Photo Credit: Lehigh Valley Phantoms
The Flyers affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms played well down the stretch to secure a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs, and they look to pull an upset over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Phantoms finished with a 32-31-9 record, while the Penguins finished with a 39-24-8-1 record.
Of course, the first tilt is tomorrow night at 7:05pm at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. The Phantoms were 4-7-1 against the Penguins this season, and Tanner Laczynski lead the Phantoms with 44 points (17g,27a) in 49 games played. Hopefully , Samuel Tuomaala is able to return to the lineup tomorrow night after sitting out the last three games with an injury. Massimo Rizzo will help balance the lineup, which offensively the Phantoms struggled this season. They ranked 29th offensively, so Rizzo could help fuel the lineup that lacked a punch from Elliot Desnoyers, although he did score in the final two games of the Regular Season.
Unfortunately, the Phantoms finished with the 14th ranked Power Play in the AHL with an 18.4% success rate, and I say unfortunately as they were near the top with the man advantage earlier in the season. In addition, the Phantoms finished 2 for it’s last 33 to end the season with the man advantage.
Cal Petersen did play well.diwn the stretch, but he has to be even better to steal this series, as he finished the season 10-15-3 with a 2.71 GAA, and a .902 Save Percentage. The Penguins did win the season finale on Sunday 2-0 with Ludovic Waber obtaining his first shutout as a Penguin.
All in all, rookie Ethan Samson played well in the second half on the blue line. He really found his niche, and he looks to gather his first taste of playoff experience. What will happen tomorrow and for the rest of the series is anyone’s guess, but it’s playoff time. The Phantoms are looking to pull off the upset.
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