That’s a wrap, folks. After something of an upset win over the Bears at home on Wednesday, the Phantoms managed to push this series to a Game 4. And with a chance to draw the series even last night, and force a Game 5, the Phantoms squandered some of their early momentum. And with the door open, the Bears did what they did best — they brought the pressure back, and they took care of business. This game ended by a 5-3 margin, and with it, the Phantoms’ season.
The Basics
First period: 9:01- Rhett Gardner (Furry, Brink), 9:18- Ivan Miroshnichenko (Priskie), 12:18- Garrett Wilson (Gaucher, Marody), 15:08- Pierrick Dube (Day, Häman Aktell)
Second period: 2:36- Ivan Miroshnichenko (Dube), 10:57- Ethen Frank (Snively, Lapierre)PPG, 16:17- Tanner Laczysnki (Brooks)
Third period: 14:52- Hardy Häman Aktell (Day)
SOG: 32 (LV) – 27 (HER)
Some Takeaways
Starting strong
While the final score may suggest that the Phantoms took something of a drumming across the whole of the game, this wasn’t quite the case. Indeed, the Phantoms played arguably the better first period, as they came out with more pace, were winning more of the battles for pucks, had cleaner entries into the offensive zone, and were able to better maintain sustained pressure once they got there. The Bears’ two goals in the period to get the score tied felt fluky, or opportunistic, in some ways, considering how well and truly they looked to be on their heels in the first half of the period. It was about as good of a start as you would have wanted to see from the Phantoms, in this situation.
Chances left on the table
With this start in mind, the door legitimately felt open for the Phantoms to run away with this game, if they could keep the pressure up to the same level that they did in the first period. Hunter Sheppard wasn’t playing his cleanest game — what should have been routine saves at times had him scrambling or stumbling — and the Phantom’s offense and forecheck looked strong early on. But somehow, still, they couldn’t make the most of the opportunities they had in front of them. They started overpassing, they started settling for shots from the point that were pretty easily blocked or swallowed up. The Phantoms, as we’ve seen time and again, instead of seizing momentum, instead found a way to get in their own way.
Petersen solid enough again
The numbers here don’t paint the prettiest of pictures — five goals allowed on 27 shots — for Cal Petersen, but we still came away from this game feeling that he actually had a decent enough showing. The Bears were efficient in making the most of their chances — more than half of their shots on goal were from the scoring chance area — and Petersen had to fight with a good amount of traffic throughout the whole night. It wasn’t an easy night for him, and between the traffic allowed to stand in front of him and some of the turnovers committed by his skaters later in the game, his job just got more difficult as the game went on. It’s another game where he could have used a bit more support, and it’s little question why he wasn’t able to steal this one for them.
Running out of steam
Despite the good that we saw from the Phantoms in this game and across this series, we can’t help but feel that, as we neared the end here, the Phantoms just ran out of gas. They started the game well — indeed, as we said, they looked like the better team through much of the first period — but when they came out for the second, they just looked off. They weren’t as quick getting to pucks, they weren’t holding or handling them as well, their passing wasn’t as crisp; suddenly they looked like they were a step behind.
And in some ways, we might have expected this was coming. It was something of a marathon to get to the playoffs in the first place, and the Phantoms made it even deeper than we might have expected therein. They were, as Ian Lapierriere reminded us on several occasions throughout this run, not even supposed to be here in the first place. It was a good run for a team that flashed some positive play on the whole, but in the end, the better team won out here.
