Another 4-1 win by the Phantoms tonight, and they take a 2-0 series lead over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

I have to say, I think the attendance in these two games was disappointing. On Wednesday I was one of just 4,099. Okay, it was a weeknight and on short notice as the games weren't even scheduled until after the Phantoms clinched the first round on Sunday. Tonight's attendance was 6,668 -- and I went back and checked, and that's the largest crowd they've had in their 5 postseason home games.

So far it's going like it did in the last round -- Phantoms win the first two at home and lose game 3 on the road. Last night it was 3-1 in favor of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Game 4 in upstate PA is on Tuesday night.

In the other Eastern Converence series, Lowell-Providence is tied at 1-1. In the Western Conference Chicago leads Cincinnati 2-0 and the Rochester-Manitoba series is tied at 1-1.

Arghhhh.....Moose beat my Amerks 1 - 0! Series tied at one.

Sucks for Rochester, they have to go out to Winnepeg and play three in a row. the Moose could close 'em out wo having to come back to upstate NY.

You think that sucks, the ECHL has a series between Trenton and Anchorage. Imagine the commute from Alaska to New Jersey. wink

Well, I'm going to see the Phantoms again -- I was able to get another row 1, seat 1 ticket -- this time next to the player benches instead of the penalty box. I'm not sure if, like the last time, I'll be right next to the bench or if I'm at the other end of the row. That reminds me, I need to post some of those pictures...

...and here they are!

Looking at a photo I didn't post, of the bench across the way, it appears that there are 4 seats in the row right next to the bench. The bench is in the front of most of the section. So unless the seats are numbered in the opposite direction of how they are the last time, I'll have 3 people between me and the bench.

Oh, the game I got the ticket for is game 5 on Friday night. So Thursday I'm at the Phils game, Friday the Phantoms, Saturday the Phils again. I really should live down there, shouldn't I? wink

[ May 09, 2005, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

sighh, Amerks go down 5-4 in OT in Winnipeg last night.....gotta get one up there!! Wednesday hopefully.

The Phantoms beat the WB/S Penguins 5-3 to take a 3-1 series lead. They can clinch the series on Friday night at the Wachovia Center with me in attendance. wink

Interestingly, on the Phantoms website they had a link to a site where you could pay $6.00 per game to watch a webcast of the two games in Wilkes-Barre.

Here's the link, because other AHL teams are doing it as well.

Cheer loudly--you're seeing the game for all of us!

~Adam

This was tacked onto the end of an article by the hockey beat writer for the Phila. Daily News the other day:

And blame me too. I could have gone to tonight's Phantoms game...but I'm home catching up on e-mail and the boards here. I guess that's the consequences of not having my priorities in order.

Well, tonight's attendance was 7,511. And it was quite an...interesting night. At all the gates they gave out -- no, not rally towels or "Go Phantoms" signs -- orange-colored plastic maracas. Sponsored by some Mexican restaurant. More on this later.

Game starts. Phantoms take a penalty nine seconds in...and then Mike Richards (soon to be a Flyer) scores a shorthanded goal at 49 seconds. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton then scored on that same powerplay at 1:28. The game settles down but the Penguins score at 18:44 to take the lead. WB/S dominated the second period though they only scored once more. Then the Penguins scored a really cheap goal at the 37-second mark of the third to take a 4-1 lead. Antero Niittymaki was pulled from the game in favor of Neil Little. The Phantoms are plugging away but getting nowhere.

And then...BOOM! Josh Gratton at 8:37. BOOM! Jeff Carter on the power play at 11:45. BOOM! Jon Sim at 12:49 -- three goals in 4:12 and the game is tied! BOOM! Ryan Ready at 13:56 gives the Phantoms the lead! That crowd of 7,511 sounded louder than the 33,000-plus at last night's Phillies game. The Penguins remove Andy Chiodo from the goal and put in Marc-Andre Fleury. BOOM! Jeff Carter again at 17:20 -- he, like Richards, will soon be a Flyer. Please, NHL, come back quickly!!! Then one final BOOM! An empty-net goal by Jon Sim at 19:56. When the smoke cleared, the Phantoms had scored SIX third-period goals in a span of 11 minutes, 19 seconds. The Phantoms move on, and the Penguins are done in 5 games. Like the little boy on the tricycle or big wheel or whatever says at the end of The Incredibles: "That was totally wicked!!!"

It was interesting to me that after the Phantoms took the lead, they took Neil Little out and put Antero Niittymaki back into the goal. Little only faced two shots in about 13 minutes of play, but is credited with the win.

The first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals will be at the Wachovia Center on Fri. 5/20 and Saturday 5/21. However, they will surely NOT give out any more plastic maracas. At the end of the game a couple of them were thrown onto the ice, and that opened the floodgates as dozens (hundreds?) of idiots then tossed them. Many of them broke apart. The ice was a mess as the two teams lined up for the series-ending handshake. It was a very sad sight.

I took my camera and got some pics. Some of them will be okay, but I can't really get good action shots. The sport is too darn fast for my aging reflexes. And with the glass in front of me and people next to me, I couldn't really get myself any good close shots of the players' faces as they skated to the bench.

The other East series has Providence leading Lowell 3 games to 1. The West is set: Manitoba shockingly took out Rochester (112 regular season points) in 5 games, clinching game 5 at home in front of over 15,000. The Moose now take on...the Wolves, as Chicago also won in 5 games, over Cincinnati. It ought to be a wild animalistic series.

[ May 13, 2005, 09:43 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

aarrghhhh......Manitoba 5, Rochester 2........the Amerks season ends, AHL points leader goes down and out! Unbelievable!

7511 in attendance is very good, especially considdering the lack of promotion--I was kind of surprised that the Long Beach Ice Dogs didn't do a better job (hell, they barely did anything) trying to attract Kings and/or Ducks fans--and think the AHL/ECHL really missed the boat by not making an effort to alert their local NHL fans of their product.

Six goals in under twelve minutes!! Nice!! Maracas as a give-away?? Not so nice. I'll root for the Phantom (whose number one fan's reflexes are still spry enough for me wink ) but will also cheer for the Moose.

~Adam

I can't say I agree about my reflexes. Perhaps we'll need to test them sometime... wink

The Providence Bruins ousted the Lowell Lock Monsters, winning the series 4-1 with a 5-2 win tonight. So the conference finals are set:

Eastern Conference -- Series "M" (best-of-7)
E2-Philadelphia Phantoms vs. A4-Providence Bruins

Western Conference -- Series "N" (best-of-7)
W1-Chicago Wolves vs. N3-Manitoba Moose

Game one results: last night it was Phantoms 4, Providence Bruins 2 (with a crowd of 7261 at the Center); the Wolves edged the Moose 4-3 on Thursday. Both Game Twos are tonight.

Interestingly, according to the AHL's website Comcast in Chicago is televising the entire Chicago-Manitoba series. The two games in Chicago are being televised back in Manitoba. Three teams of the final four have cybercasts available if you want to listen online.

The only city that, as of now, is completely off the air...Philadelphia. eek!

Go Phantom! And the Moose have to rebound! Too bad you're not able to see the games in Philadelphia; have you considered moving to either Chicago or Manitoba? wink

~Adam

Alas, the Moose didn't rebound. In fact, the home teams both won Game Two last night by 3-0 scores to gain 2-0 leads in the conference finals, behind a pair of Finnish goalies: Antero Niittymaki of the Phantoms and Kari Lehtonen of the Chicago Wolves.

With the 8260 attendance for the Phantoms and the 7118 for the Wolves, AHL attendance passed the 7 million mark for the first time in its history.

I think Manitoba might be a little too cold for my tastes. So could Chicago, for that matter. wink

[ May 22, 2005, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

The Phantoms' pattern in the playoffs has been to win the first two at home, then lose game 3 on the road. Same pattern held last night as the Providence Bruins scored what was described as "a fluke goal" in the paper to win 2-1 in overtime. The series is now 2-1 Phantoms. Big news: Phantoms center Mike Richards and left wing Ben Eager and Bruins center Brad Boyes have all been suspended for game 4 by the league for actions in game 3. Also big news: if there's a game 6 it'll apparently be televised here. Woo-hoo! Of course, I could be there in person making it a moot point, but... wink

Meanwhile, the Manitoba Moose are nearly extinct as they lost at home to the Chicago Wolves 4-2 to fall behind 3-0 in the West finals.

Also at the AHL website: the Portland Pirates are now an affiliate of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Which means, one would think, that the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks are in for a name change.

The Moose are extinct. eek! Chicago sweeps the West finals with a 4-1 win. And it looks like there's a good chance of a Philadelphia-Chicago final as a 2-1 win gives the Phantoms a 3-1 lead in the East! wink

There's no stench worse than that of a dead moose. Now all my support goes to the Phantom; they better not disappoint.

~Adam

Well, the Bruins are still alive. They held a 4-1 lead 10 minutes into the third period but the Phantoms scored 3 times in the next five minutes to tie it -- very reminiscent of the final game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. But they couldn't take it further and Providence got a goal with 1:10 to play, followed by an empty net goal to win 6-4. That means the series comes back to Philadelphia for game 6 Sunday night. I might be going.

Update: I am going. I just bought a ticket in a Club Box seat (same price as the ones I bought in the front row). Thought I'd check it out and see what it's like.

[ May 27, 2005, 08:46 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

I was very impressed tonight. The Phantoms put together a solid, consistent effort from start to finish tonight, both on offense and defense, to gain a 4-1 win and the Eastern Conference championship. On to the Calder Cup finals! It's the first trip to the finals for the Phantoms since 1998, their second year of existence, when they won the Cup.

The series starts Thursday in Chicago, with game 2 in the Windy City on Saturday. Games 3, 4 and 5 (if necessary) are back here on June 8, 10 and 11. I've got Phillies tickets for the 8th, so if I go it'll be on the 10th and/or 11th.

Club box seat: surprisingly NOT impressive. The seat itself, that is -- the seat has a little better padding, but they're no wider than the seats in the rest of the building and the leg room was also no better. The amenities of the box itself, such as the private restrooms and bar, weren't bad, though.

[ May 29, 2005, 10:21 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

Yeah Phantoms!! You had access to a private bathroom and bar.... nice ....but it's no less than you deserve. Having access to bettr facilities is just one reason I enjoy it when my buddy in Kings pr invites me to one of the luxury boxes; only problem is how tenement-like wink my regular seats are!


~Adam

Congratulations on the Phantoms success JIP. Onward and upward!!

If you're wondering how the Phantoms and Wolves did against each other during the regular season (and hasn't that been keeping us all awake at night? ), wonder no further. They didn't play each other -- in fact, the teams haven't met since the 2002-03 season! How the heck do they make up schedules in that league?

Meanwhile, good news for me: television coverage!

As it turns out, the Trenton Titans won that series against the Alaska Aces despite that long commute wink -- and last night they won the Kelly Cup. They finished off the Florida Everglades in 6 games. Like the Phantoms, the Titans are a Flyers affiliate. Hmmmmm...

Considering the strength of their affiliates, shouldn't the Flyers have been better? And this comes from a Kings fan.

~Adam

I think a certain animated little black duck said it best: "You're dethpicable!" wink

I'm not sure how deep the connection is between the Flyers and Titans -- I get the feeling it may be more to have extra players available to send to the Phantoms during periods when some of the Phantoms are called up to the big club. Of course, that wasn't a problem in 2004-05. :mad:

Chicago gets to see all 7 games televised. Hmmph. At least I can listen to Chicago's radio online. Second period, 1-0 Phantoms.

[ June 02, 2005, 06:25 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

To answer whether the extent of the Titans connection to the Flyers, it's pretty loose. I would say that only about half the call-ups to the AHL actually go to the Phantoms, and only two players on the Phantoms roster were ever Trenton regulars (Mark Murphy and Ben Stafford; Fedoruk played a couple of games but doesn't really count). Still, this could be the first time the AHL and ECHL affiliate of the same NHL team wins their respective titles.

The second-period power play goal by Mike Richards held up as the Phantoms win 1-0 and take a 1-0 lead in the Calder Cup finals! The Wolves, well-rested after they swept their conference final, had a strong first period but couldn't get anything past Antero Niittymaki, and the Phantoms tightened up in the final two periods.

Just imagine if Mike Richards had scored on THIS play in the first period (from the article in today's Phila. Daily News): "Richards had his stick knocked out of his hands but chased down a loose puck in the neutral zone near the Phantoms' bench. Just as it looked like Richards was going to kick the puck in deep, he grabbed a stick from a teammate on the bench and skated in alone. But he shot the puck over the net."

As I mentioned before, tomorrow's game two is on TV here. Naturally, I have Phillies tickets. eek!

Congratulations to the Phantoms on taking game 1. Wish it had been televised--or at least been part of a sports highlights program--if only to see the Richards' play described in the paper.

Didn't see you're "despicable" comment until this morning at work. There must be something in the air: my necktie features images of Daffy as Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century.

~Adam

I set my VCR to tape game two while I was at the Phillies doubleheader. I set it to tape for 4 hours. I got home and watched it. After 4 hours and 4 periods the game still wasn't over, and I didn't get to see any of the second overtime! I guess I have to tape for 6 hours from now on. eek!

Anyway, in a very chippy game that was filled with penalties, especially the first two periods -- in fact, Chicago had 13 powerplay opportunities, including 4 two-man advantages (but scoring only once) -- early in the second overtime the Phantoms had a 2-on-1 and the amazing Jeff Carter passed to Patrick Sharp for the goal, giving the Phantoms a 2-1 win and a 2-0 series lead, winning both road games. They're now in tremendous position to win the Calder Cup with the next three games at home. Antero Niittymaki stopped 48 of 49 shots.

The Phantoms signed defenseman Alexandre Picard, a 19-year-old, to an amateur tryout contract and threw him into the lineup last night. From what I saw he acquitted himself quite well. He's a Flyers 3rd-round draft pick in 2003. Maybe more hope for the Flyers' future if the NHL decides to return.

Meanwhile, important news wink from the AHL website:

I should correct my incompetent self. The team's name is Everblades. wink

Way to go Phantoms. 2-0 lead. Good job!!

And tonight that lead became 3-0! The Phantoms took game 3 by a 2-1 score, getting a pair of first-period power play goals (one scored by future Flyer Mike Richards and the other set up by future Flyer Jeff Richards) and making them stand up the rest of the way. Attendance was nearly 12,500 tonight. With that pesky Phillies obligation out of the way for now, I will be at game 4 on Friday night as they try and clinch the Calder Cup! Does anyone have a broom I can borrow? wink

From the Phila. Inquirer:

My ticket for tomorrow will be at will call. Uh oh. wink

Go Phantoms!! The only solution to the long lines is to skip work on Friday & show up at noon.

~Adam

I'd love to skip work, but I really can't do it tomorrow. Besides, before a whole lot longer that won't be a problem anymore... wink

However, waiting in line at will call might be a problem: tomorrow's game four is SOLD OUT!

PARTY AT JIPPERS!!!!! The Phantoms win!

Coo. Good job Phantoms, and sold out too. That's awesome!

It's not the Cup I really want, but it sure is nice! And since a minor league team doesn't warrant a parade on Broad Street, they're holding a celebration at the Wachovia Center on Monday at 6:30 pm. I could go after work if I want. Nice and convenient.

The crowd, consisting of me and 20,102 of my closest friends, was the largest in AHL playoff history. (By contrast, the shockingly red-hot Phillies drew just 27,000 across the street.) And the Phantoms finished 11-0 at home in the playoffs, also a new AHL record.

They gave away -- no, not rally towels or pom-poms or the dreaded maracas -- "Purple Reign" t-shirts. Reminded me, of course, of the "Orange Crush" t-shirts the Flyers gave away for the 6th game vs. Tampa Bay last year. So we were ready for the coronation but the first period ended up scoreless and pretty evenly played. You'd think the Wolves, fighting for survival, would've come out storming but they never really had much of a surge.

The Phantoms blew them away in the second period. Patrick Sharp was stopped on a breakaway but scored on the rebound, then goals by Jon Sim, Ben Stafford and Sim again opened up a 4-0 lead as they outshot Chicago 20-5. Chicago briefly had life in the third, getting a 5-minute powerplay and scoring once on it, but as they pressed on and the powerplay was nearing an end they pulled their goalie for an extra skater and were burned by Sharp's empty-net goal at the 8:49 mark. (The phrase "empty-net goal with 11 minutes left" just sounds too weird, eh? wink ) The Wolves got one more goal with less than 4 minutes left but no one cared.

The best thing about this is how the experience will help guys like Sharp and Joni Pitkanen, who were with the Flyers prior to the lockout, and how other additions will help the Flyers after the lockout. The Amazing Jeff Carter (I should try and trademark that) came from his junior team and led the AHL in the postseason with 12 goals and 23 points. Mike Richards (captain of the gold-winning Team Canada in the 2005 World Junior Championships) had 15 points in 14 games after his junior season was over. Playoff MVP Antero Niittymaki will be Robert Esche's backup, but how long will it be until they trade places?

Last night's win came on the 7th annivesary of the Phantoms' first Calder Cup win. Coach John Stevens was captain of that team, and he's the 13th person in AHL history to win it both as a player and head coach.

I guess these lyrics from a song that was played during a stoppage in the third period sums it up adequately...

Congrats Phantoms!

Did they ever bring out a recording of Kate Smith singing God Bless America???

30 yrs later, and they still talk about how she was a jinx for our Sabres in the Cup Finals!

She was...back then. But they don't even use her for the Flyers any more. They certainly aren't going to use her for the Phantoms.