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Quick Hits: Flyers Go Back to Work, NHL and AHL ASG, Phantoms |
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Quick Hits: February 5, 2023
1) The Philadelphia Flyers (21-21-9) return on Sunday to the FTC rinks in Voorhees for a 2:00 p.m. ET practice. On Monday, they will host the New York Islanders (25-22-5) at the Wells Fargo Center for a 7:00 p.m. ET game. Bo Horvat, acquired last week by the Islanders from the Canucks, will make his debut for New York.
2) AHL All-Star Game: Team Metro, featuring Flyers forward Kevin Hayes, lost to Team Atlantic, 10-6, in the "semifinal" round of the 2023 NHL All-Star Game in Sunrise, FL. Hayes assisted on two of three goals scored by Johnny Gaudreau. In the final game, the Atlantic All-Stars defeat Team Central by a 7-5 score after the Central side beat Team Pacific,6-4, in the day's first 20-minute 3-on-3 mini-game. Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk was named MVP after getting five points (3g, 2a) against Team Metro and then two more points (1g, 1a) against Team Central in the final game.
3) Phantoms Update: The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (22-17-5) skated to an impressive 5-1 road win over the Atlantic Division leading Hershey Bears (29-11-5) at the Giant Center in Hershey on Saturday evening. The Phantoms, who enter the AHL All-Star Break in fifth place in the Atlantic Division, have won back-to-back games against Hershey after losing each of the first seven head-to-head meetings of the season between the clubs.
Saturday's game was somewhat similar to Wednesday's 5-2 victory against Hershey. The Phantoms went to the first intermission trailing, 1-0, before surging in the second period and going on to win.
In the first period, it looked like the Phantoms' nearly season-long struggle on the penalty kill was going to prove damaging yet again. A couple of bad penalties and failed PKs were a major factor in the Phantoms' 4-2 loss to Providence on Friday evening. In Hershey on Saturday, a Jordy Bellerive cross-checking penalty that started a multi-player scrum at 13:45 of the first period was turned into an Aliaksei Protas power play goal (2nd AHL goal of the season, both against the Phantoms) at 14:13.
The Phantoms went to the locker room trailing, 1-0, but it could have been worse. Hershey outshot Lehigh Valley by an 11-5 margin in the first period and there were several segments of the stanza where the Bears kept the Phantoms hemmed in their own end. Lehigh Valley actually had a better first period on Wednesday, despite an identical score, than on Saturday.
Thereafter, however, the Phantoms pushed back and played a very strong final 40 minutes. There was no four-goal surge in a single period this time, but the Phantoms were relentless in establishing a 2-1 lead by the second intermission and then keeping their foot on the gas in the third period to strike three more times.
Jackson Cates scored five-on-five and (shorthanded) empty net goals to start and finish the push for the Phantoms, reaching 10 goals on the season in the process. Bobby Brink had his best game so far as a Phantom, in terms of production (power play goal, two assists including a dandy primary helper early in the third period), volume of puck touches and handling the pace of play effectively. All-Star game representative Tyson Foerster scored during a Phantoms' 5-on-3 power play (team-leading 17 goal of the season). Bellerive (6th) went off the far post and in at 2:55 of the third period to springboard the Phantoms to a quick start to the final stanza.
Defenseman Egor Zamula and forward Max Willman collected two assists apiece for Ian Laperriere's team, while leading Phantoms scorer Olle Lycksell (25th assist of the season) and defenseman Ronnie Attard (12th assist, 19th point) each contributed one assist. So did defensemen Louie Belpedio (12th assist, 17th point) and Adam Karashik.
Veteran defenseman Kevin Connauton had a spirited first-period fight with Hershey's Mason Morelli amid the skirmishes that broke out at 13:45. Connauton also contributed several blocked shots. Belpedio dropped the gloves with Beck Malenstyn at 12:57 of the second period.
As the game progressed, the Phantoms defended the middle of the ice very well. While Hershey had a few shifts with prolonged possession, play was contained to the perimeter. Overall, the Bears had a tough time finding time and space to make plays and they grew frustrated by having quite a few shot attempts blocked or easily snapped up by Samuel Ersson because the goalie had good sightlines to track the puck.
Starting for the third time in four nights and the fifth time in the last six games (Jan. 25 to Feb. 4), Ersson was sharp when tested. He bounced back immediately from allowing a leaky game-winning goal on Friday against Providence scored just 13 seconds after the Phantoms had clawed back to tie the score. Ersson was especially good in the first period on Saturday when the Bears were threating to put the Phantoms in a deeper hole than a 1-0 deficit.
After two games back in the Phantoms line following being a healthy scratch throughout the entire slate of 11 games in January, Isaac Ratcliffe returned to the scratch list on Saturday against Hershey. Ratcliffe played well in a fourth-line left wing role on Wednesday but took a needless (and costly) penalty in the first period of the Providence game. Thereafter, he seemed to be pressing to atone for it. Zayde Wisdom returned to the Phantoms' lineup on Saturday in Ratcliffe's place.
Phantoms rookie Elliot Desnoyers missed Saturday's game with a minor injury sustained in Friday's match. He's considered day-to-day. Phantoms team captain Cal O'Reilly, who has been the under the weather in recent days, remained out of the lineup due to illness. On the blueline, Laperriere continued his recent pattern of dressing AHL-contracted Karashik and scratching the NHL-contracted Wyatte Wylie and Linus Högberg.
The AHL All-Star Classic begins this evening in Laval, Quebec, with the Skills Competition. The 3-on-3 mini-game tourney between the divisional teams (ala the NHL event) will be on Monday evening. The Phantoms resume the regular season on Friday with a road game against the Hartford Wolf Pack (19-17-9).
Phantoms lineup on Saturday:
28 Olle Lycksell - 51 Artem Anisimov - 71 Tyson Foerster
17 Garrett Wilson - 24 Adam Brooks - 25 Cooper Marody
20 Max Willman - 18 Jackson Cates - 23 Bobby Brink
42 Hayden Hodgson - 15 Jordy Bellerive - 14 Zayde Wisdom
4 Egor Zamula - 47 Louie Belpedio
37 Adam Ginning - 12 Ronnie Attard
44 Kevin Connauton - 3 Adam Karashik
30 Samuel Ersson
[35 Pat Nagle]
4) AHL All-Star Game: On Saturday, the American Hockey League announced that Phantoms rookie defenseman Ronnie Attard has been added to the Team Atlantic roster for the All-Star Game. He will replace Cam York, who is in the NHL with the Flyers.
The Phantoms now, once again, have two All-Star Game representatives. Twenty-one year old winger Tyson Foerster (17g, 13a, 30 points while dressing in all 44 games the Phantoms have played to date) will also participate. The 23-year-old Attard (7g, 12a, 19 points) qualifies as an AHL rookie, while Foerster does not.
During the 2020-21 "pandemic season", the Ontario League canceled its entire season so the AHL relaxed its age-in eligibility rules to allow CHL-affiliated players to play in the American League in the absence of their junior league. That year, the QMJHL was conducted in staccato fashion while the WHL had a belated and brief schedule. The OHL campaign was simply canceled. At any rate, because Foerster (19-year-old at the time) dressed in 24 games for the Phantoms in 2020-21 despite the AHL having diluted rosters -- this was also the season of NHL taxi squads due to Covid outbreaks -- he does not qualify as a rookie. Foerster also played nine AHL games at the start of 2021-22 before suffering a serious shoulder injury.
5) The youngest-ever Lehigh Valley Phantoms All-Star Game selection was Morgan Frost in 2019-20. He was 20 years old at the time. Foerster recently said he touched base with Frost to talk about the AHL All-Star Game experience. Frost's advice was simply to have fun with it and take time to enjoy it.
Frost's 2020 AHL All-Star Game experience was far from relaxing. The Phantoms played a 3-in-4 on the road with a back-to-back set of Friday/Saturday games in Providence and Hartford on the back end. After the third game of the three-in-four, Frost got a ride to catch a red-eye cross-country flight to LAX. On Sunday night, Frost was on the ice for the All-Star Skills Competition in Ontario, California. The All-Star Game itself was on Monday (Frost collected a combined three assists for "champion" Team Atlantic). On Tuesday, it was back to the east coast to rejoin the Phantoms.
When I asked Frost about what that experience was really like, he chuckled and admitted that it was a bit exhausting. But he also said, in hindsight, it was pretty cool to get to do it and he actually ended up having fun with it.
Side note: Frost's future frequent Flyers' linemate, Owen Tippett, was his teammate on Team Atlantic in the 2020 AHL All-Star Game. At the time, the 20-year-old Tippett was a rookie on the Springfield Thunderbirds. Frost and Tippett knew each other from the Canadian national team at the 2018-19 World Junior Championships and from playing against each other in the Ontario Hockey League (Frost with the Soo Greyhounds and Tippett with Mississauga and Saginaw).
Frost and Tippett were more acquaintances than friends before becoming teammates in Philadelphia. A friendship has grown on and off the ice with the Flyers. Tippett is a little quieter and keeps to himself a little more but they get along well. Frost and Joel Farabee are pretty much inseparable.
"They're both great guys, but they're pretty goofy," Tippett said with a big grin when he was asked in early January of this year about his fellow young Flyers forwards.
Among the Flyers' youngest forwards, Noah Cates is the "old soul" of the bunch. He celebrates his 24th birthday today (Feb. 5) but Cates could easily be mistaken for someone 10 years older but for his youthful appearance.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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