PREVIEW: Phantoms at Hershey Bears, April 23 2022

It’s a Phantoms GAMEDAY presented by MassMutual! The Lehigh Valley Phantoms travel to Hershey for the final away game of the season.
The Phantoms are 7-4-2 against the Bears this season.
Lehigh Valley (27-30-15) is playing game 73 of the season and there are four games remaining including tonight with three of those games in Allentown.

LAST TIME
Hershey won at Lehigh Valley for the first time this season in its seventh try as Brett Leason’s overtime goal finished the night. The Phantoms received goals from Max Willman (11th), Tanner Laczynski (7th) and Garrett Wilson (17th). The Phantoms were eliminated from making the Calder Cup Playoffs. Hershey outshot the Phantoms 31-16 and had goals from Bobby Nardella, Aliaksei Protas and Lucas Johansen before the Leason winner in overtime.

NHL DEBUT!
Defenseman Linus Hogberg made his NHL debut on Thursday night and also recorded an assist in the Philadelphia Flyers’ 6-3 victory at the Montreal Canadiens. Hogberg became the sixth Phantoms player to make an NHL debut with the Flyers this season joining Max Willman, Felix Sandstrom, Linus Sandin, Isaac Ratcliffe and Hayden Hodgson.

MORE NHL DEBUTS!
37 Lehigh Valley Phantoms have received recalls to the Philadelphia Flyers for their NHL debuts since the Phantoms arrived in Allentown in 2014. Some of the young talents from the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons to make it from the Phantoms to the Flyers: Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Maksim Sushko, Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, Egor Zamula, Cam York.

TRANSACTIONS
Goalie Felix Sandstrom was recalled to the Flyers after playing for Lehigh Valley on Friday.
Defenseman Garrett McFadden has been loaned to the Reading Royals of the ECHL,

HERSHEY BEARS
Hershey (34-30-10) ended a four-game losing streak, as well as a two-game streak with a goal, to clinch a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
The Phantoms are 7-4-2 overall against Hershey and have clinched the season series against their rivals from Chocolatown.
Phantoms’ alum Mike Vecchione leads Hershey in scoring with 16-28-44. Against the Phantoms, Vecchione has scored 4-4-8. Cal O’Reilly has six of his team-leading 20 goals against Hershey including three shorthanded markers. Hershey is just 3-for-45 (6.7%) on the power play against Lehigh Valley while the Phantoms have performed at 4-for-39 (10.3%) against the Bears.

PHANTASTIC!
– Cal O’Reilly recorded his 534th career AHL assist on Tuesday to pass former Philadelphia Phantoms great Peter White for eighth-most all-time. White is the all-time leading scorer in franchise history with 472 of his points and 319 assists coming as a member of the Phantoms.
– The Phantoms are on a nine-game home-ice point streak (6-0-3) since March 11.
– The Phantoms now have seven players who have reached double digits in goals after Isaac Ratcliffe scored his 10th on Tuesday following Maksim Sushko and Wade Allison both scoring their 10th of the year last week. They join Cal O’Reilly (20), Hayden Hodgson (19), Garrett Wilson (17) and Max Willman (11) in the select group.
– The Phantoms are 16-1-2 when scoring four or more goals. The Phantoms are 16-2-3 when leading at the second intermission.
– Six Phantoms players have made their NHL debuts this season: Max Willman, Felix Sandstrom, Linus Sandin, Isaac Ratcliffe, Hayden Hodgson, Linus Hogberg
– The Phantoms have played 72 games and have 6 remaining in the 2021-22 regular season.

Upcoming Schedule
Saturday, April 23 at Hershey Bears (7:00)
Tuesday, April 26 vs. Springfield Thunderbirds (7:05) (PPL Center)
Wednesday, April 27 vs. Cleveland Monsters (7:05) (PPL Center)
Saturday, April 30 vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (7:05) (PPL Center) Star Wars Night!! Season Finale

Broadcast coverage of all Phantoms games, home and away, is available on the Phantoms 365 app and on 1470-WSAN. Fans can watch on AHLTV.com and can listen on their Smart Speakers at: “Play Phantoms Radio 24/7.” Join Voice of the Phantoms, Bob Rotruck, for all the action!