Bruins Withstand Phantoms Rally
Bonk Strikes Again in Homestand Opener
February 25, 2026
Allentown, PA – Oliver Bonk (4th) got the Phantoms on the board and then Cooper Marody (6th) and Alexis Gendron (10th) strung together back-to-back goals in a third-period comeback effort. But former Philadelphia Flyer Patrick Brown (16th, 17th) struck for a pair to lead the first-place Providence Bruins past the Phantoms on Wednesday night at PPL Center. No sooner had Lehigh Valley cut Providence’s margin to 4-3 than Providence reestablished its three-goal margin again at 6-3 in a wild opening seven minutes of the third period that saw four combined goals.
The game was the first of a three-game homestand for the Phantoms who are also playing five out of six at home in the upcoming stretch.
Phantoms head coach John Snowden was less pleased with the team’s start but believes his team can get back to what has made them successful.
“We have to do the hard things to win,” Snowden said. “Blocking a shot is a hard thing. Winning a wall battle is a hard thing. Playing through somebody that’s bigger than you and stronger you… Those are hard things. In order to win, you have to do those things, and you have to do them consistently. We did them consistently for two games in Hershey. (Tonight) we do it maybe 10, 15, minutes. We got to figure out if we want to win and we want to put ourselves in a spot, to put ourselves in a playoff push and be in the right side of it and give ourselves a chance in the playoffs.”
Providence (39-10-1) put together an early strong start on goals by Matej Blumel (11th) and Georgii Merkulov (18th) in the first. Blumel found his opening through traffic to score to the stick side of a screened Kolosov on the power play at 6:58. Merkulov scored on the rush chipping a Matthew Poitras connection top-shelf on a goal that was confirmed upon video review after the referee initially didn’t see it go in and out of the top of the cage past Aleksei Kolosov.
Patrick Brown (16th) got to the net-front on the move to make it 3-0 just 1:03 into the second period after Kolosov was drawn to the other side trying to face big Riley Tufte.
Oliver Bonk was ready to blast one home for a second consecutive game when he struck quickly on the power play from Phil Tomasino to get the Phantoms on the board at 13:40 of the second period. Bonk is also on a three-game point streak as is Phil Tomasino as well as Alex Bump who also assisted on the play.
But Brown connected again, on an incredible mid-air swing on the move from a puck that had already been knocked backwards in mid-air. And the P-Bruins enjoyed a 4-1 lead into the second intermission.
The Phantoms certainly made it interesting to open the third. Cooper Marody scored from the right of the cage after some nifty work by Karsen Dorwart to set up the early third-period tally at just 1:03.
And Gendron cranked it up quickly from the left dot at 2:32 following some solid work in the corner by Tomasino and Jacob Gaucher. Suddenly, the Phantoms were within a goal at 4-3.
The Phantoms didn’t finish off the rally but, once again, they were able to shake off a sluggish start and showed what they can accomplish when they are clicking.
“I think we’ve had a little bit too much of the down in the most recent couple months here,” Cooper Marody said. “So although we’ve had a lot of adversity early on, you could argue that it’s can help us in the run, in the end of the season, in the playoffs, to build off of that and be able to go through ups and downs of the playoffs upcoming. So again, we have to be better starting. Wasn’t great tonight, but we have fresh games Saturday and Sunday to get back on the right track.”
Providence shook off Lehigh Valley’s comeback efforts with its own pair of consecutive strikes. John Farinacci (7th) deflected Fabian Lysell’s long drive and got a piece at the net-front on a squeaker between the legs of Kolosov at 4:42. And Joe Abate benefited from some snappy east-west movement to rock one home from the high slot at 6:18 to make it 6-3.
The Phantoms tacked on a shortie at the end when Jacob Gaucher (11th) finished a 2-on-1 with Anthony Richard with just 13.3 seconds left.
The homestand continues Saturday and Sunday with a pair of games against the Hartford Wolf Pack, AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers. Sunday’s contest at 3:05 p.m. is also meLVin’s Birthday with his mascot friends!
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