Another Rally for Exciting Win

Phantoms Take Down Hartford 3-2

November 22, 2025

Hartford, CT – Trailing in the third period at Hartford has become a familiar scenario for the Phantoms this season. For the third straight occasion, Lehigh Valley overcame a third-period deficit to win. This time it was Denver Barkey scoring the decisive strike in a 3-2 final.

Carl Grundstrom (5th) scored the third-period tying goal for a THIRD straight time in Hartford. All three games the Phantoms have played in Hartford, it was Grundstrom who found a way to pick up the equalizer. He also played a vital role in assisting on the Christian Kyrou (3rd) blast that got the Phantoms on the board and got the comeback started.

Lehigh Valley (11-5-2) hits the quarter-mark of the 2025-26 season solidly in third place in the Atlantic Division. And shows no signs of slowing down.

Alex Bump pushed his way up the right-wing boards and used his muscle to win a puck on the rush to set up the onrushing Barkey for the winning strike as the talented rookies again connected. Bump’s 11th assist is tops among all AHL rookies and his 15th point leads the Phantoms while Barkey’s seven lamplighters is also tops on the team and rates tied for third among all AHL rookies.

To be sure, the rookie duo has been impressive. And they came through in a big moment to drive another Orange and Black victory.

A tighter first period saw Lehigh Valley muster only four shots on a goal, a season low, compared with Hartford’s six.

Both teams came out in the second period ready to open things up a little bit. Lehigh Valley dominated play for the first nine minutes of the period with significantly tilted ice and several strong chances on goaltender Dylan Garand. But the Phantoms couldn’t break through and Hartford was readying its own response.

Brendan Brisson (3rd) passed into the middle from the right circle on the power play but his effort deflected off a skate and between the skates of Carson Bjarnason on a fortuitous Hartford bounce to provide the Wlf Pack with a 1-0 advantage at 10:31 of the second.

Gabe Perrault (6th) scooped up an opportunity and tucked it in around the left skate of Bjarnason right in the blue paint to make it 2-0 at 15:10.

Cue the Comeback Kids yet again.

Grundstrom’s shot off Garand was almost put in on the right side o fthe cage on the rebound by Barkey but the puck rolled off his backhand and was cleared behind the goal. Garand was scrambling though. And so were his teammates. Kyrou lined it up from the high slot and offered a missile off the left post at 2:22 to begin the rally.

Just over three minutes later, it was Karsen Dorwart finding Grundstrom busting for the net-front to score the equalizer yet again on a play also assisted by Devin Kaplan at 5:38.

Now the Phantoms had all the momentum. Ethan Samson received his first point of the season by finding Bump up the right wing who willed himself through the defender to carry in behind the goal opening things up for the trailing Barkey crashing the net and ready to score the winning goal at 7:04.

Hartford (5-8-4) was deflated and ran out of gas. The Phantoms successfully pushed aside all of their pushes and probably weren’t significantly challenged in the concluding 13 minutes of the contest. Lehigh Valley set a new season-best by holding the opposition to only 19 shots on goal in the game including just five shots in the third period.

The Phantoms return to action on Friday night at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

The Phantoms are back at home with a Saturday tilt against the Laval Rocket on Gritty Night featuring the triumphant annual return of the Philadelphia Flyers’ zany mascot.

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