Pre-Playoff Push
April 9, 2025
Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are IN! The Phantoms have clinched a berth in the Calder Cup Playoffs for a third consecutive season.
But before the Phantoms participate in the AHL’s Big Dance, there are still four games remaining in the regular season. Lehigh Valley will look to gain momentum and cohesion in advance of the team’s first-round Best of 3 series which will begin a few days after the conclusion of the regular season on April 19.
Lehigh Valley (33-27-8) is tied for fifth-place with Springfield and will enter the postseason as a 5 or 6 seed.
Friday sees the Phantoms visiting the Syracuse Crunch before returning to PPL Center on Saturday for the second-to-last home game of the regular season on Star Wars Night against the Hershey Bears.
LAST WEEK
April 2 – Phantoms 4 – Bridgeport Islanders 1
April 4 – Hershey Bears 2 – Phantoms 1
April 5 – Springfield Thunderbirds 1 – Phantoms 0 (OT)
THE WEEK AHEAD
Friday, April 11 (7:00) – Phantoms at Syracuse Crunch
Saturday, April 12 (7:05) – Hershey Bears at Phantoms
WEEKLY RECAP
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Phantoms 4 – Bridgeport Islanders 1
The Phantoms had this one locked up before the afternoon! In the unusual morning start in Bridgeport, CT, Anthony Richard (16th) scored in the first three minutes while Alexis Gendron (19th) kept it going for a 2-0 lead in the first period. J.R. Avon (6th) and Ethan Samson (11th) completed the scoring while Parker Gahagen (25/26) was steady as usual in the win.
Friday, April 4, 2025
Hershey Bears 2 – Phantoms 1
Alexis Gendron (20th) became just the third Lehigh Valley rookie to score 20 goals in a season as he broke Clay Stevenson’s shutout bid in the third period but Hershey held off a 6-on-4 power play at the end to preserve a tight 2-1 win at PPL Center on Friday night. The Phantoms outshot the Bears 33-17 but Luke Philp and Spencer Smallman found the back of the net for the Chocolate and White. Sawyer Boulton earned his support in a fiery fight against Hersheys Dalton Smith, son of former Philadelphia Flyer Derrick Smith.
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Springfield 1 – Lehigh Valley 0 (OT)
For a game with no scoring for over 64 minutes, there sure was a lot of action. Goaltenders Parker Gahagen and Vadim Zherenko stood on their heads in the intense and exciting goaltenders’ duel. Gahagen desperately sprawled backward and threw out his arm on the ice to deny Nikita Alexandrov point-blank on three consecutive chances in the second period. Lehigh Valley blasted away for eight shots on goal in the overtime but Ellis was equal to all of them including Ethan Samson’s breakaway and a shot from Anthony Richard in tight that went up and over and then off the top of the crossbar and back out. New addition Calen Addison’s first goal with the T-Birds was the only marker for either side to conclude only the second regular-season game in Lehigh Valley history to go to overtime in a 0-0 deadlock.
OLLE ARRIVES – The Philadelphia Flyers have returned forward Olle Lycksell to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Lycksell, 25, leads the Phantoms in scoring with 17-24-41 in just 40 games played. He also represented the Phantoms at the AHL All-Star Classic in Coachella Valley, Cal. Lycksell had a nine-game point streak from February 14 through March 1 which is the second-longest in Lehigh Valley history. Lycksell has played in 19 games with the Flyers this season scoring 0-5-5. The Osksarshamn, Sweden product has played in 131 career games with the Phantoms scoring 50-75-125 and also 45 NHL games with the Flyers scoring 1-10-11.
MEDIA MATERIALS – Fans can browse rosters and Media Materials for upcoming games at the following link: https://www.phantomshockey.com/media-materials/
ON TO THE PLAYOFFS – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms have punched their ticket to the Calder Cup Playoffs for a third consecutive season. Nine players have spent parts of the 2024-25 season playing for both the Phantoms and the Philadelphia Flyers including Emil Andrae, Rodrigo Abols, Aleksei Kolosov, Jacob Gaucher, Adam Ginning, Helge Grans, Jett Luchanko, Olle Lycksell and Anthony Richard.
This is the fifth time for Lehigh Valley to qualify for the playoffs and it is also the 15th time for the franchise which began as the Philadelphia Phantoms in 1996. Making it in for three consecutive seasons has not happened since the Philadelphia Phantoms qualified in each of their first six seasons from 1997 through 2002. The Philadelphia Phantoms twice won the Calder Cup in 1998 and exactly 20 years ago in 2005.
PARK IT! – Stopping pucks has been a walk in the park for 31-year-old Army Captain Parker Gahagen. In his second season with the Phantoms, the lifelong ECHL’er has more than found his stride at the AHL level and has become one of the best goaltenders in the league since the Holiday Break.
Since December 28, Gahagen has gone 10-2-2, 1.83, .933. Among goaltenders with five or more games played in that stretch, Gahagen rates second in the entire AHL trailing only Matt Murray of Toronto (5-4-1, 1.62, .937).
In his last three games since his return to the Phantoms from Reading, Gahagen has gone 2-0-1, 0.98, .963 allowing exactly one goal in each of his last three games with 77 saves on 80 shots.
PHANTASTIC – Lehigh Valley is 20-1-1 when scoring four or more goals in a game. The Phantoms are 22-1-3 when holding their opponents to two goals or fewer.
– The Phantoms are 24-7-4 when scoring the first goal and are 19-4-1 when leading at the first intermission.
– Second-year pro Ethan Samson is the first Phantoms defenseman to score 10 or more goals in a season since Ronnie Attard had 12 goals in 2022-23 and is only the fourth blueliner in Lehigh Valley history to reach 11 goals in a season.
– It’s down to the wire for the team goal-scoring title. Alexis Gendron and Jacob Gaucher are tied at 20 goals apiece after Gendron blasted one home for a second-consecutive game. Gendron has four goals in the last eight games and became just the third rookie in Lehigh Valley history to score 20 goals in a season.
– Alex Ciernik made his AHL debut on Saturday against Springfield. The native Slovakian joined the Phantoms from the Nybro Vikings IF in Sweden’s Allsvenskan League. Ciernik, 20, was selected by the Flyers in the fourth round (#120 overall) of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. His father, Ivan Ciernik, played 89 NHL games with Ottawa and Washington and over 200 games in the AHL with the Worcester IceCats, Cincinnati Migty Ducks, Adirondack Red Wings and Portland Pirates.
Lehigh Valley Record Book:
Goals by Rookie
Elliot Desnoyers – 23 (2022-23)
Danick Martel – 22 (2016-17)
Alexis Gendron – 20 (2024-25)
Single Season, Goals by Defenseman
T.J. Brennan – 21 (2016-17)
T.J. Brennan – 14 (2017-18)
Ronnie Attard – 12 (2022-23)
Brandon Manning – 11 (2014-15)
Ethan Samson – 11 (2024-25)
Lehigh Valley Record Book
0-0 Score after 60 minutes:
4/6/25 – SPR 1 – LV 0 (OT)
Vadim Zherenko vs. Parker Gahagen
3/3/24 – LV 1 – HER 0 (SO)
Cal Petersen vs. Clay Stevenson
4/21/17 – HER 1 – LV 0 (OT) (Playoffs)
Pheonix Copley vs. Alex Lyon
UPCOMING
Friday, April 11, 2025 (7:00 p.m.)
OnCenter War Memorial, Syracuse, NY
Phantoms at Syracuse Crunch
Best friends reunite as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Syracuse Crunch tangle in Central New York. Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere has been best buds with Syracuse bench boss Joel Bouchard for as long as they can remember and since they played hockey and other sports together beginning at five years old. Syracuse (33-21-12) has heated up to pull away from the other contender in the North but there’s still work to be done as the Crunch have a Magic Number of six points to clinch a position in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Syracuse has won four straight and also had a shared 3-0 shutout at PPL Center on March 21 with Matt Tomkins departing in the third period for Ryan Fanti. The Phantoms are 2-1-0 against the Crunch including an overtime win at Syracuse on January 4 via Brendan Furry’s winner. 32-year-old NHL veteran of almost 600 games Conor Sheary (18-37-55) paces the offense while former Phantom Derrick Pouliot (7-44-51) is third in the AHL in assists and is second among AHL defensemen in scoring. University of Michigan fourth-rounder Dylan Duke (18-17-35) is having a strong rookie season. Brandon Halverson (20-10-8, 2.28, .913) is seventh in the AHL in GAA and backstops a defense allowing just 2.53 goals per game, third-best in the AHL.
Saturday, April 12, 2025 (7:05 p.m.)
PPL Center, Allentown, PA
Hershey Bears at Phantoms
Hershey (42-18-7) is revving it up before the playoffs and carries a three-game win streak into the weekend, having bounced back from a rocky stretch during which the Bears dropped four of five, including back-to-back humblings against Utica. First-place Hershey has now opened up a five-point lead ahead of second-place Utica and the two-time defending Calder Cup Champs have a Magic Number of just six points to clinch another Atlantic Division title. They are also in a neck-and-neck race with Laval for the Kilpatrick Trophy for the top regular-season record. The Rocket hold a two-point lead right now at 93-91.
The Bears won at PPL Center last Friday 2-1 and are 5-2-1 against the Phantoms this season while Lehigh Valley is 3-4-1 against the Bears. Defenseman Ethan Bear (10-36-46) leads the team in scoring and has racked up 2-7-9 against the Phantoms including a game-winning goal at PPL Center in November. Penn State product Alex Limoges (16-25-41) was certainly pleased with the NCAA regional results at PPL Center two weeks ago. Clay Stevenson (17-7-4, 2.90, .889) has taken over as the top goaltender after Hunter Shepard’s recall to Washington. J.R. Avon (1-4-5) and Jacob Gaucher (3-0-3) are among Lehigh Valley’s scoring leaders in the season series while Cal Petersen (3-3-1, 2.39, .908) has been especially strong against our I-78 rivals.
Phantoms Scoring Leaders
Olle Lycksell 17-24-41
Jacob Gaucher 20-16-36
Anthony Richard 16-19-35
Samu Tuomaala 11-21-32
Zayde Wisdom 13-17-30
Alexis Gendron 20-8-28
UPCOMING
Friday, April 11 (7:00 pm) – Phantoms at Syracuse Crunch
Saturday, April 12 (7:05 pm) – Hershey Bears at Phantoms. Star Wars Night!
Friday, April 18 (7:05 pm) – Cleveland Monsters at Phantoms. Regular Season Home Finale
Saturday, April 19 (7:00 pm) – Lehigh Valley Phantoms at Hershey Bears. End of Regular Season
Calder Cup Playoffs – Round 1, Best of 3 Series – Dates and Opponent TBD
