As the stretch run continues and the push for a playoff spot ramps up, the Phantoms put in some good work this weekend to ascend in the standings.
This weekend was going to be a challenging one for them, with another three-in-three on deck, which would take them on the road to face off against the second in the North division Crunch and then their won division’s second place Penguins, before returning home for a second matchup against them on Sunday, but the Phantoms were able to deliver two of their stronger showings of late, shutting down the Crunch to cruise to a 4-1 victory in the weekend opener, and then battling back to beat the Penguins 4-3 on overtime on Saturday, boosting them into fifth place in the division standings.
But while the road trip was undoubtedly kind to them, the Phantoms ultimately struggled to keep pace with their strong play up to that point, and fell short in their push to complete the weekend sweep.
Sunday afternoon’s rematch with the Penguins began sleepily, as both teams looked to be struggling quite mightily to get their legs going in their third game of the weekend, and while that didn’t make for the most engaging hockey to watch, it did make for an even matchup. But as the game went on and the pace began to ramp up, the Phantoms’ level of organization began to slip — they got running around in the defensive zone more than they would have liked, they took a few too many ill-timed penalties, and they got burned for them. Despite managing to jump out to an early lead with a goal in the first period, one breakdown in coverage in front of their net and one opportunity left open on the Penguins’ fifth power play of the evening put the Phantoms in a one-goal hole, and that proved too much for them to climb back from, with the dwindling gas left in the tank.
“Yeah, I liked our start,” head coach John Snowden said after the game, “[but] I thought the second period they took the control of the game for a little while and we chased the period. Third period I thought we pressed. I thought it was kind of back and forth for a little while. At the end of the day, we took six penalties. They had one. It’s a back end of a three-in-three, and you just can’t take that many penalties, you can’t ask these guys to kill those amount of penalties when we’re obviously short on energy, and it’s really hard to do. So, I think that was a problem tonight. I thought, you know, I thought there was some ones that we probably drew ourselves, but we just didn’t get. And, you know, the ones that we took, they’re penalties. There’s just not much we can do about it.”
The lack of discipline has been a real ongoing issue for the Phantoms — they’ve been shorthanded 209 times so far this season, which is second to just the Bears within their division, and that’s put a huge amount of undue strain on their penalty killers, wearing down some of their high-leverage players, and ultimately costing them games.
“Yeah, I mean, you look at going into the weekend, you’re playing against top teams in the league with Syracuse and [Wilkes-Barre/Scranton],” Snowden went on, “and I thought we did a pretty good job. You know, we win the first two games and today is one of those games where you have to be clean and you have to be competitive for 60 minutes. You have to be managing the puck, manage the game, manage your shift length. Obviously, you got to stay out of the penalty box and try to stay and keep it 5-on-5 as much as you can, and hopefully draw a couple where you get the power play going a bit, which has been very hot lately. I thought today, I mean, at the end of the day, our penalty kill did an excellent job. It’s just you have to kill six penalties eventually. One of them is a four-minute double minor and we have to extend guys in that and just it’s one of those situations. A tough one there.”
The Phantoms were able to do a lot of good things this weekend, taking down two of the top teams in their conference, and drawing their ability to play complete games closer to where it needs to be, but yesterday’s showing should be a reminder that two good games does not mean the work is done. Snowden and his staff have been emphasizing all season the importance of playing direct and focused when fatigue — both mental and physical — is setting in, and a close game getting away from them is the result of them slipping from that approach. There’s still quite a bit of season left ahead of them, and with another tough matchup on the way on Wednesday night as Providence comes to town, there’s an excellent opportunity before them to show some resilience, to learn from this tough end to the weekend and build on the positives they’re still carrying out of it with them.
