The Phantoms’ winning streak come to a screeching halt last night on home ice against the Bears, as the Phantoms worked through a hard-fought game only to have it ended in heartbreaking fashion.
The Phantoms, despite outshooting the Bears more than 2-1 in the first period, couldn’t break through, and had themselves beaten by turnovers and soft plays, falling into a 2-0 hole in the second. But the third period saw their luck beginning to break for them, as Denver Barkey was able to finally get them on the board early in the final frame, and despite the Bears getting that one back in short order, two Phantoms power play goals drew them even again. And with the tie holding into the waning seconds of regulation, the Phantoms seemed primed to cruise into overtime, collect at least one point, but a misplay with the puck turned possession back to the Bears, and they were able to score to retake the lead with just 12 seconds remaining.
“I don’t want to say we deserved better than we got,” head coach John Snowden said after the game. “Was there good stuff inside of the game? I thought so, thought that we did some good things inside, liked our resolve towards the end, capitalizing on the power play to get ourselves back into the game. I thought today was just immature moments in the game that cost us two points, the way I look at it.”
This season is a long one, and especially for such a young team, there are bound to be ups and downs that the team will have to work through. Hershey plays a much different style then they’ve seen from recent opponents, and this matchup will have been a wakeup call to the level of attention they have to pay to close out games against these tighter checking opponents. It’s all a part of the process, but the Phantoms will need to learn from this one, to be sure.
Samson steps in
Of course, one of the more notable bits to come out of this game was the news of Ethan Samson’s activation and return to the Phantoms, and while he was sat for the first game of the weekend — the Phantoms surely wanting to manage his workload — he was able to get in to make his season debut last night. His usage was more limited, starting on the third pair playing alongside Hunter McDonald, but he was able to bring some positive flashes in his easing back into action.
“I thought he was fine,” Snowden said postgame. “I thought there was moments where it looked like he hadn’t played yet this year, but overall I thought he did a fine job. He had some times when he skated through the neutral zone like he does well, a couple of o-zone opportunities to deliver some pucks and he made some plays, some breakout passes, so it was good to see him do that. You know, I didn’t expect him to come blowing the doors off, he hasn’t played a game this year, but overall, I didn’t hate his game.”
Samson, who’s been out of commission since taking an injury during training camp, has faced a very long layoff, and it’s going to take some time in turn for him to get back up to playing at the full strength of his game. But it was encouraging all the same to see some of the more dynamic elements of his game coming through right from the jump, in how he was moving the puck, using his feet, and feeling the confidence to activate in the offensive zone in a couple of instances when the space opened up for it. Notable too, was his willingness to get involved in battles and take a bit of contact, as his confidence seems to be well intact. We’ll see how he’s able to build up from here, but he’s off to a good enough start.
Barkey, Bump standouts again
This game was undoubtedly a strange one, but the Phantoms once again received in it standout performances from their top line, led by veteran center Lane Pederson and prospects Alex Bump and Denver Barkey. It’s a line that’s been buzzing for the last five games or so, and they each continued to deliver results for the team in both their even strength matchups as well as on the power play.
Barkey was the one to get the Phantoms on the board, taking a pass on the rush from Bump and taking it in on net, beating the Bears goaltender cleanly one-on-one, while Bump would double up on his good setup work, making the breakout pass to spring the Phantoms on a rush up-ice with speed on the power play later in the period for a chance which Cooper Marody would ultimately close one, while Pederson got the game tying goal on their next power play chance, as these three continued to step up in their roles as effective drivers of offense.
Not all heroes wear capes! 🦸 #LVvsHER | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/iu6xX3bchc
— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) November 16, 2025
This was a game where the Phantoms really needed someone to rise up above the challenging circumstances — the heaps of chances created with no early bounces going their way, and how in their face the Bears were playing them — and Bump and Barkey have continued to bring their games to new levels to meet that challenge.
Playing with maturity
Last night’s game did see the outcome that the Phantoms might have liked, but perhaps one of the silver linings of this at times compressed schedule in the AHL is that the Phantoms will get a chance right away to right the ship and exact a bit of revenge in this afternoon’s rematch.
“I think the biggest message is that they’re a team that’s never going to go away,” Snowden concluded, “they’re going to feast off of our mistakes so we have to play a pretty clean game against that team, and just be way more mature in how we go about it.”
This isn’t going to be an easy matchup, with both the strength of the Bears’ checking game sure to continue, and the fatigue in the third game in as many days coming into play, but the Phantoms know the blueprint for how the Bears will attack the matchup, and they already know what they need to do to hang against them, but now the next step is tightening up their game to now advance ahead of them. This might be their biggest challenge yet of the season, and a real chance ahead of them to rise to the occasion.
