Phantoms Post-Game EXTRA! (11/27/21)

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-10-5) saw their winless skid reach seven games after a 4-1 loss to Bridgeport Saturday night, matching the seven-game winless streak they opened the 2021-22 season with in October.

Saturday night's game story -> https://insideahlhockey.com/article/game-story-bridgeport-4-at-lehigh-valley-1-112721

Three Things

1. Getting The Effort, But Not The Results

Earlier in the season, you could argue the Phantoms were being outplayed and kept in close games - for the most part - due to excellent goaltending. And you wouldn't have much push-back.

Lately, however, Lehigh Valley has been playing well enough to win games - scoring first and taking a lead in both of their 4-1 losses this weekend.

"Tonight, I liked our 60 minutes," head coach Ian Laperriere said after the loss. "Guys worked hard. A lot of hard work. They did everything we asked of them except scoring more goals than the other team. I'm happy about the effort. I'm not happy about the result," Laperriere added. "Again, I'm a broken record right now."

Cal O'Reilly put the Phantoms up 1-0 on a first period power play goal, as a result of some good passing entering the offensive zone from Gerry Mayhew and Jackson Cates.

"It was nice to get on the power play and help contribute there, but it's frustrating because it's not good enough and we keep losing," Cates said after the game.

2. Winless Skid Reaches Seven Games.... Again

The Phantoms had seemingly turned the corner after opening the season with seven straight losses (0-5-2). They won 3 out of 4 and looked to be getting back on track. Instead, they're back in a winless skid matching their season-opening skid. Saturday's loss to Bridgeport extended the Phantoms' current winless skid to seven games (0-4-3).

"It's hard. It's hard on everybody in there," Laperriere said of the team getting back into a losing skid like how they began the season. "It's hard on my staff, it's hard on the players - we're all in this together. There's no secret [remedy], we're gonna just keep working at it and keep addressing the areas we need to be better at and go back to work. That's the only thing you can do. You know nobody is going to quit."

Perhaps it's even more frustrating that the Phantoms have had leads, and been in situations where they've been right there in games but just haven't been able to get it done. Lehigh Valley has played in one-goal games in eight of their 18 games to date this season, going 0-4-4 in those games.

"We have to find a way," Cates said. "We're in it together, and we have to get out of it together."

3. COVID Cancels Upcoming Phantoms Games

Perhaps the biggest development coming out of Saturday night's game happened after the fans headed home and the media and players wrapped up post-game press conferences.

Due to COVID protocol affecting the Hershey Bears, Sunday's game in Hershey (11/28 at 5 p.m. ET) as well as Wednesday's home game against the Bears (12/1 at 7:15 p.m. ET) have been postponed.

On Friday night in Rochester, the Bears announced that head coach Scott Allen and assistant coach Patrick Wellar entered COVID protocol. The team played the game with assistant coach Steve Bergin and associate goaltending coach Alex Westlund running the bench. After traveling back to Hershey and a rare Saturday night off, it is likely that additional positive cases were found amongst the team/staff resulting in these two postponements Sunday and Wednesday.

With that, the Phantoms won't play again until Friday, December 3rd when they host the Charlotte Checkers. They are currently scheduled to host Hershey Saturday, December 4th.