PREVIEW: Phantoms vs. Hershey, Game 6
Goals by Period
Shots by Period
Goal Scorers
Goaltenders
Three Stars
TONIGHT – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-2-0) return to PPL Center as they renew rivalry acquaintances with the Hershey Bears (1-2-1), AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals. This is the first game of a home-and-home series between the familiar foes who will rematch on Saturday in Chocolatetown. It is Game 1 out of 10 in the season series.
Tonight’s game is “Haunted on Hamilton” with all sorts of SPOOKY fun for the kids including a meLVin Costume Party, trick-or-treating, and pumpkin painting.
This is Game 6 of the 2025-26 regular season and is also the team’s third home game.
Fans can browse rosters and Media Materials for tonight’s game at www.phantomshockey.com/media/media-materials/
LAST TIME – A perfect road-trip wasn’t in the cards for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms who fell 4-1 at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Wednesday night. Lehigh Valley finished its three-game roadie with a 2-1-0 record. The undefeated Penguins scored a pair of power-play goals and then added a penalty-shot marker from Ville Koivunen to pin Aleksei Kolosov with his first defeat of the season. Alexis Gendron’s power-play goal in the second period got the Phantoms back in the game at 2-1 but was the only blemish on Sergei Murashov who made 27 saves. Emil Andrae’s effort to equalize the score in the second period rang off the post and Zayde Wisdom also found the iron with his shot in the third period.
GREAT GOALTENDING – It was an impressive weekend in Cleveland for the Lehigh Valley goaltending duo of Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason. Kolosov stopped all 35 shots he faced to pick up his first AHL shutout last Friday while beating former teammate Ivan Fedotov. And then Carson Bjarnason made several strong denials in a 33-save gem on Saturday that also included a perfect 4-for-4 performance in the shootout to land his first pro win.
Kolosov, 23, has raced out to a strong start in his second pro season in North America with a 2.00 goals-against average and .938 save percentage. Kolosov was a Round 3 selection of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2021 who split his time between Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia in his rookie campaign. Bjarnason, 20, was a second-round choice of the Flyers in the 2023 draft out of Brandon, Manitoba and has a 2.48 GAA and .922 save percentage.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT – Lehigh Valley has scored 12 goals through the first four games of the season and seven of those markers have come from the team’s corps of exciting new rookie prospects. Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Karsen Dorwart (2), Devin Kaplan (2) and Ty Murchison have all lit the lamp for the Phantoms. Barkey, Dorwart and Kaplan all wasted little time picking up their first career pro goals while Bump and Murchison had already knocked off that milestone by scoring a goal shortly after initially joining the team very late last season.
MEET THE PHANTOMS – Carl Grundström scored the shootout winner for the Phantoms last Saturday at Cleveland. The 27-year-old veteran has played 292 games in the NHL with Los Angeles and San Jose. That’s the most NHL experience of any player on the Phantoms. He was acquired by the Flyers shortly before Opening Night on October 5, 2025 in a trade with the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Ryan Ellis. A second-round selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016, Grundström had not regularly played in the AHL since the 2018-19 season with Toronto and Ontario (Cal.) and has played in 103 career AHL games scoring 30-42-72.
ROAD WARRIORS – After tonight’s home game against Hershey, the Phantoms will play five straight on the road as they had to Hershey, Laval, Hartford and Bridgeport. The Phantoms are in the early stages of a busy road-stretch that has the team playing eight out of nine away from PPL Center.
MILESTONES –
– Dennis Gilbert, 300th pro game (Oct 17, 2025 LV at CLE)
– Zayde Wisdom, 200th pro game (Oct 22, 2025 LV at WBS)
– Carl Grundstrom 396 pro games
– Garrett Wilson, 889 pro games
– Garrett Wilson, 291 games with Phantoms
– Emil Andrae, 100th game with Phantoms (Oct 22, 2025 LV at WBS)
WELCOME BACK – 29-year-old Hershey Bears defenseman Louie Belpedio played 174 games for the Phantoms as an alternate captain over three seasons and also 12 games for the Philadelphia Flyers. Belpedio is officially returning to PPL Center in the regular season for the first time although we did see Belpedio in Allentown already during a preseason game.
Hershey Bears video coach Bill Downey was Lehigh Valley’s Director of Hockey Operations for 10 seasons and also an assist coach for the last four years.
HERE COMES HERSHEY – The Hershey Bears (1-2-1) are off to a bumpy start amd most recently sustained a 5-1 loss at home against Springfield on Sunday in a series split. Tonight is their first away game of the season. Gone are several of the familiar names who paved the way for their success including Mike Vecchione, Mike Sgarbossa, Hunter Shepard and former head coach Todd Nelson. Ethen Frank came down to start but has since returned to Washington.
Henrik Rybinski (2-2-4) leads the team and Bogdan Trineyev (1-2-3) is next. 19-year-old third-rounder Ilya Protas had 50 goals and 124 points with Windsor last year to finish second in the OHL. 21-year-old Patrick Thomas is a fourth-rounder who led last year’s OHL with 77 assists with the Brantford Bulldogs. Defensemen Ryan Chesley, out of the University of Minnesota, and 19-year-old Leon Muggli, from Switzerland, are both second-round picks.
35-year-old veteran defenseman Aaron Ness is back as captain for new head coach Derek King who played 820 career NHL games mostly for the New York Islanders and Toronto.
The Phantoms went 5-4-1 against Hershey last season including 3-2-0 in Chocolatetown but the Bears prevailed in the second round of the playoffs going the distance in the Best of 5 series. Helge Grans scored 3-2-5 against Hershey last year and Jacob Gaucher had 3-1-4 in the season series. Hunter McDonald has scored two regular-season and two postseason goals against the Bears.
SCORING LEADERS
Lehigh Valley
Devin Kaplan 2-2-4
Anthony Richard 2-2-4
Karsen Dorwart 2-2-4
Emil Andrae 0-3-3
Cooper Marody 0-3-3
Hershey
Henrik Rybinski 2-2-4
Bogdan Trineyev 1-2-3
Ethen Frank 2-0-2
Ryan Chesley 1-1-2
SPECIAL TEAMS
LV PP 29.4% (6th) / PK 81.5%, (16th)
HER PP 0.0%, 32nd / PK 72.2% (28th)
UP NEXT – The Phantoms Valley will be on the road for five straight beginning with tomorrow’s game at Hershey followed by a Wednesday trek to Laval. Following that comes a pair of games at Hartford and a road-trip finale at Bridgeport. Lehigh Valley’s next home game is Saturday, November 8 against the Toronto Marlies on Phantoms Ballcap Night presented by Service Electric Network and also including a Postgame Skate with the Phantoms players presented by NJM Insurance.
Hershey Bears
Laval Rocket
Hartford Wolf Pack
Hartford Wolf Pack
