Phantoms Power Play Presented by Provident Bank

Pushing into the Second Half

January 14, 2025

Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms had a five-game point streak to open 2025 and have now officially entered the second half of the 2024-25 season.

Up next are two more home games this week on Wednesday against the Belleville Senators and Saturday against the Rochester Americans. The Phantoms also pay a visit to first-place Rochester in between with a Friday clash in western New York.

Lehigh Valley (17-14-5) has climbed into a tie for fourth place in the Atlantic Division with the Providence Bruins securing points in nine of the last 13 games going 8-4-1 over the last month since December 14.

Wednesday night against Belleville is pregame Happy Hour with $2 draft beer specials. Saturday against Rochester is Air Products Night to benefit Community Services for Children with our Children’s Book Donation Drive.

LAST WEEK
January 7 – Phantoms 5 at Hershey Bears 4
January 10 – Hartford Wolf Pack 4 at Phantoms 3
January 11 – Phantoms 3 at Hartford Wolf Pack 0
January 12 – Phantoms 0 at Bridgeport Islanders 5

THE WEEK AHEAD
Wednesday, January 15 (7:05) – Belleville Senators at Phantoms
Friday, January 17 (7:05) – Phantoms at Rochester Americans
Saturday, January 18 (7:05) – Rochester Americans at Phantoms

WEEKLY RECAP
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Lehigh Valley Phantoms 5 – Hershey Bears 4
Five different Phantoms lit the lamp, including three defensemen, as Lehigh Valley held off a Hershey Bears’ rally to preserve a 5-4 win in Chocolatetown. The Phantoms’ penalty kill went 4-for-4 in the third period alone including three consecutive kills early in the period and a 6-on-4 at the end of the game. Helge Grans, Ethan Samson and Emil Andrae all scored for the Phantoms along with Elliot Desnoyers and Jacob Gaucher who knocked in his team-leading 14th of the season. The Phantoms improved to 3-2-1 against the defending Calder Cup Champions including 2-1-0 at GIANT Center.

Friday, January 10, 2025
Hartford Wolf Pack 3 – Lehigh Valley Phantoms 2 (OT)
The Phantoms looked snazzy in their blackout jerseys as did the fans at PPL Center in their blackout hats from The Morning Call. Lehigh Valley earned a standings point but Hartford prevailed in overtime on Victor Mancini’s strike to conclude another chippy affair between the two teams. Massimo Rizzo (3rd) and Alexis Gendron (11th) scored for Lehigh Valley. Hartford received goals from Alex Belzile and Adam Sykora prior to Mancini’s overtime strike. It was the fourth straight meeting between the two teams to go to overtime.

Saturday, January 11, 2025
Lehigh Valley Phantoms 3 – Hartford Wolf Pack 0
Parker Gahagen stole the show with his first career AHL shutout in a 26-save gem at Hartford on Saturday night. The 31-year-old Army Captain made several dazzlers and point-blank stops along the way. Garrett Wilson (8th) broke a scoreless tie late in the second period with his unassisted shorthanded blast past Louis Domingue. Emil Andrae (2nd) built on that lead in the third period and Rhett Gardner (5th) sealed te triumph with an empty-netter from the red line. Gahagen’s blank sheet was the team’s first shutout of the season as the Phantoms extended their point streak to five games.

Sunday, January 12, 2025
Bridgeport Islanders 5 – Lehigh Valley Phantoms 0
The Phantoms were involved in a shutout for a second consecutive game but this time found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard as big Henrik Tikkanen (21 saves) stuffed a fatigued Lehigh Valley squad at the end of a hard weekend. 36-year-old Chris Terry (6th, 7th) scored the 317th and 318th goals of his sensational AHL career to lead the Islanders’ offense as last-place Bridgeport ended a 12-game home losing slide via en energy advantage following a day off on Saturday. Lehigh Valley’s point streak was snapped at five games (4-0-1) which is the second-longest streak of the season. The result also ended the Phantoms’ four-game road win streak.

MEDIA MATERIALS – Fans can browse rosters and Media Materials for upcoming games at the following link: https://www.phantomshockey.com/media-materials/

OLLE-STAR!! – Olle Lycksell has been selected to represent the Phantoms at the AHL All-Star Classic in Palm Springs, CA taking place February 2-3.

Lycksell is second on the team in scoring with 9-14-25 and has spent the last two weeks with the Philadelphia Flyers. He recorded his 100th career point with the Phantoms on December 4 and notched his second career hat trick on December 20 in a 7-2 thrashing of the Toronto Marlies. That led to him winning  AHL Player of the Week honors for the second time in his career becoming the first player in Lehigh Valley history to win it twice. Lycksell has scored three overtime goals this season to lead the AHL and also tie for a Phantoms franchise record for most OT goals in a season.

PHANTASTIC – 

– The Phantoms had a five-game point streak (4-0-1) to open 2025 and are now 4-1-1 in January.

– Balanced Attack: 14 different players have scored Lehigh Valley’s 17 total goals in the five-game point streak. Alexis Gendron (3) and Emil Andrae (2) are the only players with multiple goals in the streak. Last Tuesday, the Phantoms were led by three defensemen who all scored goals: Hunter McDonald (3rd), Ethan Samson (6th) and Emil Andrae (1st) all found the back of the net while Helge Grans (3rd) scored last Saturday at Syracuse and Adam Ginning (1st) had an empty-netter at Utica.

– The Phantoms’ penalty kill is 18-for-19 in 2025.

– Jacob Gaucher recorded his 100th career pro point with his team-leading 14th goal of the season last Tuesday at Hershey.

– Friday was Rhett Gardner’s 300th career AHL game. Last Tuesday was the 200th AHL game for Helge Grans.

– The Phantoms hit the midway mark of the season after Saturday’s game. The Phantoms have now played 37 games and have 35 to go.

IMPENDING MILESTONES
– Garrett Wilson, 396 pro points
– Anthony Richard, 496 AHL games

UPCOMING

Wednesday, January 15 (7:05)
PPL Center, Allentown, PA
Belleville Senators at Phantoms

Belleville (15-11-5) impressively bounced back from a 6-1 drubbing to the hands of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to land an incredible 4-3 comeback win in the Sunday rematch on  a Wyatt Bongiovanni (12-4-16) winner with just 2.2 seconds left to complete a hat trick. Former Hershey Bear Garrett Pilon (3-21-24) leads Ottawa’s AHL affiliate and is the son of former New York Islander Rich Pilon. Rookie Stephen Halliday is a fourth rounder out of Ohio State. Third-year pro Angus Crookshank (13-4-17) has scored 50 goals in the last two seasons combined.

Former Phantoms Hayden Hodgson (2-2-4) and Wyatte Wylie (1-3-4) are returning to PPL Center for the first time. Hodgson played two seasons for the Phantoms and Flyers and was second on the Phantoms with 19 goals in the 2021-22 season while also playing in seven NHL games with Philadelphia. Wylie played 131 games in three season for the Phantoms from 2020-23 scoring nine goals.

Friday, January 17, 2025 (7:05)
Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, NY
Phantoms at Rochester Americans
and
Saturday, January 18, 2025 (7:05)
PPL Center, Allentown, PA
Rochester Americans at Phantoms
It’s a home-and-home weekend-series showdown with the North Division first-place Rochester Americans (22-10-3) who recently had their seven-game streak snapped in a 6-2 pasting at Syracuse. 21-year-old first rounder Isak Rosen (14-14-28) is in his third season with the Amerks and cranked out 20-30-50 last season. Penn State product Brett Murray (16-11-27) is in his sixth season with Rochester. 19-year-old second-rounder Anton Wahlburg (5-6-11) has returned from World Juniors where he scored 4-4-8 in helping Sweden to a bronze medal.

The weekend also marks the return of Felix Sandstrom (6-4-1, 2.96, .894) to PPL Center. The former Philadelphia third-rounder played in parts of six different seasons with the Phantoms and Flyers. In 88 career games with Lehigh Valley, Sandstrom was 39-29-13, 2.95, .899 while he also played in 30 games with Philadelphia from 2021-24.

Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Samu Tuomaala 8-17-25
x – Olle Lycksell 9-15-24
Jacob Gaucher 14-9-23
Rodrigo Abols 8-9-17
Anthony Richard 6-10-16
Garrett Wilson 8-8-16
Alexis Gendron 11-5-16

UPCOMING

Wednesday, January 15 (7:05) – Phantoms vs. Belleville Senators, Pregame Happy Hour, $2 Beers

Friday, January 17 (7:05) – Phantoms at Rochester Americans

Saturday, January 18 (7:05) – Rochester Americans at Phantoms – Air Products Night, Children’s Book Donation Drive

Friday, January 24 (7:05) – Springfield Thunderbirds at Phantoms

Saturday, January 25 (7:05) – Bridgeport Islanders at Phantoms – meLVin Youth Jersey Night

Sunday, January 26 (3:05) – Phantoms at W-B/Scranton Penguins

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