Phantoms tie Hamilton 4-4
February 7, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release
(PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 7, 2003) - Facing the top team in the American Hockey League, the Philadelphia Phantoms scored four consecutive goals before settling for a 4-4 tie against the Hamilton Bulldogs tonight at the First Union Spectrum.
Peter White, Mike Siklenka, Guillaume Lefebvre and Mark Greig each scored to help Philadelphia overcome an early 2-0 deficit. Hamilton responded with a pair of goals to forge a tie and the score remained the same despite a combined 32 shots in the third period and overtime.
Neil Little recorded 36 saves for Philadelphia, which now has a win and two ties following a six-game winless streak. The Phantoms are 0-2-1 against the league-leading Bulldogs this year and improved to 7-8-3-1 all-time against them. The teams will meet one final time this season on Feb. 28 in Hamilton.
Eric Fichaud stopped 33 shots for Hamilton (38-8-5-4), whose 84 points entering today's play were 11 better than the next best team in the AHL (Houston).
Tony Salmelainen staked Hamilton to a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals 82 seconds apart in the first period. His first came at the 7:47 mark while Philadelphia's Jamie Wright was serving a high-sticking major. Marc-Andre Bergeron took the initial shot on the play and Salmelainen was there to follow it in for his seventh of the year.
Salmelainen struck again at 9:09 during a scramble in front of the Phantoms crease. Tomas Plekanec and Donald Audette were credited with assists as Salmelainen backhanded it past Little.
Philadelphia responded with four straight goals to move ahead 4-2. The first came at the 13:50 mark - six seconds after Hamilton's Ron Hainsey was sent off for holding. John Slaney came up with the puck following a face-off in the Bulldogs zone and fired a shot on net. White redirected it on the way to net his 19th goal of the season and 13th as a Phantom.
Siklenka evened the score at 2-2 with 8.1 seconds to play in the opening period. Brad Tiley began the play with a through pass to Patrick Sharp, who tried a shot. Siklenka beat a Hamilton defenseman to the carom and knocked it past Fichaud for his fifth of the year.
Lefebvre continued the Phantoms run 1:23 into the second period to give Philadelphia a 3-2 advantage. Kirby Law circled around the net before crossing it to defenseman Kirk Furey, who blasted a slap shot from beyond the near circle. The rebound kicked out to Lefebvre, who deposited his sixth goal.
Greig extended the lead to 4-2 two minutes later on a breakaway. Peter Vandermeer and Chris Bogas received assists on the play - Greig's team-leading 21st goal of the season.
"Our team showed a lot of character coming back against a team of this caliber," said Phantoms head coach John Stevens. "The power play was well executed. I thought it was a great hockey game. We competed for 60 minutes."
But Hamilton regrouped and knotted the score heading into the third period. Jason Ward, the AHL's points leader, narrowed the deficit to one with a shorthanded breakaway at 12:13. Jarret Stoll set up Ward's 24th of the year. A power-play goal by Audette, his first, from Michael Ryder and Plekanec with 3:19 left in the period made it 4-4.
"Every time Hamilton is on the ice, teams are gunning for them," said Greig. "We competed well with them tonight. It was good to get a lot of shots on goal. It was a good building stick tonight."
Sharp nearly won it 1:23 into overtime when his shot hit off the post and Fichaud. Philadelphia had a 4-on-3 advantage for the final 49.9 seconds, but only managed a slap shot by Tiley.
The Phantoms play at Hershey Saturday at 7:00 p.m. before returning home to host the Syracuse Crunch on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. Philadelphia then begins a season-high five-game road trip on Tuesday at Cleveland.
Phantoms Notes: Vandermeer notched his first point since Nov. 27 vs. Rochester ... Furey recorded his first AHL point ... Sharp registered his first point since Nov. 22 vs. Milwaukee ... Philadelphia is 13-0-2 when scoring four or more goals ... The Phantoms played on Feb. 7 for the first time in club history ... Philadelphia had killed off 17 straight power plays prior to Salmelainen's first goal ... Ben Stafford had a three-game goal-scoring streak snapped.
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