PREVIEW: Phantoms vs. Hartford, Game 52

Series Finale on meLVin’s Birthday

TODAY – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (23-23-5) push into March and put the finishing touches on a three-game homestand as well as a weekend series against the Hartford Wolf Pack (20-25-6), AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers. Today’s game is also meLVin’s birthday and is the final meeting of the season between the Phantoms and Wolf Pack.

Lehigh Valley enters today’s game in sixth place in the Atlantic Division, one point behind the fifth-place Bridgeport Islanders. Last-place Hartford is looking to make a move up the standings and currently stands five points behind Lehigh Valley at the playoff cut mark.

Today is Game 52 of the 2025-26 season. There are 21 games to go in the final two months of the regular season before the Calder Cup Playoffs. Lehigh Valley’s Magic Number to clinch a Playoff spot is at 38 points. The Phantoms are 4-0-1 against Hartford this season and four out of the five previousw contests have gone to overtime or shootout.

Fans can browse rosters and Media Materials for tonight’s game at www.phantomshockey.com/media/media-materials/

LAST TIME – It was a history-making night. Lehigh Valley played its longest shootout in team history in a 12-round marathon to secure a valuable standings point while the visiting Hartford Wolf Pack prevailed on a goal by Justin Dowling to finally end the insanity in a 5-4 final. The Wolf Pack did not lead all night long…until the very end of the lengthy battle. Lehigh Valley had leads of 2-0 and 4-2 on goals by Devin Kaplan (5th), Luke Pederson (17th), Phil Tomasino (4th with LV) and Oscar Eklind (3rd). Lehigh Valley even knocked out the starting goaltender, Spencer Martin, with a 2-0 advantage in the first six minutes. But replacement Dylan Garand kept his team in it the rest of the way. And visiting Hartford rallied back twice to tie with Connor Marckey (4th), Adam Sykora (10th), Jusso Parssinen (4th) and Brennan Othmann (7th) all converting for the visitors.

SHOOTOUT MARATHON MADNESS – Last night’s 12-round shootout was the longest in Lehigh Valley history. The game eclipsed the previous longest shootout in Lehigh Valley history on November 1, 2015 with a 10-round win at Hershey on a goal by Kevin Sundher. The longest shootout in PPL Center was a nine-round duel back in the team’s inaugural season when Adam Comrie struck for the winner against the Norfolk Admirals on December 27, 2014. However, the game still fell shy of the franchise-record 15 rounds played by the Adirondack Phantoms against Binghamton Senators on April 14, 2013 when new defenseman Mark Alt scored the goal to finally end the night making a winner of Brian Boucher between the pipes.

Lehigh Valley – Longest Shootouts
12 Rounds – 2/28/2026 – Hartford wins over Lehigh Valley – Justin Dowling
10 Rounds – 11/1/2015 – Lehigh Valley wins at Hershey – Kevin Sundher
9 Rounds – 12/27/2014 – Lehigh Valley wins vs. Norfolk – Adam Comrie

Longest Shootout -Phantoms Franchise History
15 Rounds – 4/14/2013 – Adirondack Phantoms win vs. Binghamton – Mark Alt

GO BONKERS – Oliver Bonk has been heating up with a recent two-game goal streak and four-game point streak. The #22 overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft out of the London Knights of the OHL has now scored 4-5-9 in his rookie season. He also recently enjoyed his first recall to the NHL when he joined the Flyers last week for practices in Voorhees during the NHL’s Olympic Break. Bonk made his belated pro debut on December 6 following a preseason upper-body injury that had delayed his development.
The 6’2″ right-handed shooter won back-to-back OHL titles with London plus a Memorial Cup last year while also twice appearing with Team Canada at the 2024 and 2025 World Juniors. He is the son of Radek Bonk who scored 194 goals and had 497 points in 969 career NHL games with Ottawa, Montreal and Nashville.

GINNING RECALLED – The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled defenseman Adam Ginning from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Additionally, defenseman Vincent Sevigny has been recalled by the Phantoms from the Reading Royals of the ECHL.
Ginning, 26, has played in 30 games with the Phantoms this season scoring 1-3-4. The 6’3″ right-handed shooter began the season with the Philadelphia Flyers where he played in five games. For his career, the fourth-year pro has played in 224 games with the Phantoms scoring 8-47-5. The 2018 second-rounder from Linkoping, Sweden has also played in 16 games with the Flyers scoring one goal.
Sevigny, 24, has played in six games with Lehigh Valley and five games with Syracuse this season on separate PTO’s but signed an AHL contract with the Phantoms on February 9. The 6’3″ lefty shooter has also played in 10 games with the Reading Royals this season scoring 1-5-6. In his career, Sevigny has played in 102 AHL games with Bridgeport, Laval, Lehigh Valley and Syracuse scoring 6-16-22. He has also played in 59 career ECHL games with Trois-Rivieres and Reading scoring 5-20-25. He won a Kelly Cup with the Trois-Rivieres Lions last year.

STREAKS –
Phil Tomasino, 4 game point streak (2-4-6)
Oliver Bonk, 4 game point streak (2-2-4)
Anthony Richard, 4 game point streak (0-4-4)

MILESTONE MANIA –
– Anthony Richard, 200th pro assist (Feb 21, 2026 at Hershey)
– Phil Tomasino, 200th pro point (Feb 20, 2026 at Hershey)
– Max Guenette 100th pro assist (Feb 21, 2026 at Hershey)
– Lehigh Valley, 400th win all-time (Feb 21, 2026 at Hershey)

TRANSACTIONS –
2/21/26 Del Carson Golder (F) – Loaned to Reading
2/21/26 Del Yaniv Perets (G) – Loaned to Reading
2/22/26 Del Massimo Rizzo (F) – Reassigned to Reading from LV
2/25/26 Del Vincent Sevigny (D) – Loaned to Reading
2/25/26 Add Adam Ginning (D) – Loaned to LV by PHI
3/1/26 Del Adam Ginning (D) -Recalled to PHI
3/1/26 Add Vincent Sevigny (D) – Recalled by LV from Reading

HARTFORD HAPPENINGS – It has largely been a struggle for last-place Hartford (20-25-6) but the Wolf Pack have potentially snapped out of their losing ways via a current three-game win streak. Pretty impressive turnaround for a team that got shellacked 9-0 at Charlotte a week earlier. The Pack are 28th in total offense at 2.61 goals per game and rate only 29th in team defense allowing 3.41 per game. Former Cleveland Monsters legend Trey Fix-Wolansky (18-15-33) leads the offense for Grant Potulny’s gang. Veteran Justin Dowling (10-19-29) had the 12th round shootout winner on Saturday and played for the New Jersey Devils last year. Reinforcements arrived last week with the return of Brett Berard (6-12-18) and first-rounder Brennan Othmann (6-8-14) from the New York Rangers and they also added longtime Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Travis Dermott who is looking for a career comeback following offseason shoulder surgery. Goaltender Spencer Martin (2-5-2, 3.28, .890) joined from the KHL in November. The 30-year-old AHL veteran of 252 career games impressively bounced back from a nine-goal shellacking at Charlotte to post a shutout win against Belleville but then got pulled in the first six minutes with a 2-0 deficit against the Phantoms on Saturday.

Lehigh Valley has gone 4-0-1 against the Wolf Pack including the 12-round shootout loss on Saturday, the first time the Pack have defeated the Phantoms this season. On December 20 at PPL Center it was a four-round shootout win for Lehigh Valley in the Teddy Bear Tossa game. The Phantoms won back-to-back overtime decisions at Hartford over Halloween weekend via Lane Pederson and Cooper Marody victory strikes. Four of the five games have gone to overtime and three of of Lehigh Valley’s wins have included rallies from third-period deficits.

SCORING LEADERS
Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Lane Pederson 17-17-34
Anthony Richard 13-18-31
Christian Kyrou 8-21-29
Alex Bump 10-14-24
Jacob Gaucher 11-12-23
Tucker Robertson 11-12-23

Hartford Scoring Leaders
Trey Fix-Wolansky 18-15-33
Justin Dowling 9-20-29
Derrick Pouliot 1-26-27
Jaroslav Chmelar 8-17-25
Adam Sykora 10-12-22

Special Teams PP / PK
LV 18.3%, 19th / 76.2%, 31st / PP vs. HFD 4-17, 23.5%
HFD 15.2%, 27th / 81.4%, 15th / PP vs. LV 3-15, 20.0%

SEASON SERIES vs. Hartford Wolf Pack: (4-0-1)
10/31/25 Away W 4-3 (OT)
11/1/25 Away W 4-3 (OT)
11/22/25 Away W 3-2
12/20/25 Home W 2-1 (SO)
2/28/26 Home SOL 4-5 (SO)
3/1/26 Home

LOOKING AHEAD – The Phantoms then travel to the Utica Comets for a Tuesday night tilt before returning to PPL Center for a pair of games on our PA-250 weekend hosting the Charlotte Checkers on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7.

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