Phantoms Post-Game EXTRA! (11/13/21)

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-7-3) managed a point in an overtime loss to Springfield, but the home team was left frustrated after overcoming a slow start in the first period and thinking they were the better team through the final 40 minutes.

Max Willman tallied the lone goal of the night for Lehigh Valley shorthanded after a great effort from Morgan Frost to steal a puck on the penalty kill. Felix Sandstrom turned in another strong performance in net (28 saves on 30 shots), but wasn't rewarded.

Saturday night's game story -> https://insideahlhockey.com/article/game-story-springfield-2-at-lehigh-valley-1-ot-111321

Three Things

1. Slow 1st Period Starts On The Weekend

For the second straight night, the Phantoms were heavily out-shot in the opening period. And for the second straight night, it was three first period penalties slowing Lehigh Valley from getting much of anything going.

"It's tough because I overplay guys that kill penalties and under play guys that don't. And it's tough [for the underplayed] to stay in the game," Laperierre said after the game. "But they found a way to stay in the game, and I liked the game, overall, for 99% of the boys."

While the Phantoms buried themselves Friday in Providence, surrendering two PPG's against in the first frame, the Phantoms were able to keep the game scoreless heading to the middle frame.

2. The Penalty Kill

Despite surrendering five power plays Saturday night, the penalty kill was able to not only kill off all of the Thunderbirds' man advantages but also add to their league-leading shorthanded scoring.

"If we do, great, but I'm not pushing guys to create offense on the PK though," Laperriere said of the PK's scoring abilities in recent games.

The Phantoms lead the AHL with five shorthanded goals for through 13 games, and Max Willman tied the game late in the 2nd period on his 2nd shorty of the season after Morgan Frost forced a turnover just inside the defensive zone blue line to spring the 2-on-1 shorthanded rush up ice.

"When you have a guy like Morgan Frost who reads the play really well, offensively, he knows what the other guys are doing," Laperriere said. "He's got great hands and then you got Willman with great speed - you will create offense, but again, the main goal is killing penalties, and they did a hell of a job tonight."

"I just think we're, we're playing pretty well, within the structure," Willman said of the PK's success. "I think our our neutral zone has been pretty good. I think me and [Frost] work pretty well together and kind of read off each other and can kind of take advantage when we can and it worked out [Saturday night].

3. Lappy Lashes Out?

There was a recurring theme that Laperriere re-iterated into most of his responses to questions after Saturday night's OT loss. A frustration, and tough love for veteran defenseman Adam Clendening, who was the defenseman on the ice on the 2-on-2 rush that lost track of his man to the net.

"You put guys in overtime that you trust, that you know, offensively you want them to create, but defensively you want those guys to make the right plays and you get veterans out there and they didn't," a frustrated Phantoms' head coach said. "I'm going to have to look back and see who I should put out there. You know, it's one thing to try to create offense but you have to defend too and I have a guy back there who should defend and he didn't, and it cost us a point."

On the next question, about Max Willman?

"Not only scoring goals, it's everything. I'm a huge fan of his," Laperriere said of Willman's game and overall performance this season. "He works hard, he leads by example. And we had a lot of that tonight. He was one of them."

Laperriere continued, "I'm proud of the boys and again I'm frustrated because that's a goal that shouldn't go in in overtime like that. It's a 2-on-2, it's man on man - everybody plays the same way. You get beat to the net. It shouldn't happen."

He was pretty clearly ticked off about the end result.

Earlier this season, Laperriere benched Morgan Frost for most of the third period in a game and told Inside AHL Hockey at the time he needed to be getting more from Frost.

Now, it seems he is also holding a veteran player on the team to the same standard.

It will be interesting to see how both Clendening and the Phantoms as a team respond heading into next week's games - which begins with a Wednesday night home matchup against the Charlotte Checkers.

"Yeah, definitely frustrating. I thought we did a lot of good things [Saturday night]," Willman said. "But that's the way it goes sometimes. We'll take the one [point] I definitely wish we got the win there. But it happens."