NORTH AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE Phantoms fall a little short

They lost a playoff berth by a tiebreaker in their first year in the league.
BOARDMAN -- In their first season in the North American Hockey League, the Youngstown Phantoms came as close as a team can without making the playoffs.
The Phantoms tied the USA National Team for fourth place in the NAHL North as both teams compiled 28-21-7 records.
However, the division's final playoff spot went to the USA National Team due to the league's tie-breaker.
The first tie-breaker was overall victories and the second was goal differential. Team USA scored 25 goals more than it allowed while the Phantoms netted only one more goal (169-168) in the 56-game season.
Had the second tie-breaker been head-to-head games, Youngstown would have won the playoff spot, having gone 6-2-1 against Team USA.
Team learned lesson
"It's always an uncomfortable situation when it comes down to a tie-breaker," Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt said. "We all learned a lesson, and that is in the future let's make sure that we don't leave it up to a tie-breaker. Let's make sure we win it outright so there are no questions.
"It's real easy to make excuses when you don't win or you don't move on, but we preached to the players all year that there should never be any excuses," Mainhardt said. "Not bad officiating, not bad ice, not a road long trip -- or in this case a tie-breaker. A winner will find a way to win."
Despite missing the playoffs, the season had gratifying moments. The Phantoms were a competitive club from the outset, getting off to a 6-1-1 start. At no point during the season did Youngstown's record dip below the .500-mark.
Top scorer
Center Rob Rassey was Youngstown's leading scorer, finishing with 53 points (19 goals, 34 assists).
The Phantoms had two other players pile up at least 40 points -- left wing Aaron Rhyner (29 goals, 16 assists, 45 points) and right wing Anthony Canzoneri (15 goals, 25 assists, 40 points).
Center Joe Federoff registered 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 30 games for Youngstown after being acquired from the Toledo Ice Diggers in November.
Tyler Sims proved to be among the elite goaltenders in the NAHL, going 20-14-5 with a 2.63 goals-against average and posting four shutouts.
"I couldn't be happier about the development of our guys as both players and people," Mainhardt said. "We made huge strides to establish ourselves as a contending organization and a professionally run organization with tremendous support from our owner, Bruce Zoldan.
Last hope for many
"Youngstown was the last chance for a lot of our guys. For whatever reason, other teams had overlooked them, passed them up, cut them and didn't want them," Mainhardt said. "Because of that, we ended up with a group of highly motivated individuals who really felt they had something to prove. We were able to turn that into a positive."
Mainhardt cited Canzoneri, Sims and defenseman Charley Fetzer as examples of guys who were overlooked or unwanted by other Junior-A hockey organizations, but made enormous contributions for Youngstown.
Fetzer, who became the team captain, scored 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) and will play at Miami (Ohio) next season. Federoff will play at Robert Morris University this fall.