The Hartford Wolf Pack started the 2026-27 season the right way on Saturday night, and they did it with a comeback-heavy 5-2 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Hartford had to answer twice after falling behind, but the third period was the difference. The Wolf Pack scored three straight in the final 20 minutes to turn a tight opener into a convincing road win.
Lehigh Valley struck first a little more than five minutes into the game when Anton Blidh was penalized for roughing and the Phantoms cashed in on the power play. In the final seconds of the man advantage, Jacob Gaucher knocked in a rebound to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
Hartford answered six minutes later with a clean offensive-zone shift from Blidh, Cole Beaudoin and Taylor Raddysh. Beaudoin moved the puck from right to left before feeding Raddysh, and the veteran forward stepped in and buried a shot past Aleksei Kolosov to even things up. That goal was Hartford’s first of the season, and it also marked Raddysh’s first AHL goal since May 5, 2021, when he scored three times for the Syracuse Crunch in a 5-3 win over the Utica Comets.
The first period also featured the season’s first fight for Hartford, with Justin Nachbaur dropping the gloves with Noah Powell. Nachbaur landed several heavy shots and came out on top in the scrap.
The teams traded chances after that, but neither side found another goal before the first intermission.
Lehigh Valley grabbed the lead back early in the second period. Gaucher struck again just 1:39 into the frame, beating Carriere with a shot while the Hartford goalie was sliding across.
The Wolf Pack answered once more, this time on the power play. Jack Studnicka was called for holding the stick at 7:26, then Oliver Bonk picked up a cross-checking penalty at 9:06.
Hartford’s power play kept working the puck and eventually broke through when Marc Del Gaizo’s shot deflected through traffic and landed on Juuso Pärssinen’s stick. Pärssinen hammered it home to tie the game at 2-2.
Liam Greentree picked up the secondary assist, giving him his first professional point.
From there, the game stayed level through the rest of the second period, setting up Hartford’s surge in the third.
The Wolf Pack took their first lead of the night a little past the five-minute mark of the final frame. Brody Lamb’s forecheck helped create the chance, and Pärssinen found a loose puck in the offensive zone before sliding it to Lucas Vanroboys.
Vanroboys snapped off a one-timer that beat Kolosov and gave Hartford a 3-2 edge. It was Vanroboys’ first goal as a member of the Wolf Pack, and the assist made Pärssinen the first Hartford player to post a multi-point game this season.
Just over three minutes later, Hartford added another. Zayde Wisdom couldn’t get the puck into the offensive zone and lost control to Beaudoin, who raced in and scored his first professional goal to stretch the lead to 4-2. That goal also made Beaudoin the first Wolf Pack rookie to record at least two points in his debut since Brennan Othmann had two goals in his AHL debut against the Providence Bruins on October 13, 2023.
Lehigh Valley pulled Kolosov late for the extra skater, but Vincent Iorio finished it off with an empty-net goal to seal the 5-2 final.
The win gave Hartford its first opening-night victory since the 2023-24 season, when it beat Providence 3-2 on October 13.
The Wolf Pack are back in action Sunday afternoon at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, with puck drop set for 5:05 pm. Hartford’s home opener is set for Saturday, October 10 against the Penguins at 6 pm.
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