Phantoms lose in shootout

The Junior Barons won, 4-3.
By ERIC HAMILTON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- After playing 16 of their first 22 games on the road, the Mahoning Valley Phantoms are expecting big things from their longest homestand of the year.
However, the 10-game stretch got off to a rocky start Wednesday as the Cleveland Junior Barons dealt the hosts a 4-3 shootout loss in front of a crowd of 362 at the Ice Zone.
"We knew it would come down to who wanted it more -- it usually does against Cleveland," Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt said. "This has turned into a pretty good rivalry for us and we knew it would be a battle tonight.
"We're just struggling right now with the little things and we made some mental mistakes tonight that let them score some goals and get ahead of us.
"But I think we're getting better as the season goes on and maybe in a month or so, a game like this is winnable for us."
Despite the loss of forward Matt Quigley to injury and forward Matt Atshoff due to a one-game suspension for fighting, the Phantoms nearly notched a come-from-behind victory.
Early 2-0 lead
Cleveland built a 2-0 lead with a pair of power-play goals -- one each in the first and second periods. The Barons outshot the Phantoms 15-9 in the first and 47-35 in the entire contest.
But Mahoning Valley rallied with three straight goals to take a 3-2 lead on John Kivisto's first goal of the season at the 12:27 mark of the third period.
The Phantoms' advantage was short-lived as the Barons knotted the contest at 3-all two minutes later when Pat Goebel lit the lamp for the seventh time this season.
Tied at 3-all after regulation, the gamed headed to a five-minute overtime period, the first time this season a Phantoms home game has gone to an extra session.
Cleveland (13-11-4) outshot Mahoning Valley 5-4 in the overtime and appeared to have the victory in hand with 36 seconds left, as a shot found the back of the net.
However, in the process the net was thrown off kilter and after a lengthy discussion among the referees and the goal official, the Barons' goal was taken off the board.
Shootout
With that, the tilt went to a shootout, with five players from each team taking shots. After both teams missed their opening shots, Cleveland's Tomas Petruska buried a wrister past Phantoms goalie Ryan Zapolski for 1-0 advantage in the shootout.
Mahoning Valley's Mike Maltese answered with a score of his own to knot the shootout at 1-all.
On the Barons' fourth attempt, NAHL's leading scorer Carter Camper provided what proved to be the game winner, sending a shot into goal. It was his 41st point of the season and 15th goal.
Cleveland goalie Bobby Jarosz turned away the Phantoms' final two shot attempts to preserve the win.
"It was tough to lose in a shootout tonight, but it's nice to be home after two months on the road," Mainhardt said. "The D-zone really killed us tonight and I think guys were just trying to do too much. When you can't take care of the D-zone, it's hard to get anything going on offense.
"But being home for a while and getting some home cooking will help us work on some things and get some confidence and help us get things together, build some trust in each other and turn things around."
The Phantoms (12-9-2) continue the homestand with games against the Alpena Ice Diggers Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.