Gaucher Hat Trick Downs Bridgeport

Berglund Debuts in 7-3 Win

April 11, 2026

Allentown, PA – Jacob Gaucher (17th, 18th, 19th) recorded his second career hat trick, and also the second Lehigh Valley hat trick in two weeks, as the Phantoms cranked out five goals in the first period en route to a 7-3 win over the Bridgeport Islanders at PPL Center on Saturday night.

Lehigh Valley (29-33-6) recorded the critical victory in its second-to-last home game of the season to keep its playoff aspirations alive. But the Phantoms know they have to keep winning. Lehigh Valley now stands four points behind the Springfield Thunderbirds and five points behind the Hershey Bears with just four games remaining in the regular season.

Gaucher’s second career hat trick came on a long empty-netter following an interception by Cole Knuble. He rifled it down ice for the team’s second consecutive shorthanded empty-net marker to finish the exciting win on Wrestling Night at PPL Center. Gaucher also scored a hat trick last year on November 2, 2024 in a 5-2 win at the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Zayde Wisdom (13th, 14th) scored twice for Lehigh Valley including an empty-netter of his own. Phil Tomasino (7th with LV) and Karsen Dorwart (10th) each had a goal and an assist as they set each other up for the first two goals of the game barely over five minutes into the contest.

Lehigh Valley blasted away for five goals in the first period to equal a team record last achieved in the season finale almost exactly one year ago on April 18, 2025 when the Phantoms struck for a quintet of markers in the third period against the Cleveland Monsters in the home finale as part of another 7-3 triumph. The Phantoms also equaled their season high for goals in a game tying a 7-3 victory against Springfield on November 14, 2025.

It was a massive start for Lehigh Valley. And an important one.

“I think it was huge for us,” Gaucher said. “I think for our confidence. We’ve had some starts looking a little fragile. The last couple games, we had some tough starts. Today, we came out kind of flying, and, yeah, it gave us a good push for us. And then Koli made some big saves, you know, all year. And there’s no quit in this team.”

Despite the seemingly blowout final result, the Phantoms needed to lean heavily on goaltender Aleksei Kolosov who repelled 38 of 41 Bridgeport shots to prevent a potential comeback. The Islanders had closed the margin to within 5-3 in the third period AND had a late power play chance with a pulled goalie for a 6-on-4 attack before the Phantoms finally finished it off with the back-to-back empty-net conversions.

“Obviously, you score five in the first period, you’re giving yourself a chance to win,” head coach John Snowden said. “I just thought our process throughout the whole game of making sure we’re above and making sure they have to come through numbers, turning pucks over in our tracks and getting ourselves into the half ice. We got some good motion in the o-zone once we got going, especially early. I thought, in general, just the start set us up for the rest of the game. Obviously, we had to kill some penalties. We had a couple 5-on-3’s. We had a couple situations where they had the opportunity to grab some momentum. And I thought we did a good job with our kill to fend that off.”

The game also marked the North American pro debut of rookie center Jack Berglund who, one day removed from his 20th birthday, impressed with his new team.

“Really good,” Snowden said. “Obviously, he’s incredibly smart. You can see how he is, especially offensively below the goal line. When he gets a puck on a stick, he’s really good at holding guys off. He can slip through some checks. He holds and cuts back. He makes little slip plays. It looks like he’s never in a panic when the puck’s on his stick. Defensively, he understands the job. He does a good job at being in supporting the puck in the defensive zone, being there for any kind of doubles that we need to have. I mean, you look at Knuble, you got Berglund, and you got Thompson, three very young players that were playing down the middle of the rank today, and they all did a very good job.”

Berglund helped force a turnover with a hit along the left boards to set up Tomasino with the first stirke of the game on his snipe from the left dot to the upper-right corner at 1:13. Moments earlier, Berglund had connected on a seam-pass with Tomasino but his shot missed the corner. Dorwart received an assist on the play but Berglund was pivotal as well despite not recording a point.

Tomasino emerged up the right wing on a 2-on-1 with Dorwart who converted at 5:11 to make it 2-0.

But the Islanders pushed back with a 5-on-3 goal from 19-year-old first-rounder Cole Eiserman (2nd) at 7:46 and a quick strike for Alex Jeffries (10th) off a Chris Terry faceoff in just 65 seconds later to even the score at 2-2.

Boris Katchouk helped win the puck in the corner and Noah Powell behind the goal found Jacob Gaucher between the circle to bury his first of the night at 11:52 to put the Phantoms ahead again at 3-2. It was Powell’s first career point.

Gaucher drove to the net-front from the left wing off a connection from David Jiricek to make it 4-2 at 15:08. Gaucher’s second goal of the night also marked the sixth consecutive game for Jiricek to record an assist.

Just 22 seconds after that, it was Zayde Wisdom’s turn with Riley Thompson identifying the scoring opportunity for his third assist in five games since arriving from Ohio State. Wisdom’s second goal of the game made it 5-2.

Bridgpeort stepped up in the second period but Kolosov stopped all 11 chances the Islanders offered to maintain the 5-2 lead.

Gaucher almost finished the hat trick on a 2-on-1 in the third period but his drive on the rush clanged off the iron and stayed out. The Islanders were ready to rack up 17 shots on goal in the third period and Kolosov stopped them all…except one. Victor Eklund (2nd) scored at 10:32 of the final frame after Lehigh Valley couldn’t quite find an exit. The Islanders were within two again at 5-3 and the late power play with a pulled goalie had them harboring dreams of a big third-period comeback but the consecutive empty-netters from Wisdom and Gaucher put the lights out on that idea.

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms play their home finale on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. against the Cleveland Monsters on Kids’ Takeover Day at PPL Center featuring a meLVin lunchbox giveaway for the kids.

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