Phantoms Power Play Presented by Provident Bank

March 6, 2024

Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (23-22-7) are coming off a historic win in their most recent game on Sunday as they conclude a three-game homestand this Friday night against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before embarking for five straight away games beginning Saturday.
The Phantoms are barely ahead of Springfield by points percentage for the last playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. Lehigh Valley is actually two points behind the Thunderbirds but also has two games-in-hand remaining on the schedule giving the Phantoms the advantage entering the season’s stretch run.

LAST WEEK
March 1 – Utica Comets 3 – Phantoms 0
March 2 – Bridgeport Islanders 2 – Phantoms 1
March 3 – Phantoms 1 – Hershey Bears 0 (SO)

THIS WEEK
Friday, March 8 (7:05) – Phantoms vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Saturday, March 9 (6:05) – Phantoms at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Sunday, March 10 (3:00) – Phantoms at Bridgeport Islanders

WEEKLY RECAP
Friday, March 1, 2024
Comets 3 – Phantoms 0
The Phantoms kept coming and coming. But Utica Comets goaltender Erik Källgren had the answer for every offering, plus a couple lucky breaks along the way, in a 3-0 shutout victory in Central New York on Friday night. Cal Petersen (19/21) kept the Phantoms in the game with several strong stops of his own. Utica was clinging to a 1-0 lead until less than five minutes remaining. Former Phantoms Tyler Wotherspoon and Max Willman had the primary assists on Utica’s critical tallies. Rhett Gardner had some of the best chances for an equalizer in the third period but instead found the post and a bouncing puck along the line somehow stayed out.

Saturday, March 2, 2024
Islanders 2 – Phantoms 1
Phantoms goaltender Parker Gahagen was terrific with a 39-save effort on a Saturday night at PPL Center. The Bridgeport Islanders fired 41 total shots in the game, the most allowed by Lehigh Valley this season. Cooper Marody scored on the power play on a strong assist by Emil Andrae to equalize late in the second period but Ruslan Ishakov set up Matt Maggio just 2:30 into the third for the tie-breaking tally that held up as the game-winner while Jakub Skarek turned aside 28 shots for the B-Isles. Adam Ginning dropped the gloves with Tyce Thompson in an awesome bout that thrilled the crowd.

Sunday, March 3, 2024
Phantoms 1 – Bears 0 (SO)
Another hard-fought goaltenders’ battle concluded the weekend with a pair of dueling shutouts. In the first-of-its-kind 0-0 game at PPL Center after 65 minutes, Cal Petersen picked up the win when J-R Avon and Wade Allison both solved Clay Stevenson in the shootout. Stevenson was also credited with a shutout even though he didn’t win the game. A packed house was fired up for meLVin’s Birthday as well as the building drama on the ice as the Phantoms took down their rivals and the top team in the AHL.

HISTORIC
Sunday’s game was the first-ever 0-0 result for Lehigh Valley in the regular season through 65 minutes. The only other time Lehigh Valley was involved in a 0-0 game was in the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs in Game 1 against Hershey when Alex Lyon and Pheonix Copley matched each other save for save before the Bears finally broke through in overtime.
The last time a Phantoms team played to a 0-0 score through 60 minutes came from the former Adirondack Phantoms one year prior to the team moving to Allentown. On January 3, 2014 the Adirondack Phantoms defeated the Hershey Bears 1-0 on an overtime goal by Jason Akeson as Cal Heeter picked up the shutout win.

ON THE MOVE
Three Phantoms have been recalled to the Philadelphia Flyers in the past week including goaltender Felix Sandstrom and defensemen Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning.
Additionally, goaltender Cal Petersen was returned to the Phantoms from Philadelphia.
And, forward Alex Kile has been returned on loan to the Maine Mariners of the ECHL.

Attard has scored 10-25-35 in 46 games this season. For his career with Lehigh Valley, Attard has scored 27-45-67 in 114 games with the Phantoms. This is his first recall to Philadelphia this season but he has played 11 games for the Flyers in the last two seasons.

Ginning has played in 52 games with the Phantoms this season scoring two goals with 11 assists for 13 points. The second-year pro has played in 120 career games with Lehigh Valley scoring 5-27-32. Ginning played in one career NHL game last year when he made his Flyers debut on April 11, 2023 against Columbus.

Sandström, 27, has played parts of the last six seasons with the Phantoms. This year with Lehigh Valley, the Gavle, Sweden product has gone 11-6-2, 3.23, .882. He started for the Flyers on Friday and recorded a 24-save gem in a 4-2 win over Ottawa.

Petersen 29 returns to the Phantoms for the first time since his recall to Philadelphia on January 20 and played great in both of his starts last weekend. The Notre Dame product out of Waterloo, Iowa is 6-9-2, 2.98, .894 with the Phantoms this season. The lefty-style playing goaltender has also played in five games with Philadelphia this season going 2-2-0, 3.90, .864 and in his NHL career of six seasons, including parts of five years with the Los Angeles Kings, has played in 106 games going 46-44-10, 2.96, .903.

Kile has thrived with the Maine Mariners this season scoring 28-31-49 in just 38 games. He has played in six games with the Phantoms this year and in 52 career games with Lehigh Valley over the last three seasons scoring six goals with five assists for 11 points.

SHOOTOUT SPECIALISTS
20-year-old rookie J-R Avon is tied for the AHL lead with five shootout goals on just six attempts this season. Trey Fix-Wolansky of Cleveland is the only other player with five.
Wade Allison is tied for the AHL lead with two game-winning goals in the shootout. Allison is 3-for-4 this season.
The Phantoms are tied for the league lead with four shootout wins. The Cleveland Monsters and Abborstford Canucks also have four shootout victories.
The Phantoms have gone to overtime or shootout in 17 games this year which is one off the league lead held by Rochester and Cleveland who both have 18. The Phantoms are 6-5 in overtimes and 4-2 in shootouts for a combined mark of 10-7 after regulation.

UPCOMING
Friday, March 8, 2024 (7:05)
PPL Center, Allentown, PA
Phantoms vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
and
Saturday, March 9, 2024 (6:05)
Mohegan Sun Arena, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Phantoms at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (28-19-8) is hanging on to third place in the Atlantic Division as they enter a home-and-home weekend series against Lehigh Valley beginning on Friday night in Allentown followed by a Saturday rematch in northeast Pennsylvania.
The Baby Pens actually have a lower points percentage than fourth-place Hartford but still have more total points to hang on to the higher position. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is coming off a weekend split against Charlotte.
Twice this season, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has traded its top scorer. Rem Pitlick was dealt to Chicago in December and, more recently, Alex Nylander was traded to Columbus where he scored a hat trick last week. Defenseman Ty Smith (9-23-32) paces active Pens in scoring. Rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist (17-8-5, 2.13, .919) represented the Penguins at the AHL All-Star Classic and rates third in the AHL in goals-against average and is first among goalies who don’t play for Hershey.
The way the standings look now, a Phantoms vs. Penguins matchup in a 6 vs. 3 series in the first round of the playoffs certainly seems possible. The Phantoms are 3-2-0 against the Penguins this year with all three of their wins coming in overtime or shootout. Cooper Marody had the OT winner the last time the teams met on February 21 at Wilkes-Barre where the Phantoms rallied from a two-goal deficit for an extra-period victory in their second appearance in NEPA this season. The most recent time the Penguins visited Allentown was February 9 when Matt Brown struck for the winner in the fourth round of the shootout.

Sunday, March 10, 2024 (3:00)
Total Mortgage Arena, Bridgeport, CT
Phantoms vs Bridgeport Islanders
We turn forward the clocks for Dayling Savings and also turn our attentions to Connecticut for a Sunday showdown against the Bridgeport Islanders. The two teams have traded 2-1 victories at each other’s home rinks this season.
Last-place Bridgeport (18-29-7) has won two straight and isn’t throwing in the towel in the Atlantic Division race. After defeating the Phantoms last Saturday 2-1, the Islanders helped out the Phantoms in the form of a 4-1 victory over Springfield on Sunday allowing the Phantoms to move into a virtual tie for the final postseason spot. This is the third of six meetings this season between the Phantoms and B-Isles. 30-year-old Cole Bardreau is in his fifth season with Bridgeport after playing in parts of five seasons for the Phantoms where he scored 41-57-98 in 226 games. Bardreau rates 7th in games played and 10th in assists in Lehigh Valley history.
2018 second-rounder Ruslan Ishakov (15-24-39) set up the third-period game-winner in Allentown on Saturday and paces the team’s scoring in his second season in the AHL. Otto Koivula (9-21-30) is in his sixth season with Bridgeport under new head coach Rick Kowalsky. Fifth-rounder Matt Maggio (12-8-20) is finding his form in his rookie season after leading the OHL with 58 goals as a member of the Windsor Spitfires last year. He scored the winning goal at the Phantoms on Saturday.

Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Cooper Marody 14-30-44
Samu Tuomaala 13-24-37
x – Olle Lycksell 18-14-32
Emil Andrae 4-24-28
Tanner Laczynski 8-18-26
x – Ronnie Attard 10-15-25

Phantoms Tickets are available HERE

UPCOMING SCHEDULE