The Philadelphia Flyers have stressed discipline among their young players over the past couple of seasons, and part of that approach has been to avoid unneccesary penalties.

The result has been an improved focus on fundamentals, strong skating and puck handling, and is working well for many of the team’s younger players. It’s a far different style of hockey than the old Broad Street Bullies approach.

This season, the Phantoms are right in the middle of the pack in penalty minutes with an average of 13.25 per game, ranking them 17th in the AHL. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are the most penalized team in the league, and one of just four teams with over 500 penalty minutes on the season.

The Pens currently have 562 penalty minutes for an average of just over 16.

When the two teams met Saturday night, the Penguins drew the Phantoms into playing a physical, fight-filled contest and Lehigh Valley came out on the short end of a 7-3 game. The game wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds based on the score, as two of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s goals came on empty netters late in the game. The two teams combined for 110 minutes worth of penalties, and Tyrell Goulbourne received a game misconduct penalty in the first period for two quick altercations.

Greg Carey, who scored his 16th goal of the season, noted that a raucous game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is nothing out of the norm. With seven more games between the two teams this season, it’s likely there will be a few more penalty minutes piled up along the way.

“I think they came out with intention,” noted Carey. “We play them a lot of times though. There’s plenty of opportunity, and that’s filed away in the memory banks.”

Carey also noted that the Penguins may have been playing out of frustration after losing Friday night in Hershey, and remembering the sting of a Phantoms come-from-behind win in Scranton earlier in the season.

Just for good measure, the game completely erupted into fight night with 45 seconds left in regulation. Two fights, almost immediately next to each other, broke out.

PACK ‘EM IN ... Saturday’s game was played in front of a crowd of 8,853, the largest in almost a calendar year. The last crowd that large came last Jan. 27, when 8,912 fans were jammed into the PPL Center against Utica. Attendance this season averages 7,456 per game, down about 400 from last year’s figure. In an unfortunate trend, the Phantoms attendance has dropped nearly 10 percent from their second-year high of 8,244 per game.

A LITTLE STABILITY ... Kerry Huffman was simply named the “acting” coach of the Phantoms when coach Scott Gordon left to take over the Flyers, leading to some speculation that there could be someone else coming in to take over the reins. Last week, the Flyers announced that Huffman was now the “interim” coach of the Phantoms, seemingly pointing to him holding the job through the rest of the season, at least.

LOOK WHO’S BACK ... Former Adirondack and Lehigh Valley Phantoms coach Terry Murray is back with the team as Huffman’s assistant. Murray joined the Buffalo Sabres as an assistant coach following the 2014-2015 season. Murray was ousted in Buffalo, along with coach Dan Bylsma and GM Tim Murray, following the 2016-2017 season.