Coming off the high of a big win over the Bears on their turf on Friday night, the Phantoms were riding high into tonight’s matchup and looking to complete the sweep. And while this game was a much more challenging one for them, and they took a few more knocks, they rallied well, bent without breaking, and put together one of their most productive games of the season on the way to a 6-4 win.
The basics
First period: 2:17- Jon McDonald (Cruikshank), 4:13- Alex Bump (Pederson, Robertson), 10:01- Alex Bump (Tomasino, Kyrou)PPG, 18:19- Oliver Bonk (Guenette, Marody)
Second period: 4:32- Christian Kyrou (Wisdom, Wilson), 5:34- Henrik Rybinkski (unassisted), 6:15- Henrik Rybunski (Belpedio, Leason), 8:30- Kaden Bohlsen (Strome, Webb), 12:51- Alexis Gendron (McDonald, Gaucher)
Third period: 18:15- Zayde Wisdom (Gaucher, Guenette)EN
SOG: 34 (LHV) – 33 (HER)
Some takeaways
The weirdest goal in history?
We had a feeling that this game was going to be an interesting one, as we hit the rematch of yesterday’s very spirited meeting, but we didn’t predict how quickly that would pan out. The Bears got themselves on the board early on a wild play — Carson Bjarnason skated behind his net in anticipation of dealing with a routine dump-in, but instead of drifting on the expected path deep into the zone, the puck took a weird hop off the boards and flew straight into the empty net.
JMac working those angles to perfection 📐
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) February 22, 2026
🍎Cruikshank https://t.co/aO9YoSHWsL pic.twitter.com/MiEx2bbI73
There’s not much more we can offer here in the way of commentary other than to emphasize that this was truly one of the strangest goals we’ve seen in recent memory, and it certainly set an interesting tone for what would turn out to be a wild game.
Bjarnason weathers the storm
It’s hard to fault Bjarnason on that goal in particular, but just as it set the tone for a strange game for the whole of it all, it also set the tone for a pretty eventful game for him on an individual level. One the one hand, he showed some real resilience early, settling things down quickly after that bit of tough luck, and giving the team a much-needed confidence boost on the way to getting themselves rolling in front of him.
But on the other hand, there was a period in the middle frame where he really seemed to be fighting it, where the Bears were able to get him scrambling and (thanks in part to an equal bit of defensive scrambling in front of him) put three goals up on him under three minutes to make the game really interesting. Now, credit to him, he was able to respond well to that on the other side of the intermission, and hold up well in the face of pretty intense pressure poured on by the Bears, coming up huge on the way to this win. But it was, all the same, a good reminder that he still has some work to do to build his game back up to the level we saw from him just a few weeks ago.
A quick response / Bump buzzing
That early goal against had the chance to leave the Phantoms rattled, or at risk of continuing to slide into one of the difficult extended stretches that have plagued them through the early goings of many of these games so far this season, but credit to them, they did really well to shake that one off and get themselves rolling again.
The Phantoms were able to get themselves on the board not even two minutes later on a true highlight reel play — they were able to get themselves going up-ice on the rush, and Lane Pederson pulled off a sneaky shot fake for the pass over to the trailing Alex Bump, who wired the shot home for his second goal of the weekend.
BUMPER’S BACK#LVvsHER | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/WsfoMgL2gB
— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) February 22, 2026
And if that wasn’t good enough, a bit of good work by Bump on the power play to plant himself in front of the net, positioning himself perfectly to make a deflection, pushed the Phantoms into the lead for the first time tonight.
It might not have been the most conventional, but that's a huge second goal of the night (and third of the weekend) for Alex Bump pic.twitter.com/8HkNpcU3Js
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) February 22, 2026
Bump put together quite a solid game, on the whole, but it’s worth acknowledging that for all of the great work he did early in creating chances and setting a high pace of play, he did seem to lose a bit of steam as the game went on. And this is to be expected, as this is still just his fourth game back in action and he’s still working on getting his endurance all the way back, but the way that he stuck with it through the final frame was encouraging to see. He still has a ways to go to get all the way back to his very best form, but he’s taking some really good steps in the right direction.
Defense getting involved
The Phantoms have found a nice spread of scoring up and down their lineup throughout this weekend, and while the forwards have certainly been able to deliver a whole bunch of flash across these games, notable, too, is how well many of the team’s defensemen have been able to get involved in their offense, and how well it rounded out those efforts for the group. Tonight saw Christian Kyrou get himself involved in the scoring again, capitalizing on a chance put up through traffic on a drive to the net, and Oliver Bonk put up a similarly impressive individual effort, wheeling in the zone and putting a perfectly placed shot past the goalie.
Bonked it in.#LVvsHER | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/PXV5QadGLt
— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) February 22, 2026
Beyond that, too, Hunter McDonald set up their fifth goal of the game, what would be the game-winner, with a huge shot from center point that got through traffic for Alexis Gendron to deflect, and Max Guenette had one excellent chance of his own, one-on-one with the Bears’ goaltender, that he just rang off the post.
It was an impressive complete effort, and speaks to, if nothing else, the confidence with which they’re suddenly playing again — these players, particularly the defensemen, aren’t so bogged down by concern over a play breaking down on them and going the other way, of making a mistake, that they’re hesitant to jump in and create something for themselves, and this has been a huge contributor to the team’s elevated offensive game. Everyone is pulling in the same direction again, everyone is empowered to step up to create something, and it’s made for an exciting product.
Gendron picking up steam
Speaking of Alexis Gendron, it’s hard not to feel as though that goal he was able to score marked a huge weight being lifted off his shoulders. Gendron’s been fighting it a little bit of late, with his level of involvement not quite as high, and his timing a bit off, but this goal snapped an eight-game drought for him, and the relief was palpable in his celebration.
And while this goal wasn’t the flashiest one he’s scored in his professional career, it was a well-deserved reward for the good work he was putting in all night. Because Gendron really was everywhere in this one, zipping all around the ice and really flexing his speed, and pouring on chances across the whole of the night (he put up six shots on goal on the night, just one behind the team leader in Bump), and even more importantly, did it by getting himself to the right areas to make the most of those chances he was creating. He was really buzzing in this one, and the hope now is that this effort can springboard him into more performances like this, and more production, when the team is back at it again later this week.
Getting away from them
This game was, as we alluded to, a bit of a doozy. The Phantoms did some really good things in this one, sparking their offense well and controlling play for good stretches of the game, but just like they’ve seen happen time and again through the first couple of months of this new year, one short period where they got off the gas, got scrambling, and some poorly timed penalties very nearly sank them completely.
They did well to still make plays and create good chances late in this one, and in their own zone, despite the challenges thrown at them, did just enough to keep this one from completely slipping away from them. They can certainly come away from this win feeling good about themselves, but the work in progress has been a theme throughout this recap, and this spirit extends to the team’s ability to play a complete game, as well.
