On The Road Again
The Phantoms grabbed 5 of 6 possible standings points on their three-game journey from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts and back.
The roadie followed an uneventful weekend of losing to the Griffins. It started great, with a visit to Hershey that saw the Phantoms pick up their first regulation win of the season against the perennial AHL powerhouse. That closes out an October that really could not be called a success at 2-3-1-1. The brand of hockey wasn’t great, the team has very little speed, and I’m not sure we have a netminder that I trust, although I’ll give Peterson high marks for going into the (not so) Giant Center and getting the win to start the trip.
In a fight-filled affair up in the Bay State, the Phantoms prevailed 5-2 versus the Thunderbirds. They’ll return there next week so we’ll see then if the bad blood persists. The Blues’ affiliate doesn’t visit Allentown until January.
In a return to Pennsylvania the Phantoms dropped an overtime contest to Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday night after Richard had been called up and Pittsburgh sent Jarry to torment the orange and black.
Records:
Overall: 3-3-2-1 (5th Place)
Home: 1-2-0-1
Away: 2-1-2
White Jerseys: 1-1
Orange Jerseys: 2-2-1
Black Jerseys: 0-0-1-1
Sunday 3/3: 0-0-0-1
Post-Game Event Day: —
Fridays: 0-1-1
Saturdays: 2-2
Sundays: 0-0-0-1
Wednesdays: 1-0-1
October: 2-3-1-1
November: 1-0-1
Roster Moves
10/26: D Emil Andrae and G Alexei Kolosov to Philadelphia
10/27: D Xavier Bernard called up from Reading
11/4: D Ben Gleason added via trade, 1:1, for D Ronnie Attard
11/6: F Anthony Richard called up to Philadelphia
11/6-7: F Sawyer Boulton takes a quick trip down 222 and back.
Discussion: It’s the Richard move that hurts the most in that he was a key part of generating shots and goals for the Phantoms on offense and the power play. Kolosov is not ready for the NHL, I still maintain, but the Flyers can keep him happy by giving him NHL pay checks in order to find that out for themselves. Meanwhile, the rotation of Peterson and Makiniemi might actually improve things for the Hamilton Street Heroes in a “Ewing Theory” kind of way.
Lines Wednesday at Casey Plaza:
43 Eklind 56 Gaucher 16 Avon
17 Wilson 22 Gardner 15 Lycksell
13 Furry 18 Abols 27 Tuomaala
72 Gendron 91 Desnoyers 74 Wisdom
19 McDonald 7 Belpedio
37 Ginning 5 Samson
55 Bernard 74 Wisdom
40 Petersen (Backup: 32 Makiniemi)
Scratches:
8 Ben Gleason, 10 Matt Brown, 20 Cooper Marody, 57 Mason Primeau, 73 Massimo Rizzo
Discussion: Good to see Avon back out there after he took the wrong end of a beating in Springfield–stick to breakaway goals kid, leave the fisticuffs to the fighters. Gleason maybe not in town yet or not settled in. Marody almost certainly injured, although I did hear that he was close (?) –not many sources for that info these days.
Phantoms Media Notes:
– Samu Tuomaala (3-5-8) is tied for the AHL lead in power-play points having scoring 3-4-7 on the man advantage. Alex Limoges of Hershey also has seven power-play points. Tuomaala scored 15-28-43 in 69 games in his rookie season while representing the Phantoms at the AHL All-Star Classic in San Jose.
– Olle Lycksell is getting his chances but is still in search of his first goal of the season. Lycksell is second in the AHL with 40 shots on goal including five on Wednesday at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Only Dryden Hunt of the Calgary Wranglers has more with 41. Lycksell’s 19 goals in just 38 games was tied with Cooper Marody for most on the Phantoms last year.
– The Phantoms are tied for first in the AHL with 36.0 shots on goal per game. Rochester also is averaging 36 shots.
– Lehigh Valley’s power play is tied for second in the AHL with Milwaukee at 26.7% trailing only the ludicrous 40.5% power-play conversion rate of the Charlotte Checkers.
GAME DAY!
It’s the first Friday home game of the season as well as the first dollar dog night of the season. Grab your dollar dogs (let me know if you paid tax–dollar dogs are $1.06 over at Coca Cola Park) at any stand that sells hot dogs. Bring your credit card as cash is discouraged these days.
The Penguins are in town with their silly yellow hats. This will be the fourth meeting of the season between the turnpike rivals. Phantoms are 0-2-1 so it hasn’t been great for us. The Penguins affiliate is 7-2 on the season and nipping at the heels of the mighty Bears. The samples are still pretty small, but let’s take a look at special teams headed into tonight’s contest: The Phantoms #3 Power Play will face off against the Pens #5 PK unit. Meanwhile, the Pens #19 Power Play will go against the Phantoms #21 Penalty Kill.
Good seats still remain for game tonight. As per usual, there are some deals to be had on the secondary market; you don’t have to spend a fortune to go to these games. 5:45PM Season Ticket Entrance, 6:00PM All Gates, 7:05PM Show Begins, 7:16PM Actual Hockey.
Kram Komplains About The Arena: (continuing the series where I urge the arena–not the Phantoms–to get their act together 10 years into this thing). Only the first Friday home game of the month can be dollar dogs. Not the second. That would be too much promotion. There would be five opportunities to add another Friday Dog Night this season. It just feels cheap. I have not had one of the hot dogs–at some baseball stadiums they do go with Berk’s smaller hot dogs for the promotions. How are the rolls? Let me know in the comments if you have any feedback on dollar arena dogs. Maybe I’ll try to get one tonight.
OFFICIALS
Referee Liam Maaskant (#45)
Referee Casey Terreri (#75)
Linesperson Brandon Grillo (#79)
Linesperson Jud Ritter (#34)
MEDIA KIT
What To Watch
- If we’re alternating goalies now, look for Makiniemi in net tonight. Pens situation is not good for us–Jarry is undefeated since coming down from Pittsburgh, and Larsson’s one win was a shutout versus the Phantoms at PPL Center. I believe Jarry is eligible to remain with the Wyoming Valley team through our game with them on Wednesday.
- More on Jarry from Phantoms Media:Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (7-2-0) is heating up and on a three-game win streak entering this week’s home-and-home series against Lehigh Valley. Tristan Jarry (4-0-0, 1.69, .946) has thrived while he is down from Pittsburgh on a conditioning loan and is still available to start both games against the Phantoms this week. The 29-year-old underperformed in three games with the big club to begin the season going 1-1-0, 5.47, .836 and is back in the AHL for the first time since 2018-19 while finding his form again. Jarry has 137 wins in 260 career NHL games along with 81 career AHL wins with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.Jarry was a thorn in the side of the Phantoms back in his AHL days with four shutouts at PPL Center in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons and lifetime at PPL Center is 10-4-1, 2.47, .922.
- UPDATE: Jarry is on “conditioning” and may have to return to Pittsburgh–or other roster move–after the game tonight. We’ll see.
- Hey, on any given night, right? If Jarry plays and gives up a couple goals, look for sections 120-103 to let him have it.
- The Phantoms have certainly been able to generate shots on goal this young season. Perhaps the quality of the shots has been poor at times. Watch to see if they start to be more deliberate with shot choices or if the loss of Richard impacts the offense and the power play.
- Watch for fights, I guess. I don’t know if the Phantoms will be in the mood following the pugilism in Springfield, but this is the fourth time these teams have played, already this season, and they have to be getting on each other’s nerves.
- Watch to see if we can get a little better crowd tonight now that we’re past Halloween. But there’s still High School football tonight, I guess, so that could keep folks away.
- Be careful driving now that it gets dark so soon.
- Watch for Gleason; he’ll be wearing #8. My take is that Attard had too many lapses as a pure defender that he couldn’t make up for with offensive contribution and the Flyers thought he had reached his ceiling. Gleason seems like a good solid veteran blue-liner who can play some defense. See what you think.
Up Next
It’s three in a row at home here to start our home-November slate. We’re right back at it here tomorrow for Saturday Night Hockey Live with a visit from Utica. I believe this is Utica’s only visit this season. Get ready to see ugly New Jersey stuff. The Penguins affiliate will be right back here on Wednesday for our first Happy Hour game of the season. And, we’ve got a game next Saturday as well, around a quick jaunt to Springfield on Friday.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207