PHANTOMS | Weekend preview
Who: Mahoning Valley Phantoms at St. Louis Bandits.
When: Today at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.
Next: The second-place Phantoms (27-14-4, 58 points) will return home next weekend for a two-game set against the third-place Alpena Ice Diggers (26-15-4, 56 points) at the Ice Zone in Boardman.
Injuries: The Phantoms come limping into the important weekends ahead. Injury problems have hampered the team all season, and seem to continue to flare up on a weekly basis. While forward Alden Hirschfeld has been on the shelf for the past seven games, it is the team’s defensive unit that has been hit the hardest. Denny Kramarz’s return to the blue line last Saturday from a three-month injury came just in time as defensemen Robert Harrison and Adam Snead are the latest to be sidelined.
Slump: The Phantoms have suffered through their toughest stretch of the season record-wise, having gone just 3-4-1 in their past eight games since sweeping the Phantoms Hockey Showcase in mid-January. “Obviously we need to get healthy, but we just have to get back to playing our game as well,” said Phantoms head coach Bob Mainhardt on how the team can overcome this ebb to the season. “We’ve had some unfortunate bounces and gotten in some penalty trouble in crucial times. We’re just going to have to stay positive and get back to doing what we know we need to do to win.”
So far: In six previous meetings with St. Louis (37-8-2, 76 points), the Phantoms are 2-2-2, including a 0-1-1 record at the Hardee’s Iceplex. With the end of the regular season lsix weeks away, the Phantoms coaching staff realizes that the road to the championship will run through St. Louis. “We want to go in and show that we can win down there,” Phantoms assistant coach Curtis Carr said. “The way the standings are looking right now, we are going to have to go through St. Louis to reach our goal of making the Robertson Cup. So, our goal this weekend is to go in and prove that we can win there.”