Blair Jones joined the Phantoms a week ago and quickly found himself not only in the starting lineup, but contributing to his new team very quickly. Jones, who opened the season with the Flyers, was loaned to Lehigh Valley when Scott Laughton went to Philadelphia. Jones has played 128 career games in the NHL, but only four of those games came this season with the Flyers, so getting some playing time was definitely something that would help the veteran player.

One day after being sent to Lehigh Valley, coach Terry Murray inserted him in the starting lineup and just over three minutes into his first game as a Phantom, Murray fired a laser to Andrew Gordon, who was positioned directly in the net and handled the pass easily, firing it past goalie Philip Grubauer to give the Phantoms a 1-0 edge."I'm happy to play some minutes. I knew I probably wasn't going to feel outstanding, having not played in a while, but I just kept pushing and I didn't feel too bad, actually," said Jones, who said that the early assist made things a little easier on him mentally and physically. "That probably lightened the legs up a little bit, a little bit of confidence is always nice, so yeah, definitely."Later in the game, Jones would contribute in an even bigger way when the Phantoms and rival Hershey Bears went to a shootout to determine the outcome of the game. Somewhat surprisingly, Jones was chosen to be one of the Lehigh Valley snipers and he didn't disappoint. Jones' turn came up half-way through the shootout, with nobody having scored. Jones lifted one over Grubauer's left shoulder and into the net for the first shootout goal. When Hershey's Dustin Gazley missed his turn, the Phantoms were awarded a 3-2 win."I haven't done that in a while, so it felt good to see the puck go in. I had no idea that it was down to three shooters in the American League now, but thankfully, it was and we got the win," said Jones, who wasn't surprised to be taking part in the shootout. "I'm pretty comfortable doing it. I've done it in the past, so I wasn't too surprised."While losing Laughton to the Flyers is a blow to the Phantoms, the addition of Jones makes the loss a little easier to handle. Jones would certainly prefer to see regular playing time with Philadelphia, but he's vowed to make the most of his time with Lehigh Valley as he works toward returning to the NHL."Coming down here is good in that I'll get to play, but obviously, you want to be in the NHL and be playing there. The good thing about being here is that I'll have more of an opportunity and hopefully, down the road, that will come into play if Philadelphia is looking for someone," Jones explained. "It also doesn't hurt that this place is great to play at, with the new arena and everything, and the fans are really into the game and that always helps."Jones went on to add two more assists in his second game with the Phantoms, helping them to a 4-0 win over Worcester.Phantoms Facts: Brett Hextall returned to the Phantoms lineup last Thursday after missing 10 games with an upper-body injury... When St. John's Brenden Kichton scored against the Phantoms at 2:22 of the second period last Saturday, it broke a streak of 109:52 that the Phantoms had held their opponents scoreless. Unfortunately, the next streak would last just over 21-minutes when Julien Brouillette scored what proved to be the game-winner for the IceCaps… Anthony Stolarz made his first home start of the season against Worcester last Friday and turned in a shut-out win for the Phantoms. The 20-year old Stolarz made 36 saves to get his first win of the season. Stolarz fought off a five-on-three deficit over the final 1:49 of the game.