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Phantoms Hoping to Avoid Shark Bite

After a week-long hiatus because of the AHL All-Star festivities, the Phantoms will return to the ice this Friday night for a match-up against the Worcester Sharks at the Wachovia Spectrum before heading on a five-game road trip with stops in Binghamton, Springfield, Manchester and Providence.

    by By Maya Davis, Courtesy of the Philadelphia Phantoms, Philly.com
    Published 
After a week-long hiatus because of the AHL All-Star festivities, the Phantoms will return to the ice this Friday night for a match-up against the Worcester Sharks at the Wachovia Spectrum before heading on a five-game road trip with stops in Binghamton, Springfield, Manchester and Providence.
The East division-leading Phantoms have a 29-15-1-2 record on the season, claiming a 4-3 shootout win over the Hershey Bears at the Spectrum on January 25 but dropping a game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers by the same score the following night in Connecticut.
With forwards Kyle Greentree and Denis Tolpeko setting the pace with their offensive surges in the win over Hershey, the team hopes to continue to feed off of that elevated energy as they prepare to face difficult opponents in their upcoming games.
“We have to find ways to win,” Phantoms head coach Craig Berube said. “We have capable guys in the line-up that play hard and do the little things that help us win hockey games.”
With 61 points, the Phantoms have a seven-point cushion over three teams -- the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the Hershey Bears and the Albany River Rats -- that share a tie for second place in the East division.
Although the Phantoms will have to face the Sharks without their third leading scorer Stefan Ruzicka (serving the remainder of a suspension) the team is eager to start the second half of the season on the right track by welcoming the Sharks to the Spectrum for the first time ever for a 7:05 face-off.
In the previous meeting between the two teams in Worcester on November 3, Phantoms forward Pete Zingoni scored twice and goalies Brian Boucher and Scott Munroe shared the net to combine for just the second tandem shutout in team history in a 3-0 win.
Having only played a league-low 43 games this season, the Sharks are 19-13-3-3 and nestled into sixth place in the Atlantic division. They own the league’s 10th-best power play on the road and have the same number of shootout wins as the Phantoms with four this year.
After the Sharks match-up, the Phantoms will start their five-game trek with two match-ups against the Binghamton Senators in New York on February 2 and February 6.
The team will then tour New England to face the Springfield Falcons February 8th, the Manchester Monarchs February 9th and the Providence Bruins February 10th.
    By Maya Davis, Courtesy of the Philadelphia Phantoms, Philly.com
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