It’s 34 miles from the Sovereign Center in Reading to the PPL Center in Allentown, but congestion and constant traffic lights along route 222 makes the trip take about an hour. It’s a trip that goalie Martin Ouellette has made a lot over the past two seasons being shuttled back and forth between the Reading Royals and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Most of his playing time, and the bulk of his success, has come at Reading, but the 24-year old had somewhat of a breakout game with Lehigh Valley Saturday night. With the Phantoms clinging to any thread of hope for a playoff spot and the Hartford Wolf Pack in town looking to bolster their playoff chances, Ouellette was peppered with 39 shots, 38 of which he saved, many in a rather impressive fashion.

The outing was much different than Ouellette’s showing on Wednesday night when he allowed the first three shots he faced to slip past him, ending his night just 12 minutes into what would turn out to be an 8-0 loss to Hershey on their home ice. On Friday night, Ouellette had already turned things around, stopping 33 shots in a win over Providence, but his performance against Hartford was spectacular.

“You’ve got to turn the page quickly; you’ve got to forget about that one and just hold on,” said Ouellette. “I think that as a team, we did a good job of doing that and worked hard for 60-minutes and tonight was huge for us.”

The Wolf Pack didn’t really test Ouellette too much in the first period, but they outshot the Phantoms 17-4 in the second period and continued the barrage in the third. The only goal Ouellette allowed came when Hartford pulled their goalie to go six-on-five, and cut the Phantoms 2-0 lead to 2-1 with just 15 seconds left in the game.

Davis Drewiske and Paval Padakin got the Phantoms off to an early start, with Drewiske scoring just 33-seconds into the game and Padakin deflecting a Tyler Goulbourne shot with his skate to beat goalie Magnus Hellberg and put Lehigh Valley up 2-0.

The constant moves between Reading and Lehigh Valley have made it tough for Ouellette to settle in, but he’s learning to balance the changes in the game between the two levels and what has, at times, been varying playing time for him.

“It’s not too bad, I’ve been here a lot and last year was pretty similar. Fortunately, it’s not too long of a drive, so it’s not too bad,” laughed Ouellette, who admitted that the speed of the game between the two levels is the biggest challenge.

Coach Scott Gordon has taken note of the recent improvement in Ouellette, especially with two strong showings coming on the heels of his nightmare against Hershey.

“In the last two games, he’s gotten better every period, so that’s good for him,” said Gordon. “He certainly made a difference tonight.”

Phantom Facts: Saturday night was Fan Appreciation Night, with 8,677 fans giving the Phantoms their 11th straight sellout. Lehigh Valley averages 8,233 fans per game, good enough for seventh in the AHL and third in the Eastern Conference... The Flyers have sent Oskar Lindblom, their fifth round selection in the 2014 Draft, to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on an amateur tryout deal. Lindblom had been playing in the Swedish Hockey League... Chris Conner scored perhaps the strangest goal of the season against Providence. An attempted pass from behind the net bounced off the base of the net, going straight up in the air and bouncing off the back of goalie Jeremy Smith and bounced into the net for the game-winning goal.