Tale of the Tape: Lehigh Valley Phantoms
How the Bears advance to division finals.
The moment Bear Nation has waited for is finally here! The Hershey Bears will begin their title defense against the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The Phantoms, entered the Calder Cup Playoffs as the sixth seed in the Atlantic Division, downed the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins via a two-game sweep in impressive fashion. Following a 2-1 victory in
game one on the road, the Phantoms defeated the Penguins 5-4 in overtime in come-from-behind
fashion.
Hershey had no problem controlling Lehigh Valley during the regular season finishing 8-2-0-2 against the Phantoms. Despite that impressive mark the AHL point leaders must bring their best
throughout.
As I’ve heard at my local gym, all gas – no brakes.
This is the post season and an entirely different beast.
Both teams have, or are currently presenting, a common challenge: their ability to win any style of game. Tight-checking game? High-scoring game? No problem. The combatants are able to adapt to the game as it unfolds.
How have the Phantoms been successful so far in the playoffs?
- Winning the special teams battle. Despite being the third-most penalized team in the regular season, Lehigh Valley converted 33% of their power play chances (3-for-9) while killing 85.7% of penalties taken (6-for-7). In the Phantoms’ series-clinching win, three of their five goals were scored on the man advantage. Lehigh Valley infiltrated the Penguins’ standard four-man box by establishing layers of traffic in front of goaltender Joel Blomqvist. A redirect, one timer following some furious scrambling by the Penguins, and a two-man advantage goal helped lead the Phantoms to victory. The Bears will need to keep this series five-on-five against a team who averaged three goals against
per game in the regular season. - Offensive contributions from defensemen for Lehigh Valley were big factors in victories. Two of their top three playoff scorers are Louie Belpedio (0 goals, 4 assists) and Emil Andrae (one goal, one assist). It’s a small sample size, but the Bears’ coaching staff will need to be wary about Lehigh Valley’s ability to add offensive contributions to the blueline.
- Timely saves. Goaltender Cal Peterson has stopped 45 out of 50 (90%) shots thrown his way. The Bears need to funnel pucks to the net early and often. Peterson’s best game of the series was game one when he stopped 21 of 22 shots in a low-event 2-1 win.
It’s no secret that Lehigh Valley will be physical and the Bears will welcome it. Todd Nelson made a point of that during the run to cup last year. We have heard all through out the season how the veterans have brought along new additions and those players bought into the locker room from day 1.
The Phantoms – who boast a nice mix of youth and veteran talent – will be coming into this series with a nothing- to-lose attitude. Those are the most dangerous teams as all of the pressure will be on the Bears.
Game one in this best-of-five will begin Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Giant Center.
