PREVIEW: Phantoms vs. Hartford, Game 51
Closing out February vs. Rangers’ Affiliate
TONIGHT – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (23-23-4) return to action as they host the Hartford Wolf Pack (19-25-6) in a two-game series at PPL Center. The Phantoms are 4-0-0 against the AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers.
Lehigh Valley enters tonight’s game in sixth place in the Atlantic Division, one point behind the fifth-place Bridgeport Islanders. Last-place Hartford is looking to make a move up the standings and currently stands six points behind Lehigh Valley at the playoff cut mark.
Tonight is Game 51 of the 2025-26 season. There are 22 games to go in the final two months of the regular season before the Calder Cup Playoffs. Lehigh Valley’s Magic Number to clinch a Playoff spot is at 39 points. Lehigh Valley and Hartford will rematch Sunday at 3:05 p.m.
Fans can browse rosters and Media Materials for tonight’s game at www.phantomshockey.com/media/media-materials/
LAST TIME – Oliver Bonk (4th) got the Phantoms on the board and then Cooper Marody (6th) and Alexis Gendron (10th) strung together back-to-back goals in a third-period comeback effort. But former Philadelphia Flyer Patrick Brown (16th, 17th) struck for a pair to lead the first-place Providence Bruins past the Phantoms on Wednesday night at PPL Center. No sooner had Lehigh Valley cut Providence’s margin to 4-3 than Providence reestablished its three-goal advantage again at 6-3 in a wild opening seven minutes of the third period that saw four combined goals. Providence had put together an early strong start on goals by Matej Blumel (11th) and Georgii Merkulov (18th) in the first for a 2-0 lead that eventually grew to 3-0 and 4-1 on Brown’s goals. Jacob Gaucher’s shorthanded goal with just 13.3 seconds left concluded Lehigh Valley’s scoring.
GO BONKERS – Oliver Bonk has been heating up with a two-game goal streak and three-game point streak. The #22 overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft out of the London Knights of the OHL has now scored 4-5-9 in his rookie season. He also recently enjoyed his first recall to the NHL when he joined the Flyers last week for practices in Voorhees during the NHL’s Olympic Break. Bonk made his belated pro debut on December 6 following a preseason upper-body injury that had delayed his development.
The 6’2″ right-handed shooter won back-to-back OHL titles with London plus a Memorial Cup last year while also twice appearing with Team Canada at the 2024 and 2025 World Juniors. He is the son of Radek Bonk who scored 194 goals and had 497 points in 969 career NHL games with Ottawa, Montreal and Nashville.
BUMP IT UP – Alex Bump’s second weekend back in the lineup saw the young forward find his top form again with a three-goal outburst in Lehigh Valley’s two-game series sweep at the Hershey Bears. Bump opened the team’s scoring in both contests and scored a pair of goals in the first period last Saturday for his first career multi-goal game although he did have a two-goal performance in Game 1 of the playoffs last year against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He added an assist on Wednesday for a three-game point streak.
Bump has scored 10-14-24 in 33 games in his first full rookie season. The Prior Lake, Minnesota product also played for the Phantoms at the end of last season when he joined the club shortly after a Frozen Four appearance and NCAA Championship with Western Michigan.
STREAKS –
Phil Tomasino, 3 game point streak (1-4-5)
Jacob Gaucher, 3 game point streak (1-4-5)
Alex Bump, 3 game point streak (3-1-4)
Oliver Bonk, 2 game goal streak and 3 game point streak (2-1-3)
Alexis Gendron, 2 game goal streak and 3 game point streak (2-1-3)
Anthony Richard, 3 game point streak (0-3-3)
MILESTONE MANIA –
– Anthony Richard, 200th pro assist (Feb 21, 2026 at Hershey)
– Phil Tomasino, 200th pro point (Feb 20, 2026 at Hershey)
– Max Guenette 100th pro assist (Feb 21, 2026 at Hershey)
– Lehigh Valley, 400th win all-time (Feb 21, 2026 at Hershey)
TRANSACTIONS –
2/21/26 Del Carson Golder (F) – Loaned to Reading
2/21/26 Del Yaniv Perets (G) – Loaned to Reading
2/22/26 Del Massimo Rizzo (F) – Reassigned to Reading from LV
2/25/26 Del Vincent Sevigny (D) – Loaned to Reading
2/25/26 Add Adam Ginning (D) – Loaned to LV by PHI
HARTFORD HAPPENINGS – It has largely been a struggle for last-place Hartford (19-25-6) but the Wolf Pack have potentially snapped out of their losing ways with back-to-back wins over Belleville and first-place Providence as they attempt to make a push up the standings. Pretty impressive turnaround for a team that got shellacked 9-0 at Charlotte a week earlier. The Pack are 29th in total offense at 2.56 goals per game and rate only 28th in team defense allowing 3.4 per game. Former Cleveland Monsters legend Trey Fix-Wolansky (18-13-31) leads the offense for Grant Potulny’s gang. Veteran Justin Dowling (10-18-28) played for the New Jersey Devils last year. Reinforcements arrived this week with the return of Brett Berard (6-12-18) and first-rounder Brennan Othmann (6-8-14) from the New York Rangers. Goaltender Spencer Martin (2-5-2, 3.09, .896) joined from the KHL in November. The 30-year-old AHL veteran of 252 career games impressively bounced back from a nine-goal shellacking at Charlotte to post a shutout win against Belleville.
Lehigh Valley has gone 4-0-0 against the Wolf Pack including a Teddy Bear Toss 2-1 win in the last meeting on December 20. The Phantoms won back-to-back overtime decisions at Hartford over Halloween weekend via Lane Pederson and Cooper Marody victory strikes. Three of the four games have gone to overtime and three of of Lehigh Valley’s wins have included rallies from third-period deficits.
Carson Bjarnason is 3-0, 1.94, .931 vs. Hartford.
SCORING LEADERS
Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Lane Pederson 16-17-33
Anthony Richard 13-17-30
Christian Kyrou 8-20-28
Alex Bump 10-14-24
Jacob Gaucher 11-12-23
Tucker Robertson 11-11-22
Hartford Scoring Leaders
Trey Fix-Wolansky 18-13-31
Justin Dowling 9-19-28
Derrick Pouliot 1-25-26
Jaroslav Chmelar 8-17-25
x Brendan Brisson 13-10-23
Special Teams PP / PK
LV 18.7%, 16th / 75.7%, 31st / PP vs. HFD 4-13, 30.8%
HFD 15.6%, 26th / 80.9%, 19th / PP vs. LV 3-11. 27.3%
SEASON SERIES vs. Hartford Wolf Pack: (4-0-0)
10/31/25 Away W 4-3 (OT)
11/1/25 Away W 4-3 (OT)
11/22/25 Away W 3-2
12/20/25 Home W 2-1 (SO)
2/28/26 Home
3/1/26 Home
LOOKING AHEAD – The Phantoms close wrap up the homestand on Sunday, March 1 at 3:05 p.m. on meLVin’s birthday! The Phantoms then travel to the Utica Comets for a Tuesday night tilt before returning to PPL Center for a pair of games on our PA-250 weekend hosting the Charlotte Checkers on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7.
Utica Comets
