Phantoms Weekly
Back at Home
January 14, 2025
Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (19-12-4) are back at PPL Center for their first home games of 2026 as the Bridgeport Islanders and Syracuse Crunch come to town. The Phantoms were on a roll with a four-game win streak and also a seven-game point streak which they continued with yet another thrilling, last-second goal on Anthony Richard’s winner at Syracuse. But the streaks had to come to an end eventually which finally happened at first-place Providence on Sunday.
The Phantoms are tied for third place in the Atlantic Division with the Charlotte Checkers.
This weekend marks the midway mark of the season. Friday’s game will be the 36th out of 72. The Phantoms are playing at home for four of their next five games as well as nine of their next 12.
Fans can browse rosters and Media Materials for upcoming games here: https://www.phantomshockey.com/media/media-materials/
LAST WEEK
Saturday, January 10 – Phantoms 3 at Springfield Thunderbirds 2
Sunday, January 11 – Phantoms 2 at Providence Bruins 4
THE WEEK AHEAD
Friday, January 16 (7:05) – Bridgeport Islanders at Phantoms
Saturday, January 17 (7:05) – Syracuse Crunch at Phantoms
Monday, January 19 (1:05) – Phantoms at Bridgeport Islanders
WEEKLY RECAP
Friday, January 10, 2026
Phantoms 3 at Springfield Thunderbirds 2
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms again proved you can never count them out. Anthony Richard (9th) scored the winning goal from a near-impossible angle ACROSS the goalie to the upper-far corner with just 11.9 seconds left as the Phantoms rallied from a 2-0 deficit to steal a 3-2 win at the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday night. The Phantoms won their fourth in a row and also extended their point streak to seven. Lane Pederson (12th) and Christian Kyrou (5th) got the comeback going with very similar goals back-to-back early in the third period with both players driving and dangling through the defense setting up their top-shelf strikes to the upper-right corner past goaltender Georgi Romanov. Carson Bjarnason was solid with 14 saves on 16 shots in yet another win for the 20-year-old rookie netminder to improve to 9-3-3, 2.47, .910 this season.
Sunday, January 11, 2026
Phantoms 2 at Providence Bruins 4
Providence Bruins goaltender Michael DiPietro showed why he was the top goaltender in the league last year and will be a contender for the honor again this season. Lehigh Valley poured on chance after chance, including 15 shots in the third period, but the Bruins hung on for a 4-2 win on Sunday afternoon to end the Phantoms’ four-game win streak and seven-game point streak. Trailing 2-0 in the second period, Alexis Gendron (7th) and Devin Kaplan (4th) scored back-to-back as the Phantoms rallied back from a two-goal deficit to even the count for a second consecutive game. But this time the Phantoms didn’t have enough comeback magic available. Lehigh Valley also had five power plays in the contest but had difficulty solving the stingy Providence penalty kill. The bulk of the team’s chances came at 5-on-5. Frederic Brunet’s wraparound goal against Aleksei Kolosov late in the second period was the winner and then former Philadelphia Flyer Patrick Brown tacked on an empty-netter at the end as the Bruins improved to 2-0-0 against the Phantoms.
PEDERSON PRODUCTION – Veteran center Lane Pederson took charge through the course of the team’s seven-game point streak scoring six goals with four assists for 10 points over the stretch including four multi-point performances. Pederson won the puck in the corner on the forecheck to set up Anthony Richard’s game-winning goal with just 11.9 seconds left on Saturday at Springfield and had earlier sparked the comeback with his dangleriffic rush through the defense and top-shelf strike to commence play in the third period and get the Phantoms on the board. The 28-year-old product Sakatoon, Sask. has been centering the team’s top line for the entire season and has played in 322 career AHL games scoring 124 goals and he also has played in 71 career NHL games including stints with Arizona, San Jose, Columbus and Vancouver.
SATURDAY SUPERSTARS – The Phantoms improved to 10-1-2 in Saturday games this season and have won their last five Saturday contests in a row. Lehigh Valley’s road record on Saturdays is 6-0-1.
PHANTASTIC –
– The Phantoms are playing their 36th game on Friday which will mark the official midway point of the 2025-26 season.
Phantoms record when…
Score First: 12-0-2
Lead After 1: 9-0-0
Score 3+ Goals: 16-1-2
Allow 2 goals or fewer: 14-0-1
On Saturdays: 10-1-2
QUICK RECALL – The Philadelphia Flyers have assigned defenseman Adam Ginning to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms after a brief recall over the weekend. Ginning also celebrated his 26th birthday this week. He has played in five games with the Flyers this year and also has 15 games of NHL experience in his career. He was loaned to the Phantoms on November 18, 2025 and has played in 17 games with Lehigh Valley this season scoring one goal with two assists. He has played in 212 games with the Phantoms over parts of four seasons scoring 8-46-54. Last year, the left-handed shooting defenseman from Linkoping, Sweden scored 2-15-17 in 69 games with Lehigh Valley. The 6’3″ blueliner was a Round 2 (#50 overall) selection of the Flyers in the 2018 NHL Draft.
UPCOMING –
Friday, January 16, 2026 (7:05 p.m.)
PPL Center, Allentown, PA
Bridgeport Islanders at Phantoms
Bridgeport (14-17-3) is staying in the playoff race with a much better team than last year. The Islanders have won two straight to close to within one point of sixth-place Springfield for the last postseason position after picking up 4-2 and 5-1 wins against Utica and Hartford on Saturday and Sunday. Merrimack College product Alex Jeffries (7-17-24) is a fourth-rounder in his second year with Bridgeport and leads the team in scoring. Undrafted rookie Joey Larson (10-12-22) was teammates with Lehigh Valley’s Karsen Dorwart at Michigan State. Matthew Highmore (5-15-20) has 187 career NHL games under his belt.
Saturday, January 17, 2026 (7:05 p.m.)
PPL Center, Allentown, PA
Syracuse Crunch at Phantoms
Syracuse (19-13-3) is looking to move back up in the North Division after defeating first-place Laval 3-2 on Saturday but had slumped before that with only one win out of seven. Former Philadelphia Flyer Jakob Pelletier (17-20-37) is fourth in the AHL in scoring and had a shorthanded, breakaway beauty against Lehigh Valley in their December 12th matchup. Former Phantom Brendan Furry (6-7-13) has stepped in nicely with his new team and will be visiting PPL Center for the first time since wearing the Orange and Black. Same for defenseman Ethan Samson (1-1-2) who has played in nie games with the Crunch since being traded on December 11 in exchange for defenseman Roman Schmidt. Samson playd 1423 games for the Phantoms over parts of three seasons scoring 15 goals. Second-rounder Ethan Gauthier (3-4-7) was selected 37th overall in 2023 and won a QMJHL title with Alexis Gendron when they were teammates on the Drummondville Voltigeurs two seasons ago. Syracuse won the first matchup 3-1 on December 12 in upstate New York. The Phantoms mustered only 15 shots on goal in a substandard performance.
Monday, January 19, 2026 (1:00 p.m.)
Total Mortgage Arena, Bridgeport, CT
Phantoms at Bridgeport Islanders
The Phantoms and Islanders rematch on Monday afternoon in Bridgeport for an MLK Day matinee. Liam Foudy (8-6-14) is a former Columbus first-rounder who cranked out 20 goals for Bridgeport last season. Chris Terry (7-8-15) is still getting it done at 36 years old with 337 career goals which is most among active AHL players and just one shy of Hall of Famer Denis Hamel for 12th all-time.
Entering the weekend, the season series is even at 1-1 with the two teams trading road victories entering Game 3 out of 8. Denver Barkey’s four-point game and Lane Pederson’s two goals led the way at Bridgeport on November 5 in a 6-2 thumping of the B-Isles. But the Islanders answered on December 19 at PPL Center with a humbling 5-1 result led by Chris Terry’s pair of lamplighters.
Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Lane Pederson 13-14-27
Alex Bump 7-13-20
Anthony Richard 9-10-19
Alexis Gendron 7-10-17
x – Denver Barkey 7-9-16
Atlantic Division Standings:
1. Providence 25-7-1 = 51
2. W-B/Scranton 23-10-3 = 49
3. Charlotte 20-12-2 = 42
3. Lehigh Valley 19-11-4 = 42
5. Hershey 17-14-2 = 36
6. Springfield 13-16-6 = 32
7. Bridgeport 14-17-3 = 31
8. Hartford 12-17-5 = 29
LOOKING AHEAD – The Phantoms are back for their first home games of 2026 when they host the Bridgeport Islanders on Friday, January 16 and the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday, January 17. Friday’s game is a Berks Dollar Dog Night. Saturday is Air Products Night with fans encouraged to bring packages of ramen to benefit local food banks.
Lehigh Valley also has home games on Friday, January 23 against Charlotte and Saturday, January 24 against Hershey as well as Saturday, January 31 against Bridgeport and Sunday, February 1 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Bridgeport Islanders
