Playing without the suspended Anton Babchuk and with leading scorer Rene Bourque missing most of the game with a deep gash in his chin, the Admirals rode the hot goaltending of Craig Anderson, who made 30 saves, to trim the Phantoms lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1.

"We didn’t like the way we played from start to finish," said Phantoms coach John Stevens. "We seemed really tentative at times and didn’t play with the energy we had in the first two games. We let them dictate the pace of play and that’s not when we’re at our best."

The Admirals attacked the Phantoms strength and forced their usually sound defensive corps to turn the puck over at critical times, which resulted in all three Admirals goals.

After Josh Gratton broke open the scoring when he scored on a rebound seconds after emerging from the penalty box, Norfolk quickly tied the score at one when Ajay Baines forced John Slaney to turn over the puck in the slot to Eric Nickulas who snapped a shot that caromed off of Jason Morgan and past Antero Niittymaki at 12:50 of the first period.

Niittymaki kept the Phantoms in the game during the second period, a stanza in which the Phantoms were badly outplayed as evidenced by the shot total of 14-4, favor Norfolk.

But, the score remained tied, and the Phantoms began the third period on a power play. However, unlike the first two games where they scored three goals with the man advantage, the Phantoms took the collar, going 0-for-7.

Rejuvenated after the kill, the Admirals again took the puck deep into the Phantoms zone.

Colin Fraser fought off Freddy Meyer and then blindly threw the puck in front of the Phantoms net from below the goal line.

The puck barely tipped off the end of Joni Pitkanen’s stick and past a surprised Niittymaki, and just like that, the Phantoms were trailing.

"I thought I had my stick on him, but he still got the shot off," said Meyer. "The next thing I knew the light went off and the crowd started cheering and I was asking myself, ‘How did that go in?’"

The Phantoms had plenty of opportunities to fight back, including three more power plays in the third period, but all were for naught as Anderson stopped everything they threw at him.

Then, an outlet pass from Meyer to Ben Eager that would have set off a 2-on-1 breakaway with R.J. Umberger was stifled when the puck got caught up in the skates of linesman Paul Carnathan.

Norfolk dumped it back behind the Phantoms net where Meyer collected it and started up ice.

But, he made a bad cross-ice pass that was intercepted by Brent Seabrook at the blue line. Seabrook fed Baines, who split Meyer and Pitkanen before sliding a backhander through Niittymaki’s five-hole, sealing the victory.

"I thought they were making a full change," said Meyer. "I saw Eager there, but obviously I didn’t look long enough. Their defenseman read the play and fed the slot and the next thing I knew it was in the net."

The Phantoms will have one day to figure out what exactly went wrong before they take on the Admirals in Game 4 Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Scope.