“What one man can do, another can do…”
– Anthony Hopkins
The Phantoms return from Hershey with as good of a result as you’d hope: Split the two games in Chocolatetown and come home with a three-game series remaining and two of them are at home. The first of the two home games is today at 5:05PM, the second is on Friday at 7:05PM. Should another game become necessary, it will be next Sunday in Hershey.
Phantoms lost Game 1 on Wednesday, 3-0, but then on Friday this happened:
Game 2 Highlights, 3-1 Phantoms Win
Lines
15 Lycksell 56 Gaucher 74 Wisdom
29 Grebenkin 18 Ābols 90 Richard
17 Wilson 77 Luchanko 21 Bump
43 Eklind 91 Desnoyers 54 Smith
19 McDonald 7 Belpedio
6 Andrae 5 Samson
37 Ginning 3 Grans
31 Gahagen (40 Petersen)
Discussion: Richard and Bump switch lines compared with Wednesday, allowing the kids Jett and Bump to play together–at least to start, perhaps they mixed it up during the game, especially after Wilson was thrown out. The big lineup change was adding Dessy to the third line in place of Gardner. From several accounts, he seemed to play well.
Season Series
The two-time defending Calder Cup Champions with the best record in the AHL come in as the prohibitive favorites in their opening round of this year’s tournament. But a closer look reveals a match-up without a clear favorite. We wrote before the playoffs that if a team is going to beat Hershey this year, it will likely be Scranton or Allentown, whenever that winner gets to face them, simply because of the familiarity.
Overall: Lehigh Valley: 5-4-1-0 – Hershey 5-4-1-0
Regulation: Lehigh Valley: 4-4 – Hershey 4-4
PPL Center: Lehigh Valley: 3-2-1 – Hershey 3-2-1
PPL Center, In Regulation: Lehigh Valley: 2-2 – Hershey: 2-2
Stretching: The Phantoms were dreadful on Sundays this season (1-9-1). That doesn’t bode well for tonight, but also keep in mind that every Sunday game they played this season was preceded by a Saturday night game, while today’s game is not. Hershey is kind of famous for playing those home Sunday games in the afternoon where the traveling team is worn out from Friday and Saturday or at least from Saturday. So if we take out the Sunday games in Hershey, it looks like this:
No Scrubs Sundays: Lehigh Valley: 5-2-1 – Hershey: 3-4-1
GAME DAY!
Event time is 5:05PM, expect hockey to start around 5:15PM. Doors should be 4:00PM and perhaps FMZ and Air Product Season Ticket Doors at 3:45PM. If you can’t get out to the game, it will be on Service Electric as well as on Flo-Hockey.
Remember that some of your favorite downtown places might be closed on Sundays or have other incongruent hours with the 5PM start. Also remember that street parking is free on Sundays except in the Arena Block. Check carefully.
Special Teams: At first glance, there’s no clear advantage, but as a road squad, Hershey has the #5-ranked Power Play in the league. They’ll face the #20 Phantoms Home Penalty Kill. But then again, they have to be very afraid of the shortie, you know. Hershey also with the #3 Road PK, so there’s that. One more thing: The Phantoms power play, overall, is the worst among all teams in the Calder Cup Tournament.
MEDIA KIT, Playoffs
MEDIA KIT, Regular Season Stats
OFFICIALS, GAME 1: Deckard and Kamrass with Oliver and Ritter
OFFICIALS, GAME 2: Samuels-Thomas and Sullivan with Oliver and Faucher
OFFICIALS
Referee Morgan MacPhee (#43)
Referee Liam Maaskant (#45)
Linesperson Jud Ritter (#34)
Linesperson J.P. Waleski (#14)
Scouting The Refs: Interesting pair tonight. MacPhee is absolutely prone to swallowing the whistle, even in the regular season. Maaskant, however, has been part of some Ref pairs who were more than happy to get involved in the game, and dish out some 5-on-3 opportunities, even late in games.
What To Watch – Playoff Edition
- Watch for a good crowd. We don’t like Hershey around here and if the crowd for the Penguins game was any indication, it’s going to be a wild one in the stands.
- Watch for the Phantoms to play “Bears Hockey.” Coach Lappy said after the game on Friday that you have to play like them in order to beat them. Tight defense, clog the passing lanes, good goalie play, move the puck fast.
- Look for a similar lineup as well as Gahagen in net.
- Captain Wilson got thrown out of the last game for a hard check. Look for him to play some inspired hockey tonight. I wouldn’t rule out a Gordie Howe.
- Look for the Phantoms to try to stay out of special teams. Coach Lappy wants to win this in 5-on-5, despite the fireworks from Wisdom the last time out.
- Wisdom has to have some kick and some confidence following that last game. Watch for him to get on the score sheet again. Somehow.
- Watch out for rude Hershey fans. Hard to say anything because they won the last two cups. But we’ll be celebrating if we win this one. We also like to mention about how I-78 is closed (it’s not) just to play with their emotions.
- Watch how the refs call this game. Usually, they’ll let them play in the playoffs, but given the history between theses teams they may want to keep things under control and they guy who likes to blow the whistle might win out.
Up Next
Regardless of the outcome this evening, we’ll be right back here against this same Hershey team on Friday. It’s one game at a time, of course, the cliche. But, how rockin’ would it be to have an elimination game against Hershey on home ice?
See you at the arena,
@Kram207
Featured Image by Jack Mitroka
PS: One More Thing, (Caution: Language)
