Phantoms at Toronto Marlies 1-3-09: Recaps and Box Scores and Callups, oh my!

I was not able to watch Saturday's Phantoms/Marlies game online. However, the unfortunate results were that we gave up a hat trick to Max Taylor en route to a 6-1 loss. None of the numbers in this game are pretty. Not the final score, not the number of shots we gave up, not the fact that Aubin's first game time since he got injured in late November involved his giving up three goals in the first period, and replaced by Munroe at the start of the second. Here's the link to the recap on the Phantoms site. And if you need to see hard statistics, then here's the link to the box score.

But the fun doesn't stop there. I was looking at some Flyers-related articles on Yahoo! earlier today. All I can say is, "Here comes the test of our goaltending and of the guys in front of the goalie."

Flyers Injuries Article 1

Right wing Joffrey Lupul will miss at least two weeks with a pulled abdominal muscle he sustained in Friday’s win over Anaheim, and backup goaltender Antero Niittymaki will miss at least a week with a strained a groin muscle he sustained in a 2-1 shootout loss at Los Angeles on Saturday.

Furthermore:
Flyers Injuries Article 2

The latest news concerns goalie Antero Niittymaki. According to Holmgren, Niittymaki suffered a groin injury in the shootout loss in Los Angeles on Saturday night. The injury was not disclosed right away and he did not leave the game, playing injured in the overtime and shootout. But he is doubtful for tomorrow night in Washington and the team will not say anything more before today at the earliest. Scott Munroe will be called up from the Phantoms to take Niittymaki's place on the bench, but for how long no one knows.

Aubin has no choice but to get his rear in gear ASAP. He was fighting the puck in more games than not BEFORE he got hurt. Then he missed a good six weeks due to injury. His return to the ice last Saturday was somewhat less than stellar, as he gave up three goals on 12 shots in the first period of the game. Following that, it was Munroe who led the team out of the tunnel to start the second and third periods.

Well, now Aubin has got to pull himself together, and backstop a decimated Phantoms lineup out of this losing streak. Yes, we've been hit hard by the injury and callup bugs. Yes, the Flyers keep freakin' calling up our guys and then breaking them (Powe, Kalinski, AND Giroux are all hurt). Time to muddle through and get some ugly wins, preferably of the low-scoring variety since so much of our firepower is either on the IR, or with the Flyers (and on the IR).

If I didn't think he could do it, I wouldn't be writing this post. But this is one of those "crunch time" moments in an athlete's career. It's the sort of challenge that kids dream of conquering, and anyone in any sort of competition has nightmares about falling short in. Here's hoping that J-S comes through on the "conquering" side of the equation.

I presume we will see Teslak returned here for the duration of Munroe's callup, particularly since he got moved to the Sea Wolves where they didn't exactly have a goalie shortage to begin with.