PREVIEW: Phantoms at Providence, Game 35
Win streak and point streak put to the test at First-Place P-Bruins
TODAY – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (19-11-4) are rolling and currently are on a four-game win streak and seven-game point streak (6-0-1) but keeping it going won’t be easy as the team heads to Providence, Rhode Island to take on the first-place Bruins in the finale of a four-game road trip to open 2026. Providence (24-7-1) is tops in the Atlantic and has the second-best points percentage in the AHL.
The Phantoms are on the rise and have moved up to third place in the Atlantic Division over the course of their hot streak and have also closed to within seven points of the top teams, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Providence. This is Game 35 of the 2025-26 season and also the second, and last, visit to Providence for the Phantoms this season.
Fans can browse rosters and Media Materials for tonight’s game at www.phantomshockey.com/media/media-materials/
LAST TIME – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms again proved you can never count them out. Anthony Richard (9th) scored the winning goal from a near-impossible angle ACROSS the goalie to the upper-far corner with just 11.9 seconds left as the Phantoms rallied from a 2-0 deficit to steal a 3-2 win at the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday night. The Phantoms won their fourth in a row and also extended their point streak to seven (6-0-1). Lane Pederson (12th) and Christian Kyrou (5th) got the comeback going with very similar goals back-to-back early in the third period with both players driving and dangling through the defense setting up their top-shelf strikes to the upper-right corner past goaltender Georgi Romanov. Carson Bjarnason was solid with 14 saves on 16 shots in yet another win for the 20-year-old rookie netminder.
KOLOSOV HONORED – The American Hockey League has announced that Lehigh Valley Phantoms goaltender Aleksei Kolosov has been selected as the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week for the period ending January 4, 2026. Kolosov stopped 60 of the 61 shots he faced in two starts for the Phantoms last week, good for a 0.50 goals-against average and a .984 save percentage. On Wednesday evening, Kolosov made 31 saves as Lehigh Valley posted a 3-0 shutout of Hershey. And on Sunday, he celebrated his 24th birthday by turning aside 29 shots as the Phantoms earned a 6-1 victory at Toronto. Kolosov was selected as the game’s first star in both contests.
This is the ninth time a Lehigh Valley Phantoms player has won AHL Player of the Week honors and it is the first time for a Lehigh Valley goaltender to snag the award.
Phantoms AHL Player of the Week Winners
Lehigh Valley Phantoms (9)
Aleksei Kolosov – Jan 5, 2026
Olle Lycksell – Dec 22, 2024
Tanner Laczynski – Nov 20, 2023
Olle Lycksell – Oct 22, 2023
Cooper Marody – Mar 13, 2023
Max Willman – Feb 28, 2021
Colin McDonald – Jan 31, 2016
Nick Cousins – Mar 15, 2015
Scott Laughton – Oct 19, 2014 (Scored First Goal at PPL Center)
STREAKING AND PEAKING – Lehigh Valley’s six-game point streak (6-0-1) since December 20 is the team’s longest since the Phantoms set a team record with a nine-game point streak (going 7-0-2) in the 2021-22 season from December 11, 2021 through January 14, 2022. This is the fourth time in Lehigh Valley history the team has had a point streak of seven games or longer. The Phantoms had eight-game point streaks in February 2018 and also November 2018 which was also a team-record eight-game win streak.
BRILLIANT BJARNASON – 20-year-old rookie netminder Carson Bjarnason has hardly looked like he’s in his debut professional season. The 6’4″ goaltender out of the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL has gone 9-3-3, 2.47, .910 this season. Since December 1, Bjanrason is 5-1-1, 2.09, .922. He has also proven to be a shootout specialist this season with a league-leading three shootout wins as well as five shootout games. He also has 17 total shootout saves to lead the AHL which includes a perfect 8-for-8 performance in Lehigh Valley’s December 13th marathon skills competition win at Rochester.
PETEY POINT PRODUCTION – Veteran center Lane Pederson has taken charge through the course of the seven-game point streak scoring six goals with four assists for 10 points over the stretch. He has consecutive multi-point games as well as three of the last four. Pederson won the puck in the corner on the forecheck to set up Anthony Richard’s game-winning goal with just 11.9 seconds left at Springfield. The 28-year-old product Sakatoon, Sask. has been centering the team’s top line for the entire season and has played in 321 career AHL games scoring 124 goals and he also has played in 71 career NHL games including stints with Arizona, San Jose, Columbus and Vancouver.
THREE IS A MAGIC NUMBER – The Phantoms have gone 17-1-2 when scoring three or more goals in a game. Lehigh Valley is 14-0-1 when holding opponents to fewer than three goals in a game.
HOT STARTS – Lehigh Valley is 12-0-2 when scoring the first goal of the game. The Phantoms and the Grand Rapids Griffins are the only two teams undefeated in regulation when scoring the first goal. Lehigh Valley is also a perfect 9-0-0 when leading at the first intermission. Only three other teams have perfect marks in that department (Chicago, Grand Rapids, Providence).
GINNING RECALLED – The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled defenseman Adam Ginning from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Ginning, 25, has played in five games with the Flyers this year and also has 15 games of NHL experience in his career. He has played in 17 games with Lehigh Valley this season scoring one goal with two assists and has played in 212 career games with the Phantoms over parts of four seasons scoring 8-46-54. Last year, the left-handed shooting defenseman from Linkoping, Sweden scored 2-15-17 in 69 games with Lehigh Valley. The 6’3″ blueliner was a Round 2 (#50 overall) selection of the Flyers in the 2018 NHL Draft.
TRANSACTIONS –
12/31/25 Add Philip Tomasino (F) – Acquired trade from PIT, loaned to LV
12/31/25 Add Anthony Richard – Assigned to LV (from CAN Spengler Cup)
1/3/26 Del Carson Golder (F) – Loaned to Reading by LV
1/7/26 Add Yaniv Perets (G) – Recalled by LV from Reading
1/10/26 Del Yaniv Perets (G) – Loaned to Reading
1/10/26 Del Adam Ginning (D) – Recalled by Flyers from LV
BATTLE WITH THE BRUINS – Providence (24-7-1) has the second-best points percentage in the AHL (.766) and is allowing a paltry 2.09 goals per game to rate second in league defense behind only Grand Rapids. And now the P-Bruins are particularly motivated after their three-game win streak was halted in a 5-1 thrashing at the last-place Hartford Wolf Pack last night.
Defending Baz Bastien Award winner Michael DiPietro (13-4-0, 1.81, .937) between the pipes is as stingy as they come and has the second-best GAA and top save percentage in the AHL. Last year, he received AHL top goaltender honors going 26-8-5, 2.05, .927. The offense ain’t too shabby either averaging 3.28 goals per game to rank 9th in the AHL and first in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins are led by captain Patrick Brown (12-22-34) who is sixth in the AHL in scoring and in his third season with the P-Bruins. following two years with the Flyers from 2021-23. Brown will also captain the Eastern Conference side at the upcoming AHL All-Star Classic in Rockford, IL. Georgii Merkulov (13-14-27) is in his fourth year with Providence and cranked out 30 goals two seasons ago. Rookie Dans Locmelis (13-10-23) has five goals in the last six games and is a fourth-rounder from Latvia who will be joining Phantoms alum Rodrigo Abols at the Olympics next month. The Phantoms dropped a 3-2 nailbiter at Providence on November 21 and this is their last visit to the Ocean State this season.
SCORING LEADERS
Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Lane Pederson 13-14-27
Alex Bump 7-13-20
Anthony Richard 9-10-19
x – Denver Barkey 8-8-16
x – Carl Grundstrom 6-9-15
Alexis Gendron 6-9-15
Christian Kyrou 5-10-15
Providence Scoring Leaders
Patrick Brown 12-22-34
Fabian Lysell 11-17-28
Georgii Merkulov 13-14-27
Riley Tufte 12-12-24
Dans Locmelis 13-10-23
Matthew Poitras 6-14-20
Special Teams PP / PK
LV 19.0%, 16th / 77.4%, 27th
PRO 23.5%, 6th / 82.8%, 9th
Season Series vs. Providence Bruins: (0-1-0):
11/21/25 Away L 2-3
1/11/26 Away
2/25/26 Home
3/18/26 Home
LOOKING AHEAD – The Phantoms return to PPL Center on Friday, January 16 against the Bridgeport Islanders and Saturday, January 17 against the Syracuse Crunch on Air Products Night.
The post PREVIEW: Phantoms at Providence, Game 35 appeared first on Lehigh Valley Phantoms.