Game preview: Crunch @ Phantoms
The glow of the outdoor game can only last for so long. It’s time to get back to business this week and first up is a huge game against divisional foe Adirondack. Nothing like jumping right back into the fray, huh?
The Crunch has had the Phantoms’ number for most of this season, although Adirondack has managed to give us a scare once or twice. What the game will be like tomorrow is a mystery, but it should be a good one. Adirondack is two points ahead of us in the standings. They currently occupy 5th place with 56 points. We’re in 6th with 54. Did I mention tomorrow night is huge? Yah. Huge. I know we’ve been saying that alot lately, but with the way our division is that’s probably not going to change. If the Crunch wants to stand up with the big boys, we first have to prove we can beat these middling teams.
The Phantoms’ record is 26-27-2-2. They’re currently on a two game losing streak and have lost 6 of their last 10, with one of those losses coming in the shootout. The Crunch is 24-27-3-3. We’re coming off of a win at Saturday’s Mirabito Outdoor Classic, where the Crunch defeated the Baby Sens 2-1 in front of a record-breaking 21,508 fans (and yes, I smiled as I was typing that). We’ve won six of our last 10. The Crunch have played Adirondack four times this season and lead the series 3-1, with all of those wins coming by rather large scoring margins: 6-1, 5-2 and 5-0. The one victory the Phantoms earned was also won by a rather embarrassing–from the Crunch’s end–5-0 score.
The Phantoms are led in scoring by center Jon Matsumoto, who has 20 goals and 25 assists. Their most offensive defenseman is a name pretty familiar to Crunch fans, Joey Mormina, who has 4 goals, 12 helpers and a -2. Our old “friend” Stefan Legein has 19 goals and 4 assists with the Phantoms.
The Crunch’s lead scorer is still captain Derek MacKenzie, who has 15 goals and 21 assists. A few players behind him is Alexandre Picard, whose 15 goals and 15 assists include the first goal scored during an AHL outdoor game. He also had an assist during the Crunch’s loss to Lake Erie Friday night. Our best offensive defenseman right now is actually Dylan Reese (Brendan Bell’s combined stats are still skewing things, so he doesn’t count). Reese has 4 goals and 17 assists.
By the way, did anyone else know Jon Mirasty had three assists so far this season? I’ll be damned. Sure, that still puts him on the low end of our scoring sheet–only the goaltenders and Charlie Kronschnabel have less points–but that’s more than I thought he had. Fun little things you discover.
The Crunch will be missing forward Dan Fritsche tomorrow night and probably all weekend. Rumor has it that he broke his hand during the outdoor game Saturday afternoon. Man, that sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks. And we’ll also be missing Roy, whose one shift back wasn’t all that impressive. I’m not worried about missing him, we never really even had him back since first he had “the flu” and now this. But the loss of Fritsche–rumors that were first reported here by always has his ear to the ground Dave–hurts real bad, kids. We’ll see if the Crunch can overcome missing such a great leader and scorer on the ice. Frischmon, Picard, and our captain are gonna have to pick up the slack.
Poor Frisch is gonna break if he gets handed many more responsibilities.
