Phantoms' Post-Game EXTRA! (Dec 12 2021)

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (5-11-5) held on for a shootout win to claim their first one-goal victory of the season Sunday afternoon against Hartford. It also marked just their second time winning back-to-back games on the season.

Sunday's game story -> https://insideahlhockey.com/article/game-story-hartford-3-at-lehigh-valley-4-so-121221

Three Things

1. A Little Confidence Goes A Long Way

As cliche as is sounds, it couldn't be more true for this Phantoms' team. Entering Sunday's game, Lehigh Valley had dropped all eight of the one-goal games they've been in this season (0-3-5) whether it was a tied game late that was lost in extra time, or a third period they let slip away.

After a seven-game skid to start the season and just coming off an eight-game skid with their win on Saturday night, the constant coming up short was certainly mentally draining for the guys.

Last night, Matt Strome reference Saturday's win as a relief. Tonight, Isaac Ratcliffe mentioned a similar sentiment.

"Yeah, that was awesome. To get in the win column again, for a change, is really relieving," Ratcliffe said. "Coming out of the weekend with two wins, two for two, we're definitely really happy going into the rest of the week. We just have to bring that same energy and same confidence into Wednesday."

"It's funny, isn't it? Like, that's hockey for you. That sports for you," Laperriere told InsideAHLHockey.com after Sunday's game. "There's a fine line between winning and losing, but when you do win you feel good about yourself and it's switched pretty quickly. This room is feeling pretty good right now."

2. Ratcliffe Hoping To Bear Down More On Chances

Ratcliffe, like many players on the team to start the season, was struggling to score and convert on the chances he was creating. While he began the year in a top-six role on the wing alongside Cal O'Reilly and Gerry Mayhew, he has found himself back into more of a bottom-six, two-way energy guy role like he has been in previous season.

"I'm starting to move my feet a little bit more. And obviously, use my range," Ratcliffe said, adding, "And early in the game, I tried to get on the body to kind of separate myself from the game a little bit, too and ware down the other team. So I mean, it's starting to work for me too. And if I can keep doing that every night, and we can keep winning, I think we're gonna have a lot of happy people around Allentown here."

More on Ratcliffe later next week in a more player-centric feature!

3. Kirill Ustimenko

It's not all to often that a major storyline coming out of a game has to deal with a backup goaltender who didn't even appear in the game (almost quite literally in this case!), but here we are.

With Felix Sandstrom having sinus issues (non-COVID related), the Phantoms needed a backup goaltender to sit behind Pat Nagle for this afternoon's game. Things were a little tricky in bringing up Kirill Ustimenko from Reading because the team the Royals played on Friday night, Adirondack, had a player test positive for COVID on Saturday morning, postponing Reading's rematch with Adirondack.

When asked for clarification, procedurally, on how Ustimenko was able to be the backup goaltender Sunday afternoon, Laperriere explained," he was able to come up because of emergency [conditions], but he had his own locker room and he wasn't around the guys."

Ustimenko was allowed to warmup with his Phantoms' teammates Sunday, but he wasn't on the bench and was kept in a separate room for the afternoon - as Laperriere mentioned.

According to Laperriere, Ustimenko will be able to re-join his teammates officially after three straight days of negative tests, which will be before the Phantoms are back at it on Wednesday at home against Belleville.