HERSHEY, Pa – Two long time rivals separated by almost 100 miles are set to one final score as the Hershey Bears take on the Philadelphia Phantoms one last time. The Phantoms are moving after this season, but the two teams get to pound each other one last time. The Phantoms are the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, while the Hershey Bears are affiliated with the Washington Capitals. Hershey use to be the Flyers affiliate before the Phantoms came into existence. The series gets underway Thursday April, 16th in a best of seven series that will no doubt be one of the AHL’s best match-ups.
Phantoms goaltender Scott Munroe
Series overview
Hershey won the season series 8-4. The Bears will have the home-ice advantage for the series, but due to scheduling conflicts the first two games of the series will begin in Philadelphia. Then next three will be in Hershey, then each teams will take turns hosting in games 6 and 7.
Hershey finished the season in first place, and will have home ice advantage in the Eastern Conference. They finished with a record of 49-23-2-6. Philadelphia finished with a 43-30-2-5 record and went 7-2-0-1 in their last 10 games to overcome the last playoff position.
Hershey will bring their high-powered offense into the series. The Bears were the league’s best offense with 296 goals. Philadelphia finished with 234. Both teams struggled on defense. The Phantoms allowed 232, while Hershey allowed 240.
Hershey has a slight edge on the power play with the league’s 5th best power play unit, while Philadelphia finished 8th overall, but “Philly” is clearly a better team on the penalty kill. The Phantoms were the league’s 10th rated penalty killing unit, while Hershey finished dead last at 29th overall. Hershey – The Bears high-powered offense was led by league MVP Alexandre Giroux, who had 97 points, one more point then teammate Keith Aucoin for the league lead in points. Giroux also led the league in goals with 60.
Giroux became the fifth player in AHL history to score 60 goals in a season and set a league record for goals in a season by a left wing. His streak earlier in the year of a goal in 15 consecutive games was also a new AHL record. No Bears defenseman had more points than Sami Lepisto who had 38 assists and four goals to lead the team. Rarely does a team who has the conference’s best record not have a goaltender in the top 20 in goals against average and save percentage. Despite Hershey’s high team goals against average, rookie goaltender Michal Neuvirth led the Bears with a decent 2.70 goals against average, and a .913 save percentage. Philadelphia – The Phantoms are on a roll going into the playoffs and are in search of their third Calder Cup. In fact, the Phantoms have only missed the playoffs three times since 1997.
Hershey Bears Alexandre Giroux
Philadelphia had to overtake Binghamton for the last playoff spot in the East Division despite being more than 10 points out at one point.
Jared Ross led the team in scoring with 29 goals and 40 assists, tied for 15th overall in the league. Danny Syvret was second in the league in scoring by a defenseman with 12 goals and 45 assists.
Scott Munroe had another stellar season tied for 12th overall in goals against (2.46) and tied for 4th in save percentage (.926).
Prediction: Hershey in seven. Despite the Phantoms being on a roll, the Bears will close out them out. Hershey has the edge on offense, but the Phantoms can play defense with them. In a long series, as it was during the regular season, the Bears will outlast them.
The Phantoms, however, might be this year’s sleeper team. Philly is benefiting from some Flyers top prospects being sent to the team with their college and junior seasons now over. This will not be a short series. This will be a typical Bears-Phantoms all-out brawl. Having both teams face each other in the playoffs might be the best thing that could happen to the closing out of one of the NHL’s most intimidating arenas, the Wachovia Spectrum.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com
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