Phantoms lose 4-1 to Bridgeport
Published on December 12, 2003 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release
(PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 12, 2003) - Jeff Hamilton scored twice tonight to help the visiting Bridgeport Sound Tigers extend their unbeaten streak to 18 games with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phantoms at the Wachovia Spectrum.
Wade Dubielewicz made 22 saves to notch the win for Bridgeport, which is 15-0-3 since its last loss on Oct. 24 vs. Hartford. The Sound Tigers improved to 3-1-1 vs. Philadelphia this season, with three match-ups remaining.
Patrick Sharp scored the only goal for the Phantoms, who have still won eight of their last 11 games overall. Neil Little started in goal and stopped 5-of-8 shots before rookie Chris Houle turned aside all 14 shots he faced over the final two periods. Houle was making his AHL debut after getting called up from Trenton on Tuesday to replace Antero Niittymaki, who is backing up with the Flyers.
Bridgeport jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period, with the first two scores coming off of giveaways by Phantoms defensemen. Former Phantom Cail MacLean opened the scoring at the 3:37 mark after rookie Jeff Woywitka inadvertently sent a pass into the side of the Philadelphia net. Little came out to retrieve the puck, but MacLean wound up with the puck and netted his third of the year into an empty net.
Hamilton made it 2-0 with 1:53 to go in the period when he intercepted a Dennis Seidenberg pass in between the circles and easily beat Little for his 19th of the season. Hamilton struck again on the power play with 25.2 seconds remaining as his line drive from the near circle sailed past Little to the far post. Ryan Kraft and Alan Letang received assists on the play.
"Even though they have a nice run, we've had a pretty good run ourselves, so this was a great opportunity to see where we were in the division," said Phantoms head coach John Stevens. "We beat ourselves early. We beat ourselves with turnovers. We just handed it to them on a silver platter. When you get down like that, it's how you react and we didn't react very well."
Houle replaced Little to start the second period and Philadelphia scored the lone goal of the stanza to narrow the deficit to 3-1. On the power play, Randy Jones fed Seidenberg for a long blast from the point. Stationed outside the crease, Sharp slid the rebound past Dubielewicz for his ninth of the year.
Sharp's goal snapped Bridgeport's scoreless streak at 161:18, as the Sound Tigers had shut out Hartford and Utah in their last two games.
Kevin Colley capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 41.3 seconds to play. Brandon Smith and Derek Bekar set up Colley's fourth of the year.
"It's a test to play a good team with a streak like that, to find out where you are," said Phantoms forward Mark Murphy. "I thought we played them pretty tough. We had a few mistakes in the first that dug us into a hole we couldn't get out of. It's something to learn from."
The Phantoms play at Norfolk on Saturday night before returning home to host the Hershey Bears on Sunday at 6:05 p.m. Philadelphia then begins a three-game road trip on Thursday in Toronto.
Phantoms Notes: The first 4,000 kids 14 and under in attendance received a Ron Hextall bobblehead doll, courtesy of Allstate ... Rookie defenseman Freddy Meyer returned to action after missing the last 13 games due to a broken foot ... John Slaney and Joey Hope were injured scratches, while Craig Berube and James Laux were healthy scratches ... Earlier in the day, Seidenberg was reassigned to the Phantoms after a six-day stint with the Flyers ... Philadelphia entered the game with a league-leading 28.31 penalty minutes per game, but had just six tonight ... Jones has four points (1G, 3A) in his last four games.
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