Minor adjustment for these Phantoms in Glens Falls

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. - Back on Jan. 30, Mika Pyorala was quietly at his breaking point.

After skating in the Flyers' first 36 games to start the season, Pyorala frustratingly sat out 17 of 19 games before finally being shipped up to the Phantoms in Adirondack.

For most, a move to the American Hockey League would have added insult to injury. For Pyorala, 28, a soft-spoken native of Finland, it was a welcome change of pace.

"I didn't ask, but I almost asked [to be sent down]," Pyorala admitted. "I was thinking about it and I guess they read my mind. I didn't play in almost a month. It was pretty boring. We came to a conclusion that it would be better for me and for the Flyers that I come here and play some games.

"It was fun to get back on the ice and get some ice time."

Once Pyorala "got back in the rhythm," he has not only chipped in offensively with a scoring-challenged team but also found a home in Adirondack. In Glens Falls, Pyorala has been reunited with goaltender Johan Backlund, a Swede who played with him last year on Timra IK in the Swedish Elite League, and countryman Joonas Lehtivuori.

"I'm happy that he's here," Lehtivuori said. "It's nice to talk some Finnish around the locker room."

This is Lehtivuori's and Pyorala's first foray into North American pro hockey, although both are veterans of the Finnish and Swedish elite leagues. Both have surprised the Flyers' brass on various levels: Few expected Pyorala to make the Flyers and many were expecting Lehtivuori, just 21, to spend another season in Finland.

With the Phantoms, Pyorala has posted three goals and four assists in 12 games. He leads the team with a plus-6 rating. But it was Lehtivuori, a defenseman, who stole the show in Friday night's 5-3 win over first-place Hershey - a win many said was Adirondack's most complete of the season.

Lehtivuori, a smooth skater with an eye for the offensive zone, pushed the Phantoms to erase a 2-0 deficit with his team's first goal and assisted on another.

"I knew I could play at this level," Lehtivuori said. "The play is just so much faster here, even with the rink being a lot smaller. You need to know what you're doing with the puck before you chase it."

"He's just a smart player," Phantoms coach Greg Gilbert said of Lehtivuori. "He's scored a couple of goals by jumping into the rush at the right time. He's a first-year player playing against the other team's top lines."

With the recent addition of Russian defensive prospect Denis Bodrov, who speaks no English, Lehtivuori is one of Gilbert's few defensemen unscathed in the lineup rotation.

Pyorala, though, was one of Gilbert's players on the ice in the final minute trying to preserve a 4-3 lead over the AHL's top team.

"I feel better and better all the time," Pyorala said. "Joonas has been helping me. Of course, we always talk in Finnish, so I guess that's a lot easier than trying to talk to Denis Bodrov."