NAHL HOCKEY Phantoms, finally home, rewarded

Mahoning Valley beat Traverse City, 7-5.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN - It took 51 days for the Mahoning Valley Phantoms to play a home game, and they didn't disappoint the hometown crowd, racing to 4-0 first period lead before eventually defeating the Traverse City North Stars, 7-5, Saturday night at The Ice Zone.
Anthony Ciraulo had two goals and two assists, Drew Satterley added two goals and Marc Menzione chipped in with a goal and three assists for the Phantoms (6-6-0).
"I'm happy and so is the team to be back in the friendly confines of The Ice Zone. We had a fast start tonight but made some young mistakes that we will need to correct," Phantom coach Bob Mainhardt said.
"I am pleased with our win tonight because seven goals prove that we can put the puck in the net. It's been an emotional roller-coaster, however, so we'll just hope to improve each and every time out. The season is young, but we need to work on some things immediately if we expect to compete down the road."
First goal
Anthony Ciraulo, the team's leading scorer after 11 games, scored the first of his two goals at the 15:28 mark of the opening period to stake the Phantoms to a 1-0 advantage.
Drew Satterley's goal at 13:27 made it 2-0 and when Marc Menzione scored a shorthanded, unassisted goal at the 12:35 mark of the opening stanza, Mahoning Valley had a 3-0 lead just 7:25 into the game.
The Phantoms scored their fourth unanswered goal, by Jason Simota at 8:17 (there were assists by both Naaman Moorman and Drew Fortney), but a goal by the North Stars' Jake Erway with 5:31 remaining in the period cut the Phantom lead to 4-1.
"You cannot spot a team like the Phantoms a four-goal lead and not expect to suffer the consequences," said North Stars (6-6-2) coach Scott Gardner.
"We did an excellent job in the second and third periods overall, but our opening period performance proved costly."
Traverse City's Jared Mullen (5:20) scored the only goal of the second period to cut the Phantoms' lead to 4-2, but Ciraulo's second goal of the night, his eighth of the season at the 16:50 mark of the third period, increased Mahoning Valley's lead to 5-2.
Closes gap
Milan Drevenak's goal (with assists from both Jason Simota and Bret Larson) at 8:30 of the final frame increased the Phantom lead to 6-2, but three unanswered goals by Anthony Sarno (7:45), Mullen (:09) and Adam Sponseller (1:39) made it 6-5 with a little over a minute and a half remaining.
When the North Stars pulled goalie Jeremy Kaleniecki from net in favor of an additional skater, the Phantoms took advantage of the empty net as Satterley scored his second goal of the game and his seventh of the season.
The Phantoms outshot the North Stars, 52-50. Mahoning Valley goalie Ryan Zapolski registered 45 saves, as did Kaleniecki.
The teams meet again today at 3 p.m. at The Ice Zone.