Mahoning Valley Phantoms Blog

Blog Awards -- End of the Year Edition

2009-05-08T08:33:00.003-04:00

So it's time for one last go-round for the Phantoms blog this year, following a heart-breaking finish to the Robertson Cup, and I think the best way to close this baby out is with some end of the year awards to the players who stood out the most in various categories during the 2008-2009 season.

Player of the Year -- Brandon Saad

In terms of pure, unfettered talent, nobody in the NAHL was close to Brandon Saad. Not Kyle Bonis, not Grant Gorczyca, not Austin Block, not DJ Vandercook, not Jordan George... nobody. When Brandon took over a game, he was flat-out unstoppable; the LeBron James of the NAHL. A matchup nightmare at 6'2" 195 (and just 16 years old), the Rookie of the Year and All-NAHL selection was the team's only point-per-game player (29-18-47 in 47 GP) and made plays all year long that made your jaw drop while getting strong shifts on the power play and the PK and maintaining good D-zone responsibility. You will absolutely see in him in the NHL in the next 3-4 years.
Honorable Mention: Jordan Tibbett, Cullen Lundholm, Stefan Salituro

Most Valuable Player -- Jordan Tibbett

With the ability to absolutely steal games and an incredible work ethic all year long, Jordan became a monster in net in '08-'09. In both the regular season and playoffs, when Jordan was on and seeing pucks, he was flat-out unbeatable. Not only that, but as the season progressed--particularly in the playoffs--he took on a particularly vocal leadership role: directing traffic on D-zone faceoffs, talking to referees and otherwise communicating with his teammates and doing the little things you expect from a leader.
Honorable Mention: Johnny Meo, Brandon Saad

Defenseman of the Year -- Carl Nielsen

This award could've gone in a number of different directions, but ultimately Carl was the team's steadiest defenseman from September until May. Speed, size, leadership, heart, toughness and maybe the biggest intimidation factor in the league (courtesy of a pair of legendary beatdowns of then-MCM players Anthony Iaquinto and Kurtis Anton, and an impressive late season rout of All-NAHL defenseman Tyler Elbrecht), Carl really did a lot of everything on the blue line this year--and he did it very very well.
Honorable Mention: Cullen Lundholm, John Houston, Robert Harrison

Best Defensive Forward -- Erik Higby

Big tip of the cap here for Higby. Though all of the team's centers had very strong defensive zone play throughout the season, Erik's quick stick and ability to put strong pressure on the puck made him the toughest out in the corners of the Phantoms' zone all year for opposing forecheckers. He was third among Phantom forwards with a +15 plus-minus rating, and was a top-line penalty killer all season--using his knack to make opposition puckhandlers make mistakes to apply pressure at both ends while his team was shorthanded and run off valuable PK time.
Honorable Mention: Johnny Meo, Nick Shkreli, Jordy Trottier

Best Offensive Defenseman -- Cullen Lundholm

The biggest no-brainer so far, as Lundy was third among league defensemen with 33 points on the year (8-25-33), using his heavy shot and passing ability both at even strength and on the power play to be an offensive beast all year long. I was particularly impressed with his ability to find a good shooting lane, as well, not just content to bury his head and see how hard he could rip a clapper from the point. A very underrated quality that RMU will be thrilled to potentially use on their power play starting next year.
Honorable Mention: David Chaney, Robert Harrison, Carl Nielsen

Most Improved Player -- Brad Smith

Smith started the season as a winger, his natural position at Belle Tire last season, but was thrust into a new role at center when injuries decimated the Phantoms' center corps in early '09. Brad spent the latter part of February learning his new position and was thrust into the fire with eight huge games in March, but got better every game, becoming a reliable center once the playoffs rolled around. Particularly impressive was Smith's improvement in the defensive zone, learning from strong defensive centers like Erik Higby, Johnny Meo and Nick Shkreli to become a solid D-zone player in his own right in April.
Honorable Mention: Michael Gunn, George Saad, Nick Kenney

Playoff MVP -- Jordan Tibbett and Erik Higby

I honestly couldn't pick either one of these guys. Jordan had some incredible games (both Game 5's) and incredible saves (Game 5 vs TC, Game 3 vs USA) and absolutely stole the show some nights, while Higby remained a steady PK contributor while scoring some enormous goals (first goal in Game Five vs USA, GWG vs. NIO at Nationals). You certainly expected this out of Tibbett heading into the playoffs, but Higby took his game to another level in April and May after Coach Mainhardt personally challenged Erik to raise his output for the second season.
Honorable Mention: Johnny Meo, Stefan Salituro, Cole Schneider

Comeback Player of the Year -- Nick Kenney

The 2008 portion of the Phantoms' season was not kind to Nick Kenney as the second-year vet broke his finger in a meaningless fight during a preseason game at Motor City, forcing him to miss the first nine games of the regular season. The next 19 games were similarly rough on Kenney as he posted a mere goal and three assists before New Year's. Things swung quickly, though, in '09 as Kenney tore out of the gates with a three goal, three assist weekend at Traverse City (and a Player of the Week award to boot). He maintained that pace through the end of the season, finishing with 21 goals and 15 assists in 2009; giving him 19-16-35 overall in the regular season and 3-2-5 in the playoffs. An incredible bounce-back for the UW-Stevens Point recruit.
Honorable Mentions: Nick Shkreli, Robert Harrison, Michael Gunn

Hit of the Year -- Carl Nielsen - 4/5/09 vs. Traverse City (Nathan Urbaniak)

Carl's hit on Urbaniak in Game Two against TC in the North Semifinals had everything you want in a big hit: power, viciousness, leadership, intimidation and a little revenge. Urbaniak--who spent a good chunk of Game One draped over Tibbett, much to the supreme aggravation of the Phantoms--was public enemy #1 for the purple and orange and Carl wasted no time sending a message, crushing Urbaniak in open ice moments after the opening faceoff, sending him flying into the corner of the Phantoms' zone, to set an early physical tone in the contest. (We won't mention what happened after that; the hit is all that was important on that shift, right? Right.)
Honorable Mention: Cullen Lundholm - 1/2/09 vs. Traverse City (Kyle Jean)

Goal of the Year -- Brandon Saad - 1/30/09 vs. Alpena

We all remember this goal, right? Who could forget it? In case you suffered a case of amnesia or something, here's my recap from the Weekly Blog Awards of that goal:

Saad was fresh out of the box after getting a coincidental minor with Alpena defenseman Adam Bristol, whose late hits had apparently drawn the ire of the World U-17 First-Team All-Tournament selection. Apparently the IceDiggers wouldn't like Brandon Saad when he's angry, because he grabbed the puck on a clearing pass from Stefan Salituro and zipped up the left-side boards on his ensuing shift. He was 1-on-2 with defensemen Jarrod Hartman and Kyle Hughes, heading into the Alpena end. Hartman drew the early assignment, trying to angle Saad off into the corner, but it was pretty clear that Saad had Hartman beaten from the blue line in. Brandon sped by, drawing Hartman down to the left face-off dot before turning the corner on him toward Graves. This is where the magic happened. Hughes rotated over to try and wipe out Saad and end the rush, but Saad pulled a gorgeous left-to-right toe drag with a slight hop to the right, causing Hughes to miss completely and go skidding into the corner. Free from both defenders, Saad saw Graves commit low early and shoveled a backhand into the top shelf to finish an astonishing play.

Here's the video of the goal (I wish it had my goal call of it... the other team's announcer calling the goal loses a little magic when it's his guys searching for their jock straps in the corner...)
Honorable Mention: Erik Higby - 11/14/08 vs. St. Louis, Johnny Meo - 5/1/09 vs. St. Louis

Chirp of the Year -- Jordan Tibbett - 11/7/08 at Motor City

Little known fact: the Phantoms may have been the team with the best chirps (aka jokes/cracks/verbal barbs) on the ice in the NAHL this season. I have no independent confirmation of this from other divisions, but I know nobody in the North could hang from being at these games and picking up (very faintly) the daggers being hurled back and forth thanks to the close quarters and interesting acoustics our away venues provided this year. The best, in my opinion, came in a game against the team the Phantoms saw the most in the regular season: Motor City. In the two teams' third matchup (out of 13), Motor City had a 2-on-1 heading into the Phantoms' end and the initial puckhandler made the feed across for a wide-open shot and Tibbett--in the process of making the save--just screams a Ric Flair-esque "WOOOOOOOOOOO!" while kicking the puck to the boards--which the Phantoms started back up the ice for their own transition chance. Just a demoralizing kind of chirp; I loved it. It was very hard not to burst out laughing on the air when it happened.
Honorable Mention: The entire Phantoms bench - 1/24/09 vs. Motor City

Game of the Year -- Bandits @ Phantoms, 11/14/08

What a way to make your Chevrolet Centre (or should I call it the Covelli Centre now?) debut for the Phantoms, taking on the arch rival, two-time (now three-time, sigh) defending Robertson Cup champion St. Louis Bandits. The good guys opened the game with goals from Kyle Verbeek and Robert Harrison, leading 2-0 after two periods. The Bandits cut it to 2-1 when then-leading scorer Grant Gorczyca beat Tibbett to get STL on the board, but George Saad's third score of the year made it 3-1 Phantoms. The Bandits, almost predictably, rallied, tying the game on goals from Andrew Hamburg and Kyle Greco--the latter coming on a 6-on-4 power play with 15 seconds left in regulation. With 56 seconds left in overtime, John Houston took a cross-checking penalty, setting up a penalty kill faceoff in the Phantoms' zone... from there, we'll let the video do the talking: mms://208.67.186.193/NAHL/MahoningValley-vs-StLouis-11-14-08-high1.wmv. A truly heads up play from Nielsen and a perfect finish by Higby to send 'em home happy. Just a great, great game.
Honorable Mention: North Stars @ Phantoms - 4/12/09, Phantoms @ USA - 4/25/09, Machine @ Phantoms, 11/30/08

So there you have it, the last blog entry of the season. Thank you to everyone who read, commented on and otherwise enjoyed the blog this season. You've likely seen the stories about the team's future in the Vindicator, so stay tuned to MVPPhantoms.com for the latest news on the Phantoms' next step. Thanks again, and have a great summer!

See you next year,

Paul Teeple

Bonus Blog! Playoff Prognostication

2009-04-03T08:54:00.002-04:00

The day has finally arrived, and I feel like a kid on Christmas. The playoffs start tonight and there are some great matchups abound. This won't be too long of a blog, but I want to give you my picks for the first round of the 2009 postseason...

NORTH DIVISION

Team USA over Alpena in three -- One of the few sweeps I'm predicting. Alpena is a talented team, as we've all seen, but the matchups are all wrong against the U-17's. I don't see them taking one away from the Nationals, especially with games one and two at the Ice Cube.

Mahoning Valley over Traverse City in four -- This will be a ridiculously close series that will hinge on the Phantoms' ability to hold serve at the Chevy Centre, where they are 15-4-1 this year. I think after TC took two of three in March at the Centre, the Phantoms will be looking for revenge this weekend and take both games, making only a split necessary at Centre ICE.

SOUTH DIVISION

St. Louis over Springfield in four -- Springfield will invariably steal one of the first two games, just enough to make the Bandits mad and pummel them in the remaining contests of the series.

Wichita Falls over Topeka in five -- UPSET SPECIAL! I've been calling for the Wildcats to be this year's big playoff spoiler since about December, and this series has serious upset potential with Topeka sputtering down the stretch due to the ultimate distraction of the widespread rumors and reports of their owner trying to sell the team. Wichy also matches up well against the Runners, so look for a stunner in the South.

CENTRAL DIVISION

Bismarck over Alexandria in three -- All signs point to this series being a total buttkicking. Bismarck has the most wins in the whole league and Alexandria narrowly avoided going 0-for-March. Gotta like the Bobcats big here.

North Iowa over Owatonna in four -- The Outlaws had a very strong second half and while I like the offense of the Express to overpower NIO once, maybe even in Mason City, I don't think the expansion side's defense will hold up over the course of the series.

WEST DIVISION

Fairbanks over Kenai River in three -- This one seems pretty lopsided, too, with one of the league's top offenses going against the team with the third-worst record league-wide. This one goes to the Dogs (Boo! Terrible joke!).

Wenatchee over Alaska in four -- This one could possibly be a sweep with all five games scheduled for the Town Toyota Center, but I think the Avs will probably get at least one win before the hometown Wild overpower them to move onto the West finals.

***

So there you go! Leave your picks in the comments, I'd love to see what everyone else thinks about these first round matchups.

The Second Season Begins

2009-04-01T09:07:00.002-04:00

Happy Wednesday, Phantom Phans! Big surprise, it's Wednesday and it's raining in the Valley.

The blog is back by popular demand after a short sabbatical. I really appreciate all of the emails from fans of the blog emailing me over the past couple weeks... it's nice to know that the efforts here are appreciated by the purple and orange faithful!

Well the playoffs are here, though it's a bit hard to believe that the regular season is already over. It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we loaded up the bus for the Showcase in Minnesota and now it's been six months and 58 games to lead us into the fabled hockey postseason, starting Friday.

No more talk of magic numbers, no more extra points for not losing in the first 60 minutes... wins and losses are the only things that matter; six wins means Mason City and eleven wins (or so... thanks to that ol' round robin) means the Robertson Cup. It's as simple as that, and that's what makes playoff hockey so great.

That... and the trademark intensity, physicality and skill that always seem to surface when the postseason gets underway at pretty much any level of hockey.

The usual grit and intensity of any playoff hockey series will be taken up another notch here in the first round when the Phantoms take on the Traverse City North Stars in the first round. These two teams battled almost the entire season for first place before the late mega-run from Team USA relegated the two combatants to second and third, respectively.

In 13 games, each team took 15 points from the other and each team won four times on their home ice. It's an incredibly even matchup that at various times this season has featured stout defense, incredible goaltending, blistering offense, jaw-dropping skill and, yes, furious fights.

While this is a showdown most had marked down for the second round of the postseason we all get an early Easter present, it seems, as these two heated rivals will take to the ice starting Friday at the Chevrolet Centre.

Don't forget that tickets for this weekend's games are $5.00 and at selected sponsors (see MVPPhantoms.com) you can pick up a voucher for a free T-shirt at Game One, so come on out and PACK THE HOUSE this weekend as the playoffs get underway.

We'll see you at the Chevy Centre Friday night!

A Big Rebound

2009-03-04T11:00:00.003-05:00

Happy Wednesday, Phantom Phans!

Before we get started, here is a slight update on last week's post. Through the magic of Microsoft Excel, I was able to create a spreadsheet for every team within their divisions. At the top you'll find the Phantoms' magic number, along with each of the components discussed in last week's post:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p29jaSZQuYoK5pJNcKxzJdg

Now, onto the task at hand...

Last weekend in Motor City was just what the doctor ordered, and I'm not just talking wins. Bouncing back from two straight tough losses for two wins is generally impressive enough but the way that the Phantoms blew the doors off the Machine (a pesky team that rarely gets put away early) was something to behold.

Two different hat tricks from Nick Kenney and Dave Chaney headlined the offensive explosion in Wyandotte that saw the Phantoms out-score the Machine 17-7 over the course of two games. Now someone could easily look at the standings and say "You should beat Motor City by four to six goals regularly," but that would be a bit too much of an outsider's view, especially recently.

Yes, Motor City is in last place with just 10 wins in 48 tries but let's not forget that they play the fourth-toughest schedule in the NAHL (according to the Ken Massey computer ratings) and have played all but nine of those games in the deepest and arguably toughest division in the league. (And, in case you need it, the Machine are 4-5-0 out of division with wins against St. Louis, Fairbanks and Wenatchee)

I would definitely say that Motor City is better than their 10-37-1 record shows and that they walked into a bit of a buzzsaw this year when they entered the super-tough North Division. In fact, if anything the Machine were coming on strong heading into last weekend's showdown in Wyandotte; they'd won four of six and were on a two-game win streak.

I say this to illustrate that the Phantoms didn't drop 17 goals on some punching bag; they dropped 17 goals on a team that had beaten them just one week earlier, on a team that was playing well. It bodes well for the offense to finally be putting everything together coming down the final eight-game stretch.

In just two games at Wyandotte, the Phantoms' power play jumped from 9th to 4th overall (18.0%) in the league while their offense leapt from fifth overall all the way into first in both goals scored (196) and goals per game (3.92).

The defense took a little bit of a hit, giving up a few excuse-me-goals to the Machine, which I ultimately view as a good thing because that gives the team something to work on and improve over the next week-plus of practice, because the defense will be the key to the Phantoms' playoff success.

All in all, a good week, and a perfect time for a bye weekend.

The Phantoms blog would like to pass along congratulations this week to Stefan Salituro for his committment to Robert Morris University!

We'll see you again, same time, same spot, next week!

Weekly Blog Awards - 3/4/09

2009-03-04T10:09:00.003-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Dave Chaney (3 G, 2A, 2 PPG, 2 GWG, +3), Nick Kenney (4 G, 2 A, +3, PPG), Jordy Trottier (G, 6 A, PPG, +2)

A huge weekend at Motor City for all three of these guys as the line of Trottier-Kenney-Shkreli came alive once again following an hour by themselves of studying game tape following a slight slump over the previous couple weeks. It was also great to see Chaney get his first hat trick (and the first by a Phantom not named Saad or Kenney) on Saturday night. The offense stole the show this weekend and these three guys were at the head of the class.

Defender of the Week - Cullen Lundholm

Cullen continued to provide a solid combination of offense and defense for the Phantoms, finishing +2 on the weekend with a goal and an assist. "Lundy" must be disappointed that the Phantoms-Machine season series is over, as he's scored all three of his power play goals this season against the Motor City PK. Even more impressive than Lundholm's continued power play dominance over the Machine was his physical play in the corners at Yack Arena. Any time a Motor City forward grabbed the puck below the Phantoms' goal line, Lundholm was there to lock the guy up, pinning him to the boards so that defensive partner Trevor Shively and/or the center could swing through and grab the puck to start the breakout.

Biggest Hitter - Robert Harrison

Harrison entered Wyandotte as Public Enemy #1 last weekend following his February 20th fight against Cody Holzworth, and I'm certain that his physical play didn't win him any friends among the Motor City faithful. That said, I was impressed with the way Rob was throwing checks around all weekend, especially hip checks. One particular hit may have single-handedly won Harrison this nod when he hip-checked Holzworth into oblivion in the near-side corner of the Phantoms zone during Saturday's second period. Just an incredible hit.

Most Underrated Play - Cole Schneider

Cole, in his first full series since recovering from a bout of pneumonia, made a classic hockey play in the third period on Saturday night when he passed up a fantastic doorstep scoring opportunity on the power play to dish to Dave Chaney at the point. Chaney was sitting on two goals on the night, one away from his first hat trick at the junior level, when Schneider hit him. As we know, Chaney slipped the long wrist shot past Matthew Delaney for the hat trick thanks to the highly unselfish play by Cole Schneider.

Prettiest Goal - Nick Kenney x3

Honestly, I can't pick just one of Kenney's goals from Friday night, so I'll take all three of them. On his first goal, Nick knocked a rolling pass from Nick Shkreli out of mid-air and past Joe Moore for his first of the night, a great feat of concentration. Next, Kenney streaked into the Motor City zone off the opening face-off of the third period and sniped a perfect top-shelf shot past Moore's replacement Delaney for his second of the night. He would cap off the hat trick on the power play--with maybe my favorite of the three--when a Shkreli rebound was sitting on the other side of the crease from where Kenney was positioned and he laid out, with full extension, and batted the loose puck over Delaney and into the cage for the hatty. Kenney was a a human highlight reel on Friday.

The Magic Number and You

2009-02-27T14:28:00.003-05:00

WARNING: MATH AHEAD

If you tune in to the B2 or radio broadcasts, you've been hearing me talk lately about the Phantoms' various magic numbers. You may wonder what this "magic number" is and how the math works out... and if you are indeed curious about this nonsensical math then you are reading the right post, because I'm going to break it down right here for you.

The magic number first became popular in baseball, and I remember it being used as early as 1995 with the Cleveland Indians and the Central Division, though I suspect that it came into existence prior to 14 years ago--that's just when I became a sports stats nerd.

Anyway, since baseball (like basketball and football) works exclusively on wins and losses, it's easy to figure out a first place team's magic number. All you need is the total of games played (162) minus the number of wins of the first place team minus the number of losses of the second place team plus one (a magic number of one at the end of a season yields a tie in any sport). This also works for basketball and football and looks something like this:

MN = TGP - W1st - L2nd + 1

Now that's just those other three sports... in hockey, the magic number is a bit more complex, thanks to the concept of games in hand and the points system of two points for a win, one for an OT loss and none for a regulation loss.

Because of games in hand (like USNTDP has over everyone right now in the North), you need to have a magic number over pretty much every other team in your division/conference/whatever instead of just one over the second place team.

So to arrive at the magic number, the first thing you need is the first place team's point total. That's easy; it's listed in the standings. The next thing you'll need is the other team's point potential (or in other words, how many points they'd have if they won their remaining games); to find this, subtract that team's games played from its total games played (58, for our purposes) and add the team's total points. Now, the magic number is the other team's point potential, minus your team's current points, plus one. Here's how the formula looks in the NAHL (with teams A and B):

MN = PtsB + ((58-GPB)x2) - PtsA + 1

The explanation is actually a lot simpler than the math: take the Phantoms and the North Stars, for example. The Phantoms have 67 points, TC has 60 points through 46 games, meaning they could get 84 points if they win their last 12 games. Here's the math: 60+(12x2)-67+1 = 18.

As such, the Phantoms would need 17 points to, at worst, tie TC, and 18 to clinch over them.

Finally, since the magic number is points based, every point the Phantoms get and every point TC would fail to get would knock off one from that magic number.

So try it out for yourself and have some fun with real actual math in hockey... if you want.

You could also just listen to the radio and/or B2 and let me do the math for you!

Say hello if you see me in Motor City this weekend, if not, see you at the Chevy Centre in two weeks!

Weekly Blog Awards - 2/27/09

2009-02-27T13:27:00.002-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - George Saad
2 G, A

After this award has been dominated in 2009 by George's brother, Brandon, and Nick Kenney, it's nice to see a fresh face in this spot. George had a solid week including a pair of goals on Friday and Tuesday to go with his Thursday assist. His two-way play continued to impress as he finished +1 through a week where most Phantoms found themselves on the minus side of things. Also of note, George's Tuesday goal against USA gives him an impressive ten tallies on the year (10-6-16).

Defender of the Week - Carl Nielsen

Since the Phantoms' second (and final) game against USA U-18 in January, Carl has done an incredible job of staying out of the box (only 2 PIM in 11 games) and his stats have seen a marked upswing in that time, particularly the most important defensive stat there is: plus-minus. In those previously mentioned 11 games, Carl is a combined +13, rocketing him into the top 15 +/- defensemen in the entire league.

Biggest Hitter - Carl Nielsen

The last three games for the Phantoms have been amongst the most physical contests that I've seen so far this season, and once again leading the way was Carl Nielsen. Carl set the physical tone against Motor City, especially in the D-zone corners. He also led the way against Team USA on Tuesday, overpowering the smaller Nationals forwards. The defensive combo of Nielsen & Harrison is looking pretty solid heading into the last 10 games of the season.

Most Underrated Play - Dave Chaney

With the Phantoms trailing 3-1 against USA on Tuesday, the Nationals were set to rush up ice on a 2-on-1 after their breakout worked the puck past the Phantoms forecheck. Chaney was the lone defenseman back against Shane Sooth and Stuart Higgins as the puck came up the boards, intended for Sooth. Instead of hanging back and waiting for the puck to get to Sooth, Chaney jumped the pass, batting it back to George Saad. George turned the play back into the USA zone for a 2-on-1 with Erik Higby, which George would convert into his 10th goal of the year. Just an incredibly heads-up play by Chaney.

Prettiest Goal - Brandon Saad

Interestingly, the Phantoms' best-looking goal of the past week of hockey was their first in that time-span, when Brandon Saad caught a great centering feed on the power play from linemate Alex Lippincott, turned and wired the puck high glove past Motor City goalie Matthew Delaney for an early 1-0 Phantoms lead. It also gave Saad a four-game goal-scoring streak, the highest for any Phantom this season.

Handicapping the North Division Playoff Race

2009-02-18T11:47:00.003-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans! Another rainy Wednesday here in the Valley as we come down the stretch.

We’re getting down to it now: 13 games left until the playoffs roll around and things are starting to get just a little bit clearer in the NAHL’s toughest division. Certainly all four playoff spots are still up for grabs in the North, but we’re starting to see where things will likely shake out.

With that in mind, let’s take a peek at how it looks (to me) how things will shake out.

As always, bear in mind that this is just one man’s opinion and by no means represents the thoughts of the entire organization!

Now, without further ado, here’s how I see each team in the division finishing:

1^st Place – Mahoning Valley Phantoms

Right now, the purple and orange are in the driver’s seat for the top spot in the North, currently eight full points ahead of second-place Traverse City with their brutal six-games-in-nine-days stretch to open February now behind them. The rest of their February schedule includes four games against last-place Motor City and one at home against Team USA before a daunting March schedule featuring three games with TC, two at St. Louis, one at home against USA and two home games to finish the season vs. Alpena.

Looking at that schedule, one of the biggest things I see is that there are only four road games left for the rest of the regular season, and the Phantoms are a tough out at home (14-3-1). Though the last eight games of the season will be tricky, the Phantoms’ recent play combined with some important factors for the opposition (TC’s road schedule, USA’s U-17 schedule) will most likely deliver Mahoning Valley April’s top spot in the North.

2^nd Place – Traverse City North Stars

Traverse City came into February hot on the heels of the Phantoms, trailing Mahoning Valley by only two points heading into the three-game series at the Ice Zone two weekends ago, but have struggled mightily on the road since then, going 1-3-1 in five games away from Centre ICE Arena including a 1-2-0 showing in Boardman and a 0-1-1 sweep at the hands of Motor City last weekend.

Everyone knows the North Stars are a talented team with serious potential to do some damage in the playoffs, but they’re going to have to completely overhaul their image away from home if they want to hang onto their home advantage in the first round. TC is 5-7-4 in away games (not counting September’s Showcase) and head coach Anthony Palumbo has said “we leave our building and we become a bunch of babies.” Ouch. With 11 of their last 15 games on the road, TC is probably in the most volatile spot right now… but I foresee them righting the ship and picking up enough points to hang onto second.

3^rd Place – Team USA

With a mind-boggling 22 games left, and anywhere between six and eleven games in hand on the rest of the division, the Nationals are the ultimate darkhorse in the North right now.

The U-18 team has eight remaining games against NAHL competition—two each against St. Louis, Traverse City, Motor City and Alpena, all in Ann Arbor—and judging by what the Phantoms saw out of the U-18’s, you can pretty much pencil in sixteen big points for USA in those games, putting them right in the mix for first place.

The U-17’s, on the other hand, play a similar schedule except all on the road. If USA wants to capture one of the top two seeds and get some home cooking in the first round, they’ll need to come up big in road games at Mahoning Valley, Traverse City and St. Louis, three of the absolute best home teams in the league (a combined 51-11-6 at home). Thanks to the tough road string for the U-17s, I see the Nationals jumping into third but falling short of the all-important second place spot.

4^th Place – Alpena IceDiggers

After a bit of a slide in January, it looks like the IceDiggers are ready for a stretch run to get back into the playoffs for the third straight year. This team’s identity is tough to figure out but we know with Jack Fritsche behind the bench that they will be ready to rock for the last month and a half of the season.

Though the IceDiggers have 11 of their remaining 16 on the road, they have proven to be a solid road squad, posting one of only three above-.500 road records in the division (MVY, USA) at 8-5-3. Not only that, but their road schedule—outside of two games in Ann Arbor vs. Team USA U-18—is a lot more forgiving with three games at Motor City and only three between the Phantoms and North Stars (and none against St. Louis). Judging by the ‘Diggers’ skill and schedule, I feel pretty confident picking them for the last spot in the North.

5^th Place – Marquette Rangers

Are they the most dangerous team in the North Division? Yes… to themselves and to their opponents. The Rangers have struggled with consistency all season, perhaps best highlighted by winning 5-1 against the Phantoms last Friday with captain Aaron Pietila scratched then turning around and losing 6-1 when Pietila, a top scorer in the division, returned to the lineup. You just never know what you’re going to get with the Rangers.

One thing going for Marquette is that they have eight of their last eleven games at Lakeview Arena (and two of their three roadies are at Motor City), but the biggest thing riding against them is that they only have eleven games left and still find themselves in fifth place. Not only that, but seven of those eleven games are against teams with records over .500 (TC for four, Alexandria for three).

Let’s say Marquette finishes the season at .500—not unrealistic since they are currently 20-21-6 and have been around .500 all year—giving them a 26-26-6 record puts them at 58 points… that would mean that Alpena would merely need to go 5-11 over their last sixteen games to secure the fourth spot. Just a bad place for the Rangers to be.

6^th Place – Motor City Machine

Are the Machine eliminated from the playoffs yet? Actually, no. If the Machine win out and the Rangers and Nationals lose out, don’t look now but Motor City makes the dance. Of course… one more win by Team USA—just one win in 22 games—or one loss of any kind by the Machine and they’re out. So, yes, they’re dangling by the thinnest of threads.

Don’t think that playoff elimination will stop the Machine from being the ultimate spoiler, though. They’re coming in off a sweep of Traverse City at the Yack and while they have just eight wins, three of those wins have come against teams in the top four of the league (Mahoning Valley, St. Louis, Fairbanks). Sleep on Motor City at your own peril.

Here’s how I see the other divisions…

West-

1- Fairbanks – I’m pretty sure they’re only a few wins away from locking up first

2- Wenatchee – Proved recently that they’re ready to hold off Alaska.

3- Alaska – Good play of late but not enough to catch the Wild.

4- Kenai River – Pretty much have last place in the West on lockdown.

Central-

1- Bismarck – Say it with me: DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS

2- North Iowa – Coming on strong lately and playing like they’re not already in for Nationals.

3- Alexandria – Defending Central champs will cause trouble in the playoffs.

4- Owatonna – Speaking of dangerous teams, who wants to face Pat Cullen in the ‘offs?

5- Albert Lea – Better luck next year.

South-

1- Topeka – Though I think the South’s top spot will be determined March 27-28 at the IcePlex.

2- St. Louis – Much tougher schedule than Topeka the rest of the way.

3- Wichita Falls – Biggest spoiler potential in the playoffs? I say yes.

4- Springfield – Clearly could cause some matchup issues for the ‘Runners.

Don't forget, now, about Friday's big Kelly Pavlik pre-fight rally, hydration weigh-in and ringside ticket giveaway at the Chevrolet Centre.

And congratulations in advance to Johnny Meo on breaking the all-time games played record tomorrow night!

See you at the Chevy Centre!

Weekly Blog Awards - 2/18/09

2009-02-18T11:16:00.002-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Brandon Saad
5 G, 2 A, +5, Natural Hat Trick (on 2/14)

Stop me if you've heard this before. Brandon Saad racks up a seven-point weekend on the road and helps the Phantoms pick up some big points in the division. It's the best-sounding broken record one could hope for as a Phantoms fan, as Brandon has really broken loose lately and pulled into a second-place tie league-wide in goals scored with 24 and his 38 points have him in the top 25 of the NAHL. Not too bad of a start to 2009 for B-Saad at all, eh?

Defender of the Week - Trevor Shively

More great defensive play from Trevor this weekend; his transition defense seems to grow exponentially every time he suits up in the purple and orange and his shot-blocking this past weekend was huge. Mix in Shively playing a good strong physical game as well, and you can see why he's getting this nod for the second time in the past three weeks. Shively's recent upshot adds yet more depth to the Phantoms blueline, which will go seven-deep once John Houston is back from injury.

Biggest Hitter - Nick Kenney

Though Kenney was scoreless this weekend, his physical play made a big jump against the Rangers, putting a little extra muscle into the smash-and-dash style of his line with Nick Shkreli and Jordy Trottier. His forechecking was once again impressive, which is so important to that line's success. Whenever a black jersey had the puck in the Marquette corner, it seemed that Kenney was there to lock up whoever had the puck and work it free to Trottier or Shkreli. When that line has their forecheck dialed up, they're the most dangerous line in the league.

Most Underrated Play - Jordan Tibbett

The Phantoms came out strong early in Saturday's rubber match of the three game series at Marquette, but one mis-play almost cost Mahoning Valley early when Michael Gunn had a Marquette dump-in take a flukey bounce off his glove as he tried to flag it down and it went right in on net. Tibbett was able to react quickly and flare out his left leg pad to safely deflect the puck back to Gunn, starting the play back up the ice. Without that quick reflex by Tibbett, Saturday's game starts 1-0 Marquette and may have had a much different result.

Prettiest Goal - Erik Higby

I think I may be getting a little spoiled watching Brandon Saad score in transition; seeing a goalie get deked into next month just seems to be old hat to me now after seeing Saad do it to some of the best keepers in the North. The goal that I really liked was Erik Higby's tally on Saturday night that gave the Phantoms a 2-0 lead. Higby took a pass near the right-side face-off dot in the Marquette zone, and I can only imagine how he even managed to see the net with all the traffic in front of him. Nevertheless, he was able to rip a wrister through the trees and thread it through a hole no more than five inches wide between Kevin Kissaw and the short-side post. Accuracy like that is awesome at any level, and this week I've got to give it up for Higby's snipe.

Weekly Blog Awards - 2/11/09

2009-02-11T13:53:00.002-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Nick Kenney
4 G, +2, PPG, Hat Trick (on 2/8)

Kenney has had an incredible start to 2009, rattling off 12 goals and 9 assists since the calendars flipped over, including 10 points against TC (7-3-10). His scoring was key to the Phantoms' getting five points this weekend. His first goal was a heavy rip on a one-timer from Erik Higby that sparked the Phantoms' 4-1 run that forced overtime on Saturday, gaining a big overtime point, then he followed it up with a hard-working hat trick on Sunday. Kenney's 2009 turnaround is one of the biggest reasons that the Phantoms offense is flying high right now.

Defender of the Week - Dave Chaney

Chaney has really stepped up his game lately, staying at home well and really playing a strong transition game. John Houston has been badgering me for a couple weeks to give this award to Chaney because he's really been playing well lately and he was actually second on my list the last two weeks because I've been very impressed with his game recently and with his "D" on the uptick and chipping in his first goal of the year in Sunday's 5-1 win, Chaney is an easy pick for defender of the week.

Biggest Hitter - Johnny Meo

An important aspect of the Phantoms' success this weekend against TC was the physical game. The Phantoms were hitting hard and sending a physical message to the North Stars through the majority of the series. In fact, it's no coincidence that Traverse City had their best time span of the weekend in the first period of Saturday's game, a period where the Phantoms weren't at their best in the physical department. While everyone was out there throwing hits, Johnny led the way all three nights, laying the lumber in the most important series so far this season.

Most Underrated Play - George Saad

In a series where toughness made the difference, George set the tone on Friday, marking up on Traverse City's big tough forward Kyle Jean through the majority of the series-opening 4-1 win. Keeping Jean, along with Kyle Bonis, quiet for most of the weekend was very important... so while Kenney and the defense got a lot of the ink against TC, George helped set the tone defensively with his play against Jean early in the series.

Prettiest Goal - Nick Kenney

Nick opened the scoring on Sunday, which was arguably the most important game of the season so far, with a great-looking goal. In transition, Kenney moved the puck up the right side of the zone as part of a 2-on-1 with Jordy Trottier. Kenney fooled both the defenseman and goaltender Brandon Stephenson with a nice fake pass and, with Stephenson worried about the Phantoms' leading scorer open in the slot, Kenney snapped it top glove to put the Phantoms in control.

Guest Blog: Game Day with John Houston

2009-02-04T12:42:00.002-05:00

John Houston is a second-year defenseman for the Phantoms, currently sidelined with a leg injury. He's a long-time fan of the Phantoms Blog, and recently asked me to do a guest blog. He wrote this article on Friday and Saturday, detailing some behind the scenes stuff from Friday, January 30th, that most fans wouldn't normally see. Enjoy.

Hello Phantom fans, and welcome to a behind the scenes look at your Phantoms on game day with me Phantoms defenseman John Houston. Today we will be going in deep into Phantoms pre game rituals, to meals, and to game time preparations.

9:45 AM: We will start with breakfast; today we woke up to a coach’s wake up call. After that call it is expected to be down in the breakfast area within the next ten to fifteen minutes. In Alpena we don’t have a continental breakfast so we all got the same meal of ham & eggs along with home fries and toast. After breakfast we head back to our rooms to grab our equipment and head to the rink for morning skate.

10:30 AM: During morning skate we get a good sweat going and get our hands and feet ready for the game. During our second drill, Jordy Trottier likes to take time out to work on finishing rebounds for goals on Garrett Bartus. After we finish stretching a few guys get together and play “rebound” with Bartus while the others take a few shots on Jordan Tibbett via breakaways and shots from the points. In the neutral zone you can find Trevor Shively and Cody Ganchar passing all throughout the zone. After a good 20-25 minute skate, everyone gets off the ice, changes and heads back to the hotel.

11:30 AM: At the hotel about 95% of the team takes a nap while the non-nappers watch movies and just let their bodies relax.

2:00 PM: At two every one wakes up to go to lunch. Today we dined at the 19th hole, which is one of the best places we eat at on the road. After lunch we head back to the hotel were everyone showers and starts to get focused on the game.

5:00 PM: At five we get on the bus for our 5 minute commute to Northern Lights Arena. On the bus you can find about 50% of the team has their iPods blaring, 40% are just sitting there focusing in on the game, and the last 10% are trying to catch up on some pre-game sleep. As we arrive at the rink, we pull around to the back entrance where coach then reads the lineup. The players who aren’t playing wish the guys who will dress luck while they get of the bus. Now the interesting part of the night comes just before game time.

5:15 PM: Once we get in the rink, Trottier likes to take a walk around the building just to see what’s going on. Bartus, Nick Kenney, Cole Schneider and Dustin Hopfner usually are playing soccer for a good half hour with players jumping in and out during that course. The Saad brothers along with Dave Chaney and Alex Lippincott shoot pucks on the off-ice nets and pass between themselves. The rest of the guys are taping and checking their sticks to make sure they feel right. Our Trainer, Brian Patterson gets about a dozen pairs of skates to sharpen before the game.

5:45 PM: Forty-five minutes before warm up the team starts their pre-game stretching. Johnny Meo leads the team though a jog around the rink. Then its up the stairs to the place where we stretch. Nick Shkreli does a little bit of a longer jog than the rest of the team then heads up. The team gets a good dynamic warm-up in. Meo, Kenney, and Bartus lead the team up during this while Trottier brings up the rear giving everyone high fives as he comes through. Once we finish, Meo, Shkreli, the Saad brothers and Erik Higby all do their own stretching or extra dynamic to feel ready for the game. Depending on who is playing in goal that night, Tibbett or Bartus, each do their own thing after. Tonight Bartus is starting, so he will head over to where he can look over the rink and listen to his game time playlist on his iPod while doing some stretching.

6:00 PM: Down in the locker room, Patterson does some pre-game ankle taping to a few players. Carl Nielsen is the first to start getting dressed, listening to earsplitting music in his headphones.

6:05 PM: Around twenty five minutes before warm-ups, the rest of the team heads down to start getting dressed with the exception of Cullen Lundholm who puts his legs up before the game so they are ready. Once Bartus heads down he gets dressed extremely fast so he is the first one ready. Salituro takes his time while listening to some techno music.

6:27 PM: With about three minutes before we take the ice everyone is ready to go. Everyone lines up outside to take the ice. Again, Trottier brings up the rear, being the last one out of the locker room and onto the ice. While they are on the ice the players who are not dressed get all the back-up sticks over to the bench. Team Intern Bernie McDonnell sets up the camera while Paul sets up the B2 and radio gear.

6:45 PM: At the end of warm-ups, Tibbett takes a few breakaways and extra shots from the points while Schneider and Lippincott stay in front to put away some rebounds. Before them game Coach Mainhardt comes in and gives his speech and Coach Carr announces the starters.

7:00 PM: The game begins.

9:05 PM: Post-game. 6-1 win. The team totally demolished Alpena tonight in every facet of the game. After the game, the team hangs up their equipment and locks everything in the locker room and packs up to leave. Bernie shuts down the camera and calls to make sure our food is on the way. We head back to the hotel to eat then off to relax before bed just so we can do it all again tomorrow.

Please leave any comments or questions for John in the comment section!

Phantoms Move Early at Trade Deadline

2009-02-04T11:16:00.002-05:00

So you've probably already read the article on MVPPhantoms.com yesterday and if you're really sharp you saw it on NAHL.com and Pointstreak on Monday, but on the off chance you haven't heard, the Phantoms made their first player-for-player trade of the season, dealing defenseman Dustin Hopfner to the Motor City Machine for forward Josh Bussell. The swap came just six days before Sunday's trade deadline.

I like this trade for a few reasons.

First of all, Bussell is a talented veteran scorer with good vision and a very strong special teams player. Has there ever been a team in the history of organized hockey whose GM has said "You know, I don't think we need any more talented veteran scorers who earn regular power play and penalty kill shifts"? Of course not. You can never have too many guys like that! Having seen Bussell's work with Motor City, I know he can bring some immediate pop to the power play, which has struggled on and off this year and is currently languishing in 12th place league-wide. He will also be an asset on the NAHL's 4th-ranked PK. He is very strong on the puck and scores big goals in big spots (he almost single-handedly beat the Phantoms in our only loss to the Machine). In short, he's pretty much exactly the kind of player the Phantoms needed to pick up for the stretch run.

Second of all, the addition of Bussell gives the Phantoms' group of forwards an incredible amount of depth. Let's look at last weekend's line chart in Alpena:

B. Saad	Meo	Salituro
Trottier	Shkreli	Kenney
Schneider / Smith	Clifford	Lippincott
Ganchar	Higby	G. Saad

Now think about how much deeper this lineup--that dropped 15 on Alpena in two games--is with the addition of a 29 point scorer like Bussell. I'm fascinated to see what the lines look like this weekend against TC.

And the third thing I like about this trade is that it avoids the inevitable log jam on the blue line that would have happened sooner or later. With the pending returns of Robert Harrison (sooner) and John Houston (later), the coaches would have had to pick three guys from this list to sit each game: Harrison, Houston, Carl Nielsen, Cullen Lundholm, Dave Chaney, Dustin Hopfner, Trevor Shively, Michael Gunn and Kyle Van. That's a mighty tough call to make when the D is fully healthy. It's no secret that I'm a fan of Dustin and his strong physical game but like Coach Mainhardt says, you have to give up a good player to get a good player. Hopfner moves into a situation where he can be a top three or four defenseman constantly, plus it's close to home (East Pointe, MI).

It's a good trade all-around, in my opinion, and we'll get a chance to see just how good it is this weekend when Traverse City comes calling for three games at the Ice Zone starting on Friday. Don't forget to say hello, I'll see you at the Ice Zone!

Weekly Blog Awards - 2/4/08

2009-02-04T10:12:00.004-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Brandon Saad
4 G, 3 A, +4, PPG, SHG, GWG, Hat Trick (on 1/31)

An absolutely superhuman weekend from B-Saad at Alpena. He started it out with an insane goal against Top Prospects selection Nick Graves on Friday (see below) and then brought the house down on Saturday night with a most unique hat trick, scoring a power play goal, a short-handed goal and an even strength goal. He also had a handful of nice assists in the sweep as well, vaulting himself into second place (tied with Nick Shkreli) on the team with 30 points (19-11-30). Saad's new line with Johnny Meo and Stefan Salituro also rained down 6 goals and 11 assists in the series. Not too shabby.

Defender of the Week - Trevor Shively

Really the entire team stepped up their defensive efforts against Alpena, both forwards and defensemen, but I was really the most impressed with Shively's energy in the sweep. He worked hard in the corners, didn't get beat and did all the little things you expect of your defense. Ask anyone who watches the Phantoms and they'll tell you that Trevor is one of the hardest workers in the league, and he went above and beyond even that high praise this weekend, putting together two rock solid efforts in a series where the D was in rare form.

Biggest Hitter - Carl Nielsen

Carl set the tone early on Friday night, lighting up any blue jerseys that dared to enter the Phantoms zone. The series didn't end up being very physical after the early goings of the opener, and I'd like to think that's because of Nielsen's early physical dominance. When things did get a little chippy toward the end of Saturday's mauling, Carl was right there on the ice to deter the frustrated IceDiggers from doing anything stupid.

Most Underrated Play - Garrett Bartus

It's pretty easy to lose goaltending in the shuffle of a weekend where you win games 6-1 and 9-2, but Garrett made a huge play in the first period of Friday night's game that may very well have swung the entire series in the Phantoms' favor. In transition, Alpena forward John Fritsche got behind the Phantom D for a point-blank opportunity. Fritsche tried to go high glove on Bartus but Garrett's glove was too fast, knocking the puck to the ice and smothering the rebound to end the play. If Fritsche scores there, Alpena goes up 1-0 and the entire complexion of the series is drastically altered, but Bartus' saves kept it 0-0, and the rest is history.

Prettiest Goal - Brandon Saad

Forget goal of the week, this play could very well be goal of the year. Saad was fresh out of the box after getting a coincidental minor with Alpena defenseman Adam Bristol, whose late hits had apparently drawn the ire of the World U-17 First-Team All-Tournament selection. Apparently the IceDiggers wouldn't like Brandon Saad when he's angry, because he grabbed the puck on a clearing pass from Stefan Salituro and zipped up the left-side boards on his ensuing shift. He was 1-on-2 with defensemen Jarrod Hartman and Kyle Hughes, heading into the Alpena end. Hartman drew the early assignment, trying to angle Saad off into the corner, but it was pretty clear that Saad had Hartman beaten from the blue line in. Brandon sped by, drawing Hartman down to the left face-off dot before turning the corner on him toward Graves. This is where the magic happened. Hughes rotated over to try and wipe out Saad and end the rush, but Saad pulled a gorgeous left-to-right toe drag with a slight hop to the right, causing Hughes to miss completely and go skidding into the corner. Free from both defenders, Saad saw Graves commit low early and shoveled a backhand into the top shelf to finish an astonishing play.

Weekly Blog Awards - 1/28/09

2009-01-28T09:10:00.003-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Cole Schneider
4 G, +2

Pretty clear-cut choice here as Cole rolled up his second four-goal weekend since Christmas and seized second place on the team in goals scored (14) behind Brandon Saad (15). Cole scored in all three games this weekend but also played a solid two-way game, actively backchecking through the course of the three-game set. His biggest accomplishment, probably, was scoring twice against the stout defense of Team USA U-18 on Sunday, particularly his first goal of the game (SPOILER ALERT: see below).

Defender of the Week - Carl Nielsen

After being without the services of Carl for the three-game series two weekends ago, it's downright startling the difference it makes when the other team sees big #27 patrolling the blue line for the Phantoms. While you saw a lot of late contact on the goalies from Motor City two weeks ago with Nielsen in a suit in the press box two weeks ago, a great deal of that sort of play was curtailed by the 6'5" 220 pound deterrent in skates. The dirtiest play of the weekend, USA's Chris Brown checking Trevor Shively from behind into the boards, was quickly answered by Nielsen who quickly squared off with Tyler Amburgey--who took a pretty solid whooping for his teammate's misdeeds. Most of the other chippy play by the opponents last weekend came with Carl on the bench.

Biggest Hitter - Nick Kenney

Kenney gets the repeat appearance here for another great weekend of mucking it up in the corners. It's been said to death by now, but that line of Kenney-Shkreli-Trottier is just deadly when they get the puck in the corner. Even if you take it away from them, Kenney or Trottier will whack you to the boards and Shkreli will come get the puck right back. Kenney also did a solid job last weekend helping out at the top of the defensive zone in the few times the defensemen got the biscuit.

Most Underrated Play - Johnny Meo

One problem the Phantoms seemed to be having this weekend was defensive zone face-offs. One player who did not seem to be having this problem--in his zone or anywhere else they dropped the puck--was Johnny Meo. Johnny was in rare form at the face-off dot in all three games, winning almost every face-off he leaned in for. Not only was he winning face-offs, he wasn't getting thrown out of the circle. It seems that every other face-off in the NAHL, one or both of the centers are getting kicked, but Meo has found a good method to stay in the circle and win the ensuing draw. This ability will become more and more noticeable and more and more important the closer to the playoffs we get.

Prettiest Goal - Cole Schneider

As alluded to above, Cole easily had the best goal of the weekend in the first period on Sunday against USA. On a 2-on-2, he made a fantastic move at the Nationals blue line that completely froze William Wrenn (possibly the best defenseman the Phantoms will see all year), then using the half second the move bought him to blaze past Wrenn up the left side, turn the corner to the net of Adam Murray and fire it five-hole to give the Phantoms an early 1-0 lead. Just an incredible effort by Schneider on the play.

That Finishing Touch

2009-01-21T09:57:00.002-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans, and happy Wednesday!

Well the team is now getting ready for the stretch run, with 34 of 58 games in the books and a looming 16-games-in-6-weeks schedule starting Friday. With games against all five of the Phantoms' divisional opponents--including a gigantic three-game series at the Ice Zone Feb. 6-8 against second-place Traverse City--the next month and a half may just tell the tale of how the North Division shakes out.

Heading into this stretch, the Phantoms are clearly starting to round into form: the offense has hit another gear since Christmas, a rejuvenated Garrett Bartus has given the Phantoms a fearsome two-headed monster in net and the defense is starting to get healthy with the impending return of assistant captains Robert Harrison and Carl Nielsen. That said, there is one missing ingredient that would put the Phantoms at the point of being a truly scary squad in Mason City in May.

That missing ingredient? Killer instinct.

At this juncture, the Phantoms are highly adept at establishing early leads, scoring first in 23 of their 34 games so far this season. They are also good at protecting leads, going 19-3-1 in those 23 games in which they scored first, 16-2-1 with a first intermission lead and 16-1-1 with the lead after two periods. So what's the problem, you may ask?

The problem lies in really putting teams away. This year there have been many games in which the Phantoms have roundly dominated a team but just never put them away.

Take last weekend's Motor City games, for example. In terms of pace of play, time of possession, scoring chances and everything else you'd use to determine how comparatively well your team is doing, the Phantoms were head and shoulders above the Machine. But Motor City just hung around, and the last five minutes of both games were shockingly tense.

Other big examples include the New Years trip to Traverse City, the blown 4-0 lead against Team USA that the Phantoms escaped with a 6-5 shootout win and the overtime squeaker against St. Louis in the Chevrolet Centre opener after holding a late 3-1 lead over the defending champs.

Now this is not to say that the Phantoms can't handle themselves in close games. Far from it; they're 9-4-3 in games decided by one goal. The main point is that when April rolls around, every game will be against teams that can rally from small deficits. To that end, the Phantoms need to develop that killer instinct that will let them turn those small first period leads into huge third period advantages.

If there's one thing I hope the Phantoms remember about last Sunday's rough 9-1 loss, it's how Team USA got the early advantage but never once let up. You can call it running up the score if you want (I did) but the Nationals found a way to pile up goals and never took their collective foot off the gas pedal. That's killer instinct.

Now I'm not saying the Phantoms should try and win 9-1 every night and run up the score when they're out-classing their opponent by a wide margin, but if the Phantoms can find a way to finish off their opponents while the game is still in doubt, they will be the most dangerous team in the playoffs, bar none.

***

Don't forget, by the way, that this weekend's games against Motor City both have exciting promotions including Chick-Fil-A night on Friday and T-Shirt night on Saturday (sponsored by Humility of Mary Health Partners)!

See you at the Chevrolet Centre and go Phantoms!

Weekly Blog Awards - All-Star Break Edition

2009-01-21T09:14:00.002-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week. This week's awards are for the games Jan. 9-11.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Brandon Saad
3 G, A, GWG, +3

This was pretty close between Brandon and a repeat appearance in this spot for Nick Kenney, but Saad's one extra point over Kenney gets the nod, here. His most impressive feat of the weekend was possibly late in Sunday's loss at Team USA when Saad took on what looked like all 5 Nationals on the ice and drove the net of Brandon Maxwell, drawing in the USA defense and freeing Brad Smith on the back door for the Phantoms' lone marker of the game. B-Saad definitely kept his momentum rolling from the World U-17 Challenge last weekend.

Defender of the Week - Michael Gunn

Since Michael joined the team in December following off-season leg surgery, catching back up to game speed has been a big mountain for the MSU recruit to climb. Lately, though, it seems that Gunn is starting to get his legs back near 100% and it's making a big difference on the blueline. He is more able to angle off transition chances, allowing him to make physical plays in the corner-- and at 6'3", 180 lbs, having Gunn able to throw his body around is good for business for the the defense. It also builds confidence for the rookie defenseman, translating into good things on the offensive end as well: namely, his blazing one-timer from the blue line for his second goal of the year last Saturday.

Biggest Hitter - Dustin Hopfner, Jordy Trottier, Nick Kenney, Brad Smith

I've got to go with a tie here. Each of these guys had a very strong physical presence last weekend in different aspects of the game. Hopfner had his usual strong game in the corners of his own end along with solid open-ice hits; Trottier and Kenney continued to wreak havoc in the corners of the offensive zone, leading to solid extended pressure for the third straight week; Smith established his own checking presence in his own zone, neutral ice and the offensive end, really showing a physical edge for the first time this season.

Most Underrated Play - Cody Ganchar

With the Phantoms entering Ann Arbor to play (inarguably) the best team they'll see all season on the tail end of a three-game weekend and their sixth game in the past ten days, a lot of players were a little worn down when the team got to the Ice Cube. With the game being played under international rules, Cody got a chance to dress for the first time this season. While he was out there, primarily at center, I was impressed with his play in the defensive zone and the way he skated with the puck. In an otherwise-forgettable game, Ganchar provided one of the lone bright spots for the Phantoms, managing the only positive plus-minus rating (+1) of anyone on the team.

Prettiest Goal - Michael Gunn

Already referenced above, I have to give this award to Gunn's Saturday one-timer against Motor City. It was an excellent play by Kenney to draw in the Motor City defense in transition and find Gunn trailing for the rip. If Gunn can continue to provide such a heavy slap shot from the point--one-timer or not--that will be a big asset for the Phantoms in the offensive zone during the upcoming stretch run.

Bush League Factor - North Division

2009-01-14T08:59:00.013-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans, I hope you're staying warm on this extremely cold Wednesday morning!

With the off weekend upcoming (not counting Top Prospects), I wanted to take some time and pay homage to one of my favorite hockey sites, The Bush League Factor. For those of you who have never visited BLF, it's a site that breaks down the (generally bad) logos and team names that exist in minor league hockey on a sort-of-objective points scale. It's done for humor and, frankly, I love it.

I wish this site (and, of course, the internet) had been around when I was younger, I would've loved to see what they had to say about some of the awful early-90's IHL logos I grew up watching like the Cleveland Lumberjacks and the Detroit Vipers. Those were the days!

Anyway, let's have a little fun and break down the logos in our division using the BLF scoring rules here this morning. Two slight tweaks to the rules, however: 1- I will only enforce the name-logo penalty if the team's name appears on their logo on their jerseys; 2- having gray/silver jerseys will serve as a 4-point penalty (I believe only two teams in the NAHL have gray jerseys, but man are they ugly. I don't know what possesses teams to wear these, but I hope this trend dies very very soon).

We'll go in order of the current standings. Remember: this is like golf... you want fewer points.

1- Mahoning Valley Phantoms

*hold for applause* So let's start with our name/logo. Well our team is named after our parent company, BJ Alan/Phantom Fireworks, which is a pretty big deal in Youngstown since it's the country's largest retail fireworks company. Luckily, though, as opposed to old NAHL sponsor-bearing names like the "Compuware Ambassadors," this one actually fits with how a sports team should be named.

Not only that, but it's a cool name; a phantom is defined as "a ghostly appearing figure." A ghost! Ghosts definitely inspire fear in a great many people, but "The Ghosts" would be an awful team name. Phantoms works because there's a bit of a darker connotation than just "ghost." Noone ever would want to play with Casper the Friendly Phantom.

As for the logo... even though it is a re-work of the Phantom Fireworks logo, it fits well as a hockey logo as well. If I had to make one change, it would be to make the background a solid orange and not the sunburst or whatever starting next to the phantom-guy's right eye. A minor gripe. Phantom-guy also evades the dreaded "cartoon" penalty, as it is stylized and not cartoony (we have a cartoon version of the phantom hanging up here in the office, be glad you've never seen it). If you would like a good example of what a cartoony logo is in this division, wait until we get to 3rd place.

The name/logo do, unfortunately, suffer from a pair of automatic penalties with region and fade, but past that it's all good.

Final Score: 1 point.
Penalties: Region, 3 pts; Fade, 6 pts.
Bonuses: Local, 3 pts; Cool Name, 5 pts.

2. Traverse City North Stars

In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you this right now: of all the logos in the NAHL, this is probably my favorite. I like it so much that it makes me wish they were in a different division (or at least not the team with whom we're in a dogfight for first place).

We'll start right there: with the logo, which is simple and classy. There are two different installments of this logo depending on which jersey TC is wearing, but whether it's blue or red with white it still works. Simple is a big deal for me, because often the simplest logos are the best. Look at the NHL, where all of the original six teams have simple logos they've used for decades.

The name itself is kind of blah. The logo fits it (and I'm glad), but North Stars doesn't really strike fear in the hearts of man. I get it that Traverse City is pretty far north--the temperatures and snow on our New Years trip up there certainly confirm this--but I don't find myself worrying that a celestial body used as a navigational landmark would beat my favorite team. I just don't.

The only minor penalty I'm going to ring up TC for is ripoff. While there is also a team named "Phantoms" in the AHL, phantoms are generic enough. North Stars, on the other hand, are not so generic and everyone remembers the former Minneapolis NHL entry. But that's it.

Final Score: -1 point.
Penalties: Ripoff, 4 pts.
Bonuses: Cool-Logo, 5 pts.

3. Alpena IceDiggers

Hooo, boy. This is not going to be pretty.

There's just so much I don't like about this logo/name. The name started in Toledo before the team moved, and I'm not sure what "Diggers" even had to do with Toledo, much less Alpena. Then they had to go down that classic road of hockey team name folly and throw in "Ice" for no good reason. On top of that, they couldn't just leave it "Icediggers" or "Ice Diggers"... nope, they had to do "IceDiggers." This confuses many people, including our team's art department, who always wants to make it "Ice Diggers" in things we send them. I don't necessarily disagree with them.

Then we have the logo. It, too, suffers from a classic hockey pitfall of including a piece of equipment with the digger's stick. Then there's the colors. Oh, the colors! Not counting black and white, this logo contains seven different colors: blue, silver, orange, light orange, red, brown and peach. Seven colors! Plus, the name does not go away on the jersey like it does with the Phantoms. Furthermore, it doesn't get more cartoony than that digger.

Let's add it up.

Final Score: 59 points.
Penalties: Ice, 9 pts; Software, 8 pts; Cartoon, 17 pts, Name-Logo, 2 pts; Equip-Logo, 5 pts; Colorful, 13 pts; Yucky-Logo 5 pts.
Bonuses: None.

4. Marquette Rangers

This logo is very difficult to judge.

I can't decide if this is cartoony. I want to say it's stylized, but is it? I keep seeing this ranger in a mine with Bugs Bunny. It's a tough call. Let's cut the penalty in half.

And are those hockey gloves or miner's gloves? Giving the benefit of the doubt (since I know nothing about mining), I'll say miner's gloves. Also, I'm not sure what Rangers have to do with mining, but again I'll give the benefit of the doubt here to Marquette; I'm from northeast Ohio, not the UP.

The Rangers get the local bonus because, from what I understand, mining is a big wheel up there; the name of the local paper is the Marquette Mining Journal, for crying out loud. Bonus: awarded!

I also won't ding them for ripoff, because I suspect this is a different kind of Rangers from the ones in New York (or Texas).

One thing I will absolutely ring up Marquette for, however, are those insanely bad silver jerseys. I don't know why they wear them, but I don't like them. At all. It gives the physical appearance of being dirty and when the jerseys get wet, they noticeably change colors. Not only that, but with the blue numbers on silver jerseys, it's very difficult to see players' names and numbers. I felt I had to make my own penalty for this because I want everyone to know that SILVER JERSEYS ARE BAD!

Final Score: 16 points.
Penalties: Name-Logo, 2 pts; Equip-Logo, 5 pts; Gray/silver Jersey, 4 pts; Cartoon (halved) 8 pts.
Bonuses: Local, 3 pts.

5. US National Team Development Program

...or as everyone actually calls it, Team USA. Noone, not even their own PA announcer, calls them by their full name, or even USNTDP. This will earn you a Yucky-Name penalty.

This is the classic USA Hockey logo, which I enjoy, so there's not much to nitpick.

I don't care for the Nationals' use of the horrific 2006 Turin Olympics Nike vertically-aligned cookie-cutter international jerseys but hey, that's not my call. People, apparently, like them. I don't... but they're not silver, so I shall not penalize.

Final Score: 4 points.
Penalties: Yucky-Name, 4 pts.
Bonuses: None.

6. Motor City Machine

This is a well-intentioned logo/name that just gets hammered on the technicalities. Let me just say that I love the colors. Maroon, gray and black work very well together and can be both intimidating and classy. Motor City's jerseys are very cool; I like them a lot.

That said, let's go through this laundry list of penalties. Four pieces of equipment on the robot: skates, stick, helmet, gloves... that gives you a triply egregious Equip-Logo penalty. Motor City isn't an actual city, so we're looking at a region penalty. "Machine" is singular. There are multiple color fades. And, finally, Motor City Machine is an alliteration.

It does, however, avoid a number of big penalties. The robot, to me, is not cartoony because it is very detailed. No Name-Logo penalty because, like the Phantoms, the name goes away on the jersey.

Final Score: 33 points.
Penalties: Alliteration, 2 pts; Equip-Logo (triply egregious), 16 pts; Fade, 6 pts; Region, 3 pts; Singular, 6 pts.
Bonuses: None.

So leave some comments and let me know what you think and how YOU would score these logos (or others around the league)!

Ramping Up to Mario Lemieux Foundation Night

2009-01-07T09:53:00.003-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans, and Happy Wednesday!

After a tough three-game set in Traverse City, the Phantoms return to the friendly confines of the Chevrolet Centre to take on the Motor City Machine for a couple of games before hitting the road for a Sunday matinee in Ann Arbor against Team USA.

While the hockey will obviously be the focal point this weekend, a lot of the hoopla this week has been surrounding our Mario Lemieux Foundation Night on Saturday at the Chevy Centre. The team will be wearing these special-edition Foundation jerseys:

I'm a big fan of the designs and I also like the fact that they're unlike any other special edition jersey the Phantoms have done. While they're eerily similar to the current Pittsburgh Penguins away jerseys, their colors (especially the gold) are more reminiscent of when Super Mario played for the Pens, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

The unis will be auctioned off after the game, and they'll be autographed by the players that wear them, with the proceeds from the auction going to the Foundation and its ongoing commitment to cancer research.

It's a very exciting week for the team, as being able to work with an organization led by an absolute hockey legend in Mario Lemieux is pretty cool for everyone. We're really looking forward to Saturday's game and we hope the jersey auction will be able to put a lot of funding into the MLF coffers.

It should be a great weekend! We'll see you at the Chevrolet Centre!

Weekly Blog Awards - 1/7/09

2009-01-07T09:11:00.002-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Nick Kenney
3 G, 3 A, GWG, PPG, +1

Pretty much a foregone conclusion after Nick took home the league's North Division Player of the Week honors. Kenney had a great weekend, more than doubling his previous point total in just one series. His line with Nick Shkreli and Jordy Trottier once again ran an exemplary forecheck and the chances they were just missing against Alpena turned into a flurry of goals in Traverse City; they combined for six goals and nine assists in three games. Kenney's hard-nosed style and ability to work through contact along the boards made this line very dangerous in the TC end.

Defender of the Week - The Centers

I was impressed this weekend by the defensive zone play of Meo, Higby, Shkreli and Clifford. Any time TC tried to create sustained pressure in the Phantoms' corners, it seemed that whichever center was out there was behind the goal line to help the D. At even strength, Traverse City did not have a lot of luck creating goals while holding the puck in the Phantoms end, and that was thanks to solid two-way play from the centermen.

Biggest Hitter - Cullen Lundholm

This nod goes to "Lundy" because he staged a pretty epic battle with 6'3" 200 lb. North Stars forward Kyle Jean over the course of three games. A battle, might I add, that Lundholm won pretty convincingly. His biggest hit came in the first period on Friday night, however, when he caught Jean at the Phantoms blueline with a shoulder to the chest, lifting him about 6 inches off the ice before he crashed to the surface. It may have been the best hit by any Phantom so far this year.

Most Underrated Play - Garrett Bartus

The four-goal third period on Saturday night grabbed the headlines, but it was the play of Garrett Bartus in the second half of that game that ensured the Phantoms' 5-3 win. When the team went down 3-1 in the second, the North Stars didn't let up, but Bartus played his best with his team's backs against the wall. He turned aside numerous point-blank chances to keep the Phantoms only down two at the second intermission, and then made more big saves after his offense gave him the lead. Bartus has been playing very well over the last month and his teammates have rewarded him with three straight wins.

Prettiest Goal - Nick Kenney

Kenney's game-winner on Saturday night was a thing of beauty, as he went to the far post on a 2-on-1 with Jordy Trottier into the North Stars' end. Trottier feathered a perfect pass through the TC defender to Kenney on the back door, and Nick one-timed a cannon through Brandon Stephenson's five-hole to give the Phantoms the lead for good. Great pass, great finish. Trottier was not originally credited with the assist on the play, but on Monday justice was served when the league went back and gave Jordy the well-deserved helper.

Goodbye, 2008; Hello, Offense!

2008-12-31T10:16:00.003-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans! After a short holiday break, the blog is back to close out 2008 here on New Year's Eve.

Well, the 2008 portion of the season is done, and the Phantoms are sitting pretty at 19-7-2 with a chance to finish the first half of the season with 20 wins (Friday night is game #29 of 58). And while 2008 has been kind to the Phantoms, I am looking forward to 2009.

My biggest reason, at least right now, for optimism is the fact that the Phantoms offense is playing very well right now, having scored 15 goals in the last three games (two of which were without leading goal-scorer Brandon Saad).

Obviously, a huge key to the team's offensive resurgence has been the simple fact that the team has improved its offensive execution. The scoring chances have really been there all season, dating all the way back to game one against Owatonna, but earlier this month the team was having trouble converting the opportunities, scoring only five goals in their first three December games.

Following the Phantoms' 5-2 home loss to Marquette, their first loss at the Chevrolet Centre, Coach Mainhardt challenged his team to play with more hunger and they've responded, for sure.

I'm also a big fan of the line combinations the coaches have drawn up, especially since for the forwards it's basically all hands on deck with Brandon Saad in Vancouver for the World Under-17 Challenge. Let's take a look at how the different lines did this week against Alpena:

Schneider, Higby, Lippincott:

5 G, 3 A, +14

Pateras, Meo, Salituro:

1 G, 3 A (don't forget their 3G, 3A, +7 night last Saturday against Marquette, either)

Trottier, Shkreli, Kenney:

G, A, -1 (unreal forechecking, sadly, does not show up in stat lines)

Smith, Clifford, G. Saad:

2 G, 2 A, -2

I think I've said it before, but I remain a big fan of the reuniting of Schneider, Higby and Lippincott on one line. All three have worked well on other lines at various points this season, but they seem to be the most productive when they're out there together; we saw this as early as game one when the line provided a couple even-strength goals against Owatonna.

I'm also intrigued to see how the offense performs this weekend in a three-game road series against the #8 team in the league in terms of goals allowed per game, Traverse City. It should be a great set.

Game one of the three game set is Friday at 7:05. If you can't make it up to TC, check us out on B2 or ESPN 1240.

Have a happy and safe New Year, Phantom Phans!

Blog Awards - New Year's Eve

2008-12-31T08:51:00.004-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Cole Schneider
4 G, 2 GWG, PPG, +4

This was pretty much the easiest decision of any blog award so far this year. Cole played great against Alpena, and always found himself in position to score. Not only that, but he and his linemates (particularly Erik Higby, who was a robust plus-6 in the series) also played very strong defense. Cole had a very quiet 5-8-13 heading into the holiday series, but after a commanding four-goal weekend, there's not much quiet about Schneider's play anymore.

Defender of the Week - Carl Nielsen

After missing the last three games with a bum hand (or, as they call it in the NHL, an "upper body injury"), Carl's presence against Alpena was clearly a big boost to the blueline this week. Not only were the IceDiggers on their best behavior when #27 was on the ice (I think everyone's seen the video of Carl's fight against Kurtis Anton by this point), but Carl logged some huge PK minutes during the three 5-on-3's the Phantoms successfully killed off in the two games. He finished +3 on Monday night and almost single-handedly took away Alpena's transition game in the second and third periods that game.

Biggest Hitter - Dustin Hopfner

At some point I should probably just start calling this the Dustin Hopfner award. "Hopf" laid the lumber left and right once again last series, and (mostly) did a good job of staying out of the box. I'll forgive his one penalty because he and John Houston were out there defending Garrett Bartus after a whistle on a night where Bartus may have endured more hits than anyone else on the ice.

Most Underrated Play - Jordy Trottier, Nick Shkreli, Nick Kenney

While the play that shows up on the scoresheet for the Phantoms' first goal on Monday night is Smith from Shkreli and Bartus, it was the play of the Trottier-Shkreli-Kenney line that truly led to Smith's score. Coming in for the end of the Phantoms' 6th power play of the night, the line was able to create some good puck movement on the cycle in the Alpena zone. They were ultimately unable to break through for a goal on the shift, but their ability to hold the puck in the IceDiggers' end for what seemed like almost two or three minutes (it was actually closer to one minute) following the power play seemed to break Alpena's will. When the IceDiggers were finally able to ice the puck, Bartus came out of the net to play the puck and negate the icing, setting up the goal that started the Phantoms' rally of four unanswered on Monday.

Prettiest Goal - Michael Pateras

This was a pretty difficult decision, but I have to give it up to Pateras, who finished a 2-on-1 with Johnny Meo with a perfect top shelf finish. My favorite part of the goal was probably Meo drawing the defense and threading the needle to his linemate. And speaking of... the line of Meo, Pateras and Stefan Salituro has been very impressive over the last three games, having played a part in five goals in those contests.

Who's No. 1?

2008-12-18T08:35:00.003-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans! The blog is a day late; I hope you can forgive me for that!

An interesting subplot to the 08-09 season so far has been the balance of power between the divisions. That is to say: which division is the best? It's been a tough call so far because each division seems to have something different to offer with multiple strong, winning teams.

This debate has been running since we could really start to get a feel for these teams (aka early November) and begin comparing the divisions' relative merits and weaknesses, and it's been a fairly captivating topic since then.

Before I dive too deeply into this topic, I'd like to just pretend that the NAHL Showcase never happened. Not to say that the games don't count, but it's just that you cannot realistically consider the results of the first week of the season to be canon in terms of how divisions stack up against eachother. For example: Motor City went 3-1-0 at the Showcase and are 2-20-1 since; Fairbanks was 1-3-0 in Blaine and are 17-1-4 since. So let's throw out the Showcase, OK?

Divisions -- The Outsiders

These two divisions I consider to be the lower two of the four at this juncture. This is not to say that the top teams in each division aren't very good, but in an overall division sense I think it's pretty easy to see why I list them here.

West Division

Let's start out west. This division is a total wild card to me. I really couldn't tell you what's going on with these guys for a number of reasons:

Fairbanks and Kenai River have played eachother 13 times, so it's tough to really flesh out either's record. Is FBX that good or is KRB that bad?
Wenatchee has only played 20 games and will not play again until January.
This division's lone marquee win came when Fairbanks split with Topeka at home, but it was during Topeka's brief period of October struggles. How would those games have turned out at the Expocentre in December?

Past that, the West is the only division with more than one team under .500 while its second-place team is one game over .500, making it by far the least-deep division of the four. Finally, the offense and defense in this division are sorely lacking south of Fairbanks, so it's tough to consider them really in the mix with the other three divisions.

Central Division

This division may be the most fun division thanks to a tight race and more offense than you can shake a goalie stick at. It's virtually impossible to declare a front-runner in this race because Alexandria and Bismarck keep trading the top spot with North Iowa and Owatonna both lurking dangerously. Right now, the Express sit in fourth place but they're only five points behind the first-place Blizzard.

Personally, I think that Alexandria presents the Central's best hope to win the Robertson Cup, judging by their 5-0-0 (post-Showcase) out-of-division record combined with the rest of the Central sporting a paltry 1-5-0 record against non-divisional foes. But who knows if the Blizzard will even emerge from what should be a great April in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa!

Right now I'd rank this division as third out of four, just because defense wins championships and there is virtually none outside Bismarck.

Divisions -- The Big Boys

I don't think you can accurately rank these two divisions against eachother, because at this point it really is an apples and oranges comparison of depth vs. a very strong top of the division. Most NAHL observers, even Central Division folks, seem to think that the Robertson Cup will likely boil down to the South and the North.

South Division

Can you say top-heavy? There are only two teams in the entire league with 20+ wins, and they are both in the South. Topeka (23-3-1) and St. Louis (21-6-3) have been rock solid so far and both are loaded with talent, setting the stage for what should be an incredible divisional final in the playoffs between these two heavyweights.

That said, Spingfield and Wichita Falls have struggled with inconsistencies all season long. The Wildcats followed up an impressive 4-0-0 showing at the NAHL Showcase with a 1-8-2 slide over their next 11 games. Since then, Wichita Falls is 5-1-2 in its last eight including wins over the Bandits and Roadrunners. The Jr. Blues, meanwhile, have suffered seperate five and eight-game losing streaks without winning more than three straight all year.

Wichita Falls could provide an interesting foil come playoff time and possibly knock out one of the two heavyweights. I would be shocked if the winner of the South didn't, one way or another, end up playing in the finals this year.

North Division

The pictured definition of parity and depth. Heading into tomorrow and Saturday's games, fifth place sits just five points behind first place (with the first place team assured of losing its divisional lead by Sunday), with teams left for dead just a month ago (Alpena, Marquette) suddenly coming up with big wins in the last three weeks over the Phantoms, Traverse City and eachother to assert themselves in this tightly packed divisional race.

This is the only division where one good team will be left out of the playoffs; if the season ended today the IceDiggers, a team with a winning percentage of .600, would be cleaning out their lockers. The knowledge of this short supply of playoff spots makes every night a dogfight in this highly defensive division.

Speaking of the defense, right now the North features the second (Phantoms), fourth (IceDiggers), sixth (North Stars) and eighth (Team USA) ranked defenses in the whole league. The Nationals and Phantoms are also third and fourth, respectively, for the lowest total of penalty minutes league-wide.

By the time April rolls around, the North may have the most battle-tested teams because their playoffs basically begin in February; a round-robin with the fifth-place finisher going home. This will benefit whoever wins the North heading into May.

***

Now, can we fairly rank all of these divisions in December? Oh, probably not. This will be very fun to revisit in a month and a half, when things start to really heat up for the playoff chase.

Don't forget, Phans, that tomorrow night is Toys for Tots Night at the Chevrolet Centre; bring in a new, unwrapped toy and get $5 off any ticket in the house as the Phantoms host the Rangers.

See you at the Chevrolet Centre!

Weekly Blog Awards - 12/18/08

2008-12-18T08:15:00.003-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Jordan Tibbett & Garrett Bartus
2 GP, W, 1.50 GAA, 65 SV, .956 SV%

Both goalies played very well this weekend. Tibbett made 37 saves and made them look easy; his D gave him good looks at everything coming his way and it paid off with a W. I may have come away more impressed with Bartus this weekend, however, as his game seemed to have a higher degree of difficulty on Saturday-- and not just because of the move onto the Olympic sheet at the Ice Cube. Bartus made numerous big saves on point-blank opportunities and really looked like the Garrett Bartus of old. Watching him in practice this week, it really looks like his confidence has been renewed by the solid start, which is great to see.

Defender of the Week - John Houston

With Carl Nielsen limited by injury this weekend (he eventually sat out Saturday's game), "Huey" stepped up to lead the blueline in Ann Arbor. Sure, there were a couple moments when Coach Mainhardt was in Houston's ear about on-ice mishaps (Ed. note: Houston, who may read this blog more than any other Phantom, insists that these instances were in regard to the power play and not his defensive play), but John held strong in the one most important facet against Team USA, and that's transition defense. Houston did the best job of any Phantoms defender of keeping the speedy Nationals forwards to the outside, a key factor in holding USA to only three goals on the weekend.

Biggest Hitter - Johnny Meo

The series against the Nationals did not feature much physical play until the second period on Saturday, and once the physical game got turned up, the captain was constantly in the mix, throwing hits and getting his hands dirty in the corner. Luckily for Johnny, the second game of the series was the last Saturday game in Ann Arbor this season; he's endured dangerous cheap shots from USA forwards in both Saturday games (including getting sent face-first from behind into the boards last game).

Most Underrated Play - Kyle Verbeek

More like underrated plays. Kyle really sold out on the backcheck this weekend while he was on the ice and did a good job helping out the blueliners against the Nationals' potent transition attack. He was probably best backchecking winger of the weekend, which I'm sure the horde of scouts at the Ice Cube took note of.

Prettiest Goal - Jordy Trottier

This is a no-brainer, really. Jordy's GWG on Friday night was a beautiful play: from Nielsen's steal and his feed down to Doug Clifford to Clifford's incredible saucer pass to Trottier's patient finish; you really can't draw it up better than that.

Enjoying the Off Week

2008-12-10T09:26:00.002-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans, and happy Wednesday!

After two straight months of games, the Phantoms finally got a little R&R this past week with their first weekend without a game since October 10-12. Coming in off seven straight weeks of play, including three-game weekends at Traverse City and in the North Division Showcase, the time off was well-placed, giving some injured Phantoms a little time to heal up and be ready for what's going to be a rough 5-week haul. The schedule for the next five weeks features games against all five of the Phantoms' divisional opponents plus a Sunday matchup with Team USA's vaunted U-18 squad on January 11th.

The time off was nice, but I'm glad that this is the team's only real off-weekend until mid-January and third-to-last overall in the regular season (the last being March 6-8). Time off can often be the enemy of progress, and I think a prime example of that is when the Phantoms suffered their only losing streak of the season back in October after they sat idle for two of the first three weekends after September's league Showcase in Minnesota. The Phantoms, to this point, played their best hockey in November, a month in which they played 11 games with no downtime.

Now consider this: one bye week can be tricky, but how do you handle four? Such is the lot for Head Coach Paul Baxter and the Wenatchee Wild in the West Division. Wenatchee's last game was November 30th, a 6-5 win over Alaska to cap an 8-win month for the expansion Wild... and now they won't play again until January 2nd. No games in December! That's a massive coaching undertaking to keep a team focused and hungry over the course of 32 days with no games; it's like training camp all over again.

Taking a look back here at the Phantoms, there is a big difference between two out of three weeks off at the beginning of the season and one bye out of thirteen weekends, which is the case right now.

A nice thing that the bye lets you do is address any issues that you've been having lately. Not to say that the Phantoms have been having big issues, granted their 8-2-1 finish in November. That said, the one area the Phantoms need to address seems to be the second period. For whatever reason, the second period of games has been a real thorn in the Phantoms' side for the past few games. Dating back to the Nov. 22nd game against USA, the Phantoms have given up 10 second period goals. In that same time span, they've only coughed up 5 goals in the first, third and overtime periods combined.

Of course, there is no way to specifically work on a second period scenario, so the big thing is for the Phantoms to get back to that "Full 60" mentality that Coach Mainhardt and his staff have been preaching all year. We've seen the Phantoms play one game where the "Full 60" came to fruition and it resulted in a 3-1 domination of the league-leading St. Louis Bandits. Thanks to that game, we know the team is capable of playing that full sixty minutes of hockey, now the key will be to see if the Phantoms can carry that through the remaining 36 games on the schedule and into the postseason.

The first step toward that end, of course, is this weekend at Team USA. This will be the 5th meeting between the two squads; the Phantoms hold a 3-1-0 edge thus far in the season series with the Nationals. The "Full 60" is so very important against this high-flying bunch, as we all learned when they overcame a 4-0 Phantoms lead at home on the 22nd to force overtime. If you let up for just a second against such an explosive squad, they can get right back into even the most lopsided game.

One absolutely bizarre (and obscure) stat I'll be keeping my eye on this weekend is this: in both Saturday games against Team USA this year, the Nationals have scored a goal in the last second of regulation. In the October 25th game, Austin Czarnik scored right as the horn sounded to make the final score 3-2 Phantoms; in the November 22nd game, Nick Shore scored with 0:00.3 on the clock to tie the game at 5 and force OT. It's certainly coincidence, and the Phantoms won both of those games, but as a stat nerd, it's a statistical anomaly that interests me.

Finally, will December be as OT-happy for the Phantoms as November? Last month, the Phantoms had 5 of their 11 games go into bonus hockey with the good guys going 4-1 in those contests, including a 2-0 mark in shootouts. If the games do go past the 60 minute mark, watch out for Brandon Saad and Erik Higby: Saad grabbed shootout-winning and overtime-winning goals in November and Higby netted an OT-winner (shorthanded, no less) and a shootout goal last month as well.

And, in case you think I forgot, no awards this week because of the bye.

If you're in Ann Arbor for the games this weekend, stop by the press area and say hello. See you at the Ice Cube!

North Division Closer than Ever

2008-12-03T10:35:00.003-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans, I hope your December is off to a good start!

Here we are, just three days clear of the North Division Showcase here in the Valley and as we get ready to start the fourth month of the NAHL's regular season, there's one thing that's clear about the North Division: it is the best and deepest division in the league.

Five of the six teams from the North, minus Team USA and plus St. Louis (from the South), converged on the Chevrolet Centre and Ice Zone and nobody came away unblemished. The Phantoms joined Alpena and St. Louis in collecting a 2-1-0 record in the Showcase while Traverse City and Motor City finished with 1-1-1 splits and Marquette went 1-2-0.

While the Phantoms knocked off their first-place competition, Traverse City, on Friday night, they were toppled the next night by fifth-place Marquette and then had to rally for an overtime win against last-place Motor City. That last-place team, by the way, had just knocked off the league-best Bandits 5-3 the night before. St. Louis then, of course, knocked off the high-flying North Stars on Sunday morning to start the third day of the Showcase, which at that point looked more like the standings equivalent of a street fight.

While the good guys came out on top of the division after the dust settled, I think that the division proved to be closer than ever heading into December. Sure, there's a bit of seperation between the top two teams--the Phantoms and North Stars--in terms of overall wins and losses, but teams like Marquette and Motor City sent messages with big Saturday upsets while Alpena is a very quiet 11-7-2, winning six of their last seven games and climbing to within two points of third-place Team USA.

The one thing about this division that catches my eye more than anything else is the strong defense being played by the top four teams: the Phantoms, North Stars, Nationals and IceDiggers are all allowing less than three goals per game so far this season. Only four other teams in the entire league--St. Louis, Topeka, Bismarck and Fairbanks--can claim a team GAA below 3.00. The importance of this stat, of course, is that defense runs the show in the playoffs and no other division is better-equipped for that than the North.

Mix in goaltending leaders like Jordan Tibbett, Brandon Stephenson, Will Yanakeff and Nick Graves... and, well, you know the North is going to be a monster in April. It's almost too bad that only one team from our division will go to Mason City. Almost.

Enjoy the off-week, Phantoms Phans, and we'll see you back here next Wednesday before the Phantoms get after it with Team USA. Go Phantoms!

Weekly Blog Awards - 12/3/08

2008-12-03T08:40:00.002-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I will be giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Jordy Trottier
2G, A, SO GWG, +2

Jordy opened the scoring for the weekend in Friday's huge game against TC, followed it up with an assist on Erik Higby's 6th goal of the year and brought the house down with his shooutout-winner past Phantom-killer Brandon Stephenson. He also added a goal on Saturday when he (and almost everyone else) was pressed into duty as a center as regular centers Johnny Meo and Erik Higby being forced to sit due to illness. He also continued his strong two-way play, finishing +2 on the weekend.

Defender of the Week - Dustin Hopfner

Dustin's hit parade continued this weekend as he laid the lumber and played a rock-solid Showcase on the blueline and wound up as one of two defensemen (along with John Houston) to finish the weekend with a positive plus-minus rating (+1). This was a hard call to make because I think the D played well this weekend. Everyone was blocking shots and clearing out in front of the net well, especially in the Traverse City game after the North Stars tied it at 2. The one thing holding Hopfner above the rest of the D was his consistent physical game. Honorable mention to Erik Higby, who was very strong in the Phantoms' end this weekend.

Biggest Hitter - Carl Nielsen

If you saw the Sunday game against Motor City, then you know why Carl is the biggest hitter. His fight with Anton was a heavyweight bout between two of the toughest guys in the North Division and there was no doubt that Nielsen came away the victor in the scrap. Outside of that, Carl continued to use his considerable size advantage to keep opposition forwards at bay. His physical superiority was on display most noticeably against Traverse City when he was able to contain the large, physical North Stars forwards when they got into the corner with him.

Most Underrated Play - Johnny Meo and Robert Harrison

With the Phantoms trailing 3-1 after two periods of play to the upstart Motor City Machine, Johnny Meo and Robert Harrison went into the Phantoms locker room and spoke to their teammates. Even though Meo was out sick and Harrison is still recovering from a broken leg, the captain and assistant captain went into the room and spoke briefly to fire up their teammates. They told the guys to get back to the gameplan and get back to outworking the Machine, and asked them to play hard for the guys--like Michael Gunn, Brad Smith and Meo and Harrison themselves--who couldn't be out there on the ice with them. And it worked. Nick Kenney made it 3-2 within 2 minutes of the start of the period and Cullen Lundholm tied it up with 10 seconds left before Brandon Saad ended it 56 seconds into OT.

Prettiest Goal - Cullen Lundholm

Outside of Friday's shootout, there weren't a lot of pretty goals to go around this weekend. Lots of hard work in front of the net helped the Phantoms tally the majority of their goals, so when it comes to good-looking goals, Lundholm's really stands above the others. As the play developed, it was easy to wonder when the Phantoms would put the puck on net with so little time left, but Lundholm, Higby, Stefan Salituro and Brandon Saad worked the puck around the right side and tired out the Motor City PK, finally freeing Cullen for the shot. And when he got the shot, he didn't miss, burying it top shelf past Matt Margitan to tie the game. Good-looking all around.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T10:35:00.002-05:00

Hello, again Phantom Phans!

With Turkey Day right around the corner, the MVP Blog is going to take a holiday break (but not from the Awards-- see below!) but I would hate to leave you all empty-handed this week, so here are some hits to be thankful for this year:

And here's the schedule for the North Division Showcase this weekend:

SCHEDULE FOR THE NORTH DIVISION SHOWCASE

Friday, November 28th

4:00 PM – Motor City Machine vs. Alpena IceDiggers – Chevrolet Centre
7:15 PM – Traverse City North Stars vs. Mahoning Valley Phantoms – Chevrolet Centre
8:30 PM – Marquette Rangers vs. St. Louis Bandits – The Ice Zone

Saturday, November 29th

1:00 PM – Traverse City North Stars vs. Alpena IceDiggers – The Ice Zone
4:00 PM – Motor City Machine vs. St. Louis Bandits – The Ice Zone
7:15 PM – Marquette Rangers vs. Mahoning Valley Phantoms – The Ice Zone

Sunday, November 30th

11:00 AM – St. Louis Bandits vs. Traverse City North Stars – Chevrolet Centre
2:00 PM – Alpena IceDiggers vs. Marquette Rangers – Chevrolet Centre
6:00 PM – Mahoning Valley Phantoms vs. Motor City Machine – Chevrolet Centre

See you there!

Weekly Blog Awards - 11/26/08

2008-11-26T09:56:00.003-05:00

Weekly Blog Awards

2008-11-19T11:16:00.004-05:00

In addition to the regular weekly posts, I am going to start giving out little "Blog Awards" every week to point out special efforts on the parts of certain players each week.

These are chosen personally and only reflect my opinion!

Player of the Week - Jordan Tibbett
2 GP (124m 14s), 2 W, 1.93 GAA, 43 SV, .915 SV%

I know that Erik Higby won the league award, but I can't help but give it to the man between the pipes. Tibbett was excellent this past weekend, especially in crunch time--most notably OT on Friday and the last two minutes of regulation on Saturday.

Defender of the Week - John Houston
2 GP, 1 A, +1

Setting aside two really bad late penalties on Friday, Houston was our best defender against St. Louis. Consistently shutting down transition opportunities, blocking shots, playing a solid physical game and clearing all traffic in front... he did everything you ask for out of a defenseman. As mentioned earlier, he really stepped it up after Harrison went down on Saturday night. Oh, and he upped his team-high plus-minus rating to +10. Not too shabby.

Biggest Hitter - Dustin Hopfner

I am consistently impressed by big #3 on the blueline. Not only does he play the body well in the corner, he is a monster in the open ice. I think I've seen Dustin put more people on their backsides in the neutral zone this season than everyone else--both Phantoms and opponents--combined.

Most Underrated Play - Carl Nielsen

In the first period on Saturday night, St. Louis' Brendan Sheehan swooped in right before a whistle in front of the Phantoms net and knocked over Jordan Tibbett. Nielsen saw everything and grabbed Sheehan and dragged him to the boards. You can't call it a fight because the refs didn't, but Carl put some solid licks on Sheehan along the boards before the referees stepped in and assessed each player a double-minor for roughing. After that, St. Louis' didn't crash the net with any sort of resolve for the rest of the night. Protecting your goalie is an absolute must and Nielsen did just that on Saturday.

Prettiest Goal - TIE: Brandon Saad and Christian Long

(Note: this is for the best-looking goal, not the most important goal) While most of the Phantoms' goals this weekend came on rebounds, Long and Saad both found the top cheese on Saturday night and forced the early removal of starting goalie Erick Cinotti.

What We've Been Waiting For

2008-11-19T10:44:00.004-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans, and happy Wednesday!

Now that performance against St. Louis is what we've been waiting for. Forget for a second that the jerseys were black and blue and said "ST. LOUIS" across the front and all the history associated with that team. The Phantoms hosted the best team in the NAHL this past weekend and swept them.

Friday night's efforts were solid for 40 minutes and then the team jumped onto the roller coaster and held on. If you look at the first two periods, the Phantoms were flat-out dominant. Holding the top-scoring offense in the league to four shots in forty minutes is absolutely astounding. The defenders and forwards were both blocking shots very well and rarely allowed the Bandits to hold the puck for very long in the Phantoms' end while peppering October Goalie of the Month Keith Kinkaid with 14 shots at the other end--two of which found the back of the net.

We all know that the third period was a little choppier, with a three-goal outburst from the dangerous line of Andrew Hamburg, Clinton Bourbonais and Grant Gorczyca, but nobody hung their heads on the bench, even though the Phantoms faced a 5-on-3 to start overtime and again went a man down with 56 seconds left in OT. Jordan Tibbett was a rock in overtime and he was rewarded with his 7th win when Carl Nielsen created a shorthanded rush on a poorly timed pinch by St. Louis' defense, firing the shot whose rebound Erik Higby buried for the OT winner.

That said, the team was clearly unhappy about the third period. It was amazing to me that after the game the team was very low-key and the locker room was pretty quiet. This all despite the fact that the Phantoms had just knocked off the two-time defending Robertson Cup champs in overtime. To me, it seemed that the Bandits' big third period really refocused the team heading into Saturday night's game.

On Saturday, the offense continued to get the Phantoms an early lead, as Brandon Saad's seventh goal of the year made it 12 out of 17 games where the good guys scored first (they are 10-2-0 when they get on the board first) while the defense stayed tough. It would've been forgiveable for the D to have taken a step back when Robert Harrison's leg injury forced him out of the game mid-way through the second period, but Carl Nielsen, John Houston, Dustin Hopfner, Trevor Shively and Kyle Van really banded together and took their collective game to another level in the second half of Saturday's game.

A real turning point in my eyes was Bourbonais' goal with 11:09 left, almost the exact same time as when the Bandits started their comeback the previous night. Lesser teams may have said to themselves, "here we go again," but the Phantoms really circled the wagons. The defensive intensity really jumped up after the goal and St. Louis had a lot of trouble getting shots through to the net, registering only 3 shots on Tibbett the rest of the way.

The three that did get through were met with enormous saves from Tibbett, who has won his last four starts.

After the game, Coach Mainhardt said that it was the team's best sixty minutes to date. There was no quit, there were no lapses. We finally saw what this team is capable of when they play that "Full 60" that the coaches have been preaching all season.

Now the real test will be to see if the team can carry that effort forward. This weekend will be a great test of that, with a home-and-home against Team USA. Back in October, small lapses burned the Phantoms in a 4-2 loss at the Ice Zone. If the Phantoms have really learned that lesson, it will show against the Nationals, who are just as dangerous offensively as the Bandits.

Don't forget, by the way, that Friday's game at the Chevrolet Centre is Puck Night sponsored by the Better Business Bureau and Dollar Beer Night as well, so make plans to join us Friday night on Front Street! See you there!

Finally, the Chevrolet Centre!

2008-11-12T10:30:00.003-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans, and happy Wednesday.

We are just two days away from the long-awaited Chevrolet Centre opener between the Phantoms and the Bandits in a rematch of the last two Robertson Cup finals. There's a lot of hoopla going on right now about the 5,500-seat arena--and rightly so--but the Phantoms also play two games this weekend against the team with both the NAHL's top record *and* the league's top-scoring offense.

The Bandits are led by the number three through five top scorers in the league in Grant Gorczyca (12-11-23), Clinton Bourbonais (4-19-23) and Kyle Greco (13-9-22) and the reigning NAHL Goalie of the Month, Keith Kinkaid (10-2-0, 2.03 GAA).

To overcome such a highly talented team, the Phantoms will need to play much better than they did this past weekend in Detroit against the Machine. Before Saturday's game at Motor City, Assistant Coach Curtis Carr said in a pregame interview that the team had gotten into some bad habits in the previous night's game, a 4-1 win, that the coaching staff was unhappy with. Bad habits like not dumping the puck at the end of a shift on a 1-on-2 or passes in front of the Phantoms net... things that can really burn you against a team like St. Louis.

So once again the team will need to focus. Last week the focus was to prevent them from looking ahead to this weekend; this week the focus will basically be to keep their eyes at ice level. It's easy to get swept up in all the bells and whistles of an arena like the Chevrolet Centre, but the veterans of this team have a chance to really show their leadership by keeping their teammates' feet on the ground against the Bandits.

Speaking of the veterans, it's been interesting to hear the comments from guys like Robert Harrison this week. "Harry" is a third-year Phantom, so he's been in both of those Robertson Cup finals against the Bandits. He told me that a lot of the vets are motivated for these game. He said, "this is what we trained for all summer: to beat the team that beat us." He also told a television reporter on Monday that revenge was on the veterans' minds heading into this weekend.

I'll be very curious to see if the emotional tone that guys like Harrison, Johnny Meo and Carl Nielsen take will be beneficial early on to the Phantoms. The ideal outcome to an emotional start is that it leads to some early physical play and an early lead before the team settles in halfway through the first period and gets to the gameplan. Playing on emotions can be great if it only lasts a short time; if you try and play too long on emotion, you'll be drained by the time you hit the ice in the third period.

All in all, it should be a great weekend. We hope to see you at the Chevrolet Centre both nights, so call (330) 965-7500 and get your tickets now for our first weekend at the Chevrolet Centre. See you there!

Closing Out the Road Grind

2008-11-05T08:55:00.002-05:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans! After a week off, the blog has returned.

So this weekend, the Phantoms are back on the road again for the fifth weekend since the season started, heading to Detroit to once again take on their North Division foe, the Motor City Machine. The series not only represents four valuable points (and valuable they are, with both USNTDP and Traverse City idle this week), but it also represents a light at the end of the tunnel: after this weekend the Phantoms play six of their next seven games here in the Valley and will only play three away games--all in relatively nearby Ann Arbor against Team USA--until the new year.

While the wait for the home schedule to hit its stride is not irregular for the Phantoms, who rarely play home games before Halloween as a rule, it is certainly a welcome sign to see the annual early-season road blitz draw to a close. It's always easier to play when you can sleep in your own bed and drive your own car to the game and so on.

That said, let's not overlook this weekend against the Machine. In fact, I would say that the biggest part of the gameplan this weekend is going to be focus. Motor City comes into the weekend on a 12-game losing streak and having just traded captain Andy Inderieden and assistant captain Reed Rushing to Marquette for Josh Bussell, the Rangers' second-leading scorer (5-8-13), and a second-round draft pick in an effort to shake up their lineup.

The Phantoms already have a road sweep against the struggling Machine, winning 2-1 and 5-3 earlier this season at Yack Arena, so human nature could easily dictate that the team look ahead to next weekend's Chevrolet Centre opener against the red-hot St. Louis Bandits, the defending Robertson Cup champions who have the best record in the league at 14-1-1. It would be easy, but it would also be a mistake.

The two teams played two highly competitive and close games in the Phantoms' first trip to Detroit and it would be foolish to overlook a team that just added a proven scorer in Bussell and a renowned tough guy in Anthony Iaquinto. The team's own personal battles with the Machine should--and I think will--keep them from looking past their most nearby divisional rival.

Another big part of the gameplan will be what we saw in the 5-3 win the Phantoms posted over the Machine on October 4th: discipline. Motor City's gameplan all weekend was to try and draw the young Phantoms into bad penalties and fights in order to get the Phantoms' best players off the ice and into the penalty box and try and kickstart their offense via the power play. In the Saturday game, the Phantoms' kept their heads and stayed out of the nonsense, turning the Machine gameplan around and drawing seven Motor City penalties in the decisive third period alone.

If the Phantoms can replicate their focus and discipline from their previous visit to B.F. Yack Arena, they stand in very good shape to grab four important points in the division.

Puck drop on both nights is at 7:10 PM EST, and you can join me for the broadcast on the B2 Networks starting at 7:00 PM on the nose.

Have a great day, Phantom Phans, and Go Phantoms!

A Home Oasis

2008-10-22T10:14:00.002-04:00

Another happy Wednesday to you, Phantom Phans!

The Phantoms are back in the Valley this weekend and finally it's not for an off-week. The team takes Team USA at the Ice Zone in a two game set, looking to rebound from a disappointing split in Alpena last week. It's a nice little home weekend stuck right in the middle of four divisional road trips, an oasis, if you will.

Friday's game (10/24) is the earliest the Phantoms have ever played a home game, beating out the October 29th home opener in their inaugural season against Toledo. It's also been three years since the Phantoms have played in the Valley during October, making this weekend a bit of a rarity.

The key to the games against the Nationals this weekend is the phrase that we hear from pretty much everyone in orange and purple these days: game plan.

What's the "game plan," you might ask? Well you can be sure that we won't know the full game plan until the Robertson Cup--because hockey coaches are sneaky like that--but there are some fundamental elements that are just as important in game 8 as game 58.

One such element of the game plan that we've heard about from day one is playing the full 60 minutes. With the incredible depth of talent that this Phantoms team possesses at every position, it's hard to imagine too many teams that can beat them when they're at the top of their game for the full 60. But, with it being so early in a season, there are times when even the best teams lose their focus and the opposition finds a seam for a brief period of time. That's why the team tries to stress playing the full 60 minutes every night, especially in a division with talented teams like Traverse City, USNTDP and Alpena.

Another element is the commitment to defense. In an article in this morning's Vindicator, Coach Mainhardt said that the coaching staff expects "our defense to be our strong point and we’re really expecting them to show it soon.” I've been noticing the defense start to turn up the physical play, especially in the neutral zone where the defensive pairing of Dustin Hopfner and Robert Harrison are laying vicious open ice hits with regularity. Kyle Van and John Houston have made a nice defensive pairing, clearing the front of the net well, playing hard in the corners and controlling the puck like you wouldn't believe. As for the big boys, Carl Nielsen and leading scorer Cullen Lundholm, what can you say about a blueline combo that averages 6'3.5" and 213 lbs? They're laying the lumber on opposing forwards and really putting in great minutes on the special teams.

One key the defense needs to work on is staying out of the box. Alpena scored four power play goals last weekend and all four came while Phantoms defenders were in the sin bin. If the Phantoms blueliners can stay out of penalty trouble, the PK units will fare much better against Team USA.

One really nice thing about this weekend is that it is coming off of a regular week of practice. No more games sandwiched between off weeks. This is actually the first time so far this season that the Phantoms will have a weekend series in back-to-back weekends after two off weekends sandwiched between the Showcase and weekends at Motor City and Alpena seemed to disrupt their flow a little bit.

Finally, a wild card against the Nationals could be the return of Nick Kenney. The second-year forward is listed as day-to-day as he is nearing full recovery from his broken finger. No return date has been listed but he told me last weekend that he was very close to being ready to get back out there. If he were to come back, he would add an immediate physical presence as a winger in addition to his blistering shot. He would also be able to return to his role in the Phantoms' power play of parking in front of the net in order to set screens, deflect shots from the point and bury rebounds. Kenney's veteran leadership would certainly help on the ice as well.

That's all for this week, Phantom Phans... I hope to see you at the Ice Zone this weekend, and if you see me, stop me and say hello!

Captains Named

2008-10-15T11:46:00.003-04:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans! I hope your Wednesday is going well.

Yesterday after practice Coach Mainhardt announced the captains for this year, and they are as follows: Johnny Meo is your captain; Robert Harrison and Carl Nielsen are your assistant captains.

These selections as the captains are virtual no-brainers and the team did a great job picking them as the leaders. Meo and Harrison, being third year guys, are very easy picks this year. Watching them during the team's three (counting preseason) roadtrips, they really help out the coaching staff by managing a lot of the game day stuff with their teammates, allowing the coaches to concentrate on, well, coaching! Nielsen is an equally vocal leader, especially when he's out there on the ice.

All three lead by example, as well. Their efforts are top-notch every night and that rubs off on teammates.

The thing I've been picking up on is that this team probably could have six or seven assistant captains because the team gets good solid leadership from guys like Jordy Trottier, Jordan Tibbett, Garrett Bartus, John Houston, Nick Shkreli and Kyle Verbeek. All of the vets lead in one way or another... it's a depth that you don't often hear about, especially on a team as deep as the Phantoms are this season, but this team has a great depth of leadership.

Some people may think that "depth" and "leadership" may be somewhat mutually exclusive, like too many chefs spoiling the soup... but that's not the case with this team. With the majority of this year's veterans having been to the Robertson Cup finals, they all know how important it is to strive toward the common goal.

This weekend the Phantoms hit the road again to take on the Alpena IceDiggers. Alpena has had a slow start but I figure them to be a real dark horse in the North Division this season. Between former USHL head coach Jack Fritsche taking the reins and the recent return of Nick Graves to the net, this is a team that will get considerably stronger as the year progresses.

I'll be keeping an eye on warm-ups and such on Friday evening because I think it will tell the tale of how focused and ready the Phantoms are after their second weekend off out of the last three. After watching practice so far this week, I think that focus will, in fact, be there.

Puck drop on both nights will be at 7:00 PM from Northern Lights Arena in Alpena, with the pregame show beginning at 6:50 PM on the visitor's feed of the B2 Networks broadcast.

If you can't make it to northeast Michigan, tune in this weekend to cheer on your Phantoms and, as always, have a great week, Phantom Phans!

Through Early Season Success, Phantoms Keep Their Eyes on the Prize

2008-10-08T09:02:00.004-04:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans! It's another rainy Wednesday in the Valley, but I hope yours is going well anyway.

The Phantoms are off to a great start so far, getting 11 of 12 possible points so far through their first six games including a sweep in their North Division opening weekend at Motor City. Their 5-0-1 record through six games marks the best start in franchise history, but the most impressive thing about it is how low-key the team is being about it.

Whether it's in post-game interviews or mid-week staff meetings, the coaching staff is keeping their feet on the ground about the Phantoms' fast start. Bob Mainhardt, Curtis Carr and Rocky Russo all continue to insist that there is plenty of work to do, that there is much more the team can improve before they are ready to play for a Robertson Cup championship. And you know the players are going to buy in because this is a coaching staff that has taken its last two teams all the way to the Robertson Cup finals.

You can also see the long view being taken by the players. Right now Jordan Tibbett is the top goaltender in the NAHL but it doesn't seem to faze him. He says that winning the games is the most important thing and if the GAA and SV% come with that, that's great. Talking to guys like Johnny Meo and Robert Harrison, you can see that the older players are creating a strong veteran presence on this young team, making sure that everybody knows that the team's main goal is still six months away. It's rare that you see players at any level stay so level-headed while their team is enjoying early season success.

One of the most impressive things I've seen so far is the game-to-game progress this team seems to make every night on the ice. Throughout this past weekend, Motor City tried to bridge the talent gap between themselves and the Phantoms by trying to draw our guys into bad penalties and fights, especially late in the game. On Friday night the former seemed to work, with the Phantoms taking four penalties in a four minute stretch of the third period, leading to two straight 5-on-3 power plays for the Machine.

Coach Mainhardt made some adjustments for Saturday, and when the Machine tried the same stunts on Saturday night, the Phantoms stayed out of it. The team's ability to keep its composure caused Motor City to lead a parade into the penalty box--giving the Phantoms six power plays in the final frame--while the Phantoms only gave the Machine one third period power play opportunity (which would not be converted). Not only could the growth from Friday night be observed but also measured (5 PKs vs. 1 PK).

If the team can continue to make strides night in and night out and keep that championship long view, this may very well be the season that the Phantoms finally bring the Robertson Cup to the Valley.

The Phantoms are off this weekend, but check MVPPhantoms.com regularly for new Phantoms content, including information on season tickets-- which went on sale today!

See you again next week, Phantom Phans, and enjoy the off weekend!

Getting Set to Take On the North Division

2008-10-01T08:38:00.005-04:00

Happy Wednesday, Phantom Phans! (even if it's raining where you are, like it is here in the Valley)

After a week off the Phantoms are going to be on the road this weekend, taking on the Motor City Machine. Right now the Phantoms (3-0-1, 7 pts) are just one point ahead of Motor City (3-3-0, 6 pts) for third place in the North Division but only two points behind USNTDP (4-3-1, 9 pts) for first. In terms of winning percentage, the Phantoms are at the top of the division but have only played four games so far; everyone else in the division except Alpena has played six or more games, allowing USNTDP and Traverse City (4-2-0, 8 pts) to jump ahead of the Phantoms points-wise.

As you may remember the Phantoms had a preseason split with the Machine, winning 4-2 in Detroit but falling 5-3 at the Ice Zone. In addition to being high-scoring, the games also featured a number of fights despite the fact that they were exhibition games.

Personally, I like the fact that the Phantoms and their closest geographical opponent already have a healthy dislike for one another before their first regular season games even drop the puck... I think it's good for the players because both teams know coming into the weekend that stickwork and the like will result in a scrap. It's good for the fans, as well, because... hey, people like to watch the fights!

The Phantoms have a big advantage in the special teams category against the Machine this weekend. Take a look at the stats so far:

	Power Play Pct.	Lg. Rank	Penalty Kill Pct.	Lg. Rank
Phantoms	20.7%	3rd	92.9%	1st
Machine	10%	17th	79.4%	16th

And remember, the Phantoms scored three special teams goals in their preseason win at Motor City, so obviously the special teams will be key this weekend

One more special teams note: the Phantoms enter this weekend having killed off 22 straight penalties over the last three games.

Having last weekend off has been a nice boost for the team, as it's given some of the guys a chance to nurse some nagging injuries and get back to 100% to start divisional play. I'm intrigued to see how the forwards will look against the Machine because there will a handful of guys who did not make the trip to Blaine for the Showcase who look to get some decent P.T. this weekend, including former Wichita Falls Wildcat Nick Shkreli.

The Phantoms will also be getting their first look at Yack Arena in Wyandotte, MI, which is the new home for the expansion Machine. Motor City originally signed on to play at the Ice Box in Brownstown, MI, but decided to make the change before the regular season began. I'm told that Yack Arena is a great facility, and it looks great since its renovation this past year.

The puck drops at 7:10 PM on both nights, and if you can't make it to Wyandotte, MI, join us on the B2 Networks as we'll have live coverage with the visitor's feed.

Have a great week and go Phantoms!

Website Redesign Launched!

2008-09-24T10:19:00.002-04:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans!

I hope your week is going well, ours has been quite busy here at Phantoms H.Q. despite the fact that we have no games this week.

The big news today is that we have launched a big redesign of MVPPhantoms.com. Some of it you may notice immediately while other parts are very subtle. The look and the feel of the site is largely unchanged but you may notice that the site is a lot easier to cruise around.

Some of the coolest new features involve the team news. First of all, Ray, our website manager, has created an RSS 2.0 feed with our news stories, so now you can use your news reader (such as iGoogle) to read all the latest Phantoms headlines! Also, as I'm sure you noticed, the front page also now has a scrolling graphical news display that rolls through all of the latest headlines with pictures included!

The schedule page has also been revamped, and now when you hold your mouse over a game you can get information on the results of previous games as well as info on upcoming games. Soon you will be able to link directly to a ticket purchasing page with Ticketmaster from the schedule as well.

Plenty of other changes have taken place to the site, so surf around a little bit and see everything that's new!

The team is off this weekend, but resumes play next week against Motor City. The week off is great for the guys on the team who are nursing minor injuries to fully recover without missing any games. The team had Monday off of practice but hit the ice again yesterday after picture day wrapped up.

Tune in again next Wednesday morning as the team gets ready to hit the road and start North Division play! Have a great rest of the week, Phantom Phans!

Phantoms vs. Junior Blues Live Blog

2008-09-19T15:52:00.051-04:00

Welcome to the live blog of game three of the season. Refresh this page often; the updates will appear near the bottom of the page. Feel free to leave your comments and I will address them in the blog! Go Phantoms!

Click Here to view the pre-game notes

Click Here to view the in-game box score

2:56 CT-- Thanks for checking out the live blog... since we are listed as the away team for this game we must defer to Springfield for the B2 broadcast this afternoon, so if you're looking for the Phantoms' point of view, you've come to the right spot!

3:00 CT -- Warmups are just finishing up right now, with the teams headed to the locker rooms for an ice cut. It looks like your starters will be:

LW: Kurt Washnock
C: Johnny Meo
RW: Kyle Verbeek
LD: Cullen Lundholm
RD: Carl Nielsen
G: Garrett Bartus

3:06 CT -- 10:00 until game time on the clock. The team is wearing their new road black jerseys for this one... they've got the team logo on the chest with purple numbers and orange and white trim with the black, purple and orange boxes down the arms. They're very sharp and personally I like them even better than the new home orange unis.

3:10 CT -- Just about 5 minutes until we get underway. After seeing a little bit of Springfield on Wednesday and Thursday, I'll give you a little scouting report: they seem to be a very strong offensive team, scoring 9 goals in two games, with the ability to score in bunches. Their offensive prowess, however, seems to be offset by streaky play from their defensemen and goalie. They've gone full periods without letting up any goals here at the showcase followed by periods where they allow 3 and 4 goals to the other team. If the Phantoms can keep up the offensive pressure like they did yesterday against North Iowa, they'll be in good shape this afternoon.

3:15 -- The opening faceoff is incoming, Phantoms forward starters are: Schneider, Higby and Lippincott. They have had a strong showcase and deserve the start.

3:17 CT -- Brandon Saad rings one off the post after splitting the D on a 2-on-2. Lots of end-to-end action so far... the D will need to stay vigilant to prevent transition opporunities for Springfield.

3:19 CT -- Phantoms get their first power play of the day on a hooking minor to the Blues' Prost. Let's see if they're as sharp as they were yesterday with the man advantage.

3:22 CT -- The Phantoms' power play is wiped out with a hooking call against Stefan Salituro. Early on it looks like the refs are calling the stickwork extremely tight.

3:24 CT -- The Phantoms PK looked excellent in killing off the remainder of Salituro's penalty; Springfield had a lot of trouble getting any sort of pressure with the advantage.

3:27 CT -- Another hooking call in the Phantoms' attacking end, again it's Salituro. Back to the PK for the Phantoms.

3:29 CT -- More tight calls from the refereeing crew, this time against Springfield and Jeremiah Dargis who gets the gate for hooking; we're 4 on 4.

3:32 CT -- The Phantoms' power play goes by the boards as aggressive penalty killing by the Blues forces bad passes from the Phantoms' special teams.

3:34 CT -- The parade to the penalty box continues, this time it's Hochsprung headed to the sin bin for Springfield.

... and just as the power play starts, Carl Nielsen gets called for slashing. That's 12 penalty minutes between the 2 teams through about 14 minutes of play.

3:37 CT -- A pileup in the offensive zone leades to a 1-on-1 for Springfield's Gaffney. John Houston played it well but Gaffney got a lucky bounce and put home a second chance past Bartus for a 1-0 lead for the Jr. Blues. Seconds after play resumed, the Blues took yet another penalty. I think the refs need to ease up a little bit and let these teams play 5-on-5.

3:43 CT -- Credit Springfield's D on a solid effort so far blocking shots; very few, if any, Phantoms shots from the point have actually made it through on net.

3:44 CT -- Yet another penalty, this one on the Phantoms and Christian Long. Long's stick bumped off a Springfield player's head as he was turning with the play and got whistled for high-sticking. I maintain that this refereeing is entirely too conservative.

3:46 CT -- Erik Higby and Alex Lippincott create a last-second up-ice rush with two short-handed chances as time expires on the first period. No goal but great penalty killing from the rookies.

I really hope someone talks to this refereeing crew during the intermission. 20 combined penalty minutes through 20 minutes of play is a bit much for a game that is not chippy in the least. Back in 15 for the second period!

4:00 CT -- Getting close to the puck drop on the second, a few closing thoughts on the first:

- Bartus is kicking out more rebounds than he did on Wednesday but the D is doing a good job of getting rid of what Bartus doesn't cover up.
- Everyone needs to work to get better shots. The box score says 7 shots for the Phantoms in the first and I think that's generous. Nothing was getting through to the net in the first.
- There needs to be better passing, especially on the power play. There was not as much pressure offensively on the PP for the Phantoms because of bad passes caused by Blues pressure.

Here we go now for the second!

4:06 CT -- A flurry in front of Bartus is diffused by two huge saves followed by a key icing by Houston. Disaster averted.

4:08 CT -- Two quick transition chances for Springfield come up empty. You know that the fast pace is not something Coach Mainhardt wants to see as it plays right into Springfield's hands.

4:11 CT -- Transition and rebounds come back to haunt the Phantoms as the Junior Blues take a 2-0 lead off the stick of Trent Frey who poked home his own rebound for the score on a 4-on-1 rush.

4:13 CT -- The first penalty of the period comes on the heels of Frey's goal as Donagra gets the gate for slashing. This is a critical power play for the Phantoms, trailing by 2 approaching the halfway mark of the game.

4:15 CT -- GOAL! The Phantoms answer the bell with crisp passing on the power play, finished by a Jordy Trottier laser ticketed for the five-hole. Matching minors for each team after the goal and we will go 5-on-5, 2-1 Blues.

4:18 CT -- Transition pressure from Trottier and Meo draw another penalty on Springfield, but the Phantoms will have to do it without slot anchor Carl Nielsen, who was ejected following the goal with a game misconduct.

4:21 CT -- GOAL! The power play goes by the boards but an up-ice rush by Brandon Saad is finished by Meo in front as he poked a loose rebound past Springfield goalie Wichorek and we're all tied.

4:25 CT -- Robert Harrison takes a roughing minor after the whistle while defending Bartus. I'm surprised Kitt for Springfield wasn't sent off as well for running Bartus after the play. Back to the PK for the Phantoms.

4:27 CT -- More good penalty killing, gold star to Johnny Meo and Kyle Verbeek who did a great job keeping their sticks in the passing lanes.

4:31 CT -- Another penalty on Springfield, this time for tripping in the defensive end. A goal on this PP would be huge.

4:34 CT -- A brief 5-on-3 here for the Phantoms after Springfield gets whistled for closing the hand on the puck.

4:35 CT -- No dice on the 5-on-3 but not much you can do in 14 seconds.

4:37 CT -- The Phantoms take their 2nd penalty of the period with 1 second left, a cross-checking minor on Doug Clifford. They'll have to kill off 1:59 when the third period arrives. Back in 15 with the third period!

4:52 CT -- A minute away from the start of the third. So far the third period has belonged to the Phantoms, especially defensively. Let's see if that early season conditioning pays off here in the final frame.

4:56 CT -- Clifford's penalty is off the board now, excellent PK by John Houston, who blocked down two different shots while the net was effectively empty after the puck took some funny hops on Bartus.

5:00 CT -- Springfield's first real even strength offensive zone pressure of the game results in a Brian Prost goal. The D could not clear the traffic in front and Prost shelfed the rebound over a sprawling Bartus. 3-2 Springfield and the Phantoms face their first third period deficit of the year.

5:03 CT -- Saad to the box, called for slashing as he tried to shove his way through a Springfield screen to get to a loose puck. Not sure why it was slashing, might have been interference.

5:06 CT -- Saad's penalty releases with no damage done, now it's time for the Phantoms to dial up the offensive pressure, trailing with 11:30 left in the game.

5:10 CT -- Huge save by Bartus on a virtual 2-on-1 and he takes a slash for his trouble. The refs see Dargis do the deed and now the Phantoms have a big power play for the next 2 minutes.

5:14 CT -- GOAL! Kyle Verbeek with a gorgeous centering feed finds Stefan Salituro open in front and Salituro beats Wichorek top glove to tie it at 3.

5:17 CT -- The Phantoms are keeping the pressure on as Salituro's goal seems to have snatched momentum away from Springfield. They have 3:55 left to finish it before we see some OT.

5:20 CT -- Alex Lippincott overskates a puck in the offensive zone then takes a hooking penalty with 1:32 left to go. Obviously a must-kill penalty here for the Phantoms.

5:24 CT -- We are headed to overtime! There will be 28 seconds of 4-on-3 power play time for Springfield before we go 4-on-4 for the remaining 4:32.

5:27 CT -- The penalty is over, we are back to 4-on-4 for the duration, barring more penalties.

5:29 CT -- Springfield has carried a lot of the early OT action; the Phantoms just got their first shot about 2 1/2 minutes in.

5:32 CT -- A flurry in front of the Springfield net and Wichorek freezes it with 7 seconds left; Coach Mainhardt uses his timeout to set up a play off the draw. Great use of that time out... you can't take it with you!

5:33 CT -- Face-off win but Lundholm's shot gets blocked... we're going to the shootout!

5:35 CT -- Trottier up first for the Phantoms... no goal, Wichorek cut down the angle on the backhand deke.

5:35 CT -- Trent for Springfield... goal. He beat Bartus stick side.

5:36 CT -- Saad for the Phantoms... no goal, Wichorek gets it with his pad.

5:36 CT -- Globke for Springfield... no goal, missed the net wide.

5:36 CT -- Harrison for the Phantoms... no goal, five-hole attempt shut down by Wichorek.

5:37 CT -- Schaber for Springfield... goal. He beat Bartus five-hole.

5:37 CT -- Long for the Phantoms, must score here... had the open net and a miracle save from Wichorek ends the game. The Phantoms fall 4-3 in the shootout. The OT loss point puts the Phantoms ahead of Team USA U-17 for first place in the division, but the team's hopes of going 4-0 for the first time ever in the Showcase have been dashed.

Thank you for joining us on the live blog, I will be back on B2 networks tomorrow at 1:45 ET for Game Four against the Bismarck Bobcats.

Chevy Centre!

2008-09-10T08:45:00.000-04:00

Good morning, Phantom Phans!

It's been a crazy week here with the team, but it's all worth it because as of yesterday, we will be playing 24 of our 28 home games in downtown's beautiful Chevrolet Centre. In case you haven't been, it's a fantastic 5,500 seat arena at the corner of Front St. and Market St., and we couldn't be happier to be moving in.

For our full schedule for the season, click here.

As for the team itself, we are getting close to having our final roster for the season. The preliminary roster has been posted by the league (.pdf), but we will be posting the final roster to MVPPhantoms.com here soon.

The team will play its second and final preseason game against the Motor City Machine on Saturday at the Ice Zone at 3:00 PM, and admission is free to the public. So if you want to come check out this year's Phantoms squad free of charge, come on down to the Ice Zone on Saturday afternoon!

The next time you hear from me will be game day for the season opener, Sept. 17th in Blaine, MN, where we'll be taking on the Owatonna Express in the NAHL Showcase. If you haven't bought your B2 season passes yet you can always check out B2's NAHL Showcase package.

Welcome to the New Blog!

2008-08-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the new blog for the Phantoms!

My name is Paul Teeple, and I am taking over this season as the director of broadcasting and media relations for the team, so I will be bringing you the weekly opinion blog right here on this site throughout the season, and beyond.

The preseason is underway right now, and the team is getting geared up to open the season at the NAHL Showcase in Blaine, MN, which starts on Sept. 17th. The team also has a preseason exhibition with the newest addition to the North Division, the Motor City Machine, next Saturday. The final roster is nearly set now, so look for an announcement soon on the official team website http://www.mvpphantoms.com.

Speaking of the team website, look for an exciting new look at MVPPhantoms.com in the very near future! Our webmaster, Ray Detwiler, is hard at work developing the new look for the site, so stay tuned for that, too.

Personally, I look forward to getting to know all of you Phantom Phans as the season progresses. Your support will help get the Phantoms back to the Robertson Cup finals for the third straight season!

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you at the rink!