By Mike Thornton
Philadelphia Phantoms Correspondent

PHILADELPHIA - Jim Campbell became the first Phantom to score a goal in three straight games this season, but it was only after the Toronto Marlies had taken a 3-0 lead on Sunday night at the Wachovia Spectrum. The visitors regained their three goal advantage with an empty netter for the 4-1 win over Philadelphia in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

Toronto's first goal came 1:44 into the second period. Brett Englehardt threw a centering pass in front of the net that happened to hit Martin Sagat in the torso and ricochet past Martin Houle for the 1-0 lead.

The Marlies made it a 2-0 advantage at 5:35 of the third. Bates Battaglia slid a puck into open space behind the Phantoms defense to Kris Newbury, who walked in and beat Houle with a backhand.

Later in the period, while operating on a five-minute power play after a spearing major was called on Stefan Ruzicka, Ben Ondrus beat Houle to the short side from close range at 8:50 to make it a 3-0 game.

The Phantoms broke through for their first goal at 14:08 while on the power play. Tony Voce was holding the puck in the right circle while Campbell snuck around behind the net to the back door. Voce tossed him the keys, and Campbell fired the puck into a nearly open net to cut the deficit to 3-1. Toronto later finished out the scoring with an empty-net goal by John Pohl.

Houle took the loss with 28 saves on 31 shots faced. Jean-Sebastien Aubin made 20 saves on 21 shots to take the win and earn first star honors.

After the game, Phantoms Head Coach John Stevens commented on the team's torrid stretch of four games in five nights, "We've played a lot of hockey and went with five 'D' (defensemen) tonight. I think our guys worked extremely hard, it's just we didn't execute at times and it cost us a hockey game.