As expected, the River Rats made their lineup changes, inserting forward Kirk MacDonald and defenseman Brett Bellemore for Ryan Weston and Josh Engel, respectively. The Phantoms will dress an identical lineup as Game 2.
Albany did juggle its lines, at least for warmups, switching Joe Jensen and Jakub Petruzalek. Jensen was on right wing with Trevor Gillies and Brandon Sutter, and Petruzalek on the left with Jamie Johnson (A) and Jerome Samson.
Coach Tom Rowe also split up the Mike Angelidis-Kiel McLeod-Nicolas Blanchard line, putting MacDonald with Angelidis and Blanchard and McLeod between Marc Cavosie and Pat Dwyer (C).
Defense pairings: Joey Mormina (A)-Brett Carson; Bryan Rodney-Steve Ward; David Cornacchia-Bellemore. Ward and Cornacchia had been playing together since DC was recalled from ECHL Florida.
Phantoms lines: Kyle Greentree-Jonathan Matsumoto-Darroll Powe; Ryan Potulny-Pete Zingoni-Darren Reid; Boyd Kane (C)-Jared Ross (A)-Stefan Ruzicka; Triston Grant (A)-Frederik Cabana-Jesse Boulerice.
Defense pairings: Chad Anderson-Denis Gauthier; Jason DeSantis-Nate Guenin; Martin Grenier-Rory Fitzpatrick.
It's still early, but there appear to be even fewer people at the Wachovia Center this afternoon than the 1,500 or so who actually showed up for Game 2, though the attendance was announced at 5,374. That would make today's crowd somehwere around 4,900.
There were even fewer people at the pregame block party -- try none -- as we walked over from the hotel. There were several tailgaters in the parking lot for tonight's Phillies game, though.
As promised, Phantoms fan Steve Fedor, who heckled the Rats at Saturday's off-day skate, was front-and-center during warmups, standing behind the Rats net holding two signs. I'm guessing one was his new Jensen-inspired creation. I didn't bring my telescope with me, so I couldn't read what it said from the press box.
No jog or morning skate today. Took a pregame walk around the concourse and caught New Jersey Devils head coach Brent Sutter, Brandon's dad, doing the same (Insert crack here about Devils season being over).
From the AHL Web site: Games 1 and 2 marked the first time in 43 years that an AHL playoff series has begun with alternating shutouts (1965 league semifinal, Hershey vs. Buffalo).
Including the regular-season series, the home team has won nine of the 10 clashes between these teams.
Cut from today's playoff notebook:
Albany has lost all four playoff series in its history when losing Game 2. The Rats are 7-7 all-time in Game 3's, including 5-3 on the road.
The Phantoms have won 14 straight home playoff games dating back to 2004. They went 11-0 in winning the 2005 Calder Cup, but missed the playoffs the last two years.
Albany was decidedly outshot after two periods, 28-11, on Friday, but it was worse on the official gamesheet. First glance at the on-line version after 40 minutes showed Philadelphia with 123 shots in the second period (instead of 14), and 137 for the game.
