Steve Kuzma/Flyerdelphia After snapping an eight-game winless streak on Friday night, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms have found the winning touch, at least that's what it feels like. On Saturday night, they turned in another solid performance and claimed a 2-1 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack at PPL Center. Much like last night, the Phantoms jumped out early, when Davis Drewiske's fifth of the season put Lehigh Valley up just 33 seconds into the contest. After a board battle behind the net, Petr Straka found Drewiske alone in the near circle, and he rifled a one-timer past Magnus Hellberg. A... Continue reading

Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia Looking to bounce back from an 8-0 loss to the Hershey Bears on Wednesday that head coach Scott Gordon termed "disgraceful," the Lehigh Valley Phantoms bounced back in a big way, defeating the Providence Bruins 4-3 on Friday night at PPL Center. The Phantoms came out flying in the first, scoring less than four minutes in. Providence goalie Jeremy Smith went behind the net and threw the puck directly to Chris Conner, who put the puck into the empty cage. The goal was unassisted. Less than two minutes later, a deflected Colin McDonald shot from the slot bounced... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia It was the same old song and dance on Saturday night for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. For the last three games, the team has staged a late game rally to earn at least a point. Tonight, it wasn't enough. Jordan Subban's third-period goal pushed the Utica Comets to a 2-1 victory Saturday night at PPL Center. Although there was no scoring in the first period, the Comets dominated play, outshooting Lehigh Valley, 12-3. The only thing that kept the game scoreless was the stellar play in net of Anthony Stolarz. Colin McDonald came closest to giving the... Continue reading

Points are the name of the game for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Tonight they got one, but it easily could have been two. The Phantoms failed to score on a four-minute power play in overtime, and the Hartford Wolf Pack won the shootout, 2-0, to collect a 3-2 victory at PPL Center on Friday night. Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia After falling to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Saturday night, the team they are chasing in the standings, to say that Sunday evening's tilt against the Springfield Falcons was a must was an understatement. Cue Lehigh Valley Phantoms defenseman Mark Alt. Alt's rising slapshot with 2.8 seconds left in regulation secured a massive two points in the standings as the Phantoms downed Springfield, 5-4. In what was a penalty-filled first period, Cole Bardreau's ninth gave the Phantoms an early lead. Parked in the slot, Bardreau took a feed from behind the net from Chris Conner and wired... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia This weekend is a crucial juncture for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in their quest to make the American Hockey League playoffs. Coming into Friday's battle with the Springfield Falcons, the Phantoms sat 10 points behind the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, who hold the last playoff spot in the division. Coincidentally, Bridgeport invades the PPL Center Saturday night. But first the Phantoms had to address the task at hand. Good old fashioned toughness got it done. Aaron Palushaj and Cole Bardreau tallied goals, and Anthony Stolarz made 37 saves to backstop Lehigh Valley to a tight 2-1 victory Friday... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss Coming into tonight's matchup with Utica, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Simply wanted to build off Friday Night's loss to the Portland Pirates. Even though they lost 2-1, the prevailing theory was that they ran into a hot goalie and, if they could produce that type of grinding effort, crucial wins would come. The Utica Comets had other ideas. Three different players recorded a goal and an assist, and Richard Bachman stopped 21 of 23 shots as the Comets downed the Phantoms 5-2 at PPL Center. In the first, the Phantoms controlled the first 6 minutes. Even though... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia Sometimes in hockey, you put out a fantastic effort and no matter how hard you try, a win to is just out of reach. On Friday night at PPL Center, Portland Pirates goaltender Mike McKenna made sure his team was leaving downtown Allentown with two points. McKenna stopped 45 of 46 shots, and Kyle Rau, Rocco Grimaldi and Greg McKegg added goals as the Pirates forged a 3-1 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in front of a sellout crowd of 8,600. Like so many other times this season, the Phantoms came out hard and fast. So... Continue reading

On Monday Night, the American Hockey League held their first All-Star Challenge, in Syracuse, NY. Unlike your typical All-Star format where it's opposing conferences, this event mirrored the NHL's event from Sunday in Nashville. Each of the league's four divisions -- the North, Atlantic, Pacific and Central -- each fielded their own team, consisting of 11 skaters and two goaltenders. All games were nine minutes long, and all games started 4-on-4. At the 4:30 mark, the horn sounded and it became 3-on-3. For the championship, it was six minutes of 3-on-3. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms had two representatives, forward Nick... Continue reading

On Wednesday night, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tried to accomplish something they hadn't all season: complete a three-game winning streak. Behind a five-point game from Colin McDonald, who had a hat trick and two assists, and two goals from All-Star Nick Cousins, the Phantoms downed the Binghamton Senators, 6-3, on Wednesday night at PPL Center. For the 22nd time this season, Lehigh Valley got on the board first when McDonald redirected a Cousins centering pass in the slot through the legs of Senators' netminder Matt O'Connor at 7:30. The power-play goal was McDonald's fifth of the season. The lead was... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia Monday night, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms traveled to Chocolate Town, USA to take on the Hershey Bears. The game was supposed to be played Saturday, but due to Winter Storm Jonas, the game was moved to Monday. Perhaps the extra rest paid off. Cole Bardreau had two goals, including one shorthanded, and Taylor Leier had a goal and two assists. All of that led to a wild 6-5 shootout victory. In an evenly played first, it was Lehigh Valley that tallied first. With Danick Martel in the penalty box for high sticking, Davis Drewiske sprang Leier and... Continue reading

Embed from Getty Images The key number tonight? 42. That's the number of saves the Hershey Bears' Justin Peters made on Friday. That was the difference in a game the Phantoms probably should have won. Instead, they lost their fourth in a row/ In a back and forth first, both teams each had a great chance. Hershey's Nathan Walker put a shot over the top of the net. A minute later, Danick Martel tried to connect with Nick Cousins on a two on one, but Martel's shot went just wide. Kevin Goumas was stopped by Peters on a back door... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia The mantra of head coach Scott Gordon has been for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to get more shots on goal. He figured that if they could do that, scoring would take care of itself. That's exactly what happened on Saturday night. Unfortunately for Gordon & Co, those shots didn't translate to two points. Mike Sislo, Reece Scarlett and Matt Lorito all had multiple points as the Albany Devils posted a 4-2 victory. The largest positive coming into the battle was the Phantoms' tremendous penalty kill. They hadn't allowed a goal to an opponent on the power play... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss Coming into tonight's contest against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms were just trying to stem the momentum of domination that the visitors had over them. Since a Dec. 4 victory in Wilkes-Barre Township, Lehigh Valley has been vexed by the flightless birds. That continued on Friday night, despite the Phantoms' best efforts. Josh Archibald had two goals, and reigning AHL Goaltender of the Year Matt Murray made 20 saves to push the visitors to a 4-3 victory before a sellout crowd at PPL Center. Archibald got the Penguins on the board first when he deflected... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia After Friday's loss to Bridgeport, Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon said the team needed to get more shots on net. The Phantoms unleashed 39 shots on the Binghamton Senators tandem of Matt O'Connor and Chris Driedger. The problem? They stopped 38. Andrew MacDonald scored the lone Lehigh Valley tally, and Matthew Puempel netted Binghamton's regulation goal and the winner in the shootout, as the Phantoms fell 2-1 on Tuesday night. Gordon's message was received early, as the Phantoms had a total of 17 shots in the opening frame. At 10:39, the Phantoms got on the... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia Coming off of the holiday layoff, it was expected that the Lehigh Valley Phantoms would have some jump in their battle with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The jump was never there. Taylor Beck and Joe Whitney scored goals, and Christopher Gibson (pictured) made 21 saves as the Sound Tigers edged the Phantoms 2-1 before a sellout crowd of 8,886 fans at PPL Center on Saturday Night. Bridgeport had the jump early in the opening period, and it paid off as Bridgeport got on the board first with Beck's 8th of the season at 5:24. Having just exited... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia The power play for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms has been boom or bust this season, with no in between. It was boom at the perfect time for the Phantoms on Friday night. Maxim LaMarche and Nick Cousins scored power play goals less than four minutes apart in the second period, and Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves to help the Phantoms outlast the Hershey Bears, 6-4. It wasn't looking pretty, early. After Sam Morin notched his second of the season at 3:42 off of a point slapshot from a faceoff. Hershey then reeled off three consecutive goals. Paul... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss Last week, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms were shutout by Matt Murray and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. This week? Different goaltender, same result. Tristan Jarry (pictured) had a 17 save shutout, and Clark Seymour, Jean-Sebastien Dea, and Bryan Rust added goals as the Penguins downed the Phantoms before a standing-room only crowd of 8,468 Wednesday night at PPL Center in Allentown. In the first, The Penguins controlled puck possession and zone time in large chunks. Midway through the period, their efforts paid off. Seymour rifled a slapshot from the near point and deflected off of Phantoms' defenseman Maxim LaMarche... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia It was teddy bear toss night for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and they were looking to rebound from a shutout Friday night at the hands of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Nobody expected that the addition of Andrew MacDonald would pay immediate dividends in the goal column, but it did. MacDonald scored two goals, Anthony Stolarz made 33 saves, including both shots he faced in the shootout, and Petr Straka scored the shootout deciding goal as the Phantoms defeated the Springfield Falcons 5-4 Saturday night at PPL Center. Lehigh Valley's penalty kill continued to excel as they kept the... Continue reading

Photo: Steve Kuzma/Flyerdelphia Forrest Gump once said: "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." The same could currently be said for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. From night to night, you just don't know what kind of performance they'll have. After a morale boosting overtime defeat of the Hershey Bears on Wednesday, the Phantoms were looking to defeat one of the AHL's top teams in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. They were behind practically from the start. Dominik Simon and Scott Wilson each had 2 goals, and Matt Murray had 23 saves for his 4th shutout... Continue reading

Photo: Steve Kuzma/Flyerdelphia The Lehigh Valley Phantoms were looking for revenge after last Saturday's overtime defeat to the Hershey Bears. Thanks to Nick Cousins, they got it. Petr Straka and Danick Martel scored third period goals to erase a two-goal deficit, and Cousins scored 3:45 into overtime to secure a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night at PPL Center. Lehigh Valley came out flying in the first, getting numerous quality chances, but it was Hershey that got on the board first. With Sam Morin in the box for cross-checking, Connor Carrick blasted a shot from the circle that leaked through the... Continue reading

Photo: Steve Kuzma/Flyerdelphia The Lehigh Valley Phantoms had been on a roll coming into Saturday night's. Anthony Stolarz had been incredible between the pipes, and they were getting scoring from nearly everyone on the roster. The power play had continued to struggle, just as it had for most of this campaign. Saturday's game was much of the same, as the power play went 0-for-5 and Stolarz made 42 saves. Chris Bourque scored with 20.4 remaining to give the Hershey Bears a 2-1 victory on Saturday in Hershey. Lehigh Valley had two tries with the man-advantage in the first 10 minutes... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia Coming into Friday's battle at the Mohegan Sun Arena, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins had only lost two games all season. None of those losses had come at home. Until now. Aaron Palushaj, Mark Alt and Taylor Leier recorded goals, and Anthony Stolarz made a season-high 35 saves to lead the Lehigh Valley Phantoms past the Penguins on Friday night by a score of 3-1. It looked like it might be a rough night, as Conor Sheary got the home team on the board just 2:58 into the opening frame. There was a net-mouth scramble when Sheary picked out... Continue reading

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia Lately, it seems as Anthony Stolarz went, so did the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. When Stolarz went down with an injury on November 25 in Utica, the Phantoms seemed to struggle. After beating Hershey in a shootout Friday, they were flat against Providence on Saturday. Stolarz returned to the lineup on Wednesday night, ironically in Utica, and the Phantoms took the two points by a score of 3-1. The Comets got an early power play just 2:13 in when Jesper Pettersson took a tripping penalty. They couldn't convert, and Evan Rankin got his first goal since being signed... Continue reading

Photo: Steve Kuzma/Flyerdelphia For most of this season, you could say that despite a loss, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms gave a complete effort. Not tonight. Brandon DeFazio, Seth Griffith and Anton Blidh scored goals, while Malcolm Subban made 18 saves for the shutout. That led to the Providence Bruins winning, 3-0, Saturday night at PPL Center. For most of the first period, it was back and forth with very few chances. The Phantoms had just six shots in the period, and two came from Danick Martel for their best chance of the period. With 3:30 left, Martel took a shot... Continue reading