“Oh, twistedUnder, sideways, downI know you’re getting twistedAnd you can’t calm down”
–Ric Ocasek/The Cars, Magic
The Phantoms succumbed to the mighty Bears last night at the PPL Center despite having the better of play for much of the evening.
The Phantoms “magic number” is four. That means four standings points FOR the Phantoms in the form of two wins, OR four standings points the Hartford Wolfpack FAIL to get, such as in a regulation loss. Or, some combination thereof. A win tonight versus Springfield combined with a regulation loss by Hartford in Hershey would do it.
Records:
Overall: 33-27-5-2 (5th Place in Division)
Current First Round Opponent: 1-2 vs Providence
Regulation Wins: 22
Home: 17-13-2-1
Away: 16-14-3-1
White Jerseys: 17-10-1-1
White-Out Jerseys: 1-2
Orange Jerseys: 8-8-1
Black Alternate Jerseys: 4-4-2-1
Black-Out Jerseys: 1-1-1
Black on Steel Gray Jerseys: 1-2
Fridays: 9-8-2-1
Saturdays: 12-8-2
Sundays: 1-6-0-1
Wednesdays: 9-1-1
Tuesday/Thursday: 1-4
Sunday 3/3: 0-4-0-1
Post-Game Player Event Day: 2-1
October: 2-3-1-1
November: 7-3-2
December: 4-7-1
January: 8-4-1
February: 5-3-0-1
March: 5-6
April: 1-1
Standings:
| GP | GR | W | L | OTL | SOL | PTS | PCT | RW | ROW | GF | GA | STK | P10 | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 65 | 7 | 40 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 87 | 0.669 | 29 | 37 | 215 | 192 | 1-0-0-0 | 5-3-1-1 | 688 |
| 2 | 65 | 7 | 38 | 21 | 3 | 3 | 82 | 0.631 | 31 | 36 | 207 | 171 | 0-1-0-0 | 6-4-0-0 | 785 |
| 3 | 65 | 7 | 37 | 20 | 7 | 1 | 82 | 0.631 | 30 | 35 | 226 | 198 | 0-2-0-0 | 6-4-0-0 | 881 |
| 4 | 66 | 6 | 37 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 81 | 0.614 | 31 | 33 | 218 | 170 | 1-0-0-0 | 5-4-0-1 | 814 |
| 5 | 67 | 5 | 33 | 27 | 5 | 2 | 73 | 0.545 | 22 | 29 | 198 | 211 | 0-1-0-0 | 5-5-0-0 | 962 |
| 6 | 67 | 5 | 33 | 28 | 2 | 4 | 72 | 0.537 | 28 | 31 | 212 | 219 | 0-2-0-0 | 3-7-0-0 | 842 |
| 7 | 65 | 7 | 27 | 30 | 6 | 2 | 62 | 0.477 | 17 | 25 | 180 | 214 | 0-1-1-0 | 5-4-1-0 | 930 |
| 8 | 66 | 6 | 15 | 44 | 4 | 3 | 37 | 0.280 | 15 | 15 | 169 | 269 | 0-1-0-0 | 3-7-0-0 | 778 |
Lines Last Night:
91 Desnoyers 56 Gaucher 90 Richard
17 Wilson 77 Luchanko 72 Gendron
16 Avon 73 Rizzo 74 Wisdom
13 Furry 22 Gardner 36 Boulton
19 McDonald 7 Belpedio
37 Ginning 3 Grans
8 Gleason 5 Samson
40 Petersen (Backup: 31 Gahagen)
Scratches:
4 Ty Murchison 20 Cooper Marody 27 Samu Tuomaala 29 Nikita Grebenkin 32 Eetu Makiniemi 43 Oscar Eklind 46 Alex Ciernik 54 Givani Smith 55 Xavier Bernard
GAME DAY!
It’s Fantasmas night at the arena! It’s also Saturday Night Hockey Live!
Springfield is in town. They are the AHL affiliate of the St Louis Blues. Old nemesis from Hershey, Kale Kessy is on this team. Ex Penguin Corey Andonovski as well. You might recognize a couple other familiar names from around the league, too. As you can see from the standings above, Springfield is also trying to clinch a spot in the first round of the playoffs. But, they’re on a 2-game losing streak and 3-7 in their last 10 games. They have a top-5 power play, but are much closer to the bottom as far as penalty kill.
Show time is 7:05PM, expect hockey around 7:15PM
All doors at 6:00PM; STH/Premier Members WFMZ and Air Products special entrance at 5:45PM
Good seats still remain on both the primary and secondary markets.
MEDIA KIT
OFFICIALS
Referee Beau Halkidis (#48)
Referee Rob Hennessey (#87)
Linesperson Dylan Blujus (#70)
Linesperson Jud Ritter (#34)
Scouting the Refs: Halkidis got good marks the last time we saw him at the PPL Center. Hennessey was described as “uneven” in my notes.
What To Watch
- Watch for Gahagen in net. Watch for him to have a good game.
- Look for a win tonight. We play well on Saturdays.
- Watch to see if the Phantoms can score on the power play and at the same time try to minimize the damage that Springfield can do with the man advantage.
- It seems like it won’t be a “ref show” so power plays should be even and not excessive.
- Watch Grebby and the Jett. Unless he’s nicked up, look for Grebenkin to get back in there tonight.
- Look for 77 to get his first AHL goal tonight.
- Watch the scoreboard to see if we can get this thing clinched tonight.
Up Next
The Phantoms have the week off and will be back at it next weekend with a trip to Syracuse on Friday and then back home for Star Wars Night next Saturday versus Hershey at the PPL Center.
Column Update: Abbreviated posts or temporary hiatus until the playoffs, based on the weather and the baseball schedule.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207
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