By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
Friday night, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms started their first three-game weekend of the 2016-17 season, all of which are on the road, with an impressive 5-1 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Jordan Weal and T.J. Brennan led the way for the Phantoms, each tallying three points — one goal and two assists for both — in the win. Greg Carey added two goals and Danick Martel rounded out the scoring.
Martel got the scoring started at 4:14 of the first. The goal, Martel's third of the season, came off an assist from Chris Conner, who centered the puck from below the goal line for an easy tap in for Martel to make it 1-0.
Weal struck just over 10 minutes later, scoring his first of the year and first since being sent down from the Flyers. Will O'Neill took a shot from the left side boards that rebounded off the pad of Magnus Hellberg right to Weal, who had a shot at a yawning cage to extend the lead to two.
The Phantoms put 11 shots on goal in the first, and kept the pressure on Hellberg early.
The Phantoms struggling power play, which is loaded with offensive talent, found a way to click on the road, scoring twice IN 3;24 in the second period. The first of the two, Carey's first on the night, came on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play. Weal found Andy Miele, who zipped the puck to a wide open Carey at the far post for an easy one-timer into the net to make it 3-0.
That goal would chase Hellberg, who made 13 saves on 16 shots in his time between the pipes. Mackenzie Skapski entered the game, but did not fair much better against the Lehigh Valley power play. Brennan potted the other of the two goals in less than four minutes, beating Skapski right off a face-off. The puck was tied up, but dug out by Taylor Leier, who sent the puck back to Weal, who found Brennan for the goal to open up a 4-0 lead.
The game was pretty much all Lehigh Valley to this point. A short-handed breakaway chance for Marek Hrivik seemed to be the only thing that went wrong with the Lehigh Valley power play, as Hrivik beat Anthony Stolarz clean on the glove side to put Hartford on the board.
Only six shots combined from both teams were thrown on net in the third, and one of those would find twine. That came from Carey for his second goal of the night on a point shot that found its way to the back of the net.
The only other highlight of the third was the combined 22 penalty minutes between the two teams. Other than that, the defenses took over and kept a majority of the shots away from their respective goalies. Of those six combined shots on goal, the Phantoms had five, continuing their dominance over the game.
After a loss at home to this same Hartford Wolf Pack team last weekend, the Phantoms rebounded for an impressive performance in their first road game of the season. Stolarz made 32 saves on 33 shots in route to his second win of the season.
Lehigh Valley continues their three-game road trip in Bridgeport on Saturday and finish it in Hershey on Sunday.
Notes
- Lehigh Valley's power play got clicking on Friday night, going 2-for-4 and helping lead the way to the victory.
- The Phantoms offseason pickups keep proving their worth, having 11 of the Phantoms 14 points on Friday night — four goals, seven assists. The only members of last year's team to register a point in Friday's win were Martel, Conner and Leier.
3 Stars
3. Greg Carey (LV) - 2 goals
2. T.J. Brennan (LV) – goal, 2 assists
1. Jordan Weal (LV) – goal, 2 assists
