Phantoms waste stellar efforts by Wilson, Desnoyers in defeat
Garrett Wilson led a three-goal second period before later finishing the hat trick and Elliot Desnoyers recorded a four-point night, but the Hartford Wolf Pack downed the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 6-4 on Sunday.
In the aftermath of Lehigh Valley’s comeback win on Saturday, the Phantoms once again erased an early deficit before erupting offensively in the second period. Hartford’s six goals started with Gustav Rydahl, who dueled Garrett Wilson with a hat-trick of his own. Rydahl tallied the opening period’s lone goal at 12:42 from Ty Emberson to provide Hartford a 1-0 advantage.
Wilson answered for Lehigh Valley only 99 seconds into the second stanza. Wolf Pack goaltender Louis Domingue misplayed the puck away from the net, and Wilson buried a shortside chance to knot the score at 1.
Lehigh Valley later scored on a power-play to salvage a 2-1 advantage. Seven seconds into a man-advantage, Elliot Desnoyers finished his 18th goal of the season after receiving a perfect pass from
Ronnie Attard at 5:20.
A big night for Wilson and Desnoyers continued, as the alternate captain struck once again at 12:34, and rookie sensation Desnoyers captured his third point of the period. Wilson stormed the net along the left-wing before pulling the string on a forehand-backhand play. Avoiding a pokecheck attempt from Domingue, Wilson finished into an open cage to open a 3-1 advantage.
The tide shifted in the third period with a five-goal outbreak by the Wolf Pack, including four unanswered in the final five minutes. Will Cuylle brought Hartford closer at 7:16, before Wilson completed his hat-trick at 9:24.
Wilson jammed home a short-side chance from a sharp angle. Wilson’s hat-trick marked the second in his American Hockey League career and first since as a member of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Dec. 1, 2017, against the Milwaukee Admirals. Desnoyers also earned the primary helper for his career-best fourpoint night and three-assist game. Desnoyers is the third Phantom to record a fourpoint game this season joining Olle Lycksell and Artem Anisimov.
Rydahl trimmed the Wolf Pack’s deficit to 4-3 at 12:50 before also tying the score at the 15:32 mark to complete his hat-trick performance.
Prior to Sunday’s game, the last time Lehigh Valley went tit-for-tat with dueling hat-tricks with their opponent was on Feb. 5, 2016 versus the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Both Danick Martel and Bracken Kearns tallied thrice in a 6-3 Bridgeport victory.
Wilson recorded the first hat trick for Lehigh Valley since Brennan Saulnier scored a trifecta against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on May 9, 2021, for the seventh Phantoms’ all-time hat-trick at PPL Center.
Libor Hakek scored the game-winning goal at 18:00, and Turner Elson buried an empty net chance at 19:25 to complete the 6-4 final.
Notes: Crowd of 7,732 showed up to help celebrate the birthday of team mascot, MeLVin. … The Phantoms begin a four-game road swing on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.