Splitting Weekends

This past Sunday night, I finally saw what the Phantoms were capable of – for 20 minutes at least – and that was enough to win the game. Just imagine what kind of score would have been put up if we multiplied that by three.

I wasn’t privy to what was said in the locker room during the second intermission while the team was trailing 2-1, and looking somewhat lackluster offensively. I imagine the thought of skating lines at 5 a.m. back in Boardman after a nine-hour bus ride was engrained into the heads of the players… but again, I can only guess.

I commented last week about how the 1-0 win over Team USA was perhaps the spark this team needed to start moving. Well, giving away a 2-1 third-period lead in Saturday’s game wasn’t what I really expected. The 20 minutes of high-flying, speed-oriented, tape-to-tape passing and highlight reel goals in the third period of Sunday’s game was. We’ll see now where we go from here.

Looking at the standings in the NAHL, the North seems to be the class of the league. Every team is .500 or better. Sure there are teams such as Wichita Falls and North Iowa that are good in the other divisions, but top to bottom, the North is the grind. With St. Louis winning last night, the Phantoms are six points behind them in first place. With some help from Springfield this weekend, we hopefully we can narrow that gap.

Return of Hirsch –

I had been told that Alden Hirschfeld was going to be a huge boost when he got back, and he did not disappoint. A mere 7 minutes, 20 seconds into his season, he scored a goal that made me realize his value to the team. He won a battle along the boards in the neutral zone, walked a defenseman, deked the goalie completely out of the net, and slotted a backhand.

He then added a goal and two assists to help spark Sunday’s outburst, earned an honorable mention accolade, and is the clear emotional leader of this team – all this after not being able to eat solid food, let alone play hockey, for the past month.

In addition, it’s very encouraging to see the rest of the veterans stepping up. You can notice it in the stats, obviously. Eight of our nine top scorers are vets. It would be nice to see at least one or two other rookies to start playing a bigger role though.

Special Teams –

If you haven’t noticed, the Phantoms live and die on the special teams. Although the power play is only converting at 17% (7th in the NAHL), it has accounted for nearly 50% of our total goals this season.

Alpena’s power play is again pretty lethal this year, and I think our PK numbers (83% and 13th in the NAHL) should go up as the season wears on (so their numbers against us aren’t as heavily weighted), and the team matures and becomes a bit more disciplined – both while on the PK, and not taking bad penalties in the first place.

Being Healthy –

We’ll see if veteran defenseman Denny Kramarz will get back into the line-up this week after missing nearly four games now due to injury. Our defensive corps got a big lift when Harrison came back off his suspension. I think Kramarz will add some much needed depth at the blue-line. It has got to be tiring being so shorthanded.

Other than Kramarz, Washnock is back, Hirsch is back, Woods is back, and anyone else that had some problems is back as well.

There is one new face in the dressing room this week – Jon Madden was brought over after playing in Waterloo of the USHL last season. It will be exciting to see what he can contribute. I’ll try and get some info and interview him for the weekend preview.

Getting Out Shot –

Something needs to be done about getting so drastically out-shot. It might have a lot to do with who is counting the shots (the other team, while we are on the road), but getting out shot by an average margin of 8.8 shots per game is probably costing us a goal per game.

Looking Ahead –

The USA Under-17s are a lot better this year, evidently, than last year’s squad. Either way, you have to think that if we can beat (read: shut-out) an Under-18 squad that has been playing together for over a year now, then we should be able to handle the 17s… Marquette did – once.

Talking with Bob Mainhardt this week, he says that coming off the bus and winning the first game of a weekend stint will come with maturity. So, I think if we can just win a few of those and come off this 15-game, season-opening, road-trip at with at least 18 points, we’d be happy. Home is where we’ll excel, come November and afterwards.

Until next Wednesday…