Three-Game Road Trip Awaits
October 28, 2024
Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (1-3-2) hit the road for three straight over the next week beginning with a Wednesday night rivalry matchup in Chocolatetown against the two-time defending Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears.
The Phantoms earned a pair of standings points last week with two post-regulation losses but couldn’t come up with a W in their busy three-game weekend.
LAST WEEK
October 25 – Phantoms 3 at Hartford 4 (OT)
October 26 – Grand Rapids 5 at Phantoms 2
October 27 – Grand Rapids 4 at Phantoms 3 (SO)
THE WEEK AHEAD
Wednesday, October 30 (7:00) – Phantoms at Hershey Bears
Saturday, November 2 (7:05) – Phantoms at Springfield Thunderbirds
WEEKLY RECAP
Friday, October 25, 2024
Wolf Pack 4 – Phantoms 3 (OT)
Samu Tuomaala’s power-play goal in the third period tied the game at 3-3 but Hartford prevailed in overtime on Bo Groulx’s winner past Alexei Kolosov. Rodrigo Abols scored his first goal with the Phantoms and Oscar Eklind also lit the lamp for his second strike in a three-game stretch.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Griffins 5 – Phantoms 2
Lehigh Valley pulled to within a goal twice in the second period on goals by Rodrigo Abols and Anthony Richard but the visiting Griffins pulled away for a 5-2 win. Grand Rapids was led by Amadeus Lombardi with two goals and one assist. Cal Petersen took the setback for Lehigh Valley in his first game of the season while Detroit first-rounder Sebastian Cossa came through a 31-save effort to backstop the Griffs.
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Griffins 4 – Phantoms 3 (SO)
The Phantoms seemed poised to earn a split of the weekend series after taking the lead in the third period on back-to-back goals by Alexis Gendron and Garrett Wilson. But Sheldon Dries evened the count with just 1:50 to go with his second goal of the day and Grand Rapids eventually picked up the bonus point in the skills competition. Anthony Richard also scored for a second consecutive game. Eetu Makiniemi shook off some early rust to produce a solid 30-save performance between the pipes for the Phantoms.
GETTING THE CALL – Alexei Kolosov was recalled to the Philadelphia Flyers and made his NHL debut on Sunday in a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. Kolosov becomes the first Phantoms product to make his NHL debut this year and is also the 45th Lehigh Valley player and seventh goaltender to do so. Defenseman Emil Andrae was also recalled and made his season debut with the Flyers in Sunday’s game. Andrae played in four games for Philadelphia last season in October.
Phantoms Goalies Making NHL Debut with Flyers
Rob Zepp – Dec 21, 2014 (PHI vs. WPG)
Anthony Stolarz – Nov 27, 2016 (PHI vs. CGY)
Alex Lyon – Jan 31, 2018 (PHI at WSH)
Carter Hart – Dec 18, 2018 (PHI vs. DET)
Felix Sandstrom – Dec 30, 2021 (PHI at SJ)
Sam Ersson – Dec 23, 2022 (PHI at CAR)
Alexei Kolosov – Oct 27, 2024 (PHI vs. MTL)
PHANTASTIC
– Rodrigo Abols scored goals in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday representing his first markers with the Phantoms. The 28-year-old product of Riga, Latvia is playing in the AHL for the first time in five years since the 2019-20 season with the Springfield Thundderbirds when he scored seven goals in 38 games.
– Alexis Gendron came through in his season debut with an impressive coast-to-coast goal and assist in the Phantoms’ Sunday afternoon comeback efforts against Grand Rapids. The 20-year-old winger is back with the Phantoms for his second season in the AHL. Last year, Gendron played in 17 games scoring five goals in the first half of the season before he was returned to the QMJHL in January where he helped lead Drummondville to a league title and an appearance in the Memorial Cup.
– The Phantoms lead the AHL with 37.3 shots per game. The Phantoms are allowing 26.8 shots per game which rates 7th in the AHL.
– Lehigh Valley’s power play is converting at 28.6% (6/21) which is second in the AHL trailing only Charlotte (38.7%)
LEHIGH VALLEY – GAMES PLAYED
1. Greg Carey 277
2. Chris Conner 265
3. Colin McDonald 248
4. Reece Willcox 232
5. Garrett Wilson 230
5. T.J. Brennan 230
7. Nic Aube-Kubel 229
8. Cole Bardreau 226
8. Taylor Leier 226
TRANSACTIONS
Oct 25 Xavier Bernard – Del – Loaned to Reading
Oct 26 Emil Andrae – Del – Recalled to Flyers
Oct 26 Alexei Kolosov – Del – Recalled to Flyers
Oct 28 Xavier Bernard – Add – Recalled from Reading
UPCOMING
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 (7:00)
GIANT Center, Hershey, PA
Phantoms at Hershey Bears
It’s the first of 10 meetings in the regular season between the rival Phantoms at Bears. Hershey (6-1-1) has won four straight and also has a six-game point streak (5-0-1). The Bears finished off a three-game New England sweep last weekend against Providence and Springfield.
First-rounder Ivan Miroshnichenko (6-4-10) is second in the AHL in points and also first in the Eastern Conference. Ethen Frank (7-2-9) is second in the AHL in goals after racking up 59 scores in his first two pro seasons including 29 last year. Reigning AHL Goaltender of the Year Hunter Shepard (5-0-0, 1.40, .955) is off to another hot start after he was 27-4-3, 1.76, .929 with five shutouts in 2023-24.
Lehigh Valley and Hershey last met on May 11, 2024 at PPL Center when the Phantoms had their playoff run ended by the first-place Bears 3 games to 1 in the Division Semifinals. One month later, former Phantom Matt Strome scored the championship clincher in overtime of Game 6 against Coachella Valley. The Bears were 53-14-5 last year for 111 points and challenged the all-time AHL record for best points percentage in a long season. Lehigh Valley was 4-6-2 against the Bears in the regular season which was the most wins any team had against Hershey last year.
Saturday, November 2, 2024 (7:05)
MassMutual Center
Phantoms at Springfield Thunderbirds
It’s the first of four matchups between the Atlantic Division foes as the Phantoms travel to western Mass. The St. Louis Blues affiliate ended a three-game losing slide with a 5-2 pasting of Hartford on Sunday.
Springfield (3-5-0) is led by new head coach Steve Konowalchuk who previously played in 790 career NHL games for Washington and Colorado. 19-year-old Slovakia product Dalibor Dvorsky (3-2-5) was the 10th overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft. Rookie Dylan Peterson (4-2-6) was a third-rounder out of Boston University and leads the team in scoring. 20-year-old third-rounder Aleksanteri Kaskimaki from Finland is still in search of his first career goal in North America. 31-year-old veteran Matthew Peca is in his fourth season with the T-Birds and his second as captain and has played in 420 career AHL games beginning in 2016-17 with Syracuse as well as 83 NHL games.
Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Samu Tuomaala 2-4-6
Anthony Richard 3-2-5
Jacob Gaucher 2-2-4
Rodrigo Abols 2-2-4
UPCOMING
Wednesday, October 30 – Phantoms at Hershey Bears
Saturday, November 2 – Phantoms at Springfield Thunderbirds
Wednesday, November 6 – Phantoms at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Friday, November 8 – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Phantoms – Berks $1 Hot Dogs
Saturday, November 9 – Utica Comets at Phantoms – Postgame Skate presented by NJM Insurance