LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa – Sometimes home cooking is all you need, and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms can attest to that. After being defeated 6-3 in Bridgeport and 5-1 in Hershey, the Phantoms returned home for the first time since the All-Star break Wednesday night. A crowd of 6,960 greeted their team with open arms at PPL Center, and the orange and black gave them another night to remember. In a 7-2 thrashing of the Binghamton Senators, the scoring would come early and often.
Just 2:49 into the first, the Phantoms would set the pace. Danick Martel would play the puck out from behind the goal line into a group of B-Sens. Colin McDonald would attempt to take the puck from the pile, but could not, and decided to skate to the other 
side of the crease. Turned out to be a smart play for the red hot captain of the Phantoms, as Martel would tap the puck free and give McDonald a wide open cage to back hand the puck into, making it 1-0. This goal would be the start of a long night for Binghamton, a team the Phantoms have been struggling against this year. Lehigh Valley would get the opportunity to blow the game open just five minutes after their first goal, as Cole Bardreau would get demolished with an elbow behind the B-Sens net. Michael Sdao would get a major penalty for the act, and Bardreau would end up wearing a full cage for most of the game after. With five minutes of man advantage time to do what they wanted with, the Phantoms would make Binghamton pay for the questionable hit on Bardreau.
Lehigh Valley would end up scoring twice on the 5 minute Power Play, once coming on a tic-tac-toe play, finished off by Taylor Leier for his first of the night. The assists went to Andrew MacDonald and Colin McDonald, giving McDonald two points on the night. The second Power Play goal came off a one-time blast from Robert Hagg to put the Phantoms up 3-0. The Senators would end up with a great chance to cut into the lead, however, as Joe Rehkamp went off for both cross-checking and unsportsmanlike conduct at 14:14. Despite the chance, the much improved penalty kill for the Phantoms would keep the Sens at bay and send everyone to the room with the score still 3-0.
As WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim “Good Ol JR” Ross has been famously quoted saying, in the second period, “business damn sure picked up”. Binghamton would get on the board just 1:34 into the second, as Conor Allen would score right off the face off to cut the Phantoms lead to just two goals. The checking and physical part of the game picked up as well, boiling over to Tyrell Goulbourne and Sdao dropping the gloves for a lack luster bout at 6:42. A fight in which Goulbourne uncharacteristically lost. Riding momentum, Binghamton started to try to push the play and tilt the ice in their favor, until they got caught pinching in the offensive zone. Phil DeSimone was able to split the B-Sens defense with a pass to Chris Conner, who went in on goal tender Chris Dreidger on a break away. Conner would win the battle, deking Dreidger out of his net to pot an easy goal to give the Phantoms a 4-1 lead. Conner and DeSimone would each get another point less than a minute later, setting up Adam Comrie with his first goal of this season with the Phantoms since being called up from Reading. The Senators would cut the lead to three goals two minutes later, when Buddy Robinson spun the puck out in front from the corner, off Andrew MacDonalds skate and in to make it 5-2.
The third period would be much of the same, each team taking two penalties each within the first 12 minutes. Only the Phantoms would be able to capitalize on the Power Play again, as the Lehigh Valley PK was a perfect five for five on the night. Taylor Leier would be the guy again on the man advantage, snapping on top corner on Driedger to make it 6-2. MacDonald and Bardreau would get the assists, and the Phantoms were looking to just ride the wave of 6 goals to a win. As if putting up a touchdown during Super Bowl week wasn’t enough, Leier wanted to hit the extra point and get the hat trick to make it 7-2. Sam Morin did most of the work on the seventh goal of the night, deking through defenders and throwing the puck to the net. Dreidger was able to kick Morins shot aside, but right to Leier who put it through the uprights to send the hats raining down on the PPL Center ice.
Leier would end up with First Star honors with the three goal night, well deserving of it. Phil DeSimone added three assists to get Second Star honors, and Chris Conner added a goal and a helper to be named Third Star. The win was just what the doctor ordered for the Phantoms ailing playoff hopes, pulling them to within five points of the Providence Bruins for the last spot in the Atlantic Division. Out of Lehigh Valleys next ten games, seven are against divisional opponents and five are against teams they are behind in the standings. This next stretch will be crucial if the Phantoms are going to make a late push for the post season. Despite injuries and call ups to their two All-Stars Stolarz and Cousins, Lehigh Valley may be able to scratch and claw their way into being a sleeper pick come April. That push will start Friday night against Portland at PPL Center.
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