Phantoms to meet Bears in playoffs

April 13, 2009|Daily News Staff Reports

The Phantoms and Hershey Bears are seeing a lot of each other these days.

The Phantoms closed out their regular season against the Bears with games Friday and Saturday night. The Phantoms clinched a playoff berth with a victory Friday night at the Wachovia Spectrum, then lost at the Giant Center in Hershey on Saturday night, 3-2.

Now, beginning later this week, they will face each other in the best-of-seven opening round of the American Hockey League playoffs.

In Saturday's game, Kyle Wilson scored twice as the Bears prevailed, clinching the East Division title.

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The Bears got on the board first, scoring on their third power play at 13:25 of the first period. Wilson worked his way into the slot and snapped a wrister over J.S. Aubin's right shoulder, banking it off the top of the left post and in.

Wilson made it a 2-0 lead 1:43 into the second period when his shot from close range on the right side got past Aubin. But the Phantoms scored just over a minute later during a five-on-three power play when Flyers prospect Luca Sbisa scored his first professional goal, firing a slap shot from the right side of the slot that beat Michal Neuvirth. The game went to the second intermission with the Bears leading, 2-1.

Staffan Kronwall scored what would end up being the game-winner with just over 5 minutes left in the third period. He took a faceoff win in the right-side circle of the Phantoms' zone, skated into the slot and snapped it over Aubin's blocker, making it 3-1.

Wings defeat Toronto

Team MVP Drew Westervelt scored the go-ahead goal with 1 minute to play as the Wings defeated the Toronto Rock, 16-14, Saturday night at the Wachovia Center in their final regular-season home game.

The Wings are in fourth place in the East Division of the National Lacrosse League, and are at Rochester next Saturday, with the winner securing a playoff berth.

"We had a couple of lapses again tonight but our guys kept fighting back and we got a big win," said coach Dave Huntley.

The Wings jumped on Toronto early, scoring 40 seconds into the game. Athan Iannucci had a first-quarter hat trick for Philadelphia and Westervelt scored twice as the Wings took a four-goal advantage into the second period.

The Rock battled back and took a lead in the fourth quarter, but John Harasym's goal with 5 1/2 minutes left forced a tie, leading to Westervelt's heroics. *

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