T-Birds Nip Phantoms 2-1

Tomasino Scores First with Lehigh Valley

January 30, 2026

Springfield, MA – Phil Tomasino (6th) broke through on the power play for his first with the Orange and Black but Vadim Zherenko held off Lehigh Valley’s hard push the rest of the way as the Springfield Thunderbirds held on for a 2-1 nailbiter on Friday night.

Aleksei Kolosov (22/24) was strong in his return to the Phantoms and only allowed a pair of power-play goals in the first period. He made several strong saves along the way including a pair of sparkling denials on Kale Kessy on a 2-on-1 in the first period and a glorious chance out in front in the second period.

In their last visit to Western Mass 20 days ago, the Phantoms roared back from a 2-0 deficit with three straight goals in the third period as Anthony Richard’s winner with just 11.9 seconds let broke the T-Birds’ hearts. But there wasn’t enough magic available to pull off a repeat comeback in this one as Springfield made the early 2-0 advantage hold up the rest of the way.

Rookie Juraj Pekarcik (6th) and veteran Chris Wagner (12th) found the back of the net with man-advantage markers in the opening frame for Springfield (15-20-6) but Kolosov held was prfect after that and did not allow anything at 5-on-5 for the entire game.

Pekarcik buried a bouncing puck in the low slot after Dillon Dube received a pass between the circles that initially appeared to handcuff him. Returning first-rounder Otto Stenberg also assisted on the play at 6:32 into the contest as the T-Birds scored the opening goal of the contest.

Wagner built on that advantage at 18:48 with his sharp-angle strike from the bottom the left circle with just barely enough daylight to beat Kolosov and make it 2-0 going into the break.

Springfield had the early advantage in the second period as well but Lehigh Valley primarily kept the Thunderbirds to the outside while Kolosov made the stops and got the resets that his team needed.

The Phantoms broke through late in the second period with Anthony Richard providing a screen after distributing to Tomasino in the high slot who rifled a clean snipe between the left skate and glove of Zherenko at 16:53 making it 2-1. Christian Kyrou also recorded an assist on the play.

Lehigh Valley (20-17-4) had another power-play chance right after that to end the second and begin the third but the T-Birds penalty kill buttoned down and held out the Phantoms.

Oliver Bonk set up Anthony Richard at the side of the net for a strong chance which Zherenko somehow got to. Richard had another try point-blank in the third period but couldn’t score on that one either. Zayde Wisdom went crashing into Zherenko on a rush with Wilson. The puck stayed out. Somehow Zherenko got up and was able to continue after the violent collision. Wisdom later dropped the gloves with defenseman Quinton Burns as part of some belated carryover from the earlier hit.

The Phantoms won a number of faceoffs in the final two minutes with the extra attacker on the ice but Springfield hung on to even the season series at 2-2.

The Phantoms are back at PPL Center Saturday night against the Bridgeport Islanders and also will host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. on meLVin Youth Jersey Day presented by Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital, Service Electric and Velaspan.

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