LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa – The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are finally streaking in the right direction. Lehigh blew out the Rochester Americans 7-1 on Friday night, marking the first time the team had won two games in a row all season. The Phantoms have scored 13 goals over their last two games (they beat Binghamton on the road 6-3 on Wednesday), and the team is starting to click on all cylinders finally. Anthony Stolarz helped the cause with a 33 save performance, and most of the 8,011 in attendance went home satisfied from PPL Center.
The scoring for Lehigh started early and came often, as Chris Conner potted one just 4:37 into the first. Rochester would respond back with a chance on the power play a little over two minutes later, as Robert Hagg would go off for a trip. However, what has been a lack luster penalty kill for Lehigh Valley so far this season came up huge and kept the Amerks off the board. The Phantoms responded with a power play of their own at the 11:51 mark, as Americans forward Colby Robak would get the gate for a cross check. While the Phantoms did not capitalize on the power play, Danick Martel would find a rebound that came off the pad of goaltender Nathan Lieuwen and back hand it home just seconds after Robaks penalty had expired. The scoring flow would stop for the remainder of the period, but the bleeding would not stop there for Rochester.
Kevin Sunder was able to find just enough of the far corner of the net behind Lieuwen to make the score 3-0 just 1:44 into the second period. All seemed well for Lehigh, but an Evan Rankin tripping minor a little over three minutes later gave the Amerks a chance to get back in the game. Capitalizing on the chance, and making up for his own minor that lead to a goal, Robak would net the Americans only goal of the night with a snap shot 
from the top of the circle that just beat Stolarz at 5:14 of the second. His teammate, Jerome Leduc, would not be as lucky, Leduc would get called for a minor he would never make up for just about a minute and twenty seconds later as he would go off for delay of game. On the ensuing Lehigh power play, Shane Gostisbehere would slide a pass to Nick Cousins, who would throw one cross crease to Taylor Leier for an easy tic-tac-goal on the man advantage. What little momentum Rochester had seen come their way from cutting the deficit to just two was gone, and the rest of the night would show it. Cousins would add a goal of his own at the 13:50 mark of the frame to have the Phantoms going into the room after two up 5-1 with twenty minutes left to lay back if they wanted or add more goals if they chose. They happened to choose the latter.
They would add another tally just 6:32 into the third as Martel would pot his second of the night on a nice snap shot. Other than goals, the Phantoms helped out Stolarz by hold the Amerks to just one goal on four power plays, some of the better work the penalty killing squad had seen all season. Petr Straka would add another power play goal for Lehigh with less than three to play in regulation, and it was all over in 
Allentown. Friday the 13th seemed to work in opposite favor for the Phantoms, seeing them score a season high seven goals making it their luckiest night yet. They hit the ice again on Saturday night, same time, same place, against Albany to complete their weekend of upstate New York teams visiting Allentown. After scoring 13 over their last two, the main focus will be if the offense can stay that hot, with the only thing standing in its way being the fatigue that comes with playing back to back nights. Solid goaltending, better defense, and an offense starting to click has the phantoms looking like a team that may climb right out of the hole they dug themselves into to start this young season, what they do from there is entirely up to them.
mages by Steve.Rusyn@prohockeynews.com
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