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Happy New Year, welcome to the 2022 part of the 21-22 season. The Phantoms (10-11-2-3) finished last year with points in their last 3 games, 2 OT wins and an OT loss, and are looking to start the season improving upon that. The first step in that will be beating a team we've locked horns with a few times already, the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders (12-12-1-0). This will be the first games at the Covelli Centre since November 26th and I'm sure we're all missing live action. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, I'll explain that later.

The 'Riders are the lowest scoring team in the East. They're lead by Adam Flammang with 12g and 10a. Flammang has decent size and a wicked shot and scores a lot of his goals on the rush. Second on the team is one time Phantoms forward Coal Burtch (9g, 9a). Phantoms fans know well that Burtch can shoot the puck. We also saw Burtch leave on a streatcher last the last time these teams met, a late October game at the Covelli. The injury was not major and he played the next week. Curious enough, he was a healthy scratch the last game the 'Riders played in favor of an 8th defenseman. Since I mentioned both of these guys in the Week 4 Preview, let me mention Zaccharya Wisdom. Wisdom was a rookie ('04) player I saw a lot of potential in at the Fall Classic. He hadn't put up anything on the scoresheet yet last time these teams played. Since then he's posted 3g, 7a. He earned an early C ranking on the NHL CSS Players to Watch List and is an exceptionally smooth skater with soft hands, and given he's finally getting on the board I think he's someone you don't want to take your eyes off of when he's on the ice.

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S4E14 - Welcome to 2022! The Phantoms finished out last year with a good swing through Michigan, albeit shorthanded. We’ll break those games down, and look ahead to a return to the Covelli Centre!

 

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Happy Holidays folks, it's... what week is it, again? Things have gotten busy, and with me missing the last preview before a week off, I'm playing catch up on a lot of things, including hockey. The good news is the Phantoms (9-11-1-3) have managed to end a 6 game losing skid with a solid win over the NTDP U18s in Plymouth. The better news is our next stop is back in USA Hockey Arena to play the U17s (1-10-0-0) on Thursday. After that is a New Years Eve game in Muskegon (13-10-1-2) to round out 2021. 

The NTDP U17s. I'll be honest I have not seen enough of them to really say much, they aren't really an impressive group yet. This will eventually change. In the Week 2 Preview I had mentioned Gabe Perreault as a potential top scorer for the team and he's been that with 3g and 8a. Will Smith and Oliver Moore are both just behind him with 3g, 6a each. Will Vote leads the team with 4 goals. Again, I don't have much in the way of scouting reports on anyone in particular, all of them seem to have a well rounded set of skills.

I'd almost skip mentioning the defense but I did that last time. Only one defenseman is on the good side of the +/- column and that is Kai Janviriya who is a +1. The rest range from -4 to Zeev Buium at a (as far as I know) league worst -17 in 11 games played. I did like Aram Minnetian's defensive play and skating ability in the two games earlier in the season despite the Phantoms lopsided victories in those games.

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