Another Sellout Crowd in Glens Falls; Phantoms Fall Short 4-1

January 18, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release


4,800 fans crammed into the Glens Falls Civic Center for another big Saturday night tilt for the team's second official sellout of the season. But the visiting Albany Devils avenged a 4-0 shutout loss from two weeks earlier to prevail 4-1 on Adirondack's home-ice. Albany evened the Northway Rivalry series at 4-4 this season and also tied it up all-time now at 21-21.

The fans arrived early for Dax's Big Birthday Bash featuring 10 mascots total whooping it up in the stands and on the ice and having a good time. The Adirondack Phantoms enjoyed their second sellout of the season as they exceeded the 4,794 seating-capacity of the Glens Falls Civic Center. The game was the 11th Glens Falls sellout all-time for the Adirondack Phantoms. The team's first sellout of the year came on Opening Night on October 12 with a packed house turnout of 5,031.

Adirondack's losses this weekend mark the first time for the team to lose consecutive games since November 30 and December 4.

Cal Heeter had shutout the Devils just two weeks earlier on his way to CCM/AHL Player of the Week honors. But Albany rudely responded in this contest by scoring four goals against Heeter in the first 31 minutes and knocking him out of the game prematurely. Yann Danis responded in relief with 29 minutes of shutout hockey to keep the Devils at bay.

The game was off to an auspicious start with a fluky goal in the opening six minutes. Devils' captain Rod Pelley sneakily banked the puck off Heeter's leg from behind the cage to register his eighth of the year as Albany drew first blood.

Albany held a 2-1 lead at the midway point of the game but tallied back-to-back goals just 40 seconds apart from Artem Demkov and Tim Sestito to widen their margin to 4-1.

"In the second period we started breaking down because of our own decisions with the puck," head coach Terry Murray said. "We had a lot of passes that were not completed. The puck is loose, it comes out to the neutral zone, they counter-attack, they're getting it back at us again. We're playing that half-ice game and they took it to us."

Ben Holmstrom scored for the Adirondack Phantoms late in the first period with a power-play goal on a hot-shot puck bouncing all over in the Albany zone. Kris Newbury had shot a rebound off the post after Brandon Manning perhaps caught part of goalie Keith Kinkaid's mask with his initial drive. Holmstrom was able to knock home the next attempt from the slot while Kinkaid was still scrambling and that tied the game at 1-1.

Another helpful bounce just 65 seconds later would allow the Devils to retake the advantage. Mattias Tedenby's centering pass from the right-wing wall appeared to be intercepted by Nick Cousins in the slot but the puck somehow made it through his stick and over to Kelly Zajac on the backdoor who was able to bury his opportunity before Heeter would be able to respond.

Two more goals just 40 seconds apart by Demkov and then Sestito on an odd-man rush following a neutral-zone steal would finish the scoring.

"We got away from our game," said Phantoms captain Ben Holmstrom. "We started out good in the first period. Then we started turning pucks over and stuff. And that's when they start coming the other way at us. We didn't get pucks in behind them and we just let the game get away from us."

The fans were treated to three fights after that as the Phantoms looked for any potential spark to trigger a comeback. Brandon Manning dropped the gloves with Chris McKelvie a couple minutes after Albany's last goal. A few minutes later it would be Kris Newbury throwing some big punches on Stefan Matteau. Then fan-favorite Zack FitzGerald went at it with Raman Hrabarenka with 55 seconds left in the game to put a capper on the night.

Adirondack was without Petr Straka who was serving the first of a two-game suspension stemming from his match penalty on Friday night against Hartford. Straka will also sit out Adirondack's next game on Monday afternoon at Springfield.

There were a couple other big games on the night as well. The Mites team beat the Dax-Fronted Mascot Team in an intermission hockey game. By the end of the quick match, a fair amount of disorganization was apparent within the mascot ranks involving a number of checks with each other. Sonar of the Hartford Wolf Pack blasted Mojo of the Amsterdam Mohawks and then had a nice hit on birthday-boy Dax to conclude the hilarity.

In Game #2, it was Gangham Style Time for Musical Chairs with all the mascots. It came down to Dax and Devil Dawg of the Albany Devils of the last two. Dax prevailed and received a raucous ovation for his mighty triumph. Mojo of the Amsterdam Mohawks was the first one eliminated but that worked out for the best as he could then be seen displaying his incredible Gangham Style moves for the duration of the game.

The game marked the official midway point of the season for the Phantoms who have now played 38 games in 2013-14 and have 38 remaining.

Adirondack fell to 20-16-2 with just their sixth loss in their last 17 games. The Phantoms stayed one point behind St. John's for the #9 spot in the Eastern Conference standings. Albany holds the fourth-place position as they improved to 23-11-5.

Albany out-shot the Phantoms 26-22. Albany was 0-for-3 on the power play while Adirondack improved to 1-for-4. Rob Bordson played in his 199th games for the Adirondack Phantoms and will become the second ever player to play in 200 Adirondack Phantoms games this Monday joining Ben Holmstrom.

Jason Akeson's scoring streak ended. He ha an eight-game point-streak as well as a four-game goal-streak entering the night but he was unable to register in this one.

The Phantoms travel to Springfield on Monday afternoon and then to Albany for a rematch next Saturday afternoon. Adirondack's next home game is Sunday, January 26 at 3:00 PM against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Pink in the Rink presented by Glens Falls Hospital supporting the fight against breast cancer. Friday, January 31 is Pack The House Night presented by John Ray & Sons with special discount tickets available. Let's jam the GFCC again everyone and notch yet another sellout! Call the Phantoms for tickets at 518-480-3355.



American Hockey League Stories from January 18, 2014


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