Phantoms Power Play Presented by Provident Bank

February 19, 2024

Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (20-19-7) open a stretch of four straight road contests when they travel to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for a mid-week showdown. With 26 games remaining in the regular season, the Phantoms are four points back of Springfield for a playoff position AND hold two games-in-hand. Big divisional clashes with the Penguins and Checkers await.

WEEKLY RECAP
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Crunch 2 – Phantoms 1
A Standing Room Only, sellout crowd welcomed the Phantoms back to PPL Center for a tight-checking and tightly played contest against the Syracuse Crunch. The visitors received a pair of beneficial and unusual deflections to post a 2-1 win as the Phantoms were unable to acquire a second equalizer before time expired. Rhett Gardner (6th) scored on a tip of a Bobby Brink shot-pass on the power play and Parker Gahagen (24/26) was terrific between the pipes. Cole Koepke had the fortunate winner for Syracuse in the early minutes of the third period. All three goals wee scored on the power play.
The huge turnout of 8,758 filled the seats on meLVin Youth Jersey Night and represented the first time since 2017 that the Phantoms box office went into Standing Room Only status.

SHOOTOUT SPECIALIST
J-R Avon continues to lead the AHL with four shootout goals. The 20-year-old rookie has achieved his impressive number in only five shootout attempts. That is also tied for the most shootout goals in a season by any Lehigh Valley Phantoms player having only been accomplished one other time when Taylor Leier was 4-for-8 inm the 2015-16 season. The franchise record is held by Jared Ross who went 7-for-11 in 2008-09 with the Philadelphia Phantoms.

FANTASTIC FINN
Samu Tuomaala (13-23-36) is third among AHL rookies in points and is fourth in assists. Lehigh Valley’s representative at the AHL All-Star Classic also tops all Finland products in AHL scoring.

Finland Native – AHL Scoring Leaders
Samu Tuomaala (21), LV – 12-23-36
Brad Lambert (20), MTB – 15-15-30
Otto Koivula (25), BRI, 9-18-27
Aatu Räty (22), ABB, 9-18-27

OVERTIME MANIA
The Phantoms are tied with Cleveland for second in the league with 14 overtime games this season out of 46 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.
Samu Tuomaala is the first-ever Lehigh Valley rookie and also the first-ever forward for Lehigh Valley to score two overtime goals in a season. Tuomaala’s two overtime goals is also tied for the AHL Rookie lead along with Brett Berard (Hartford) and Joe Carroll (Syracuse). He’s the first rookie in franchise history to accomplish the feat since Kyle Greentree of the Philadelphia Phantoms had two OT goals in 2007-08.

PHANTASTIC!

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

UPCOMING
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 (7:05)
Mohegan Sun Arena, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Phantoms at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (26-17-7) is in third place in the Atlantic Division and the Penguins are coming off a 6-3 blowout win against Laval in its last game on Saturday. Lehigh Valley is 2-2-0 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton including a thrilling 5-4 shootout win on February 9 at PPL Center in the last meeting that included a fourth-ruond winner from Matt Brown. This is Game 5 out of 12 in the rivalry series and the two teams will meet seven times in the remaining 26 games of the season.
It’s a different look for the Baby Pens these days after three of their top players were all recalled to Pittsburgh last week. Gone are Vinnie Hinostroza (8-9-17), Jonathan Gruden (11-8-19) and Valtteri Puustinen (5-6-11). Former Buffalo and New Jersey first-rounders Alex Nylander (15-16-21) and Ty Smith (9-22-31) lead the scoring. 22-year-old Pittsburgh second-rounder Joel Blomqvist (16-7-4, 2.14, .919) is fourth in the AHL in GAA.

Saturday, February 24, 2024 (4:00 p.m.)
and
Sunday, February 25, 2024 (1:00 p.m.)
Bojangles’ Coliseum, Charlotte, NC
Phantoms at Charlotte Checkers
Charlotte (24-20-5) has gone on a four-game point streak (3-0-1) to move up to fifth in the Atlantic Division. But the Phantoms are only six points back of the team they met in the postseason a year ago and the Phantoms have three games-in-hand as they enter this important showdown series in North Carolina.
The Checkers moved ahead of Springfield last weekend taking three out of four points in their head-to-head series down south with a 2-1 overtime loss followed by a 5-3 regulation win on Sunday.
The Phantoms are 3-1-1 against Charlotte this season and three of the five meetings have gone to overtime. Ronnie Attard and Tanner Laczynski have both posted overtime winners against the Checkers this year.
Lucas Carlsson (14-22-36) is on pace to lead AHL defensemen in goals for a second consecutive season. First-rounder from the University of Michigan Mackie Samoskevich (12-18-30) is thriving in his rookie season and has scored four goals against the Phantoms. He has also been up with the Florida Panthers for seven games this year. Former Phantom and Flyer Gerry Mayhew (11-12-23) has not been as potent this year but is coming off a two-goal and one-assist game against Springfield his last time out and has three overtime goals this season.

Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Cooper Marody 10-27-37
Samu Tuomaala 13-23-36
x – Olle Lycksell 16-12-28
Tanner Laczynski 8-18-26
Emil Andrae 4-20-24
Ronnie Attard 9-15-24

Phantoms Tickets are available HERE

UPCOMING SCHEDULE