PHILADELPHIA PHANTOMS vs. WILKES-BARRE/ SCRANTON PENGUINS

Wachovia Spectrum
Sunday, October 7, 2007

TONIGHT'S GAME – Tonight, the Philadelphia Phantoms (Philadelphia Flyers) welcome the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh Penguins). This is just the second game of the season for the Phantoms, as they lifted the lid on the 2007-08 campaign Friday evening with a 4-3 win over the visiting Norfolk Admirals. The Pens broke the proverbial champagne bottle on the AHL’s regular season of games on Wednesday night with a 5-4 win over Hershey. They followed that up with another one goal win, triumphing over Syracuse last night. They beat the Crunch 3-2.

PHANTOMS LAST GAME – On Friday night the Phantoms upped their all-time opening night record to 9-3-0 with a 4-3 win over the Norfolk Admirals. It was the second straight season that the Phantoms opened in Philadelphia with a win over Norfolk. A year ago yesterday, they beat the Ads 5-4 in OT in the first game of the 2006-07 season with a trio of goals from Stefan Ruzicka. Darren Reid was this season’s opening night offensive force. The likeable winger bagged two goals, giving Philly 2-0 and 4-1 leads. Both markers came on the power play. The Phantoms went 3-10 on the night with the man advantage. Pete Zingoni and Jonathan Matsumoto also found the back of the net for the Purple, while Jussi Timonen and Kyle Greentree each had two assists. In his homecoming of sorts, Brian Boucher made 26 saves.

PENGUINS LAST GAME – Last night at home, Jeff Taffe scored his second goal in as many games in the Penguins 3-2 win over the Syracuse Crunch. Tyler Kennedy then added a pair to elevate the lead to 3-0. The Crunch scored in the last minute of the second and then with one minute on the clock in the third to make it interesting. Ty Conklin beat his former team and packaged his second straight win with 31 saves.

ALL-TIME - This is the 882nd regular season game in Phantoms franchise history. Philadelphia has an all-time record of 449-314-36-17 and 65 ties. The Phantoms have 1016 points in 881 games.

THE SERIES – Tonight’s game is the first of 10 scheduled contests between the Phantoms and Penguins this season. Last year, the Phantoms went 4-6-0 against their intrastate rivals. All-time against the Pens, the Phantoms are 41-35-3-2-1 (W-L-T-OTL-SOL) in 82 games. Philly has outscored the Penguins 244-237 in this tight series. Philadelphia has lost its last three games against the Penguins, with the last win coming February 17 on the road. That night, Philadelphia garnered a 3-1 win---The series shifts to Northeast PA next Saturday night.

PHANTOM FILES – With the 4-3 victory on Friday night, the Phantoms have now won four straight home openers. They are 9-2-1 in those games. Philly’s season opening record is now 9-3-0---On Friday, the Phantoms took to the ice with a roster that featured 15 players that were not on the team on opening night a year ago. Among the new faces are G Brian Boucher, who returns for his second stop with the Phantoms; five rookies who joined the team late in the season in Ryan Parent, Jonathan Matsumoto, Darroll Powe, Kyle Greentree and Steve Downie; and five additional rookies in Chad Anderson, Oskars Bartulis, Mike Vannelli, David Laliberte, and Josh Beaulieu. Beaulieu and Bartulis, two of six 20 year-olds on the roster, made their professional debuts on Friday night---Craig Berube is back as the Phantoms head coach after serving in the position for six games last year before moving to the Flyers as an assistant. Berube’s assistants with the Phantoms this year are Kjell Samuelsson, who took over as head coach for the rest of last season, and Phantoms Hall-of-Famer Neil Little, who played nine seasons in the crease for the club and is the only player to be a member of both Calder Cup championship teams---Boyd Kane was named Thursday as the eighth captain in team history. It is Kane’s second stint as Phantoms captain, having served in the role in leading the team to the 2005 Calder Cup championship.

PENS WITHOUT INK – With a goal and an assist, Tyler Kennedy recorded three points in the Penguins season opener against Hershey on Wednesday night. It was his first AHL action since February 21 of last season, when an abdominal injury forced the Pens rookie to the sidelines. Kennedy had grabbed 37 points (12/25/37) in his first 40 pro games before being shelved. Kennedy also picked up the game-winning goal in the season opener, the first of his professional career. Last night he scored twice to lead the Penguins to a 3-2 win against the Syracuse Crunch. Kennedy scored his second game-winning goal in as many contests---Ty Conklin has both wins between the pipes for the Penguins. Conklin was signed as a free agent by Pittsburgh in the off-season. He spent the 2006-07 season with Syracuse of the AHL and Buffalo and Columbus of the NHL. He has 76 regular season NHL games to his credit.

ON THE AIR – The Phantoms are broadcasting video and audio of all 80 games this season on the B2 Networks, available via phantomshockey.com. The audio is a free service provided by Dodge, while fans can also opt to purchase a ticket to view the video from the game.

Sunday, October 07, 2007