The Phantoms opened the season at home on Saturday winning in a shootout 4-3 over the Hartford Wolf Pack. The Phantoms outshot them 49-25 and all three of their regulation goals came on the power play.
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Samu Tuomaala
Tuomaala picked up a goal and an assist, both on the power play, on opening night. The 21-year-old winger looked great during the first game of his sophomore AHL season running the power play from behind the net. He ended last season with 43 points in 69 games which was third on the team, so it’s a good sign he picked right back up where he left off.
Rodrigo Abols
The 28-year-old winger posted two secondary power play assists in his first game in North America since the pandemic. He didn’t feel as though he stuck out in any particular way, but if he can be a force on the power play when it comes to dishing the puck, it’ll be a great investment for a team that needed some help up front.
J.R. Avon
Avon had an assist and scored in his shootout attempt. He lined up at center compared to the wing where he spent most of last season. As discussed in our preseason report, Avon had a solid rookie season but not many points to show for it, so the fact that he already has one on the board could be an indicator for a breakout season coming his way.
Olle Lycksell
Lycksell scored the shootout winner on Saturday. He was also originally announced as recording a power play assist on their second goal, but it was later changed to Abols. Unsurprisingly, he was their top line winger with big powerplay minutes, so expect him to pick back up where his 84 points in 92 AHL games left off.
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Alexei Kolosov
Kolosov made 22 of 25 saves during his first start of the season. The Phantoms dominated puck possession through most of the game so Kolosov didn’t get much of a workload in, and did have a few flurry of saves that were solid in the middle frame. For a most rookie goalies, particularly of the international variety, there will be a learning curve to the North American game, but in Kolosov’s case as a guy demanding NHL minutes, he’s expectations are a bit higher and this certainly wasn’t a blow away performance.
Hunter McDonald
The Flyers’ front office has pumped the tires of Hunter McDonald, but it’s hard to tell what he can bring to the table when had three minor penalties in the game. He got whistled for cross-checking, roughing and holding, one in each period, and only managed one shot on goal and didn’t stick out in any particular way otherwise. The one thing he needed to do was clean up his game to go from big mean oaf to a potential quantity defenseman but that change wasn’t seen during the season opener.
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Alexei Gendron
Gendron was scratched during the first game of the season. It sure seems that the Phantoms are still in the process of sending folks down to Reading because they had seemingly a dozen extra bodies scratched, but the returning Gendron being on the outside to start the season certainly isn’t good news for someone who struggled to see eye-to-eye with Ian Laperriere during his AHL sample size last season.
Massimo Rizzo
Rizzo, as well, didn’t play during the home opener in what appeared to be a healthy scratch. He didn’t play for the Phantoms late in the season after his collegiate career came to an end because of injury and it’s not a great sign that his debut gets pushed back a little further.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 