By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
On a night where the Phantoms honored Ed Snider with a touching pregame tribute and special jerseys that honored Snider's beloved Flyers, Lehigh Valley was unable to pull out a win in a 5-2 loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Turnovers and missed opportunities cost the Phantoms big in this one, as the Sound Tigers pounced on every mistake and made sure Lehigh Valley was on its heels all night.
In the spirit of the night, and in Broad Street Bullies fashion, there was a fight less than four minutes into the game. Tyrell Goulbourne was interfered with at the center ice line by Bridgeport forward Ross Johnston, and Goulbourne took exception. The pair dropped the gloves and away they went, with the Phantoms coming out with the power play.
Neither unit could find the back of the net on the man advantage for Lehigh Valley, and the game remained scoreless. Moments later, Goulbourne went to the box for charging, but the Bridgeport could not convert and the game remained scoreless after one period of play.
The second period would not go the Phantoms way. Bridgeport opened the night's scoring just 47 seconds into the period as a shot from below the goal line in the near side corner bounced of the backside then the skate of Joshua Winquist and in behind Anthony Stolarz to make it 1-0.
The Phantoms had a chance to tie the game at the 13:45 mark with a power play. But during the man advantage, a miscue at the blue line had Will O'Neill caught, and Keller Jones would strip him of the puck and skate up ice with a 2-on-0 opportunity. Jones connected with Connor Jones, who had an easy tap in to make it 2-0.
The Phantoms cut the deficit in half on the same power play with a goal in the blue paint from Colin McDonald off a rebound from a point shot by Jordan Weal. Bridgeport would retake its two-goal lead with two seconds left in the period as a saucer pass from Josh Ho-Sang on a two on one was batted out of mid-air by Michael Dal Colle to make it 3-1 with a period left to play.
The third started similarly to the second with a Bridgeport goal less than 50 seconds in. This time, a cross-crease pass from Johnston found the tape of Colin Markison for another easy tap in goal behind Stolarz.
A partial breakaway for Greg Carey helped get the Phantoms back into the game, as Carey broke in behind the defense and scored on a backhand to make it a 4-2 game.
Carter Verhaeghe capped the scoring for Bridgeport to make it 5-2 with half a period to play. The Phantoms picked up the intensity and start hitting everything in sight, trying to get something going late in the game. Despite the late surge, and a late power play opportunity, the 5-2 score would hold up.
Bridgeport, backstopped by the 29-save performance from Chris Gibson, skated out of PPL Center with the victory and hand the Phantoms their first loss of this young season. Bridgeport would improve to 2-1-0 and the Phantoms would fall to 1-1-0.
The Phantoms turn right around and host the Hartford Wolfpack, AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers, on Saturday night.
Quotes
Head coach Scott Gordon on how the game fell apart for his team: "They are one of the harder working teams in the league, and if you combine with our poor decisions on turnovers, pretty much from the time they got their first goal, their second and third were all turnovers. And as a result, we are chasing the game. We had a decent first period, as far as we didn't give up anything. There was maybe one shot threat and that was it and we just didn't capitalize on the chances we had. But in the second period we just shot ourselves in the foot too much."
"Our decisions can't be the reason why we lose. We certainly have enough offense on our team to be able to score goals, but if we're going to take chances and make high-risk plays, you don't have to look any further than the second and third goal, that's all it was. And then on top of that, the turnovers we made that didn't go in, maybe there's a false sense that things were okay, when the reality is the second period was not a good period, and the third may have been worse."
Notes
- The Phantoms power play only managed to go 1-for-5 on the night, having gone 1-for-8 last Saturday against the Thunderbirds.
- The Phantoms penalty kill was flawless however, shutting down the Sound Tigers on both their power play opportunities and making them 8-for-9 on the PK through two games this season.
- The black jerseys the Phantoms wore during tonight's game in honor of Ed Snider go up for auction on the team's eBay page for a week starting Sunday. Proceeds will benefit the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation.
