Happy New Year! After two weekend roadies, the Phantoms are back in town to begin the 2026 portion of their 2025-26 season. Bridgeport is in town and the hot dogs are cheap! Let’s go!
“There is a road, no simple highwayBetween the dawn and the dark of nightAnd if you go, no one may followThat path is for your steps alone”
-Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia “Ripple”
Welcome Home!
The Phantoms went 3-1 over their four road games the past two weekends, gathering six of eight possible standings points. All three wins were of the ‘regulation’ variety, which can be important for tiebreakers–but 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). Here’s how things stack up right now:
Records and Standings
Record: 19-12-2-2
Standings: Fourth in the Atlantic as Charlotte jumped us this weeek
Home: 9-4-1-1 (Tied for fewest home games in division)
Away: 10-8-1-1 (#1 most away games in division)
Recent: 3-1 last 4 games on the road; 5-1-1 during “Winter Semester”
Overtime: 3-2
Shootout: 4-2
Friday: 4-5
Saturday: 11-1-0-2
Sunday: 2-3-1
[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: 3-1
White “Road” Jerseys: 8-4-1-1
Black with Orange “Alternate” Jerseys: 4-3-1-1
Orange “Home” Jerseys: 5-2
“Black-Out” Jerseys: 0-1
“Faux-Back” Keystone Black: 2-2
Post-Game Fan Event Game: 2-0
Player Update
- D Ty Murchison broke his arm (badly, per reports) during a fight in Springfield last Saturday. He’s month-to-month at this point.
- G Yaniv Perets made a brief roster appearance, which may mean that a goalie is nicked up somewhere in Allentown or Philadelphia, but no one has missed a start that we could see, and Perets was returned to Baseballtown. And, then he was called up again, as G Aleksei Kolosov heades to Philadelphia.
- D Adam Ginning returned from Philadelphia
- F Alex Bump returned from his injury (per ‘Phantoms Update‘) but has missed the last couple games, again.
Bridgeport
We saw Bridgeport back on Friday 12/19 at the PPL Center (Hockey Night) and the Phantoms got trounced, 5-1. The Phantoms won by the same score on Wednesday 11/5 over at their place; the season series is tied at 1-1. Bridgeport comes in having won both their games at home last weekend versus Hartford and Utica. They have relinquished last place to Hartford in the Atlantic and are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games. Their goalies hail from the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Finland and Michigan. Old friend Capt. Parker Gahagen is with this franchise, but was recently loaned to ECHL Worcester.
GAME DAY!
It’s ‘Dollar Dog Night’ at the arena for the First Friday Home game!
Game Time: Event: 7:05PM, Doors: 6:00PM, Premier Members: 5:45PM, Actual Hockey: 7:17PM
Tickets: Widely available. Deals on the secondary market are out there.
Parking: No news to report. Construction continues at 7th and Hamilton; watch your step.
Promotion: $1 Berks hot dogs from doors until the end of the first period.
Media Kit: Bridgeport 2
Officials: Referees: Ben Betker (#42), Hayden Verbeek (#61) Lines: Luke Pye (#42), John Rey (#16)
What To Watch
- Watch for Bjarnason to get the heavy lifting with Kolosov in Philly. We’ll see if Perets gets tomorrow’s game or not.
- Watch for orange–or black–sweaters as we’re in the second half and wearing colors at home. They’ve been kind of inconsistent in how they used those two jerseys on the road in the first half. The Back Out and the Keystone Faux-backs could also make an appearance from time to time. We’ll watch for warmies or gamers for the Olympics coming up next month, too.
- Watch to see if Bump can get back into the lineup.
- Watch Tomasino. There hasn’t been a ton written about that trade and it sure seems like it was a case of Pittsburgh screwing Wilkes-Barre. However, is there anything about his play that makes you think he’s not a scoring asset for our team?
- Watch the defense. It’s not that they’ve been incompetent or unable to move the puck. It’s more just general sloppiness and occasional narcolepsy. When they’re on point, we win. And that includes the penalty kill. Here at Hockey Night we’re expecting that when the revolving door of blueliners slows down a bit, more consistency will follow.
- Watch the lines. It’s been a weeks since they played, so didn’t copy most recent above. We’ll look at that tomorrow.
Up Next
Syracuse in town tomorrow. Then head to Bridgeport for a Monday matinee on MLK Day.
See you at the arena,
@Kram207