined for just four shots on goal.

Laval took the lead on quite a serious of puck-luck type bounces, which began when Olivier Galipeau wound up for a shot from the top of the right-circle and missed the net by a considerable margin. The puck took a pair of fortuituous bounces for the Rocket, slamming off the endboards before heading into the back of Phantoms' goaltender Felix Sandstrom's leg and darting out to the other side of the net and right to Cedric Paquette for the put back and his third goal of the season.

The Rocket seemed to seize momentum from Paquette's goal just past the midway mark of the period, but Wade Allison drew the Phantoms their second power play of the period late in the stanza - paving the way for Garrett Wilson to even things up on the ensuing man advantage.

Brennan Menell, in his first game since being acquired by the Philadelphia Flyers in a trade with Toronto, got the puck to the top of the left-circle for Adam Johnson, who made a nice toe-drag move before shooting toward Laval goalie Kevin Poulin. Poulin made the initial save, but Wilson was at the net-front in perfect position to stuff the rebound home to tie the game at 1-1 with 2:55 left before the first intermission.

Lehigh Valley had momentum on their side for the final 2:55, but an Adam Clendening penalty on a late shove on Paquette after the first period horn had the Phantoms beginning the middle frame on the penalty kill. Clendening had drawn the ire of Laval in the final seconds when he tried to whack at what he thought was a loose puck in Poulin's crease. Already on the minds of the officials for that play, Clendening did himself no favors in chopping at Paquette after the 1st period horn - a penalty that a longtime AHL veteran needs to know he cannot be taking.

2nd Period

Laval wasted no time cashing in on Clendening's selfish penalty at 20:00 of the first frame, with Paquette setting up Jean-Sebastien Dea at the right-wing circle for a quick shot past a sliding Sandstrom just 32 seconds into the middle frame. Raphael Harvey-Pinard added a secondary assist on Dea's team-leading 18th of the season.

Clendening's rough night continued as his stick broke at the offensive zone blue line, and he later grabbed a hold of a Laval forwards' stick at the defensive zone net-front - sending Lehigh Valley back to the penalty kill 4:58 into the period. Thankfully, the Phantoms were able to kill of the ensuing Laval power play to keep themselves in a one-goal game.

Similar to the first frame, shots on goal were hard to come by for Lehigh Valley. Laval registered the first six shots of the middle frame, with the Phantoms without a shot on goal in the first 10:52 until a bad angle Brennan Saulnier shot from below the left-wing circle forced Poulin to make an easy stick save.

A bit of controversy with 7:30 left in the middle frame, as one of the referees blew their whistle thinking Sandstrom had covered a loose puck. Instead, the loose puck was pushed in past Sandstrom a half-second later and the referee pointed for a good goal.

After conferencing amongst the officials ensued at center ice, the goal was correctly overturned. Though the puck was actually loose, the referee at the net-front incorrectly blew the play dead just prior to Laval poking the rebound in.

It ended up not mattering much, because former Phantom Danick Martel scored less than two minutes later to give Laval the 3-1 lead anyway.

Though Friday's referee crew wasn't the same unit as the Phantoms saw in Hershey Wednesday night, it was another poorly officiated game that severely lacked consistency/continuity.

Case in point, Isaac Ratcliffe was aggressive defending on the right-wing wall in his own end late in the 2nd period. The official along the boards a few feet away motioned to play on, meanwhile the referee nearly 100 feet away in the neutral zone emphatically put his arm up in the air and whistled Ratcliffe for a roughing minor.

Shortly after Ratcliffe's penalty expired, and as he made his way to the Laval net looking for a rebound - two Rocket defenders muscled Ratcliffe to the endboards behind the net and pinned him against the glass. Ratcliffe kept his cool and didn't retaliate, but the officials didn't call anything on the aggressors.

The Phantoms weren't doing themselves any favors, either.

3rd Period

Laval extended their lead to 4-1 just as Garrett McFadden's early third period hooking penalty expired, with Paquette picking up his second goal of the night and fourth in his fourth AHL game this season.

From that point on it was abundantly clear it wasn't going to be the Phantoms night.

Clendening had a particularly brutal night, later taking a third rather selfish penalty after a whistle in his own end, yanking the skates out from under a Laval forward at the side of Sandstrom's net with his stick.

Laval didn't score on the ensuing power play, but they made it 5-1 shortly after the penalty expired with Jean-Christophe Beaudin getting an unassisted goal on a bit of a fluky chop of a loose puck inside the right-circle.

With the game all but decided, the referees decided to show their complete lack of awareness one more time.

Rocket forward Justin Ducharme took a gutless cross-check into the back of Brennan Menell's head in the final three minutes, with Menell retaliating by tripping the Rocket forward and shoving him back down as he trying to get up. Ducharme then grabbed Menells right ankle and yank/twisted the Phantoms' defender to the ice.

The resulting penalties?

A tripping minor and a 5-minute major for cross-checking - both assessed to Menell, while Ducharme was tagged with a roughing minor. Quite honestly, a laughable display of ignorance by the official late in a 5-1 game.

Cooler heads prevailed as the final seconds ticked off the clock, but a surely frustrated Phantoms team as they dropped their second straight 5-1 game on the week - seeing their already slim playoff hopes dwindle even further as a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 3-1 win in Belleville pushes the Phantoms to 10 points out of the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division with just 17 games left on Lehigh Valley's schedule.

The Phantoms head overnight to Belleville for a crucial Saturday night tilt to conclude their six-game road trip and month of March playing schedule.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:29: LV - (PP) Sandin, minor (tripping) 5:56: LAV - (PP) Teasdale, minor (tripping) 10:16: LAV - Paquette (3) - Galipeau, Dea 16:35: LAV - (PP) Beaudin, minor (holding) 17:05: LV - PPG Wilson (12) - Johnson, Menell 20:00: LV - (PP) Clendening, minor (roughing)

2nd Period

0:32: LAV - PPG Dea (18) - Paquette, Harvey-Pinard 4:58: LV - (PP) Clendening, minor (holding) 8:29: LAV - (PP) Mattinen, minor (high-sticking) 14:14: LAV - Martel (11) - Belpedio 15:31: LV - (PP) Ratcliffe, minor (roughing)

3rd Period

2:45: LV - (PP) McFadden, minor (hooking) 4:45: LAV - Paquette (4) - Ouellet, Ylonen 6:13: LAV - Martel, minor (hooking) 12:29: LV - (PP) Clendening, minor (slashing) 15:08: LAV - Beaudin (2) - unassisted 16:37: LAV - (PP) Gignac, minor (roughing) 17:04: LV - (PP) Menell, major (cross-checking) 17:04: LV - Menell, minor (tripping) 17:04: LAV - Ducharme, minor (roughing)

BOXSCORE

Lehigh Valley   1 - 0 - 0 = 1 Laval Rocket  1 - 2 - 2 = 5

Shots

Lehigh Valley   6 - 10 - 16 = 32 Laval Rocket  8 - 11 - 16 = 35

Goalies

LV: Felix Sandstrom (30 saves - 35 shots) LAV: Kevin Poulin (31 saves - 32 shots)

Power Play

LV: 1-for-5 LAV: 1-for-7

Penalty Kill

LV: 6-for-7 LAV: 4-for-5