Hallelujah, the streak is over! Phantoms win in OT!

Hallelujah! The Phantoms won 4-3 in OT! Thank you, Denis Hamel for tying the game with 1:55 left, then scoring the winner in overtime!

Must have been the prayers from the people in the house for Faith and Family Night that put us over the top. :-) I wonder if we can get them all to attend the rest of our games this year?

Back-to-back 5-1 losses. Ouch. Also, game recaps, podcasts and weekly report updates

I haven't had the chance to listen to/watch the last couple of Phantoms games. The stream for their radio station has been down-and-out for over a week, and I haven't been home to watch the games online.

However, I can say that we lost to the Charlotte Checkers (former Albany River Ratw) at home on Friday night, 5-1. Jon Matsumoto, who was traded to Carolina over the summer, had a goal and two assists, and was the second star. I still can't figure out why the Flyers never even gave him a cup of coffee in the NHL. Then we played in Hershey on Saturday night, and lost 5-1 again. Ouch. Without having seen the past couple of games, I can't vouch for what we did well or poorly, but the scoresheets suggest that there are at least some things that we'll do well to work on in our next practices.

Sorry for the delay in posting... my health has not been ideal lately, and it's been getting in my way at times. The good news is, when I have surgery next month, it'll be all over but the recovery, but until then, I'll keep plugging away the best I can.

I have a couple of podcast links, courtesy of The Post-Star:

Phantoms Podcast, Episode 3
Phantoms Podcast, Episode 4

Here is the Phantoms Weekly Release, Week 2 from the Phantoms website.

Recaps of games that were played between the previous post and now:

October 12: Phantoms @ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton; Penguins 2, Phantoms 1
October 15: Syracuse @ Phantoms; Phantoms 3, Crunch 2
October 16: Albany @ Phantoms; Devils 4, Phantoms 3, OT
October 17: Phantoms @ Rochester; Americans 5, Phantoms 2
October 22: Charlotte @ Phantoms; Checkers 5, Phantoms 1
October 23: Phantoms @ Hershey; Bears 5, Phantoms 1
October 24: Phantoms @ Hershey; Bears 4, Phantoms 2

Phantoms Preseason Results to date

The Phantoms have played two preseason games vs. Albany so far. The first one was a 2-1 OT loss to the Albany Devils on Friday night. The second one was a 4-2 loss, with the fourth Albany goal going into the empty net.

I haven't been online a lot in the past couple of days, so I'm going to have to do some legwork to track down preseason coverage. However, I did find a nice writeup on Zac Rinaldo, a Phantom who should help make this a pretty colorful season. :-) CLICK HERE for Broad Street Hockey's take on his performance so far.

The Phantoms wrap up a three-games-in-three-nights stint in Syracuse tonight. Here's to improving our preseason record with a win!

Phantoms vs. Albany River Rats, 10-17-09, Postgame

Due to prior commitments, I was not able to view the game online. However, I had the audio stream on my cell phone, so that even in the midst of what I was doing, I could hear in the "background" that the Phantoms fell behind 1-0, remained trailing for most of the game, tied the score late, and lost in OT.

WOW, was the crowd noise loud when that tying goal went in. I expect to see that the game was a sellout, judging from the volume alone. Of course, the opponent was Albany, which is about 40 miles away, so I presume that at least some of the crowd was comprised of River Rats fans.

Both teams wore a special jersey which they'll don for games vs. one another all season long. They are competing for the Time Warner Cable Cup, which will go to the team that wins the 12-game Phantoms/River Rats series. Shades of the Keystone Cup that used to be given to the PA team that did the best (out of the Philadelphia Phantoms, Hershey Bears, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins).

HERE and HERE are the posts to the Phantoms Blog in the Post-Star.

HERE is the Phantoms article from the Post-Star.

HERE is the game recap from the Phantoms site.

HERE is the box score from the AHL site.