Phantoms Season Paused After Subsequent Testing Thursday

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - It felt like it was only a matter of time until it was the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' turn to be directly affected by COVID, as three forwards - Cal O'Reilly, Isaac Ratcliffe and Maksim Sushko - entered the American Hockey League's (AHL) COVID Protocol and were unavailable to the team for their game Wednesday night in Hershey.

Despite three positive cases, Wednesday night's Phantoms-Bears went on as scheduled - with the Phantoms patching together a lineup one skater short of a full 18 skaters, but with just nine forwards and eight defensemen.

Inside AHL Hockey learned that subsequent testing on Thursday revealed six additional positive cases, which was the cause for Lehigh Valley's games this weekend in Providence to be postponed. Those games will be made up on April 11 and April 19 at 7:05 p.m. ET.

"That's our new reality with what's going on right now with COVID and everything," Phantoms head coach Ian Laperierre told Inside AHL Hockey via phone after Wednesday night's 4-3 overtime loss, a game in which the shorthanded Phantoms trailed 3-0 at one point. "We have to deal with that. We're not the only team. Every team around the league is dealing with that."

Between the nine now in the AHL's COVID protocol and those called up to the Philadelphia Flyers due to the NHL club's own COVID issues, Lehigh Valley has just barely a handful of healthy/able skaters.

This weekend's games being postponed isn't anything new for Lehigh Valley, who has seen several of their other games postponed in December due to COVID protocols affecting their opponent. This time, however, is the first in-house incident that has resulted in the necessary postponement of play.