The Phantoms survived a period of adversity, but now things are looking up for the Hamilton Street Heroes. Let’s see what happened, where they are, and what’s next.
What Hapened
Joking from this column aside, the Checkers had problems with their plane for the flight to Allentown last Saturday, which postponed the game until Monday. Our “just leave earlier we’re tired of your special treatment” retort was met with AHL rules about the holiday break.
Phantoms won by shootout on Sunday afternoon versus the first-place Penguins, who have been scuffling of late–they’ve had some roster challenges we don’t envy. More on the Penguins as we go along here. The Phantoms came out on Monday versus the Checkers and played some of the worst hockey we’ve seen in some time around these parts. They somehow managed to push it to overtime, where they lost, for the “much-needed standings point.” However, following the game, Coach Snowden was having none of it; he was very critical of his team and how they played, which is good to see because they deserve that. Sure enough, following an off-day on Tuesday, the team came out and played much, much better versus Hershey.
The 3-0 shutout win during a matinee home game on New Years Eve was a thing of beauty versus the hated Bears team. Their horrible fans who somehow get their bells through the metal detector, had to limp home without even getting a chance to celebrate a goal scored. Hats off to Aleksei Kolosov for the shutout, as well as the defense in front of him blocking shots all afternoon. It was a great regulation win and a great way to close out 2025.
Off to the Great White North and a Saturday evening tilt with the Belleville Senators. A new-look lineup (see below) played well and the blue-liners got into the scoring act. Only a late power play goal kept Bjarnason from the shutout in a dominant 3-1 win, another of the regulation variety.
The Phantoms concluded their six-game holiday home stand 3-2-1 with seven of a possible 12 standings points. It wasn’t great, but the roster adversity came and went without any significant damage.
Where We Are
Well, we’re in Canada. Not the Hockey Night staff, of course. Just the team and a couple of key fans. They’ll play a matinee Sunday game in Toronto later this afternoon before returning home for a week of practice.
Here’s what the records look like prior to the Toronto game:
Records and Standings
Record: 17-11-2-2
Standings: Tied in points for third place in the AHL Atlantic
Home: 9-4-1-1
Away: 8-7-1-1
Recent: 2-2 on home stand; two straight shootout wins.
Overtime: 3-2
Shootout: 4-2
Friday: 4-5
Saturday: 9-1-0-2
Sunday: 1-2-1
[Sunday 3/3: 0-1-1]
Monday:.0-0-1
Wednesday: 3-3
October: 5-3-0-1
November: 5-3-1-1
December: 5-5-1
January: 1-0
White “Home” Jerseys: 8-3-1-1
Black with Orange “Road” Jerseys: 4-3-1-1
Orange “Alternate” Jerseys: 4-2
“Black-Out” Jerseys: 0-1
“Faux-Back” Keystone Black: 1-2
Post-Game Fan Event Game: 2-0
Around The Division
Hockey Night doesn’t spend a lot of time looking at the division until the end of the season, but lately some things have been notable:
Wilkes/Barre: The mighty Penguins have been in first place or close to it, the entire season thus far. But the combination of injuries, call-ups and trades (see below) have left them with an inconsistent group that has been abused a bit of late. We’ll get to Charlotte in a minute, but after they beat Hershey in Hershey they came to Allentown for the game described above, then on the third game in three days all on the road, they spanked the Penguins on Casey Plaza. This before Syracuse crushed the Pens. The attrition is catching up with the black and yellow at this point in the season.
Charlotte: They are surging and may be playing the best hockey in the division right now, although they did take a loss in Cleveland last night and the magnitude of their road trip may be catching up to them. Despite the Phantoms current point streak, they have been unable to jump them in the standings.
Providence: Along with the fake Penguins, they’ve been the class of the division thus far. They remain solidly in second place and are closing in on the foundering Penguins. We’ll visit them next weekend in their place; it’ll be a Sunday matinee where the Bruins affiliate is finishing a three-in-three and the Phantoms will have the rest advantage.
Hershey: What we saw last Wednesday at PPL Center was a team that doesn’t play the same smothering defense that they have the last couple years. They don’t play a wide-open style and are not adept at scoring, so playing in a negative game-state is not to their advantage. They have some goalies, as usual, but don’t defend in front of them the same way.
Springfield, Hartford and Bridgeport bring up the bottom of the division. At least one of them will be a playoff team (looking way too far ahead, third place might be a good place to finish) and as we saw last week when Springfield and Bridgeport both beat the Phantoms at home, they are not to be taken lightly.
Roster Update
- F Massimo Rizzo recalled from Reading
- G Yaniv Perets returned to Reading
- F Hunter Johannes returned to Reading
- RW Phil Tomasino* received in TRADE with Penguins, for D Egor Zamula
- F Anthony Richard returned from Spengler Cup/ Team Canada
- D Carter Berger released to pursue opportunities overseas
- F Carson Golder returned to Reading
*Tomasino is a former first-round pick of Nashville out of Juniors. He has NHL time with both Nashville and Pittsburgh. Over parts of four seasons at the AHL level, Tomasino has played 104 games, scored 41 goals and 97 points and accumulated +27 in the +/-. This season, following 9 games in Pittsburgh, he was among the points leaders in Scranton and tops in +/- on the squad. As recently as last Sunday, he was the top-line right winger for that team. He’s not a savior for this team, but some veteran, proven talent to replace Carl Grundstrom who will not likely return from Philadelphia, one way or another. Tomasino is just 24 years old. While it has been notable that the Flyers/Phantoms have moved on from a few defensemen, they’ve also brought a few in and continue to remake the group. It may raise some eyebrows, but it’s better than pounding square pegs into round holes all season and having the team suffer for it. In this case, the Phantoms received a significant piece in the exchange.
In addition to Tomasino and the return of Anthony Richard, F Alex Bump slots back in following some time off for a minor injury.
Lines last night in Belleville:
21 Bump 25 Pederson 22 Robertson
90 Richard 26 Tomasino 20 Marody
43 Eklind 56 Gaucher 12 Kaplan
17 Wilson 23 Dorwart 74 Wisdom
4 Murchison 82 Guenette
3 Grans 59 Bonk
19 MCDonald 15 Kyrou
64 Bjarnason (Backup: 35 Kolosov)
Where We’re Going
As mentioned above, the Phantoms will return from Canada for a week of practice before heading to New England for another Saturday/Sunday weekend with Springfield and Providence. We’ll have home games in the three following weekends to close out January. The next home game is Friday 1/16.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207
[…] also is a nice sign that the team is playing well. The roster has been coming together (see also: Phantoms Update from two weeks ago for full roster update) but there have been some footnotes (see below). […]