Brandon Manning has always had the respect of his teammates on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

He was the only member of the team to play in the AHL All-Star Game this season and has been a team leader both on and off the ice. Wednesday night, he reinforced the level of respect that his teammates have for him when he came to the aid of teammate Mark Alt.At 17:33 of the second period, with Syracuse up 2-0, Alt went to make a play on the puck along the boards near the Phantoms net when Cody Kunyk hit Alt violently from behind, slamming him face-first into the glass. It was the classic cheap shot and before Alt had even fallen to the ice, Kunyk had to know he was in trouble when Manning returned the favor, plastering him into the glass. From there, Manning started to simply pummel Kunyk, exacting every penny's worth of payback for his teammate.Both Manning and Alt were unavailable after the game, but their teammates had plenty to say about the incident."Manning did a great job; he stuck up for a teammate," said defenseman Zack Stortini, who is no stranger to hockey fights and sticking up for a teammate. "We're a tight-knit group in here and anytime that somebody sets up a teammate like that, a guy's got to step in and do the job for him, so he did a great job."As could be expected, with Syracuse 6-1 up in the third period, the Crunch put a target on Manning's back when Tanner Richard came back at him hard. The Phantoms defenseman was ready for the exchange and handled himself well against Richard.The downside was that the Phantoms lost Manning for 17:00 after the first fight and he was automatically ejected after the second fight. By then, the game was well out of hand and was squarely in the Phantoms loss column."You always want players to stand up for teammates when something like that happens, so props to Manning for stepping in and doing what he has to do," said assistant coach Riley Cote, who admitted that losing Manning for a big chunk of the game certainly hurt. "Things weren't going well already and it's tough on those guys and it's unfortunate, but it was the right move. It hurt more because we lost Alt and Manning on that play."Ironically, Manning was recalled by the Flyers the next day and Alt, along with teammates Jason Akeson and Oliver Lauridsen, were recalled late Friday night. Akeson, Alt and Lauridsen were sent back down to the Phantoms on Saturday, but Manning remains in the NHL on his fourth recall of the season.Brett Hextall, who isn't known for being involved in too many fights, attempted to spur on his teammates earlier in the game against Syracuse when he mixed it up with a much larger opponent in Jean-Phillippe Cote. Hextall again got into a fracas with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's Dominik Uher just five seconds into the Phantoms next game."Yeah, I was trying to get something going," said Hextall after the loss to Syracuse. "Sometimes, something like that can sort of jump start things, especially since I'm not known for being physical in that way. It didn't work tonight, but who knows?"Since the embarrassing 6-1 loss to Syracuse, the Phantoms beat the Penguins 4-1 before falling to Manchester, the best team in the Eastern Conference, by a 3-1 score.PHANTOMS FACTS: Lehigh Valley set a PPL Center record with an announced crowd of 9,017 for the game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton ... Blair Jones scored late in the game against Syracuse to snap a scoring slide by the Phantoms, who had gone 124 minutes and 27 seconds without a goal ... Losing five of their last six games has pretty much eliminated the Phantoms from any playoff consideration. They currently stand 13 points behind Worcester and Portland for the final playoff spot and have three teams ahead of them with just 10 games remaining.