Feature Story
Sweep lifts Phantoms into playoffs
After falling behind 3-0 in the first 20
minutes of their three-game series last weekend against the Traverse City North
Stars, the Mahoning Valley Phantoms abruptly turned things around, outscoring
the Stars 17-3 in the final eight periods to clinch home-ice advantage in the
first round of next month’s NAHL playoffs.
“Clinching gives us a bit of a comfort
level; we know we’re going to have the home-ice advantage in at least the first
round,” said Phantoms assistant coach Curtis Carr. “It gives us some breathing
room and an opportunity maybe to pull guys in and out of the lineup so we don’t
have to play guys with bumps and bruises, and make sure we’re healthy for the
playoffs.”
Entering Friday’s game, the Stars had
gone 9-0-1 in their previous 10 games. After Kyle Bonis
notched two and Eric McLintock buried a rebound to
put
Kyle Bailey’s power-play goal midway
through the second period, however, and then two in a row by Stefan Salituro, including the game-tying goal at
“Hats off to
them. They sprung a break, scored, and got us
away from our game plan for about 10 minutes there,” said Phantoms coach-GM Bob
Mainhardt after Friday’s game. “But we were able to
re-gather our composure and come out and play a very solid 40 minutes after
that.”
Saturday’s game looked as though it was
going to be just as close as Friday’s after the teams skated to a 1-1 tie at
the first intermission. But a five-goal second period from the Phantoms and a
physical third period sent fans at the Ice Zone into a frenzy
and sealed a 7-2 triumph.
“Usually it takes the first period for us
to get adjusted,” said Carr after Saturday’s win. “Each night, it seems like in
the second period we have a good idea of what the game plan is going to be and
we can go from there.”
The second-period domination rolled over
into Sunday afternoon as well. After a slow start and a scoreless first period,
Bailey’s hat trick and three points each from McGinty
and Salituro led the Phantoms to a four-goal second
period en route to the 6-1 decision.
It’s been the play of the Phantoms’
fourth-liners that has led the team to six wins in the last seven games. Salituro shined the brightest, scoring four and assisting
on three more to lead the team to its fifth sweep of the year. Salituro now has a point in each of his last six games.
After picking up an honorable mention for
Player of the Week last week, Bailey slotted five goals against the Stars and
added a helper as well. In addition, McGinty also
tallied two goals and three assists while playing on the team’s fourth line.
“I’m a firm believer that, at this level,
there’s no excuse not to have four lines of players that can get the job done,”
said Mainhardt. “We’ve got four lines that, on a lot
of other teams, could be on the top two lines. Everybody has to step up at
different times, everyone has to contribute, and we’ve been relying a lot on
them.”
The Phantoms’ defense also played a major
role in the successful weekend, only giving up an average of 26.3 shots per
game. Phantoms goaltenders Jordan Tibbett and Garrett
Bartus combined for a .924 save percentage while
holding the league’s second-best power-play unit to just two goals on 16
opportunities.
The IceDiggers
will play their final games of the season this coming weekend against the
Phantoms at the Ice Zone. More than likely, the weekend series will be a
preview of a first-round playoff matchup between the
two rivals.
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