Phantoms Power Play Presented by Provident Bank

February 13, 2024

Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (20-18-7)  posted back-to-back shootout wins last week against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Bridgeport in the team’s return from the All-Star Break.
Lehigh Valley has a light schedule this week with only one game on Saturday night when the North Division-leading Syracuse Crunch visit PPL Center.

WEEKLY RECAP
Friday, February 9, 2024
Phantoms 5 – Penguins 4 (SO)
Matt Brown doesn’t mess around! The rookie forward blasted home the winning goal in the fourth of the shootout as the Phantoms defeated the rival Penguins in a 5-4 thriller on Friday night at PPL Center. Lehigh Valley posted three consecutive goals in under two minutes early in the second period to take a 4-2 lead when Rhett Garnder (5th), Brendan Furry (3rd) and J-R Avon (9th) all scored. Wade Allison (10th) opened the scoring in the first period. But the Baby Pens rallied in the third to force overtime.

Saturday, February 10, 2024
Phantoms 2 – Islanders 1 (SO)
Jacob Gaucher (5th) scored in the third period to break a scoreless goaltender’s duel between Lehigh Valley’s Parker Gahagen (34/35) and Bridgeport’s Henrik Tikkanen. The B-Isles tied in on a goal that was initially disallowed and then credited upon review for Karsen Kuhlman less than two minutes later. J-R Avon and Wade Allison scored in the shootout to pick up the additional standings point.

SHOOTOUT CITY
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms made history when they won consecutive games in a shootout. Lehigh Valley had only played back-t0-back shootout games on other time on October 19 and October 25, 2019 but this was the first time for Lehigh Valley to win two in a row via a shootout.
The only other time the Phantoms franchise won back-to-back games in a shootout came in the form of the old Adirondack Phantoms accomplishing the feat January 2 and January 5, 2011.
J-R Avon is tied for the AHL lead with four shootout goals and that also ties an all-time Lehigh Valley record. Taylor Leier is the only other Lehigh Valley Phantom to score four shootout goals in a season when he went 4-for-8 in the 2015-16 campaign. The franchise record is held by Jared Ross who went 7-for-11 in 2008-09 with the Philadelphia Phantoms.

OVERTIME MANIA
The Phantoms are second in the league with 14 overtime games this season out of 45 games total games played. Only Rochester (15) has more. Lehigh Valley is 4-5 in overtime decisions and 3-2 in games that advance to a shootout for a combined record of 7-7 after regulation.

PHANTOMS AMONG LEAGUE LEADERS

AHL Rookie Scoring
Logan Stankoven, TEX 22-31-53
SAMU TUOMAALA, LV 13-22-35
Matt Coronato, CGY 13-20-33

Rookie Defensemen Assists
Brandt Clarke, ONT, 25
Olen Zellweger, SD, 22
Logan Mailloux, LAV, 21
EMIL ANDRAE, LV, 20

Rookie Defensemen
Power Play Scoring:
Olen Zellweger, SD, 4-11-15
EMIL ANDRAE, LV, 3-10-13
Brandt Clarke, ONT, 2-10-12

Power Play Assists
Mike Sgarbossa, HER, 19
Matt Donovan, CHI, 16
COOPER MARODY, LV, 16

PHANTASTIC!

The Phantoms record when:
– Score 4 or more goals: 13-0-2
– Allow 3 or fewer goals: 14-3-3
– Lead After 1st period: 7-1-2
– Lead After 2nd period: 12-1-1
– One-Goal Games: 13-3-7
– Overtime: 4-5 / Shootout: 3-2

UPCOMING
Saturday, February 17, 2024 (7:05 p.m.)
PPL Center, Allentown, PA
Phantoms vs. Syracuse Crunch
Syracuse (26-14-5) has leapfrogged ahead of slumping Cleveland to take first place in the North Division and has gotten hot since the New Year going 10-3-1 in 2024.
Head coach Joel Bouchard formerly was bench boss at San Diego and Laval and has prior ties to Ian Laperriere and Daniel Briere with the QMJHL Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
2020 second-rounder Gage Goncalves (7-31-38) leads the team in scoring. Felix Robert (11-17-28) played two seasons for the WBS Penguins before joining Syracuse last year. 2019 third-rounder from Sweden Hugo Alnefelt (10-5-4, 2.35, .909) is 11th in the AHL in GAA.
Defenseman Phil Myers played parts of 3 seasons with the Phantoms from 2017 through 2020 for a total of 109 games scoring 14-40-54 and also played 115 games with the Philadelphia Flyers scoring 6-23-29 plus an overtime goal in Game 2 of Stanley Cup Playoff series against the New York Islanders. Myers has played 158 career NHL games with Philadelphia, Nashville and Tampa Bay.

Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Cooper Marody 10-27-37
Samu Tuomaala 13-22-35
x – Olle Lycksell 16-12-28
Tanner Laczynski 8-18-26
Emil Andrae 4-20-24
Ronnie Attard 9-14-23

Phantoms Tickets are available HERE