There aren’t many more heartbreaking ways to lose a hockey game than what the Lehigh Valley Phantoms did on Saturday night.
Down 0-1 in their best-of-five series with the Hershey Bears after a tough OT loss on Friday in Game 1, the Phantoms blew leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-2 en route to a backbreaking, deflating, probably season-killing 5-4 defeat.
They’ll now need three straight wins to keep their season alive now, two on the road, against the defending Eastern Conference Champion Bears.
It started out great, at least. On the first shift of the game, Colin McDonald stepped up and absolutely wrecked a Bear with a devastating hit that was honestly pretty reminiscent of a certain Claude Giroux hit on Sidney Crosby that took place five years ago today.