‘Hockey Night’ returns from holiday hiatus to celebrate…Happy Hour! The Phantoms point streak to start 2025 came to a close with a poor showing Sunday in Bridgeport. Now, Belleville is in town for a mid-week tilt as we kick off the second half of the 2024-25 season. Let’s have a Hockey Night!
It was just the second 3/3 of the season and the results have been similar: It’s not a place this team does well. We’ve got another in January and one in February so it’s not excessive.
As far as jerseys, It looks like with the second half, we’re starting to make the switch to whites on the road. That means colors at home. I envision mostly the orange–but the alternate black could start getting more run as well. I’m not sure if the ‘black out’ and ‘white out’ have more uses scheduled. I think we’ll see some other special jersey or jerseys at some point, rather than just the toy warm-up jerseys. We’ll see; I don’t have any verifiable information.
Records:
Overall: 17-14-5-1 (5th Place in Division; tied on points for 4th)
Home: 9-5-2-1
Away: 8-9-3
White Jerseys: 10-6-1
White-Out Jerseys: 1-1
Orange Jerseys: 3-4-1
Black Alternate Jerseys: 3-2-2-1
Black-Out Jerseys: 0-1-1
Fridays: 4-4-2
Saturdays: 8-4-2
Sundays: 0-2-0-1
Wednesdays: 4-1-1
Tuesday/Thursday: 1-3
Sunday 3/3: 0-1-0-1
Post-Game Player Event Day: 2-0
October: 2-3-1-1
November: 7-3-2
December: 4-7-1
January: 4-1-1
How Did We Get Here?
Charlotte helped the Hamilton Street Heroes close out a pretty dismal December with a 6-3 drubbing not favoring the home team at the PPL Center. Then, the team set out on the road. First, in Utica, the Phantoms beat the last-place Devils affiliate 4-2. Then, in Syracuse, the we took the two points on an overtime winner–not unusual for this squad. A Tuesday tilt in Hershey yielded a 5-4 win which might not have been that close without help from the striped team. Last Friday, here on home ice, the Phantoms took their turn in the overtime loss column with Hartford, then set out for two road games in the 3/3. They were able to blank Hartford in a non-overtime game, 3-0, but turned around and laid an egg to woeful Bridgeport 5-0 on Sunday.
An quick rant on Bridgeport. It seems like that team is terrible and weak every season and they start really slow. Yet, the Phantoms only get to play them a handful of times and never until near the second half of the season when they’re figuring it out. The New England teams get to play them more often and sooner, padding their win totals. Even the other Pennsylvania teams get to play them sooner in the season. I know travel is a concern but the need to play Scranton and the powerhouse Hershey team 400 times per season makes for a rather unfair and unbalanced schedule. That said, the Phantoms really need to take care of business against teams like that and they really really didn’t.
Player Notes
Primeau (F) and Bernard (D) were added for the road games to start the year. Primeau was promptly returned to Reading–perhaps they dropped him off on the way home from Hershey.
Olle Lycksell remains in Philadelphia. He was named the lone representative for the Phantoms, to the AHL All Star Game in California February 2-3. If he can’t go, do the Phantoms get to add someone else so that they have representation? I would assume so. Are they even going to be able to play this game due to the fires in California? I don’t know.
Lines For The Shutout Saturday Night in Harford:
17 Wilson 22 Gardner 13 Furry
43 Eklind 18 Abols 72 Gendron
16 Avon 56 Gaucher 74 Wisdom
91 Desnoyers 73 Rizzo 27 Tuomaala
37 Ginning 7 Belpedio
6 Andrae 3 Grans
55 Bernard 8 Gleason
31 Gahagen (40 Petersen)
Notes: Samson and McDonald sat for this game but returned for the game in Bridgeport the following day. Also of note: F Anthony Richard returned to the lineup Sunday for the first time since early December.
From Phantoms Media:
– 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.
GAME DAY!
It’s another Happy Hour Wednesday game for a Phantoms team who usually plays pretty well on Hump Day. From doors open to the drop of the puck you can get a tiny draft of Miller or Lager for just a couple bucks!
Belleville is in town! The Ottawa affiliate is coming off an interesting weekend where they got smoked by Wilkes on Friday night then came back and beat the Pens affiliate on Sunday. Now, their stateside trip will get cut short because Wilkes can’t get their ice right–must be the same clowns who take care of the turf in Moosic (come and find me if you need to know more about that joke…). The Sens will head to Hershey on Friday before going home.
This will be the first meeting with this team this season; the Phantoms will head back to Canada at the end of March. Belleville currently sits in sixth place out of seven in the AHL North. You’ll recognize #22 Pilon for his years of work with the Bears as well as his ubiquitous presence during road construction projects. Our old friend Hayden Hodgson is #42 and blue-liner Wyatte Wylie is #38.
Here’s what Phantoms Media wrote about the game:
“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.”
Special Teams: Belleville has the 21st ranked Power Play unit in the country, which drops to 27th on the road. Their Penalty Kill is 28th, but rises all the way to #9 as a road unit!
The Phantoms currently have the #17 Power Play which rises to #10 at home–and the 15 PK which drops to 18 at home.
Game Info: Doors at 6PM for the public–5:45 for season ticket members. Good seats are plentiful for this game and start at just $15 on the secondary market. The game will be televised by Service Electric and you can hear the radio call over the air or via streaming. Parking should be widely available at a number of downtown decks and lots–pre-purchase parking via ParkMobile if you want to park in the Arena/Orange Deck for $7.
MEDIA KIT
OFFICIALS
Referee Mason Riley (#79)
Referee Hayden Verbeek (#61)
Linesperson John Rey (#16)
Linesperson J.P. Waleski (#14)
Scouting the Refs: Riley we’ve had a couple times. Mostly unremarkable but one time his crew really liked calling icing. We had our first really bad ref game last week in Hershey, from what I heard from several sources. That game was Rumble and Tobias, a pair I don’t have on my list at all–but will watch out for.
What To Watch
- While I’d normally have Peterson listed as the puck tamer tonight, coming off a weekend where Gahagen got a shutout and Peterson got lit up–I’m looking for Parker in net tonight.
- Watch Richard if he’s out there. How does he look? Is he getting involved with scoring chances?
- Watch Rizzo. He looks bigger than his listed H/W. Is he moving his feet? Is he getting to the net and creating scoring chances for himself or others?
- Watch to see how much success the Phantoms have on the Power Play. Which PK rating seems right for Belleville?
- Watch Gaucher and Gendron. Those are the guys finishing goals these days. Who are they lined up with? How’s the chemistry? What are they doing to get the quality chances?
- Watch Samu. Is he slowing down? He has a ton of assists, though, is he setting up the G-brothers (above)?
Up Next
This weekend it’s home/home with Rochester–AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. Friday will be in upstate New York while Saturday we’ll be back here at the PPL Center for Saturday Night Hockey Live and Air Products Night (for some reason).
See you at the arena,
@Kram207
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