Phantoms End Road Trip With 4-1 Win

R.J. Umberger broke a 1-1 tie early in the second period to give the Philadelphia Phantoms the lead for good in a 4-1 victory over the Worcester IceCats at the DCU Center.

On the game-winning goal, the rookie center took a feed from Jon Sim and found the back of the net just 24 seconds into the middle frame. It was Umberger's 16th goal of the season.

Antero Niittymaki made 32 saves to pick up the victory in net, as the Phantoms finished a four-game road trip with three wins against just one loss. Philadelphia returns to the Wachovia Spectrum on Friday to face Worcester on its home ice.

The victory snapped the Phantoms' five-game losing streak against Worcester dating back to October 5, 2001.

The IceCats opened with the game's first goal on a power play tally by Jon DiSalvatore at 8:15, but the Phantoms quickly responded. Patrick Sharp raced in on a two-on-one rush, went around Worcester's Aris Brimanis and lifted a wrist shot past Curtis Sanford at 9:46 to even the score.

After Umberger gave the Phantoms the lead, Philadelphia was forced to kill a couple of penalties to Umberger and Ben Stafford, including 1:18 in which the team was down two men.

The penalty-killing unit came though, and at 5:44 Ben Eager's fourth goal of the season from Sim and Randy Jones gave the Phantoms a two-goal cushion.

Sim has 16 points (11g, 5a) in his last 10 games and registered his 11th multi-point game of the season, leading the team.

The Phantoms killed off four of five Worcester power plays but finished 0-for-6 with a man advantage.

An empty net goal by Todd Fedoruk with 13 seconds left capped the scoring.

Phantoms Notes: David Printz, Josh Gratton, Boyd Kane and Joey Hope were the scratches. ... Dennis Seidenberg was a team-high +3. ... The Phantoms improved to 20-1 when scoring at least four goals.