By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
It's beginning to look a lot like "Chrismas" in Allentown. Chris Conner took center stage on Friday as the Phantoms faced the Rochester Americans.
PPL Center was host to another Phantoms comeback win on Friday night, a 4-3 victory over Rochester. After going down 2-0, the Phantoms used a late first period marker and a three-goal second period to escape with the win.
A very physical and chippy contest got heated early.
Rochester got the scoring started on Friday night off a little bit of puck luck, which is just a struggling team needs sometimes. A shot from the point from Evan Rodrigues went wide but hit square enough off the end boards that it popped out the other side of the goal to the slot.
The seeing-eye puck found the tape of Justin Bailey, who had a point-blank shot on an empty cage to put Rochester on top early. The Phantoms fifth-ranked power play got a chance to challenge Rochester's sixth-ranked penalty kill moments later, but all for not. Instead, Rochester would kill the penalty off, and immediately add to their lead.
Nick Baptiste would pot the goal after coming out of the box, benefitting from a nice drop pass from Cal O'Reilly and a heavily screened Alex Lyon to make it 2-0.
The Phantoms ended getting on the board themselves in similar fashion with 20 seconds left in the period. Lehigh Valley killed off a slashing minor assessed to Travis Sanheim, and as Sanheim stepped out of the box, Conner was on his way to center ice with the puck.
Conner sprung Sanheim ahead of the play and in on a breakaway, which the rookie defenseman snapped up over the blocker of Linus Ullmark to cut the deficit in half going into intermission.
The Phantoms used a three-goal second period to take the lead in the game, including two goals in 27 seconds. Pushing play early, Lehigh Valley took control.
A faceoff win saw a puck come back to Greg Carey, who one-timed a shot off the post and in to tie the game at two. Carey's goal, his 11th on the year, tied him for the team and league lead.
Ten seconds later, Alex Nylander lifted a puck up and out of play, resulting in a delay of game minor. The Phantoms power play wasted little time, scoring 17 seconds into the man advantage. Andy Miele was the benefactor this time around, as a shot from Conner went off the right pad of Ullmark and rebounded right to him for an easy goal.
Lehigh Valley extended their lead to two on another power play as result of a delay of game minor to Rochester, with Conner potting the goal to give himself a three-point night.
After a T.J. Brennan point shot took a favorable bounce off the endboards, much like the one on Rochester's first goal, the puck ended up in front of the net. Colin McDonald got the initial shot on goal, but Conner dug the puck out of a scrum and buried it to make it 4-2.
Along with the scoring, the physical play picked up in the second, leading to a lot of scrums after the whistle. Including one right at the end of the period which resulted in the third starting at 4-on-4.
The open ice of the 4-on-4 would allow each team to get great scoring chances, but the score held at 4-2. After the penalties expired, the Phantoms continued pressing up ice, having nearly 40 shots on goal by the time the first five minutes of the third had passed.
At the 11:31 mark of the third, the powder keg erupted. A huge scrum lead to multiple penalties being called, including fighting majors to Sam Morin and Mike Aviani. Morin ragdolled the much smaller Aviani during the fight, but away from the fisticuffs, Brennan took an extra cross checking minor that gave Rochester a power play.
Cole Schneider converted on the man advantage for the Americans, making it a one-goal game yet again.
Rochester ended up with another power play a minute later, but were unable to convert that time around. Running out of options, and with an offensive zone draw about to take place, the Americans pulled Ullmark with 1:42 left in the third for the extra attacker, but time would run out on their comeback effort.
The Phantoms followed up a 50-shot performance in a 4-2 loss on Wednesday with 48 shots in Friday's win. Alex Lyon made 21 saves to improve to 9-5-2 on the season, while Conner lead the way offensively with his three-point night. The Phantoms are back at it again against Rochester on Saturday night.
Notes
- With his goal, Travis Sanheim becomes the 20th Phantoms player to score a goal in just 24 games this season.
- Friday's game marked the fourth time in six games that the Phantoms had two or more power-play goals, and the 11th time in the 24 games the Phantoms have played that they've had multiple power-play goals.
- With Friday's 48-shot performance, the Phantoms have now had 98 shots on goal in their past two games, and 126 shots over their last three games.
Quotes
Andy Miele on how important it was to kick of the six-game homestand with a win: "It's great, I mean it's so much fun winning in front of this crowd. They're great. So to have that ahead of us, and with confidence, which is huge for a team, we're excited."
Travis Sanheim on his goal and the impact it had on the game: "Obviously that was a long time coming for me. I mean I've been getting my chances, but I haven't buried on them. So it was nice to get the first one out of the way and I'm just happy it was a big turning point in the game. It definitely helped us out in shifting the tides there. Any time you score in the last minute of the period, it's gonna help you out in the next period. We came out strong in the second and got lucky there and scored a few goals."
Chris Conner on the amount of shots the team has had over the past two games: "I mean we're always shooting. I think the D are doing a great job at getting shots through and we are always getting traffic at the front of the net, that's been a big key for us. But obviously when you get that many shots it's always, you know that the ice is titled in your favor and that's what we like."
Head coach Scott Gordon on what he expects out of Saturday night's rematch between these two teams: "Having played us, they're gonna know what to expect now. I'm sure they're gonna feel like they're more prepared, and we can't think just because we put up 48 shots that it's gonna be easy tomorrow night. They'll be chomping at the bit I'm sure. Even though the ice may have been a little tilted tonight, I think that, in their minds, they're gonna say 'well it was 4-3, all we need is another shot.' And that's the thing about the game, every night is different. You don't get points that carry over from Friday night to Saturday night."
