The Lehigh Valley Phantoms had the best home record in the AHL during the regular season, so having home-ice advantage was good.

Even when they split the first two road games of their series with Portland there were no worries, because they were headed home for the next three games. When they won game three at home, it seemed like the end was near for the Bruins. Then, they took a 3-0 lead in game four at home and everybody was convinced that the series was over.

Not so fast.

Providence rallied for three unanswered goals to tie the game and send it to overtime where Maxim Lamarche came away as the hero and scored an overtime goal to give Lehigh Valley a 4-3 win and a trip to the Atlantic Division Finals against Charlotte.

The Phantoms started quickly on Saturday night when they got first period goals from T.J. Brennan and Chris Conner. Brennan sent a quick wrist-shot through a traffic jam from the left point to open the scoring and just 37-seconds later, Conner took a rebound off goalie Jordan Binnington and deposited it into the net for a 2-0 lead in the first period. Conner netted his second of the night off of a long pass from Greg Carey and it looked like the night was over for Providence.

Providence got what seemed like an innocent little goal with 2:26 left to play in the second period when Tommy Cross slipped a shot past goalie Alex Lyon. The Bruins managed just 20 shots through the first two periods, but little did Lyon know that he was going to be pressed hard in the final period of regulation. In the final 20-minutes, Providence blistered the net and Lyon was fired upon 18 times, with two of the shots getting past him.

Anton Blidh redirected a shot past Lyon to make it 3-2 with eight minutes left in regulation. The Phantoms still seemed confident, but Providence controlled play and allowed Lehigh Valley just four shots over the game’s final 20 minutes. Austin Czarnik would also use a redirect to tie the game when he deflected a shot from Paul Postma with just over five minutes to play.

Providence was strong in the overtime period, but Larmarche launched a low-percentage shot that somehow glided past goalie Zane McIntire, who came on in relief of Binnington after the first period, with just 1:24 to play in overtime to seal the series for Lehigh Valley.

Lamarche said the team had talked prior to the overtime period about getting more pressure and just putting the puck on net as much as possible.

“In overtime, there’s no such thing as a bad shot. You get pucks to the net and you never know what’s going to happen,” said coach Scott Gordon of Lamarche’s shot.

In all, Lyon faced 52 shots and saved 49 of them on the night for Lehigh Valley.

The series win sets up a meeting with the Charlotte Checkers in the division finals. The series opens with games Friday and Saturday at the PPL Center before moving to Charlotte for games three and four and a game five, if needed. Should the series go longer, games six and seven would be back at home for the Phantoms on May 14th and 15th.

TO PUNCH OR NOT TO PUNCH ... The two teams got into a heated brawl featuring all 10 skaters in the middle of the first period. In a rare move, Binnington, the Providence goalie, dropped the gloves and headed for center ice, but Lyon didn’t move from his goal. Binnington wound up punching Danick Martel in the fact to draw a roughing penalty.

“We scored two quick goals and maybe he’s not really feeling good about his game, so he’s trying to mix it up,” said Lyon of Binnington’s reaction. “I’m not going to take myself out of the game that early. It’s just an unintelligent thing and maybe a big momentum swing. I guess I just look at that situation more analytically and it just didn’t make sense.”

YOUR FIRST TIME ... The series win is the first for the franchise since moving to Allentown in 2014. Last season, they lost in the first round of the playoffs after winning the opening two games. The Phantoms hadn’t had a playoff series win since 2008.