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Dominic Basse flashes the glove as he makes the save in a 5-3 win over the Tri-City Storm.

The Phantoms were not happy with the way they played on Friday night. If you needed evidence of that, it was on display last night in the rematch. For the second consecutive week, the Phantoms managed to earn a split in a weekend series after a poor showing the the first game. This week it was the Tri-City Storm, a team that is hard to generate offense against.

The Phantoms came out flying in the first. They played with a lot more energy and more importantly, they played with a lot more purpose. Puck support looked to be remarkably better early on, multiple players converging on the puck instead of watching one guy try to pull it out of a crowd of Storm players.

Despite the increased effort, the Storm struck first. Phantoms defenseman Artyom Borshyov got trapped deep in the Storm zone as the puck went back up ice. Forward Georgi Merkulov was unable to keep up with speedy forward Matthew Knies, and the puck carrier, Chase McLean, slid the puck over to Knies in the slot for a one-timer that beat Dominic Basse at 11:30. That didn't take too much of the starch out of the Phantom's sails, but a late PP goal by Cole McWard, hammering home a loose puck from the left faceoff circle with :26 left in the period, didn't help. Shots were 9-4 Tri-City after the first.

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Aiden Gallacher and company dig out a puck along the boards in a 4-1 loss to the Tri-City Storm.

Well, it wasn't the energy game we were hoping for the week after beating the U17s in an OT thriller. Last nights loss to the Tri-City Storm was a pretty lackluster performance for the Phantoms in general. In particular, with Trevor Kuntar suspended for the evening the offense seemed to sputter and the Phantoms fell 4-1.

Mitchell Miller got the Storm on the board first, just 1:35 into the game. Miller just launched a wrist shot from near the blueline while Nick Portz skated in front of the Phantoms netminder, Colin Purcell, for a screen with Georgi Merkulov engaged with Portz. Purcell probably did not even see the shot until it was by him. This was just the second shot of the game for the Storm

The Phantoms answered back quickly. Jayson Dobay took a Garrett Dahm pass off the boards and blasted it from well above the left faceoff circle and by Storms goaltender Todd Scott at 4:45. That was it and the Storm outshot the Phantoms 14-7 in the first period but we were still tied going into the second.

Despite being outshot, the Phantoms were still hanging in towards the end of the second. A failed powerplay and an icing call set up a defensive zone faceoff for the Phantoms. The Storm won it and Miller got a shot on goal. Purcell was unable to control the rebound and a scrum of players crashed the front of the net and the puck went behind Purcell off of Colby Ambrosio's stick at 17:14. Miller would add another off a backhand from the slot on the powerplay with 0:13 left in the period to make it 3-1 late in the period. Shots were 13-6 in the middle frame.

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Colin Purcell makes the save on a Sasha Pastujov breakaway in OT as the Phantoms come from 3 goals down to win 6-5 in OT against the NTDP U17 squad

One day after another embarrassing loss to the NTDP's U17 squad in Plymouth, it looked like the Phantoms were well on their way to repeating the task. The first two meetings between these clubs resulted in 9-2 and 9-3 losses respectively and this one had the same look to it but the Phantoms did not quit tonight and got 2 points where a lot of teams would have folded.

 The game seemed pretty even in the first period until late in the frame. With the Phantoms having to kill back to back penalties, USA finally tallied on the second at 18:04 when Roman Schmidt launched a shot from the point and Nikolai Jenson, unable to clear Ty Murchison out, screened Dominic Basse. Just 0:27 later, Jack Hughes took a pass from Jacob Martin in the left faceoff circle that found a small seam between Basse's stick side and the post for the second goal of the period. The Phantoms outshot USA 9-8 but trailed by 2 after 20:00.

USA pushed the lead to 3 goals on a 3-on-2 rush where they pushed the Phantoms defenders low as Murchison made it a 4-on-2 late and Dylan Duke hit him with a pass entering the zone. He had a clear lane into the slot where he ripped a shot for a goal at 5:47 of the second.