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GAME 3: PHANTOMS @ BEARS
Trying to stave off playoff elimination and force a fourth game on Saturday, Scott Gordon's Lehigh Valley Phantoms are in Chocolate Town on Wednesday night to take on Troy Mann's Hershey Bears in Game 3 of their best-of-five playoff series. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT.
The game broadcast will be available on the radio (ESPN WSAN-AM 1470 and WAEB-AM 790), live audio streamed for free on the Phantoms' TuneIn.com site and video streamed ($9.99 single-game price) at AHL Live.
The Phantoms have had a territorial advantage -- and a significant shot disparity in their favor -- through the first two games of the series. They are 6-for-6 on the penalty kill, and 2-for-8 on the power play. Hershey has played with a lead for all of 33 seconds over 127:38 of game action thus far.
So how does the Flyers' American Hockey League affiliate find itself one loss away from getting swept in a short series? In Game 1, the Phantoms went 0-for-4 on the power play, were unable to solve Bears goalie Phoenix Copley on 32 shots, and a boxed rebound and put-in by Nathan Walker gave Hershey a 1-0 overtime win on Friday. The next night, the Phantoms held a 2-1 lead at the first intermission and a 4-2 edge heading into the third period. A disastrous third period saw Phantoms starting goaltender Alex Lyon go down with a lower-body injury and the Bears explode for three goals to win the game in regulation. The final tally came with just 33 seconds left in regulation.
Lyon, who underwent an MRI on Sunday, has been ruled out for the rest of this series. He joins third-year pro Anthony Stolarz on the sidelines. Rather than throwing 18-year-old highly touted prospect Carter Hart into a virtual setup for failure -- making his professional hockey debut in an elimination playoff game on the road with scant practice time with the team -- Gordon has prudently elected to start swingman ECHL/AHL goaltender Martin Ouellette.
Ouellette, who is in his third season as the Phantoms' third-string option, stopped just two of four shots in relief of Lyon in Game Two. However, the 25-year-old University of Maine product has usually held his own when called upon to play at the American Hockey League level. In 21 regular season appearances for the Phantoms over three seasons, he has posted an 11-5-0 record, 2.30 GAA, .927 save percentage and two shutouts.
After the Phantoms got shut out in the Game One overtime loss, Greg Carey (1st, 2nd) scored twice and chipped in an assist for the Phantoms in Game Two while T.J. Brennan and Andy Miele scored once apiece. For Hershey, Stanislav Galiev, Christian Djoos and Tyler Lewington supplemented Bourque's two-goal effort. Veteran goaltender Phoenix Copley stopped 30 of 34 shots he faced.
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QUICK HITS: APRIL 26, 2017
1) The Flyers have not confirmed it as of yet, but TVA Sports' Ren Lavoie reported on Tuesday that the organization has signed 2015 third-round pick Mikhail Vorobyov to an entry-level contract. It has been speculated for months that the center, who turned 20 in January, had interest in coming to North America next season once his Kontinental Hockey League contract with his hometown Salavat Yulaev Ufa club expired.
For the organization, Vorobyov is an under-the-radar but promising prospect whom the team's scouts have felt all along has an NHL future as a top nine forward. As he showed at the 2016-17 World Junior Championships (where he led all players in the tournament with 10 assists and scored a nifty shootout goal in the medal round), Vorobyov sees the ice well and has some creativity to his game. He is a responsible two-way forward for a player his age, which was something that stood out among the players at the 2015 Under-18 World Junior Championships and contributed to him spending much of the 2015-16 season and the entire 2016-17 campaign in the KHL.
Vorobyov also has good size at 6-foot-2, 207 pounds. The biggest knock on him in his draft year was his skating, but the Flyers organization felt that (much like left wing prospect Oskar Lindblom) any skating issues would correct over time with hard work and added lower-body strength for first-stride explosiveness.
Nevertheless, Vorobyov is a bonafide NHL prospect with some upward mobility in his projections. While 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov and Lindblom get most of the attention among the Flyers' growing corps of European position-player prospects, Vorobyov offers some intrigue in his own right. Unlike 2014 fifth-round selection Lindblom, who appears to be NHL-ready now, Vorobyov likely needs time in the American Hockey to continue honing his game toward being ready to compete for an NHL spot with the Flyers.
2) Congratulations to Flyers' right winger Wayne Simmonds. In a year filled with individual accolades, including his first NHL All-Star Game selection, All-Star Game MVP honors and the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the Flyers MVP, Simmonds has been named a finalist for the NHL Foundation Player Award. The award goes to the NHL Player who best exemplifies "the core values of hockey - commitment, perseverance and teamwork - to enrich the lives of people in his community."
The other NHL Foundation Player nominee this year is New York Islanders' defenseman Travis Hamonic.
The NHL Foundation Player Award has been given annually since 1997-98. It parallels the King Clancy Memorial Trophy (given annually since 1987-88), which is also given for community service. The Clancy is selected by a panel from the Professional Hockey Writers' Association and the NHL Broadcasters Association. The NHL Foundation Player Award is a league-selected honor.
Simmonds, who is also on the directorial board of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, runs the not-for-profit Wayne's Road Hockey Warriors foundation in his native Scarborough, Ontario. Founded in 2012, the organization provides opportunities for underprivileged youths in Scarborough to learn and play hockey. The signature event each year is a ball hockey tournament at which Simmonds and various NHL players join alongside the kids.
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