Copa-Cabana

Phantoms Beat Albany 4-2

ALBANY - Frederik Cabana earned first star honors with the first two-goal game of his professional career, helping to lead the Philadelphia Phantoms to a 4-2 win over the Albany River Rats on Saturday night at the Times Union Center. The victory avenged a Phantoms loss on the same ice a week ago and expanded Philadelphia’s East Division lead back to six points.

The Phantoms jumped out to a three-goal lead in the contest, with the first two coming from Cabana. His initial tally came 8:57 in when he was part of a Phantoms convoy crashing a loose puck in the Albany slot. The collective effort put the puck past goaltender Jonathan Grahame for the 1-0 advantage.

Just before the halfway point of regulation, Cabana scored again to give the Phantoms a 2-0 lead. Grahame had stepped outside his crease to retrieve a puck behind the net, but Darroll Powe arrived first and pushed it out in front. Cabana had a relatively open net in which to shoot the puck with 9:45 left to play.

Josh Beaulieu provided the third goal just over two minutes later. He took a puck down into the right-side circle, came to a stop and wound up for a blistering slapshot that beat Grahame inside the top left corner of the net at 12:28.

The River Rats broke through at the 14:23 mark. Yannick Tifu was on the end boards when he dug out a puck and threw it towards the goalmouth. It hit goaltender Brian Boucher in the back of the right leg and skidded across the line to make it a 3-1 game.

The teams went on to trade goals late in the second period. There was just over a minute to play when the River Rats thwarted a Phantoms clearing attempt and Jerome Samson found himself with the puck in the right circle. He pulled the puck past a Phantoms pokecheck attempt and tucked it in front for Bobby Hughes, who put it home to bring his team within a goal with 1:06 left.

But Ryan Potulny answered just 12 seconds later. Pete Zingoni had navigated behind the net and come out down low to the left side, where he centered for Potulny. The one-timer bypassed Grahame for the 4-2 advantage. Jared Ross recorded the other assist despite not having a stick after it had been been broken in half by a River Rats representative.

A scoreless third period wrapped up the evening. Boucher earned his second straight win with 27 saves on 29 Albany chances. Grahame, who was making his Albany debut, took the loss with 25 saves on 29 Philadelphia shots.

The Phantoms have now won two in a row and go to 24-10-1 on the season for 49 points, remaining atop the East Division. They hold a six-point lead over the idle, second-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

The Phantoms will return home to host the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Sunday at 5:05 PM. It’s Super Hero Night at the Wachovia Spectrum, with Batman and Superman among several super heroes that will be joining Phlex for the evening. Tickets are available at the Wachovia Complex box office, online at ComcastTIX.com or phantomshockey.com, or by phone at 1-800-298-4200.

Saturday, January 05, 2008