Game 15 Preview: Flyers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

In the second game of a three-game homestand, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (8-4-2) will host Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (8-3-3) at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. (NBCSP, 93.3 WMMR). Thursday's game is the Flyers' designated Hockey Fights Cancer Night.

This is the first of three games between the teams this season, and the first of two in Philadelphia. The clubs will rematch next Tuesday (Nov. 23) in Tampa before the season series wraps up back at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 5.

The Flyers enter this game coming off a 2-1 overtime win against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. The team has been alternating wins and losses since the end of October. Coming off a 2-1 overtime win against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, the Flyers will look for their first back-to-back wins since Oct. 27 (in Edmonton) and Oct. 28 (in Vancouver).

During a three-game homestand prior to traveling to Philadelphia, the Lightning collected five of six possible points in games against the Carolina Hurricanes (2-1 overtime loss), Florida Panthers (3-2 overtime win) and New York Islanders (4-1 victory).

For an in-depth preview of this game, see Five Things on the Flyers official website. Some post morning skate updates.

* Ryan Ellis (lower-body injury) does not require surgery but will miss the next four to six weeks, per Vigneault.

* Patrick Brown (thumb) is on a week-to-week basis.

* The Flyers have a second forward who is questionable for this game. Vigneault said that the player is not Cam Atkinson (maintenance day on Wednesday) or Kevin Hayes (left the ice for the latter part of the second period on Tuesday, returned for the third period). He would not specify the player but one candidate is Travis Konecny, who took a cross-check into the end boards in Tuesday's game.

Additionally, Thursday's morning skate was a lightly attended optional. On Tuesday, with Brown and, for a time, Hayes going down, the combinations looked different in the latter part of the game than they did in the beginning. The lineup below is based upon the combinations that started Tuesday's game and incorporates Oskar Lindblom returning. However, the actual starting combos could vary, and possibly significantly.


FLYERS

28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 25 James van Riemsdyk
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes -89 Cam Atkinson
19 Derick Brassard - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom - 44 Nate Thompson - 17 Zack MacEwen

9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nick Seeler

79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]

LIGHTNING

18 Ondrej Palat - 21 Brayden Point - 71 Anthony Cirelli
17 Alex Killorn - 91 Steven Stamkos - 7 Mathieu Joseph
14 Pat Maroon - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 10 Corey Perry
13 Boris Katchouk - 79 Ross Colton - 16 Taylor Raddysh

77 Victor Hedman - 44 Jan Rutta
14 Ryan McDonagh - 3 Zach Bogosian
98 Mikhail Sergachev - 52 Cal Foote

88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
[1 Brian Elliott]

*********

Phantoms Comeback Goes to Waste

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms battled back from a 3-0 deficit in the third period to tie the game but still fell in regulation, 4-3, to the Charlotte Checkers at the PPL Center on Wednesday evening. With the loss, the Phantoms dropped to 3-8-3 on the season. Charlotte improved to 7-5-1.

The Phantoms' undoing on this night: special teams. The Lehigh Valley power play, which sits at a dreadful 9.5 percent conversion rate (6-for-63), went 0-for-5 on Wednesday. Even worse, the team yielded two shorthanded goals in the second period to trail 2-0 in the game. "Atrocious" is too mild of a descriptor, to be honest.

Taking a carryover 1:22 power play into the second period after a scoreless opening period, the Phantoms controlled the opening faceoff. Shortly thereafter, there was a turnover and the puck went around the boards, leaving four Phantoms including defenseman Adam Clendening trapped up ice as the Checkers countered on a 3-on-1 rush and Scott Wilson scored at the 23-second mark.

At 4:44, the Phantoms received a five-minute power play after Charlotte's Gustav Olofsson slew-footed Brennan Saulnier. The Phantoms struggled to gain entries and generate puck movement for nearly three minutes. However, when they did got some possession, Charlotte's Cale Fleury took a needless boarding minor. Now the Phantoms had a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes.

At 9:08, another turnover led to a counter chance for Charlotte with flat-footed Phantoms players again caught behind the play. Max McCormick turned it into a 5-on-3 shorthanded goal. Meanwhile, over the five-plus minute span of the major-penalty power play and the lengthy two-man advantage, the Phantoms had only one bonafide look at the net.

Actually, back in the first period, the Phantoms themselves had two bonafide shorthanded scoring chances for their two biggest shorthanded scoring threats -- Morgan Frost and Max Willman -- that were better opportunities than anything the power play created.

At 12:18, a stoppable-looking shot upstairs by Charlotte's Logan Hutsko found the net from distance from the deep center slot.

To their credit, the Phantoms dug deep in the third period after the disastrous middle frame.

Willman got it started at 4:54, collecting a turned-over puck high the offensive zone, moving in a couple strides and beating Christopher Gibson. At 7:03, a McCormick slashing penalty gave the Phantoms yet another chance on the power play. This time, the Phantoms generated good puck movement and had several scoring chances but Charlotte survived. However, a few moments after play went back to five-on-five, Cal O'Reilly narrowed the gap to 3-2.

The Phantoms had several cracks at tying the game. Their best chances came from the trio of Garret Wilson, Frost and Gerry Mayhew but Gibson kept his team ahead. The toughest save was on a close-range look for Wilson. Finally, at 15:58, the Phantoms tied the game.

From the left slot, Maksim Sushko passed the puck across to German Rubtsov. The puck went into the net off Rubtsov's skate. Replays seemed to suggest that Rubtsov directed the puck in with a kicking motion but the goal stood after a lengthy delay.

The Phantoms were in good shape to take away at least one point -- and possibly two points from the game. Unfortunately, a careless high-sticking penalty by O'Reilly was turned into a Connor Carrick power play goal with 1:49 left in the third period. The Phantoms made a late 6-on-5 push but ran out of time.

Felix Sandström did not have one of his better games in goal this season. He yielded four goals on 24 shots, of which two were stoppable, and was unable to come up with timely saves when needed. He was not the reason the Phantoms lost -- the egregious shorthanded chances the Phantoms gave up were certainly not the goalie's fault -- but it was one of his weaker outings of the season.

The Phantoms are on the road on Friday to play the Rochester Americans (7-5-0).



The L

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