Reliving the 2005 Philadelphia Phantoms Run to the Calder Cup

20th Anniversary of Phantoms Triumph

By Scoop Cooper

This was my view from the TV broadcast booth at the then Wachovia Center as the scoreboard clock hit “00.0” on that sultry late Spring evening of June 10, 2005 as the AHL Philadelphia Phantoms and a Calder Cup record crowd of 20,103 fans began to celebrate Philadelphia’s second Calder Cup championship by sweeping the Chicago Wolves in four games in the finals. Despite there being no Flyers hockey in 2004-05 because of the lockout, the Phantoms and AHL gave Philadelphia plenty of great hockey to appreciate.

While the Phantoms were already a very solid contender entering the 2005 playoff run, the roster improved drastically with the addition of the Flyers’ two graduating 2003 first-round draft picks — the OHL Sault-Ste. Marie Greyhounds’ Jeff Carter (taken 11th overall) and OHL Kitchener Rangers’ Mike Richards — who each joined the Phantoms as their junior clubs were eliminated from the Memorial Cup playoffs.

Carter arrived in time for the final week of the regular season schedule and went on to lead the AHL in playoff scoring with 23 points (12-11) in 21 games. Richards joined the club a game into the second round and went on to collect 15 points (7-8) in 14 games.

The Phantoms met the Norfolk Admirals in the first round, a team that had defeated Philadelphia in six of their ten regular-season meetings including the last game of the season played at the Spectrum on April 17th. While the Admirals put up a good fight and stretched the series to six games, Philadelphia clinched the first round set with a 4-2 victory at the Wachovia Center located across the parking lot from the Spectrum. (With the circus in the Spectrum for two weeks as the playoffs began and no conflicting Flyers’ postseason dates at the Center because of the lockout, the AHL club would end up playing all 13 of its home Calder Cup games in the much larger NHL building.)

Next up were the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins who had already upset the Binghamton Senators in their first round set. After the Phantoms took the first two games at home and split games three and four in Wilkes-Barre, the series returned to the Center for one of the most memorable games in team history. Trailing 4-1 almost midway through the third period of game five, the Phantoms exploded for six unanswered goals over the game’s final ten minutes en route to a 7-4 victory and a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Providence Bruins…