Game 72 Preview: Flyers vs. Panthers
The Philadelphia Flyers (36-26-9) host the Florida Panthers (45-20-5) at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday evening. Game time is 6:00 p.m. EDT.
The Flyers have played the first five games of a stretch of seven straight matches against the toughest opposition the Eastern Conference has to offer. Philly has gone 2-2-1 thus far, including a rousing 3-2 home win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon. Philly brings a 19-14-3 home record into Sunday's game. The Panthers, 24-9-3 on the road this season, are coming off a 4-3 (2-1) shootout loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday evening.
Both teams are playing for the third time in four nights. The Flyers have a very slight on-paper fatigue factor edge because their game on Saturday was a 1 p.m. start that was decided in regulation. The Panthers had a 7 p.m. game at Madison Square Garden that went 65 minutes of game play plus a shootout and was followed by a late-night train ride to Philadelphia.
Neither team will hold a morning skate on Sunday. The expected goalie matchup will pit former Flyers netminder Anthony Stolarz against Felix Sandström.
The Flyers are otherwise likely to maintain the same forward lines and defense pairs they featured against Boston. For Florida, neither Aleksander Barkov (undisclosed, has missed the last two games) nor Aaron Eklad (out since a March 9 lower-body injury) are considered likely to be available for Sunday's game. Gustav Forsling missed Saturday's game in New York due to illness and is questionable for Sunday.
Projected lineups, subject to change, are below. They will be updated prior to game time if necessary. For an in-depth game preview, looking at team trends, matchups and keys to victory, see today's Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com:
Click here.
FLYERS
74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 10 Bobby Brink
71 Tyson Foerster - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway
27 Noah Cates - 14 Sean Couturier - 62 Olle Lycksell
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
5 Egor Zamula - 77 Erik Johnson
50 Adam Ginning - 23 Ronnie Attard
32 Felix Sandström
[33 Samuel Ersson]
PANTHERS
27 Eetu Luostarinen - 15 Anton Lundell - 13 Sam Reinhart
23 Carter Verhaeghe - 9 Sam Bennett - 19 Matthew Tkachuk
17 Evan Rodrigues - 82 Kevin Stenlund - 10 Vladimir Tarasenko
21 Nick Cousins - 18 Steven Lorentz - 8 Kyle Okposo
28 Josh Mahura - 62 Brandon Montour
2 Tobias Bjornfot - 91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
26 Uvis Balinskis - 77 Niko Mikkola
41 Anthony Stolarz
[72 Sergei Bobrovsky]
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Phantoms Update: Phantoms Lose to Bridgeport
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (27-25-8) have been serially inconsistent this season. On Saturday, the Phantoms squandered a golden opportunity to further solidify their hold on the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.
The last-place Bridgeport Islanders (22-33-7) were in town. Coming off a 2-1 shootout win in Utica on Friday, the Islanders trekked to Allentown through a snowstorm and a very late arrival in Allentown for Saturday's game. It was also a match that the Phantoms needed to win, while Bridgeport is largely playing out the string by this point.
In the first period, Bridgeport generated just three shots on goal to seven by the Phantoms. The Islanders had only one scoring chance all period. However, they took advantage of it.
The play started with the Phantoms going offside. Afraid of an intentional offside for touching the puck in the Bridgeport zone, Lehigh Valley hesitated. The Islanders took advantage of the indecision and counterattacked as Ruslan Iskhakov claimed the puck and passed to Julien Gauthier (5th goal of the season). From the left circle, Gauthier beat Cal Petersen over the glove to the short side for a 1-0 lead at 15:00 of the first period.
The Phantoms seemed to generate some momentum for a portion of the second period, culminating with a slam-dunk goal by Adam Brooks (8th) at 8:40 on a nicely worked give-and-go with Tanner Laczynski. Laczynkski has been red-hot since returning from a 10-week injury absence. In the five games since his return, Laczynski has racked up eight points (five goals, three assists).
Lehigh Valley appeared to be on the brink of forging ahead of Bridgeport but goalie Ken Appleby (24 saves on 25 shots) kept the game tied. At 13:30, the Islanders took the lead as Iskhakov found the short side again versus Petersen. Matthew Maggio drew the lone assist.
In the third period, Bridgeport (who only had 17 shots on goal for the game) was content to play a very defensive style. The Islanders clobbered the Phantoms on faceoffs all night and won more 50-50 battles. The Phantoms were too easily contained to the perimeter, repeatedly fumbled pucks when there was a passing lane and often had to retreat to collect the puck in their own end to try to go 200 feet.
Lehigh Valley did manage a brief push, but Appleby stepped up as needed. Laczynski and Cooper Marody came within a whisker or re-tying the game on a power play opportunity. Other than that, the Phantoms' attempt at a third period comeback was pretty feeble. Final shots on goal were 25-17 in the Phantoms' favor.
Petersen had put together a run of very strong starts for the Phantoms. On Saturday, despite a couple good saves in the third period, Petersen was significantly outplayed by Appleby. Neither Bridgeport goal was unstoppable. Petersen also caught a break on a late second period chance where he came off the near-side post early but got enough of the ensuing shot to keep it out of the net.
With the Springfield Thunderbirds defeating Syracuse on Saturday, the Phantoms' lead in the race for the final Calder Cup playoff spot in the Atlantic Division was cut back down to one point. Lehigh Valley still has two games in hand.
On Sunday, the Phantoms host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (31-22-9) at the PPL Center. in a 3:05 p.m. EDT game Springfield is idle on the schedule.
Defenseman Hunter McDonald made his professional debut for the Phantoms on Saturday. Unfortunately, the 21-year-old blueline prospect (drafted by the Flyers in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Draft) had to leave Saturday's game early with an undisclosed injury. McDonald exited midway through the first period and did not return.
A host of Flyers hockey operations personnel attended Saturday's game in Allentown. Attendees included president of hockey operations Keith Jones, general manager Danny Briere, pro scout Dave Brown, player development manager Nick Schultz, and player development coaches John Leclair, Patrick Sharp, Samuel Morin, and Chris Stewart. Phantoms general manager/ Flyers assistant general manager Alyn McCauley is a mainstay.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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