Charlotte, NC – Jack Berglund broke through on a breakaway goal in the third period for his first in North America but the Charlotte Checkers racked up a quartet of power-play markers en route to a 4-1 victory on Sunday afternoon in the season finale.
Lehigh Valley (31-35-6) split the concluding weekend to put the finishing touches of the 12th season for the Phantoms in downtown Allentown since arriving in 2014.
Yaniv Perets (23/27) was unable to replicate his shutout mastery of the day before but still made several strong denials of the Checkers in his second consecutive start. Carson Bjarnason was unavailable due to a minor injury and Keith Petruzzelli was summoned from Reading to serve as backup.
Jack Studnicka (11th, 12th) hit the post two times in the first period and then found the back of the net a pair of times in the third period to pace Charlotte (44-23-5) in its final tuneup before the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Sandis Vilmanis (17th) scored on a one-timer late in the first period to get the Checkers on the board. Zayde Wisdom was stuffed on a quick breakaway try by Louis Domingue after a nifty set up bu Tucker Robertson.
A scoreless but chippy second period followed with both teams taking the opportunity to get their last licks in on each other in the final meeting of the campaign. There wasn’t a ton of 5-on-5 hockey through the game as the Checkers went 4-for-8 on the power play while limiting Lehigh Valley to 0-for-7.
Ben Steeves (23rd) knocked one home in the opening seconds of the third period to make it 2-0.
Domingue exited early in the third period with an apparent injury and Charlotte backup goaltender Kirill Gerasimyuk was brought in for the rest of the contest.
Jack Studnicka cranked up a 4-on-3 one-timer from the top of the left circle to boost the margin to 3-0.
Berglund dug the puck away in the corner of the Phantoms zone and was off to the races on a little give-and-go in his own end. He emerged on a 2-on-1 but took the puck to the net himself to score his first goal with the Phantoms in just his fifth game with the team. Berglund joined Lehigh Valley two weeks ago just as the 2024 second-rounder was celebrating his 20th birthday. He was one of several exciting new additions and young prospects to arrive to the Orange and Black in the concluding weeks of the campaign.
Studnicka zipped up the left wing and drove straight at Perets for his second of the contest to conclude the scoring. And the season.
Lane Pederson was Lehigh Valley’s scoring leader with 48 points and was also tops on the team with 23 goals. Pederson was unavailable the last two weeks of the season due to injury. Jacob Gaucher finished second on the team with 20 goals for his second consecutive season scoring exactly 20.
Anthony Richard recorded his 27th assist on Berglund’s goal in the third period and finished with 27 helpers to pace the team.
While the season is now concluded for the Phantoms, many of the players will continue their work as part of the Black Aces practice squad with the Philadelphia Flyers as they join the NHL team for its Stanley Cup Playoff run.
Stay tuned to phantomshockey.com for upcoming roster news and player signings and re-signings as well as the 2026-27 schedule unveiling likely coming in July. The Phantoms will be back at PPL Center in September for preseason games with Opening Night slated for sometime in October.