Lehigh Valley Phantoms Have New Identity They Must Lean Into

After one of the worst losses of the season, one that looked like a season-defining defeat, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms had one of their biggest wins. Such is life in the American Hockey League during the three-in-three season. The Phantoms beat the Hershey Bears 4-2 on Saturday night and capped it off with hats on the ice to celebrate Boris Katchouk’s third goal of the game.

“He's very deserving of that hat trick, and I was just excited to pick up that apple there,” Riley Thompson noted after the game. Katchouk wasn’t on the Phantoms when the season began. He was a midseason addition and part of the shift the team made for the final weeks of the season.

The Phantoms wanted to become a bigger team, and they’ve done just that. It’s that shift and leaning into the new identity that will keep them going in a fight for a playoff spot. Katchouk’s Impact as a Power Forward Phantoms head coach John Snowden has talked about the importance of getting to the interior all season.

The team must get to the dirty areas to score and bear down on their scoring chances. Katchouk does that. “He plays a simple game, he goes hard on pucks, he goes to the net front,” Snowden noted after the 4-2 win.