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GAME 4: PHANTOMS VS. MARLIES
One loss away from playoff elimination in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms need a home win on Friday night to avoid a sweep and send their series with the Toronto Marlies to a Game 5 at the PPL Center on Saturday. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised locally on NBCSNP+, nationally on NHL Network and nationally across Canada on TSN2.
The first two games of the series could have swung either team's way.
Game 1 in Toronto entered the third period tied after the Phantoms trailed early and then briefly led in the second period. The Marlies went back ahead in the third period and then narrowly held on -- Toronto goaltender Garret Sparks robbed Phantoms captain Colin McDonald from point blank range in the final half minute -- to preserve a 4-3 victory.
Game 2 in Toronto saw the Phantoms survive a wobbly first period through stellar play by goaltender Alex Lyon, and briefly hold a pair of one-goal leads. Toronto struck back quickly twice to tie the game and send it to overtime. In OT, there was a lengthy review on a shot by Mike Vecchione that gave the illusion of going through the mesh atop the net (the puck actually sailed just over the crossbar and top of the net as a Toronto defender's stick caused the top the netting to ripple as the puck passed over top). Toronto subsequently scored to win the game by a 3-2 score.
Game 3 in Allentown was a disaster from a Phantoms standpoint. The Marlies dominated nearly the entire 60 minutes -- except for a brief portion early in the second period -- and cruised to 5-0 win and 34-16 shot on goal advantage. Alex Lyon kept the deficit to 1-0 for nearly 25 minutes but the Marlies subsequently pulled away.
Lyon was kicked out of the game in the third period for what was deemed a match penalty for kicking Mason Marchment. In reality, Lyon did little more than nudge the Toronto player and then shove him away from the goal crease. A match penalty carries an automatic review for supplementary discipline beyond expulsion from the game in which the incident occurred. However, it is unlikely that any supplemental discipline will be imposed on Lyon.
The Phantoms are a team that, all season, enjoyed a high degree of balanced scoring up front as well as regular offensive contributions from defenseman T.J. Brennan and other blueliners. Unfortunately, to date in the series, Lehigh Valley has gotten very little forward scoring, especially at 5-on-5.
Philippe Myers (power play), Tyrell Goulbourne, Chris Conner (power play), Mark Friedman and Mikhail Vorobyev have scored once apiece for the Phantoms over the first two games. Oskar Lindblom is still looking for his first point of the series, as is 2017-18 American Hockey League MVP winner Phi Varone, among others.
On the flip side, the Northern European contingent on the Marlies -- Swedes Andreas Johansson and Carl Grundström as well as Finnish forward Miro Aaltonen have lit up the scoreboard against the Phantoms in the series thus far. The team has also gotten scoring from a variety of different sources. Sparks has been strong in goal and the team defense has been strong, taking away time and space from the Phantoms. In the offensive end, Toronto has been able to impose its will on the forecheck for entire periods of games, especially in Game 3 and the first period of Game 2.
All of the adjustments that need to be made have to be made on the Phantoms' side. Toronto needn't change a thing right now.
After posting the best record in the AHL during the regular season (Lehigh Valley had the second-best record), the Marlies survived a scare against Utica in the best-of-five first round of the playoffs. Since then, they've been dominant. The Marlies have rattled off eight straight wins going back to the clinching game against the Comets. A sweep of the Syracuse Crunch, including a double-OT win in Game 2, followed.
When a team is down 3-0 or 3-1 in a series, it has to empty the energy tank in every game for as long as the series goes. The Phantoms seemed in Game 3 to have heavy legs. Whether or not that was the accumulated toll of the disappointment of losing two winnable games in Toronto to start the series after the energy-sapping but emotional 5-game win over Charlotte in the second round (including the now-famous 5-OT win in Game 4 that set a new record as the longest game in AHL history), the Phantoms need to play about 200 percent better on Friday than they did in Game 3 against Toronto.
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QUICK HITS: MAY 25, 2018
1) Memorial Cup: The Memorial Cup semifinals are on Friday night, putting Matthew Strome and the Hamilton Bulldogs against the tournament host Regina Pats. Former Flyers player, assistant coach and assistant GM John Paddock is the coach and hockey operations manager of the Pats. Game time is 10:00 p.m. EDT. The winner of the game will advance to the finals and play German Rubtsov and the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Sunday for the Memorial Cup championship.
2) Today in Flyers History: On May 25, 1997, the Flyers earned a 4-2 home win over the New York Rangers in Game 5 to close out the Eastern Conference Final and advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1987.
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