Special Teams Costly in Phantoms Loss
The Adirondack Phantoms saw their three-game winning streak come to an end in a 3-2 home loss to the St. John's IceCaps on Wednesday night. Even strength goals by
Harry Zolnierczyk and
Rob Bordson were not enough on a night where special teams play proved to be the Phantoms' undoing.
Adirondack came up empty on seven power play chances in the game. The score was tied 1-1 midway through the third period when closely spaced penalties to top-pairing defensemen
Marc-Andre Bourdon (tripping) and
Erik Gustafsson (hooking) gave the Ice Caps 1:34 worth of 5-on-3 power play time. The Phantoms paid dearly.
First, with St. John's on the two-man advantage, Paul Postma hammered home a slapshot from center point through traffic in front of Phantoms goaltender
Scott Munroe to break the tie. A mere 10 seconds later, the IceCaps scored on the 5-on-4 to open up a 3-1 lead. On the play, Carl Klingberg scored off the rush.
The Phantoms made a late push. With 4:33 remaining in regulation, Bordson re-directed a Gustafsson point shot past goaltender Eddie Pasquale to cut the deficit to 3-2. With time ticking down near the final minute,
Sean Couturier hit the goal post on a shot that had Pasquale beaten. Adirondack could not find the equalizer with Munroe pulled for an extra attacker.
Adirondack got the better of the play for the first 30-plus minutes of play but were unable to score. Finally, Zolniercyz found the mark at 13:15.
Jason Akeson earned the lone assist. A little more than two minutes later, the IceCaps knotted the game on a Kevin Clark tally. The Phantoms were fortunate to escape the second period with the game tied, as the IceCaps controlled the latter half of the period.
Munroe made 23 saves in a losing effort for Adirondack. Pasquale had 31 saves for the victorious IceCaps. Neither Couturier nor
Brayden Schenn recorded a point for the Phantoms, who rely heavily on those two players to provide the bulk of the team's offense.
Zac Rinaldo was ejected from the game in the first period, drawing an elbowing major and game misconduct for a hit on St. John's defenseman Julian Melchiori. Rinaldo disputed the call vociferously (to no avail, of course) on his way back to the locker room. He now has 60 penalty minutes in 18 games this season. After Rinaldo was tossed from the game,
Shane Harper moved up onto the second power play unit in his place.
Following three straight games as a healthy scratch,
Eric Wellwood made his return to the Phantoms' lineup.
Matt Ford remained a healthy scratch.
The Phantoms (9-9-0-0) return to action on Friday night, hosting the Binghamton Senators (10-4-1-1) at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
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Titans Finish Disastrous November with a Loss
The month of November has not been kind to the Trenton Titans. Playing for the final time before December, the Titans dropped a 3-2 road decision to the Wheeling Nailers. Trenton finished the month with a 2-7-1 record after going 5-2-0 in October.
Trenton very briefly led the game 2-1 late in the second period, but spent most of the game trailing or tied. After skating off the first intermission trailing 1-0, defenseman Connor Goggin pulled the Titans even at the 2:39 mark of the middle stanza. In the latter stages of the period, Andy Bohmback scored his team-leading 8th goal of the season to momentarily give the team the lead.
The Nailers got goals from deposed Phantom/Titan forward Luke Pither, defenseman Carl Sneep and forward Peter Lenes. The Sneep goal tied the game at 2-2 just 13 seconds after the Bohmback goal. In the third period, Lenes put Wheeling ahead to stay at the 2:25 mark.
Niko Hovinen, who dealt with the flu last weekend, served as the backup goaltender for the third straight game. New Jersey Devils prospect Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves. Wheeling's Scott Darling saw just 21 shots for the game, turning aside 19.
Titans rookie forward
Marcel Noebels failed to record a point in the game. He has now gone pointless in nine consecutive games after opening the season with points in each of the first eight games.
Fellow rookie forward
Andrew Johnston was placed on injured reserve earlier today. No word yet on whether it is related to the heavy hit he took into the boards last week -- he was badly cut by his own visor but returned to play in the next game -- or if it is a different injury.
The Titans return home this weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday, they will host Elmira at the Sun National Bank Center.
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Encouraging News on Giroux
There is good news on the
Claude Giroux injury front. As
reported by Tim Panaccio, the Flyers' top line center does not have a concussion, according to agent Pat Brisson and Atlanta-based neurologist Ted Carrick.
Giroux, who was diagnosed with a neck stinger after a high hit from Krefeld Penguins forward Boris Blank in a Nov. 16 game for Eisbären Berlin, returned to the United States to undergo precautionary testing with the full compliance of Eisbären general manager Peter Lee (himself a former NHL player).
Lee recently told the German press that he did not suspect Giroux had a concussion or a serious neck injury but that it was a wise idea for the player to undergo further testing after his neck pain persisted. He said that Giroux plans to return to the team barring a settlement of the NHL lockout, although there is no official timetable at this point.
Nevertheless, it seems likely that Giroux will talk things over first with Carrick and Brisson before he makes a decision about returning to Germany to play hockey.
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Wednesday Results Roundup
FLYERS IN EUROPE
* KHL:
Ruslan Fedotenko did not record a point but he turned in some stellar penalty killing work as Donbass Donetsk upset power-packed (and heretofore red hot) SKA St. Petersburg by a 3-2 score.
Centering the Donbass first line, Fedotenko did a strong job checking the top SKA line, which features Ilya Kovalchuk, Swedish national team player Tony Mårtensson and ex-Flyer Patrick Thoresen (who was coming off a five-point night in his previous game). He also created a couple of near-miss scoring chances for his own side.
The Ukrainian forward, who got cut on the chin with a high stick late in the first period, did not miss a shift in the game. He opted to dab off the blood on the bench with a towel and wait until intermission to get repairs. He played the rest of the game with a bandage on his chin.
Former Flyers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky started in goal for SKA. He made numerous outstanding saves -- including a spectacular diving stick save on Vaclav Nedorost that was highlight reel worthy -- but also had a couple of gaffes in the game.
Even so, "Bob" was pretty much the biggest reason why a disinterested and sluggish SKA team even had a chance going into the third period. He bailed the team out of trouble time and again in the second period until he finally yielded a goal on a bit of a knuckleballing shot from the outer right circle and then got beaten short side high with just 14 seconds left in the middle period.
* KHL:
Jakub Voracek went pointless for the fourth time in the last five games. His entire Lev Prague team (save for one recent blowout victory) has struggled of late for offense. On Wednesday, the team traveled to southwestern Siberia and went down, 2-1, to Sibir Novosibirsk.
* KHL:
Ilya Bryzgalov was once again scratched as the third goaltender for CSKA Moscow. The team defeated Metallurg Neftekhimik by a 4-1 score. Rastislav Stana turned aside 20 of 21 shots to earn the win.
* DEL:
Danny Briere recorded a power play goal, an assist and a game-high seven shots on goal in Eisbären Berlin's 5-2 home win over Adler Mannheim. Briere, who also took a pair of minor penalties in the game, now has 23 points (5 goals, 18 assists) and 20 penalty minutes in 13 DEL games.
FLYERS PROSPECTS
* J20 SuperElit: Defenseman
Fredric Larsson scored a power play goal in a 7-2 home win for Brynäs over AIK. On the goal, Larsson was deployed as a forward on the power play, stationed directly in front of the net. He took a centering feed from behind the net and quickly snapped home a shot past goalie Ebbe Siönäs.
* OHL: Center
Nick Cousins went pointless in regulation and overtime but converted a shootout attempt in the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds' 4-3 win over the Sudbury Wolves.
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WHL Lowers the Boom on Portland
The Portland Winterhawks, featuring Flyers left wing prospect
Taylor Leier, have been the most dominant team in the Western Hockey League over the last month. The club currently enjoys a six-point lead in the U.S. Division and is just one point off the Kamloop Blazers' pace (with three games in hand) for the most points in the entire WHL.
But the team has been under investigation by the league for a host of off-ice violations of CHL regulations. On Wednesday, the WHL lowered the boom with steep
disciplinary action against the organization.
Quoting from the WHL's press release:
"As a result of a series of player benefit violations which have occurred over the past four seasons, WHL Commissioner Ron Robison has suspended the Portland Winterhawks from participating in the first five rounds of the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft and the forfeiture of their first round selections in the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 WHL Bantam Drafts.
Should the first round selection in 2014 not be available due to a conditional trade, Portland will surrender their second and third round picks in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft.
The WHL also announced the Portland Winterhawks have been fined $200,000 and Winterhawks General Manager and Head Coach Mike Johnston has been suspended for the balance of the 2012-13 season, including the 2013 WHL Playoffs."
It will be interesting to see how the Winterhawks respond on the ice following the year-long banishment of Johnston. Incidentally, Leier has played the best all-around hockey of his two-season junior career in the last month. He recently had a five-game point streak (although he's pointless in the last three) while continuing to do strong work on the penalty kill for the team.
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There are no Flyers-related games on the European or junior hockey dockets on Thursday. However, Bryzgalov's CSKA team has a match against Amur in the wee hours of Friday morning. The game starts at 3 a.m. Eastern U.S. time. I will post the game result as part of the weekly "Friday Hockey Fix" blog.
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