(Photo: Kate Frese)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
It’s early in the season for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and they are still going through some growing pains as well. For Carter Hart, that means wins can sometimes be hard to come by in the pros.
The Phantoms had their first 3-in-3 weekend and posted a 1-1-1 record over the weekend, with the team losing both of Hart’s starts and getting a win in the season debut for Alex Lyon.
The Phantoms opened the weekend with a tough 5-4 loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Linus Olund opened the scoring for the Penguins at 17:17 of the first period, but Mike Vecchione scored to tie the game at one with 38 seconds left in the period.
Sam Miletic scored at 2:18 of the second to put the Penguins back in front, but the Phantoms answered back just 46 seconds later with a goal by Phil Myers. Zach Aston-Reese scored with 6:48 left in the second to put the Penguins back on top after two.
T.J. Brennan and Greg Carey scored power-play goals just 54 seconds apart from each other to give the Phantoms a 4-3 lead early in the third. Teddy Blueger tied the game for the Penguins with a power play goal at 6:59.
With 1:03 remaining, Garrett Wilson scored the go-ahead goal to give the Penguins the win.
Carter Hart stopped 27 shots in the loss.
The next night in Scranton, the Phantoms took a 6-3 victory. It was the Penguins getting the hot start as Miletic scored twice in the first 11:19 to make it 2-0. Mark Friedman scored at 12:30 to cut the lead back to one.
In the second, German Rubtsov tied the game at 6:40. Phil Varone gave the Phantoms the lead with a power-play goal at 11:44. Less than three minutes later, Ethan Prow tied the game for the Penguins. Rubtsov scored his second of the game with 52 seconds left in the period to put the Phantoms in front.
Myers scored for the second time in as many games at 8:49 of the third period to pad the lead and Chris Conner capped the scoring with a power-play goal at 12:36.
Alex Lyon made 42 saves in the win.
Finally on Sunday afternoon, the Phantoms closed out the weekend with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
The Phantoms took a 2-0 lead after the first period on power-play goals by David Kase and Phil Varone.
Bridgeport tied things up in the second. Devon Toews scored at 10:03 and Steve Bernier added a power-play goal at 15:53.
Bernier scored again with 2:45 left in the third to give Bridgeport the 3-2 lead, but T.J. Brennan tied the game back up just 38 seconds later to force overtime. The Phantoms had a power play in overtime with a chance to win the game, but did not score.
In the shootout, Chris Bourque scored in the first round for Bridgeport and all three Phantoms shooters were stopped to decide the game.
Hart made 26 saves in the loss.
The Phantoms season continues with a Wednesday night game on the road against Hartford before a pair of road games over the weekend in Binghamton and Hershey.
