Crucial Weekend at the Showcase

It really seemed like the Phantoms dominated the whole weekend against the USA, but it took nearly five periods before the scoring touch returned.

The Phantoms outworked, outshot, and outplayed the U.S. during the entire game on Friday it seemed, but just couldn’t find the back of the net, and paid dearly for the few mistakes they gave up. And how dominating was that penalty kill on Friday?? I don’t think the U.S. even had control of the puck on the power play inside the Mahoning Valley zone until late in the third period. In a word: dirty.

Saturday’s first period was the only period this weekend where the Phantoms looked a bit slow. The second period however, the team picked it up, the scoring chances increased, and Derek Graham created his own scoring chance off an aggressive forecheck and slotted a huge goal, late in the frame, to spark the third period scoring explosion.

The changing of the lines seemed to help as well. Meo moved onto the line with Graham and Hirschfeld, while Blakey moved between Kenney and Moser… the thinking was to help productivity over all four lines. It definitely sparked something, as Meo, Hirschfeld and Graham each had three-point nights.

With those things in mind, the Phantoms are now 20-10-3 on the season, good for 43 points and third place in the North. The good news is that Mahoning Valley is only a point out of second place and have two games in hand on each team in the race.

The bad news is that while the Phantoms had their only break of the season, everyone else kept winning. Alpena has gone 9-1-0 in their last 10, and are now in second place, while St. Louis was a mere six points ahead of the Phantoms on December 22, and are now 14.

While the Showcase is big enough on its own to merit the title of “A Big Weekend,” the fact that everything is so congested from second to fourth and that each team plays four games this weekend against each other… we could see a whole new picture afterwards.

One of the things I am most excited to see is how St. Louis performs against some North Division competition. The Bandits are undoubtedly a very good team, but the North is undoubtedly the best division in the NAHL – and St. Louis has only played two games against North Division teams since the Phantoms took three of four points from them at the Ice Zone in early November (going 1-1 against the U.S. back on November 16-17).

Each team will be able to size up their competition in person this weekend, and with eight points at steak for each squad, the division race will be shaped by this weekend’s results more than any other.

Especially for the Phantoms, with four games against St. Louis to follow this weekend’s Showcase, come February 3, the team will know where they stand.

Looking at the Phantoms competition this weekend… two against Marquette (Friday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.) and two against Traverse City (Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Monday at 5 p.m.)… The Phantoms are 1-1 against the Rangers this season, and in the second game of the series in Marquette, the Phantoms found a way to score at will, winning the game 8-2 and winning a handful of scraps as well. The Rangers are coming of two losses last weekend against Alpena.

The Phantoms are 5-2 against the North Stars this season, winning their last three in a row by an average of 3.33 goals per win. The two have not met since back-to-back 6-3 wins for the Phantoms on November 23-24 at the Ice Zone. The Stars are winless in their last six games, but their last three losses have all been in shootouts.

Again, the Showcase starts this Friday at Noon, when Alpena plays the U.S., and lasts until Monday night at the conclusion of the Phantoms vs. Traverse City game. There will be a Midget Major AAA tourney going on as well at the Ice Zone as part of the Showcase. With all the fans, scouts, parents, and staff, it should be quite an event, and a great opportunity not only for the teams, but the individual players as well.