The Rats and Phantoms will open their best-of-seven first-round series here Wednesday night. Albany went 3-5 during the regular season, all three wins coming at home. From its end, Philadelphia was 5-2-1-0, with two regulation losses and one in overtime. Seven of the eight games were decided by two goals or less.

"It's going to be a really good battle," Rats captain Pat Dwyer said. "It's been a good series all year, and I don't expect it to be any different in the playoffs."

Here's a quick look at the season series:

* Albany 0 at Philadelphia 3, Oct. 13. The Rats second game of the season ended in a line brawl with 4:26 left in the third period, less than three minutes after the Phantoms sccored their third goal. A total of 142 PIM were handed out and eight players were ejected, four from each side.

* Albany 1 at Philadelphia 2, Nov. 11. Boyd Kane and Ryan Potulny scored third-period goals to rally the Phantoms to their 15th win in 18 games (15-1-1-0) to start the season. All three goals came on the power play. Casey Borer scored in the first period for Albany, which got 45 saves from Mike Leighton.

* Philadelphia 1 at Albany 3, Dec. 29. The Rats got third-period power-play goals from Jerome Samson (the winner) and Brandon Nolan 62 seconds apart to snap a 1-1 tie. Ex-Rat Jesse Boulerice scored for the Phantoms, who were held to just 20 shots.

* Philadelphia 4 at Albany 2, Jan. 5. Frederik Cabana had two goals and was plus-3, and the Phantoms scored on three of 13 shots in the second period against goalie John Grahame, making his Rats debut after exchanging his NHL roster spot with Leighton a day earlier. The long-gone Yannick Tifu and Bobby Hughes had Albany's goals.

* Philadelphia 2 at Albany 3 (OT), Feb. 16. The Rats were 21 seconds away from a regulation victory when Philly's Stefan Ruzicka scored a power-play goal to send it to overtime. Samson won it at 2:13, beating Brian Boucher with a wrister on a two-on-one rush, created when Noah Babin's clearing pass off the glass hit linesman Frank Murphy and dropped at center ice where Samson picked it up in stride, to Philly's dismay. Leighton stopped 35 shots.

* Albany 0 at Philadelphia 2, Feb. 18. Munroe stopped all 24 shots he faced for the shutout, getting the only goal he'd need from rookie Jonathan Matsumoto on the power play late in the second period. Philly wore green and copper-themed sweaters honoring American currency for the President's Day matinee. Philly's game report said that Munroe swept one loose puck away at the goal line, had others blocked from open nets by his defense, and saw the Rats hit the post more than once.

* Philadelphia 1 at Albany 2, March 2. The Rats became the first team to hand Philly a loss in a game it led after two periods, getting goals from Borer and Jeff Hamilton in the third. The Phantoms, who had been 24-0 with a 40-minute lead, disputed the winner, when Joey Mormina's shot deflected in off Hamilton's shin pad, arguing the puck was kicked into the net. Referee Jeff Smith disagreed. Leighton outdueled Munroe again, making 29 saves.

* Albany 2 at Philadelphia 3, April 13. In the regular-season finale for both teams and a playoff preview, the Rats managed to get two goals on Munroe -- they had been outscored 7-1 in three previous trips to Philly -- after spotting the hosts a 2-0 first period lead. Denis Gauthier got the winner midway through the third, and rookie Michael Ratchuk got his first as a pro with a highlight-reel, end-to-end rush. Munroe had 28 saves; Justin Peters stopped 18 of 21 shots to give Leighton a rest.

As a franchise, Albany has won 7 of 14 lifetime playoff series, with a 36-31 record. The Rats are 8-6 all-time in series openers, including 6-2 at home; in five of those six wins, they have gone on to win the series as well.

From the BlogStat Department: Albany is 2-1 all-time on April 16 playoff games, losing to Portland in 1994 and beating Adirondack in 1995 and Rochester in 2000.

Philly failed to make the playoffs either of the past two seasons following their 2005 Calder Cup title. The Phantoms have won 13 straight home playoff games dating back to 2004, 11 of them in 2005. They beat Albany, 4 games to 2, in the only previous playoff meeting, the 1998 Western Conference finals, when the Rats were a Devils farm team.

I remember that playoff series as having several questionable officiating decisions, all of which went in Philly's favor. None was more obvious than defenseman Bryan Helmer skating out to clear a puck from his zone in the series opener, only to be tripped from behind by Craig Darby, creating a 3-on-1 down low that Darby turned into a goal in a 4-2 Phantoms win.

Video replays clearly showed the infraction, but referee Dan O'Halloran -- who saw the play unfold directly in front of him -- never blew his whistle. "I totally did (expect a call)," Helmer said in my May 16, 1998 game story. "He said I stepped on the guy's stick, but I didn't. I know for a fact that he caught me, but that's part of hockey."

In fact, Albany disputed all three Philly goals in the period that turned a 1-0 Rats lead into a 3-1 deficit. Dody Wood took a high-sticking penalty that led to a two-man disadvantage, which the Phantoms converted. "Of course, the five-on-three was the turning point," late head coach John Cunniff said. The period ended with Peter White sweeping in a loose puck under diving goalie Rich Shulmistra at the buzzer. O'Halloran and Co. discussed it briefly before allowing it to stand.

"I knew it was good, the reason being the light system and the way it works," then-Phantoms coach Bill Barber said. "The red light came on before the blue, and when I walked up the runway I went directly to the TV there, and they showed it on the instant replay, and there were seven-tenths of a second left when the puck was going into the net. You've got to have that kind of luck, I guess. We got a break."

Conspiracy theorists insist the league influenced the series outcome. Albany went 3-0-3 against Philly during the regular season (that's three wins and three ties), and won its first seven playoff games (two sweeps) by a 32-18 scoring margin. The Rats were outscored 20-11 by Philly, but won two of three on the road. Attendance was 27,857-10,370 in Philly's favor.

Jim Montgomery, now Seth Appert's assistant coach at RPI, had two game-winners in that series, including the Game 6 clincher at Albany on May 25, 1998.