The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are an American professional ice hockey team. They began playing in 1996. The team plays in the American Hockey League (AHL). They play their home games in Allentown, Pennsylvania at the PPL Center. They are the AHL affiliate for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Their ECHL affiliate is the Reading Royals.
The team originally played in Philadelphia as the Philadelphia Phantoms from 1996 to 2009. After demolition was planned for the home of the Phantoms, the team would be sold to the Brooks Group in Pittsburgh. In 2009, the team would be moved to Glens Falls, New York and would be renamed the Adirondack Phantoms.[1] The team would play in Glen Falls until 2014 when the team would move once again, this time to Allentown to become the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.[2]
On August 13, 2014, the team would reveal their mascot MeLVin, a fictional species called a pladottle.[3]
In the 2017–18 season, the Phantoms would win the Atlantic Division championship and would make it to the Eastern Conference finals but would lose to the Toronto Marlies four games to zero.[4]
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