The Phantoms opened the week completing their Western Conference roadtrip with a 5-3 loss against the Milwaukee Admirals, Then two home wins against the AHL’s worst team the Bridgeport Islanders before getting shutout on the road by the AHL’s best team the Hershey Bears on Sunday.
They’re up to a 28-21-5-2 record on the season and comfortably in fifth place in the Atlantic Division with 63 points and 16 games left to go.
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Olle Lycksell
Lycksell’s nine-game point streak, which tied the second longest in Phantoms’ history, ended on Sunday, but he posted 13 points in that stretch. He’s now up to 41 points in 40 games and received quite a bit of praise from Ian Laperriere over the weekend for his red hot play and the leadership role he’s taking with the club. He currently sits sixth all-time in LVP history with 125 points (in 131 games.)
Jacob Gaucher
Gaucher scored three goals and added an assist and has four goals and six points in his last six games. Gaucher was pretty cold on the score sheet right before and after his NHL call up, but he took the opportunity to pad his stats against a lesser opponent which hopefully gets him going again for the rest of the season. He leads the team with 19 goals and is second in points with 35.
Anthony Richard
Richard scored two goals and registered two assists last week. He’s up to 30 points in 29 games this season. He’s dealt with some injury problems and had a couple recalls to the NHL, but when he’s in the Phantoms’ lineup, he’s coming as advertised serving as one of the backbones of the offense.
Adam Ginning
Ginning posted three assists last week. He quietly posted six points in his last nine games as well. If you forgot Adam Ginning was a thing this season, that’s totally fine, as he has largely slipped into the background with the Andrae still lingering and Hunter McDonald getting the push from the front office. Even though he hasn’t been quite as flashy this season as he’s been in the past, Ginning is still one of the best defensemen on the team when it comes to actually playing defense.
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Emil Andrae
Andrae posted two assists in four games last week. He also went -4, only had five shots on goal, and had his first career AHL fight on Wednesday. Bit of a strange weekend for Andrae, whose +/- numbers came from the losing road efforts by the team and he largely stayed out of the action during the metaphorical beatdown of the Islanders at home.
Rodrigo Abols
Abols recorded a goal and an assist last week. Abols has been one of the Phantoms’ most consistent producers since mid-December and is still riding the high from his NHL recall where his overall play has been in overdrive since. He returned to North America to prove himself, and he’s done just that.
Alexis Gendron
Gendron scored a goal on Friday, it was his lone point in the last eight games. He was fairly noticeable during the team’s drubbing of the Islanders, but just didn’t rack up the points to prove it. The report of Gendron hasn’t changed much. The raw skill is there, the consistency is not.
Zayde Wisdom
Wisdom posted two assists on Friday. His head-turning season continues as he’s finally establishing himself as a consistent threat at the AHL level both physically and flashing potentially untapped scoring abilities as well.
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Massimo Rizzo
Rizzo missed both Saturday and Sunday with injury. That coming on top of the fact he only had one goal and three points in his last nine games, is a downward trend from an otherwise impressive stretch from the rookie.
Samu Tuomaala
Tuomaala was injured during Saturday’s game. He was down in a heap at the blue line before slamming his stick on the boards and again on the ice before needing assistance from the trainer and a teammate to get off. He didn’t play Sunday, and based on his immediate reaction it wouldn’t be surprising if he was hurt badly and he knew it (hopefully he was just angry that the refs took forever to blow the whistle despite his obvious distress.) He had only played 10 of the Phantoms’ last 15 games anyway with a suspected lingering injury, so it’s just more bad news in a season where the bad luck just hasn’t stopped for for former second round pick.
Helge Grans
Grans hasn’t registered a point in eight games, walked away with an even 0 +/- rating and had six shots on goal last week. His spectacular play has dipped a bit over the last few weeks, which is to be expected we’ve surpassed the 50-game mark of the season and he’s playing huge minutes as the top guy on the right side, but it’d still be a huge positive if he can remain a threat on the score sheet as the playoffs approach.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 