Sunday, December 17, 2006

PHILADELPHIA - Triston Grant and Boyd Kane led the way with two goals apiece as the Philadelphia Phantoms rode a 3-for-4 performance on the power play to a 5-3 win over the Toronto Marlies on Sunday at the Wachovia Spectrum. Petr Nedved contributed three assists for the Phantoms, who snapped a five-game losing skid.

Philadelphia struck first while on the power play at 8:26 of the first period. *Petr Nedved* saucered a pass cross-ice to *Denis Tolpeko* in the left circle. Tolpeko, in turn, sent the puck to the top of the crease where *Boyd Kane* redirected it past goaltender Justin Pogge to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead.

The Marlies tied it up at 11:20. They were operating on a 5-on-3 power play when Brett Engelhart worked free and generated a deep two-on-one.

*Don Morrison* cut off the passing lane, but Engelhart snapped a perfectly-placed wrist shot high to the glove side of *Scott Munroe* to make things 1-1.

But Philadelphia responded with two quick goals. The first one came at 14:12, when *Frederik Cabana* made a nifty move down low on the right side to get around a defenseman and center to *Triston Grant*, who was able to convert from the top of the crease for the 2-1 lead.

The lead became 3-1 at the 15:02 mark, with the Phantoms just underway in their second power play attempt. *Nolan Baumgartner *fired a seeing-eye puck that rose as it sliced through traffic and reached its destination just inside the upper left corner of the net, to Pogge's stick side. The goal chased Pogge from the net in favor of backup Todd Ford. The 3-1 score stood through the first intermission.

Philadelphia continued pouring it on with its third power-play goal just 3:19 into the second period. Kane earned his second of the night

Not to be outdone, Grant picked up his second of the contest at 14:48 of the second period. He took a drop pass from Cabana in the right circle and fired a blistering wrister high to the short side of Ford to make it 5-1.

"The stick was hot tonight," said Grant. "I guess tonight a couple of bounces here and they fell in the back of the net."

Toronto got one back with just 2.2 seconds left in the period while on the power play. Kris Newbury fired a slapshot from the right point that didn't hit anything until it found the padding at the back of the net, first going through a screen and then through Munroe's pads to make it a 5-2 game at intermission.

The Marlies scored the only goal of the third period, coming off the stick of Boothwyn native and Little Flyers alum Jeff Corey.

Toronto outshot the Phantoms 43-21 on the game. Munroe earned the win with 40 saves, notching his second 40-save game of the season after making 41 saves on Nov. 5 at Hershey.

Ford was tagged with the loss after stopping 11 of 13 in relief of Pogge, who turned away five of eight shots.