LEHIGH VALLEY, P.A. – The Binghamton Senators fell 7-2 to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the first of three games on the road.
The Phantoms opened the scoring 2:49 into the first period after Colin McDonald pushed home a loose puck in front of Chris Driedger for his 10th goal of the year. Following a five-minute boarding penalty on the B-Sens, the Phantoms added a pair of power-play goals to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Taylor Leier scored just nine seconds into the man-advantage before Robert Hagg tallied his second goal of the year off assists from Aaron Palushaj and Petr Straka. Despite outshooting Lehigh Valley 12-8 over the first 20 minutes of play, Binghamton went to the first intermission trailing 3-0.
Conor Allen made it a two-goal contest early in the second period after he notched his first goal in a B-Sens uniform 1:34 into the middle period. Chris Conner beat Driedger on a breakaway attempt 11:28 into the period before Adam Comrie scored his first tally of the year to increase the host’s lead to 5-1. With just 5:12 to play in the second, Buddy Robinson’s backhanded feed from a steep angle caught a Phantom’s skate in traffic and trickled past Jason LaBarbera to cut Lehigh Valley’s lead to 5-2 heading into the final intermission.
Leier notched two more goals 10 minutes apart in the last frame to complete his hat trick bid and push the final score to 7-2.
LaBarbera finished with 20 saves to earn the win while Driedger stopped 26 shots in the losing ever.
The B-Sens continue their stretch on the road with a trip to Utica Friday night for a 7:00p.m. match up against the Comets before heading to the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa for a home game against the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday, February 13, at 5:00p.m.
