The Phantoms’ Menace

The Force was with the Penguins

April 4, 2026

Allentown, PA – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has been a menace to the Phantoms for most of the rivalry series this season and that trend continued into the final game of the Keystone State set as the Force was with the Penguins, and Aaron Huglen, on Saturday night in a 6-2 final at PPL Center. A point-shot off the backside of Huglen deflected in past Aleksei Kolosov as the rookie forward completed his first career hat trick to pace the Baby Pens with a four-point performance.

Young Jedi-master-in-training, Cole Knuble, followed in the footsteps of legendary “I am your father” Mike Knuble, who used to play for the Flyers. Cole Knuble scored his first career goal late in the game firing a laser to the upper corner.

Scoring leader all season, Lane Pederson (23rd) converted on the power play he did also. But not enough it was for the offense Phantoms.

A three-goal cosmic burst at the outset, in the opening four minutes, stakes the visitors to an early advantage. Aiden McDonough used his Jedi mind-tricks to get the scoring started and then just 18 seconds later, Huglen added his first of the night to make it 2-0. Huglen turned on his hyperspace to rush past the defense and score high-glove on Kolosov to make it 3-0 at 3:59 and the Phantoms didn’t have enough power for the Rebel Alliance to rally against the Imperial Forces.

“They don’t miss very much,” said wise leader John Snowden. “I thought we did settle the ship. After about the nine and a half minute mark, we started to get going again. At the end of the day, if you look at the shots, they’re pretty even. It’s not like, we got blown out in shots. It’s just every opportunity they got that went in the net. And the opportunities we did get, we just didn’t bury and capitalize on the chances.”

Trailing 3-0 with the fastest trio of goals surrendered this season, Lehigh Valley (28-33-6) stepped up and didn’t allow another shot on goal for the next 13 minutes. All while generating some of their own chances on Joel Blomqvist.

But these weren’t the droids we were looking for. The Phantoms just couldn’t claw their way back into this one and Huglen’s hat trick goal seven minutes into the second period deflecting a Finn Harding shot made it 4-0. Atley Calvert found your lack of faith distrubing when he scored at the net front on a power-play centering pass by Ville Koivunen to make it 5-0.

Lane Pederson barked back, “Never tell me the odds” when he tried to spark the comeback with his power-play goal in the second period to get the Phantoms on the board on a set up by Riley Thompson and Oliver Bonk.

But Rutger McGroarty declared, “It’s a trap!” as he converted from the top of the left circle early in the third period to push the margin to 6-1.

Knuble concluded the scoring late in the third period to provide the 6-2 final margin as David Jiricek’s assist on the play extended his point streak to five games. Oliver Bonk recorded his second helper of the night.

” I thought we played all the way till the end,” Snowden said. “I don’t think we stopped. And I’m gonna hammer that point. We have a group that doesn’t want to stop. They’re going to keep playing. We know where we’re at. We know it’s not going to be easy, but at the end of the day, we got to put it in our own hands, and we got to take care of it ourselves. Can’t wait for anybody else to do it. We can’t hope that other teams lose. We have to do what we have to do, and that’s continue to push, continue to find ways to improve our game, or to make adjustments to our game and to give ourselves the best chances to win.”

The Phantoms play their final home games of the season next weekend with a Saturday night tilt against the Bridgeport Islanders on Wrestling night and a Sunday afternoon showdown against the Cleveland Monsters on Kids’ Takeover Day including a meLVin lunchbox giveaway for the kids in attendance.

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