By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
Another PPL Center standing room only, sellout crowd of 8,709 had plenty to celebrate Saturday night as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms blasted the North Division's top team, the Toronto Marlies, 7-2.
The Phantoms dominated two of the three periods Saturday night, and despite giving the Marlies room to breathe in a Toronto-controlled second period, Lehigh Valley did not let up and scored at will for the win.
Five minutes into the first period, the pace of the game was slow. The Phantoms had registered three shots on goal while holding the Marlies without a shot, and offsides and icing calls were being dished out left and right.
Lehigh Valley kept trying to open things up though, and did just that with one carefully-placed seam pass. Scott Laughton, playing in his fourth game since being sent down to the Phantoms, found his linemate from a year ago Taylor Leier in the middle of the ice. Leier, who was between two defenders, split them with a burst of speed and went in on goal on a breakaway. Brandon Leipsic got back and harassed Leier, but Leier shook him off, skated in, and put a shot up under the bar behind Antoine Bibeau to make it 1-0 Phantoms.
Cole Bardreau added a greasy goal to make it 2-0, when a net-mouth scramble left the puck loose in the crease. Danick Martel had a whack at the puck, but it did not cross the goal line until a diving Bardreau got his stick on it to knock the puck in.
At the other end of the ice, Anthony Stolarz stood on his head when called upon, keeping Toronto off the board despite some late zone pressure from the Marlies. Frustration seemed to catch up to Toronto, taking two late penalties to switch the momentum back in Lehigh Valley's favor. While the Phantoms did not connect on their first power-play chance, they had plenty of shots toward the net and a pretty good cycle going for about 30 to 40 seconds. The second of the two opportunities came late enough that the Phantoms had a 1:28 of carry over power play time heading into the second.
Coming back on the ice, the Phantoms made quick work taking advantage of the power-play time carried over from the first. Greg Carey was wide open to lift the puck over Bibeau's shoulder on a goal assisted by Jordan Weal and Chris Connor.
The Phantoms continued playing strong defense until Toronto's Byron Froese was found wide open in front of the net and fired off a quick wrist shot past Stolarz. However, Stolarz and the Phantoms defense returned to their strong play right away after Radel Fazleev took a two minute hooking penalty. Stolarz had a couple of great saves and the remaining four Phantoms mounted the pressure on the Marlies offense keeping them at bay for the power play.
The Marlies, feeling pressured to put up another goal, started to pressure the Phantoms deeper in the attacking zone. The stronger push turned against the Marlies when Brooks Laich took a roughing penalty. The Marlies refocused and held the Phantoms in check for the full length of the power play despite zone presence from the Phantoms for almost the whole time.
The Marlies continued forcing their way into the Phantoms zone and were successful remaining there for the better part of the last five minutes of the period. Despite outshooting the Phantoms, 12-7, in the second period, the Marlies still trailed the Phantoms, 3-1, going into the third period.
The back-and-forth play carried over to the third. The Phantoms looked to silence the Marlies rally early in the third with another greasy goal in the crease. Laughton carried into the Toronto zone and the puck got caught in the tangled skates of himself and the Toronto defenders in the slot area. T.J. Brennan came in and got the puck loose and fired it on Bibeau, who made the initial save. He thought he had the puck covered, but it was free and Colin McDonald was able to put it in the back of the net to make it 4-1.
Toronto answered back less than a minute later as Milan Michalek got his first goal of the season to make it a two-goal game yet again.
The Phantoms pounced from there, with Leier scoring his second of the night on a beautiful cross-ice feed from Laughton. Just three minutes later Fazleev scored his first professional goal on a mini breakaway, padding the Phantoms lead to four.
Everything died down from there until the last three minutes of the period. Stolarz saved a shot and immediately was run over by Colin Smith with 2:30 left to play. The Phantoms took exception to their goalie being run over and a scrum ensued. Out of it, only Kerby Rychel got an extra penalty, a 10-minute misconduct. On the power play, the Phantoms looked to put the icing on the cake of an already runaway game. They would have an even better chance to do so, as Tobias Lindberg took a high-sticking penalty to make it a 5-on-3 chance.
Weal added the seventh goal of the night for Lehigh Valley with 21 seconds left to cap the victory. With the top line of McDonald, Leier,and Laughton grabbing eight points, they led the way for the Phantoms to blow over the Marlies.
The win marks five in a row for Lehigh Valley, a streak they will look to continue on Sunday afternoon as they renew their rivalry with the Hershey Bears in Chocolate Town. The rivalry game will end another three-in-three weekend for the Phantoms.
Notes
- Radel Fazleev became the 15th different Phantom to tally a goal this season.
- On the other side of that, all but one of the skaters on Lehigh Valley's roster (Tyrell Goulbourne) have scored a point this season.
- The other player was Petr Straka, who was traded to the New Jersey Devils before puck drop. The Flyers gained a conditional 7th round pick for either the 2017 or 2018 NHL Entry Draft out of the trade.
Quotes
Taylor Leier on how his line is clicking together these last few games amid the Phantoms coming together as a unit: "You know, it takes a while with a lot of new guys to build some confidence and build chemistry with your linemates. It helps that Laughts and I played a lot together our first year, and that Colin and I played together almost half the year last year. Both power play units are running really well too. Overall I think our team is meshing pretty well too so it feels really good."
Head Coach Scott Gordon on his team's play against a first place team like Toronto, his team's success, and the end of the three in three in Hershey tomorrow: "We talked about it a lot before the game as being a measuring stick to see where we were. We've seen a lot of the same teams early here, so you play a team from the other division that's a first-place team, it gives you an idea of where you're at, and the response from our guys was tremendous tonight."
"This was a tough stretch for us. I think we had 10 of 12 on the road that we had, I don't know where we're at right now, but this is one of the few home games we have on this stretch. And to be able to get a win against a team like Toronto, with the quality of opponent they are, that bodes well for our team. We talked about it Friday night, You go into a weekend and it's nice to win that Friday game because it sets the tone for the weekend. Now we've got two so we've gotta try to go for that third win in Hershey tomorrow."
"Hershey is a team that plays a similar style in that they are on the attack a lot and they have good puck possession in the offensive zone. One of the things I thought we did really well tonight was, even though Toronto was in our zone and had possession, we did a good job of being in the lane and jamming up the middle of the ice and there weren't a lot of second opportunities for them. They may have gotten the puck back, but we had a stick on the puck or a body in the way that didn't allow them to get the second opportunity."
3 Stars
3rd – LV Reece Willcox – Assist, +2
2nd – LV Taylor Leier – 2 Goals, Assist, +2
1st – LV Scott Laughton – 3 Assists, +2
