Last night saw the Phantoms and the Bears back in action for the first time since Sunday, and with it came the opportunity to close out this series in four games, and to do it on home ice for the Phantoms for the second series in a row.
It was a difficult task ahead of them — knowing well the strength of that Hershey squad, who hasn’t lost a playoff series in three years — but the approach they were bringing with them into this matchup seemed, ostensibly, like a mature one.
Speaking at practice on Thursday, Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere spoke about how the message heading into this game is the same as it’s been all season, that “we have to stay in control and stay in the moment. And I think our team is doing a pretty good job so far.”
“That’s the thing, you have to stay in the moment,” he went on. “People are like ‘what does he mean,’ but it’s like, you can’t think too far ahead, you have to think about your next shift… You really do have to stay in the moment, it’s a sport thing, it’s not just in hockey, if you put your brain too far [ahead], you’ll get in trouble.” And through the latter part of the series, at that point, the Phantoms had done well in this area — though not without their slips, they kept their attention to detail sharp and continued to attack on every shift, staying present in the task at hand.
But what came in last night’s Game 4, was decidedly not that. “Overall, just an immature game, I’d say,” was the assessment from their head coach when it was all said and done. The Phantoms did not manage the puck well — indeed were often pressured into giving the puck over time and again in the same way that they were in Game 1 — and they did not manage the game well, continually finding ways to bring their hard-fought momentum to a screeching halt with ill-timed penalties.
It was, in truth, a pretty brutal showing, and despite the fact that they were still able to keep it relatively close on the scoresheet (finishing this game with a 6-4 score), this remains a game that got away from them in ways that it had no business doing. All of this places the Phantoms with their backs against the wall, but perhaps the silver lining here is that the path to righting the ship is one that everyone is clear on.
“[With] playoffs,” Laperriere noted on Thursday, “I’m a big believer that there’s no momentum, there’s no carryover from game to game, all games are different. That series easily could have been 2-1 for them, but it’s been tight, and I’m expecting tight games, physicality… but we’ll be ready for anything. So for us it’s to be ready when puck drops tomorrow, and give our best effort, and see what happens.” We know now that they weren’t exactly able to deliver on that best effort bit in last night’s game, but they have another chance in front of them to take the reset between games and come out on the other side of it. It’s not time to panic, and they know this well, too.
“I think if we get uptight about it, things are going to go south pretty quickly,” Alex Bump said after practice on Thursday, “You’ve just got to stay loose, know that we’re going to be okay. You get scored on in hockey, that’s the way it goes, you can’t let that defeat you. Just know that we have the guys to make that push and to win this game.”
The way that the Phantoms were able to work their way at least part of the way back in last night’s game is a testament to their resilience, their belief in their group, in a way. They certainly largely were a group that also could not get out of their own way, but the sticktoitiveness was admirable in its own right. They might have made their own problems, largely, in that game, but the flip side of that coin is that they also hold all of their own answers.
“We have to turn the page, that’s the most important message,” Laperriere concluded last night. This team knows what they have to do, and while Hershey certainly won’t make this one easy on them, this is a Phantoms team that’s long had to battle through the regular season, have continually found ways to rise to the occasion when pushed to the brink. This next task will be their biggest, but the territory is familiar. The question of execution is the one which remains.