The Phantoms hit the road for a quick trip up to Bridgeport this evening, for the final game of the weekend and their final game before the break. They were looking to close this one out on a high note, and prevent the Islanders from gaining any more ground on them in the standings, but between a stilted offensive effort and a bit of shaky goaltending, they struggled to get themselves off the ground, and instead came away with another quite lopsided loss.
The basics
First period: 6:09- Adam Beckman (Drew, Maggio), 12:50- Liam Foudy (Highmore, McWard), 16:11- Matthew Maggio (Beckman, Drew), 19:04- Lane Pederson (Richard, Tomasino)PPG
Second period: No scoring
Third period: 10:45- Liam Foudy (George), 19:55- Liam Foudy (Beckman, Thiesing)EN
SOG: 32 (BRI) – 20 (LHV)
Some takeaways
Starting on time
The Phantoms were looking to close out this weekend (and the final bit of action before their brief All Star break) well, and bounce back from a tough loss to the Penguins last night. And there was all but certainly a particular hope to find a way to start this game better, after a poor start was one of the things that really sunk them last time out, but this pretty pointedly did not pan out for them.
The Phantoms came out with reasonably good energy, but their execution was simply not up to the level it needed to be at. For their own part, they were having trouble stringing together chains of passes, and hitting the net with the chances they were able to create, and their poise with the puck on the defensive side was lacking — the team was plagued by turnovers and bobbling of pucks at the worst times. And once again, all of this amounted to them falling behind early and putting themselves in a position where they have to be chasing the game, rather than dictating it themselves.
Kolosov struggling
After backing up last night at home, Aleksei Kolosov, back from his most recent stint up with the Flyers, was given the start tonight, tasked equally with stopping the bleeding for his team and also bouncing back from a difficult showing in his last time out. And this, too, was a struggle.
It was a three goal hole that the Phantoms found themselves in, and none of those goals were great looks for Kolosov. The first saw him make an aggressive play, coming out beyond the blue paint to make an initial stop on an incoming rush chance, but the rebound sent out to the left circle was picked up by a trailing player (who the Phantoms defender could not tie up), and Kolosov was too out of position to defend agains the second chance. His second and third goals against played out similarly — misplays with the puck behind the net set up scrambles in front, and Kolosov couldn’t seem to pick up where the puck was going in the midst of it all, and ended up getting beaten. All three of these plays were ones, in fairness, where the support in front of him certainly could have been better, but the work Kolosov was doing for his own part was not overly sharp, either.
There’s credit due here, too, for how Kolosov was largely able to settle in as the game went on. The Islanders did throw a lot at him in this one — 32 shots across the whole of the game — and he was able to keep things under control through the whole of the second period, but when the big moment came in the third period, when they really needed him to bail them out one more time to keep their game alive, he lost track of the puck carrier in a bit of traffic in front of him and let in the fourth goal against him of the night. And that, truly, was the game for the Phantoms.
The power play breaks through
This game was largely a bit of a struggle for the Phantoms to generate offense, but they did still manage to pull together some bright spots. Most notably, the Phantoms were once again able to break through on the power play tonight, as the play for a bit of cycling culminating in a quick pass over to Lane Pederson in the left circle for a snipe once again paid dividends for them. Pederson, too, picking up right where he left off before his recall, notched his 16th goal of the season tonight, and his third in as many games.
The Phantoms would have two more opportunities on the power play (including one late in the third which was turned into a two-man advantage with Kolosov pulled), and while they were able to create a few more good looks, they didn’t look quite as threatening as they did on that first attempt of the night, and ended up leaving some looks on the table with some bits of overpassing (but more on that later).
Tomasino buzzing
Another bright spot for the Phantoms on the offensive side of things was the pop that Phil Tomasino was able to bring. His production has been waking up nicely — his picked up a goal last night and assisted on Pederson’s goal tonight — and this has been driven nicely by quite a focused underlying process. Tomasino has been, in short, buzzing recently and tonight was no exception. He’s playing with some nice pace and bringing a high level of creativity to the chances he’s creating. Now, tonight didn’t see him looking the most efficient in his generation either — he had a few misses on shot attempts from prime scoring areas — and while he really does need to start burying those soon, the fact that he’s at least getting the opportunities feels like a sign of good things to come.
On the defensive side, too, he stepped up with a big play late in the game — of course, the Islanders did still ultimately come away with the empty netter before long, and Foudy still completed his hat trick, but the point stands and it was a nice effort for Tomasino, all the same.
Frustration creeping in
This game was, in a lot of ways, a tough one. We’ve alluded to it a couple of times by now, but the Phantoms did some good things to get themselves into the right areas to score from, but they just weren’t able to capitalize on that work. Whether it was a bit too much passing, not quite enough urgency on the setups, or a shot sailing wide of the net, the execution just simply was not there for them tonight. And in all of this, it’s impossible to avoid the feeling that in these struggles, some frustration was beginning to rear its head in their games.
It’s understandable, in a way, as this stretch more broadly has been a really challenging one, but it’s reinforced that perhaps the break is coming at just the right time for the Phantoms. Some reinforcements might well be on the way on the other side of it, but even more critically, the hope here is that a chance for a reset will serve them well. They’re pressing a bit, and that’s getting in the way of even the things that they are continuing to do right. It’s a bit of a tough spiral, but perhaps a bit of time off to regroup will give them the chance to snap out of it.
