By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
It's usually been slow starts at home for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season. Wednesday night, they flipped the script by rushing out to a 5-1 lead. They then allowed Bridgeport to climb back in and tie the game at five, before ultimately winning by a final of 8-6.
The back-and-forth affair saw 13 different Phantoms end up on the score sheet, mostly from a wild first period.
The Phantoms burst out for four goals in the opening frame, including two from rookie defenseman Travis Sanheim. The Phantoms fifth-ranked power play helped fuel the offensive outburst, but was not perfect.
Lehigh Valley got on the board first and early, thanks to a goal from Chris Conner just 1:27 in. Conner stole the puck and skated hard down the far side boards, cut past his defender, and came hard to the net. Skating across the Sound Tigers crease, he found daylight between the pad of Eamon McAdam and the near side post and opened the scoring.
The Phantoms gave Bridgeport a power play less than a minute later, but the Sound Tigers could not convert. Lehigh Valley then ended up with four straight power plays, and while two would not convert, the other two would lead to great opportunities.
Sanheim scored his first of the night four seconds after a power play expired, by putting a shot from the near side circle off a Bridgeport players skate and into the net to make it 2-0. Sanheim then scored his second of the night while on the power play from the far side of the ice. He banged a wrist shot off both posts and in to give the Phantoms a comfy 3-0.
Bridgeport pressed back immediately and got a goal after the fourth Phantoms power play expired. Travis St. Denis put one in off the pad of Alex Lyon from along the Phantoms goalline to get the Sound Tigers on the board.
The Phantoms answered quickly with a goal of their own three minutes later as Mark Zengerle picked a corner on McAdam to make it 4-1. Jordan Weal took a penalty at the 19:19 mark of the period, giving Bridgeport carry over power play time to start the second.
Looking to change the momentum with their carry over man advantage time, the Sound Tigers pulled McAdam in favor of Stephon Williams to start the second. Unfortunately the plan would not work, as Josh Ho-Sang and Bracken Kearns took penalties 20 and 54 seconds into negate the power play and give the Phantoms one of their own.
That man advantage turned into a 5-on-3 for the Phantoms, and they cashed in again. Andy Miele sent a pass to Weal at the dot on the far side circle, and Weal saw Greg Carey wide open on the bottom of the nearside circle. Weal threaded the needle on the pass, and Carey one-timed the puck top shelf to make it 5-1. The goal was Carey's 12th of the season, which gives him the team lead. It's also his league leading ninth tally on the power play.
Bridgeport got one back short-handed on a breakaway for Connor Jones, who snapped a shot high glove side on Lyon. That goal proved to be a turning point in the game, as the Sound Tigers roared back and scored the next three goals to tie the game.
Tanner Fritz made it a 5-3 game by finishing off a 2-on-1 with Scott Mayfield, putting the puck passed Lyon on the near side post. Devon Toews scored next on a shot from the point that got through a screen and Lyon to make it 5-4. Steve Bernier finished off the comeback with his team leading ninth for Bridgeport, a backhander in the slot that beat Lyon clean to make it 5-5.
The Phantoms completely fell apart in the back half of the second, not being able to even break out of their own zone cleanly to get their own rush going. The four straight goals in in a little over seven minutes for the Sound Tigers was the result, setting up a crucial third period for both teams.
Bridgeport had 42 seconds of carry over power play time from a too many men penalty to the Phantoms at the end of the second, and had a chance to take the lead. Lehigh Valley held strong however, and the power play went to waste. The Phantoms pressured immediately, and got a power play of their own. Connor Jones went down hard after a hit from Cole Bardreau, and the refs deemed he went down a little too easy. Jones was slapped with embellishment, and the Phantoms power play went to work.
The power play ended up getting strong chances, but Williams had an answer for each to keep the game tied. With six seconds left on the man advantage, Mayfield and Danick Martel took matching roughing minors to negate the power play. During the two penalties, Lyon made an incredible glove save to negate a Bridgeport 2-on-1 to keep the game tied.
T.J. Brennan ended up being the guy to finally break through, as his shot from the near side circle snuck through the pads of Williams and got across the goalline to make it 6-5.
After Bridgeport had the Phantoms hemmed in their own zone again, the Phantoms started to break out. Being turned back each time, the Phantoms Finally got a clean break. Rushing up ice into a 2-on-1 break, Zengerle held the puck as long as he could till he got to below the far side circle. He then threw a pass to Radel Fazleev who finished it off to make it 7-5.
The Sound Tigers, down two goals, pulled Williams with 3:10 left in favor of the extra attacker to try and tie the game again. Bridgeport had the better of the play while up a man, but had not broken through up with 1:16 left to play. Still down two, they took their timeout looking to find the magic they had in the second again.
They broke through just 10 seconds later on a goal from Andrew Rowe to make it a one-goal game yet again. That would be all the Sound Tigers would get though, as Bardreau iced it with an empty netter and the Phantoms ended up holding on to win 8-6.
Even though they gave up a 3-0 and 5-1 lead, the Phantoms ended up leaving PPL Center as winners on Wednesday night. They now turn their attention to the Hershey Bears on Friday at home.
Notes
- The Phantoms 21 shots first period shots, 4 first period goals, and 8 goals in the game were all season highs for the team.
- Wednesday's game also marked the 12th time that the Phantoms have scored two or more power play goals in a game this season.
- In a strange stat, thanks to being pulled from tonight's game, local prospect Eamon McAdam still does not have a loss to his record this season for Bridgeport.
Quotes
- T.J. Brennan on how he felt about tonight's back-and-forth affair: "That game was an absolute roller coaster. Before the game, it would've been a long shot to say that the game would end up 8-6. So sometimes when that happens, which is probably few and far between, you just kinda got to go with it and find what's working. It's tough, you have to deal with adversity out there. A lot of the things we thought might work, and you get in these rhythms, and things that usually work don't. That's the game of hockey and more importantly, that's life."
- Head coach Scott Gordon on what went wrong during the middle part of tonight's game: "It's one thing to go wrong when it's self inflicted. We make two horrible, soft, backhand plays that there's no need for. We have other options. We had control of the game up until they scored the shorthanded goal. There wasn't anything happening in the second period we had to worry about. We're halfway through the game, we're up 5-1, and then we all of a sudden decided we were gonna play a little recklessly."
