(This is for last night's game. Tonight's starts in about an hour, and Carter may not be playing if head coach Scott Gordon sticks with his usual "rotation" tonight will be Alex Lyon's "turn".) @andremarcusburky
The Phantoms were dominating the first period until the scoring got started 17:46 into the first period when Springfield's Paul Thompson wrapped around the back of the Phantoms net and Carter read the play a fraction of a second too slow and by the time he slid across his crease Thompson was still able to squeeze the puck between the blade of his left skate and the net post to give the Thunderbird's a 1-0 lead late in period one, and that's how the period would conclude.
In period two, just two mins in, the Thunderbirds took a penalty. On one play the Thunderbirds cleared the puck and a Thunderbirds player was in ahead of all Phantoms, so Carter came out to get the puck to prevent any dangerous chances. He got the puck to defenseman TJ Brennan and the Phantoms quickly broke back toward the Thunderbirds zone where Brennan made a quick pass to German Rubtsov who gave it to Chris Connor who quickly got it to Greg Carey who fired it over Thunderbirds goalie Michael Hutchinson's shoulder. Shortly after that Taylor Leier took a penalty at about the 3:40 mark of the period - which he did not agree with, but the refs didn't want to hear what Leier had to say and the Thunderbirds got a power play. At the end of the power play there was some type of miscommunication amongst the Thunderbirds and Hutchinson may not have thoroughly warned his teammates the power play was coming to an end, and they lost control of the puck in the neutral zone just as Leier jumped from the box and picked it up at the Thunderbirds blue line. At 5:43 of the period he skated into the Thunderbirds zone on a breakaway and beat Hutchinson on the backhand into the top half of the exposed net. Phantoms and Thunderbirds took coincidental minors almost immediately after the Leier goal and at 7:36 Mike Vecchione took a lead pass from Chris Connor and broke into the Thunderbirds zone on a mini breakaway and beat Hutchinson backhand five-hole. Exactly one minute later, while the Phantoms were short handed after having taken yet another penalty, Cole Bardreau picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and skated in on a breakaway and scored backhand top shelf to give the Phantoms a 4-1 lead. The Thunderbirds finally got a little sustained offensive zone time and at 13:03 of the period Dryden Hunt managed to beat Carter with a quick release that Carter got a piece of, but not quite enough as it snuck just over the goal line to make it 4-2 Phantoms. Refs checked the goal for a good 30-45 seconds to make sure it had fully crossed the line, and ultimately ruled it had. The period wasn't quite over yet, though. At 16:23 the Phantoms crashed the Thunderbirds net hard, and with Hutchinson down and out German Rubtsov got his stick on a loose puck in the crease and managed to nudge it into the net. The refs also checked this goal to make sure no players' hands had knocked it into the net, and to make sure it had made it fully across the goal line. And with that, the period would come to an end with a five goal Phantoms outburst for the first time ever.
Period three started off on the scary side. At about the 5:30 mark the Thunderbirds were down 2 men when the Thunderbirds Michael Downing collided head first with the Phantoms Chris Connor drawing some blood from Downing and knocking him out cold for a few seconds. Players immediately signaled for trainers and medics. Downing did move his arms and legs before the medic team immobilized him and lifted him onto the stretcher. He did give a thumbs up as he was wheeled off the ice. Can only hope he'll be okay. No penalty was assessed to Connor as the collision was completely unintentional and accidental.
Once play resumed at the 5:43 mark of the period, with the Thunderbirds still down two men, Greg Carey scored his second goal of the game after a nice pass from Phil Varone. There was a bit of back and forth play before Taylor Leier scored his second of the night at the 9:49 mark of the third period to make it 7-2 Phantoms. Chris Connor would put the official nail in this one at 14:29 of the third period to make it 8-2 Phantoms.
About the Leier penalty in the first(which he scored immediately after) I honestly am not sure there was a penalty which is why Leier argued it. He was called for tripping, but I honestly didn't see him trip the guy. His stick didn't look like it was anywhere near the player's legs/feet. It looked like he had just lost an edge and fell, but because Leier was "too close" to him when he fell the refs believed Leier tripped him.
I truly hope Downing is okay. That whole situation was pretty scary, but it was good to see him moving extremities and give a thumbs up as he was wheeled off the ice.
As for Carter, while goal one was not good, the fact it didn't rattle him or cause him to allow another goal shortly after shows his mental toughness. He's also playing the puck a lot more, as I kind of pointed out right before the Phantoms first goal in the recap. He obviously doesn't get an assist on the play, but without him collecting the puck and getting it to Brennan that play likely turns into a dangerous chance against for the Thunderbirds rather than a goal for the Phantoms. He did not have a heavy work load, as his D was pretty good in front of him all night, he was only forced to face 18 shots, and stopped 16 of them. With exception to the first goal, he did stop the shots he needed to stop.
Tonight(11/10) versus the Charlotte Checkers at 7:05PM.
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