December 10, 2011

Sometimes deja-vu can be a good thing. Another big crowd at the GFCC on a Saturday night resulted in another exciting overtime win for the Adirondack Phantoms as the team's captain Ben Holmstrom pounced on a rebound for the 3-2 comeback victory over the Rochester Americans.

Trailing 2-1 with almost six minutes to go in regulation, Garrett Roe would score the tying goal to even things up again. A few minutes later it would be Michael Leighton with another spectacular glove-save to keep the score tied. And then Adirondack would work their Saturday night overtime magic again.

On November 26, in front of the largest crowd of the season, Jon Kalinski would earn the Phantoms their first overtime triumph in over a year in a 4-3 decision over Albany. This time, the Phantoms would only have to wait two weeks to acquire their next extra-session win.

The crowd of 4,232 first rose to their feet midway through the first period when Denis Hamel connected with Shane Harper on a 2-on-1 rush giving the Phantoms the 1-0 lead. Harper's fourth of the year triggered a storm of teddy bears onto the ice on the annual First Goal Teddy Bear to benefit the Salvation Army. Thanks to all our great fans who brought their teddy bear donations for this terrific cause and for helping with the fun of the big, raining teddy bear party.

Rochester would storm back later in the second and then again in the third on a pair of goals by Evan Rankin as the Americans took a 2-1 lead with nine minutes remaining. The first of Rankin's goals, early in the second period, would come on the Rochester power play thus putting a halt to Adirondack's amazing penalty-kill streak at 34 in a row. The Phantoms entered play fourth in the AHL on the P.K. with an 85.6% success rate.

Trailing 2-1 late in the game, Dan Jancevski would fake a slapper from the left-point to get his defender to go down. Jancevski moved around the sprawled Amerk on the ice and instead of shooting would connect with Garrett Roe on the short-side who left his stick-blade open for the chip-in with 6:06 remaining tying the score at 2-2.

Roe's third goal of the season was also assisted by Tye McGinn who tracked down a rebound and whipped it back to Jancevski getting the play going. Roe is a rookie out of St. Cloud State (Minn.) who leads the team in assists with 12. But this time he accepted the nice assist from the experienced blue-liner to set up his own big goal.

With 2:15 left in the third and Rochester on the power play, Leighton came up with his biggest save of the night as he reached way across to his left on a slapshot aiming for the far post from Alex Biega from the left-circle. Leighton's thievery on the Amerks power play set up the extra-period drama to come.

Jason Akeson got knocked on a high-sticking by Drew Schiestel with 3:38 remaining in overtime and, with the double-minor called on the American, would get to finish the game with the man-advantage It took only 34 seconds for Ben Holmstrom to seize the opportunity finding the rebound on the left side of the crease beating the lunging Drew MacIntyre for the game-winner.

The goal was Holmstrom's sixth of the season. The U-Mass Lowell product is in his second full season with Adirondack. He scored 16 goals in 2010-11 and earned team MVP honors. And was named the youngest captain in Phantoms' history at the beginning of this season.

The victory improved the Phantoms to 14-9-2 overall and 8-3-1 at home. The Phantoms are 15-3-1 on home-ice since Mid-March of last year and are 19-4-5 in their last 28 home games dating back to February of last season.

Adirondack stayed three points back of the division leading Connecticut Whale while extending their advantage over both third-place Albany and fourth-place Bridgeport who lost their Saturday night engagements. Rochester fell to 11-10-4. The Phantoms lead the season series over the Amerks two games to zero and won't play Rochester again until February 24 in western New York.

Michael Leighton's 29 save performance earned him his 11th win of the season.

Rochester outshot the Phantoms 31-28 but Adirondack held the distinctive shots advantage in overtime 7-0. Rochester was 1-for-4 on the power play while Adirondack went 1-for-3.

Scratches for the Phantoms included Jason Bacashihua, Andrew Rowe, Eric Wellwood and Oskars Bartulis.

Adirondack is off for a few days before returning to action next Friday at Binghamton. The Phantoms' next home game is next Sunday at 3:00pm hosting the Binghamton Senators for the first time this year on a Sunday Family Fun Pack Day.

Over 500 Boy Scouts were in attendance on Boy Scout Night at the GFCC. Many of the Boy Scouts stayed after the game for an open-skate and playing games and watching movies.

2,500 fans received Phantoms t-shirts courtesy of Papa John's.


Upcoming Events

Monday, December 12, 7:00 - Phantoms Power Hour LIVE from McGinny's Tavern in Glens Falls and on Q101.7 Special guests, Cullen Eddy and TBA

Friday, December 16, 7:00 - Phantoms at Binghamton Senators

Saturday, December 17, 7:30 - Phantoms at Syracuse Crunch

Sunday, December 18, 3:00 - Binghamton Senators at Phantoms. Sunday Family Fun Pack. Only $39 for 3 tickets, 3 sodas, 3 hot dogs, 1 large popcorn and a program. A savings of $28!! Extra Fun-Pack tickets available for your package for only $13 each. Call the Phantoms to find out more.

Phantoms Holiday Socks are on sale now. $49 package for 4 tickets to a premium Phantoms game, an autographed puck, a program, all in a game-worn Phantoms hockey sock. $59 for an autographed stick with the 4 premium game tickets and game-worn Phantoms hockey sock.

Catch all the action of Phantoms hockey all season long on the team's flagship station, Classic Hits Q101.7 and on phantomshockey.com. Bob Rotruck has the broadcast coverage 30 minutes prior to game-time with Countdown to Faceoff.

The Adirondack Phantoms are now over 10,000 members strong on their social media networks. Be sure to follow us on twitter @phantomshockey and on facebook.com/adkhockey




Rochester Americans 2 at Adirondack Phantoms 3 (OT) - Status: Final OT
Saturday, December 10, 2011 - Glens Falls Civic Center

Rochester 0 1 1 0 - 2
Adirondack 1 0 1 1 - 3

1st Period-1, Adirondack, Harper 4 (Hamel), 11:13. Penalties-Kessel Adk (tripping), 11:52; Morrisonn Rch (interference), 16:21.

2nd Period-2, Rochester, Rankin 3 (Morrisonn, Varone), 4:48 (PP). Penalties-Hamel Adk (hooking), 3:52; Holmstrom Adk (slashing), 8:29; Rankin Rch (hooking), 8:32.

3rd Period-3, Rochester, Rankin 4 (Varone, Foligno), 10:52. 4, Adirondack, Roe 3 (Jancevski, McGinn), 13:06. Penalties-Crawford Rch (holding), 14:38; Holmstrom Adk (roughing), 14:38; Pither Adk (slashing), 16:08.

OT Period-5, Adirondack, Holmstrom 6 (Roe, Hamel), 2:06 (PP). Penalties-Schiestel Rch (double minor - high-sticking), 1:32.

Shots on Goal-Rochester 4-14-13-0-31. Adirondack 6-6-9-7-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Rochester 1 / 4; Adirondack 1 / 3.
Goalies-Rochester, MacIntyre 4-7-1 (28 shots-25 saves). Adirondack, Leighton 11-8-0 (31 shots-29 saves).
A-4,232
Referees-Jarrod Ragusin (42).
Linesmen-Frank Murphy (29), Robert St. Lawrence (10).