Saturday, January 21, 2006
The teams will meet again tonight at The Ice Zone.
By GREG GULAS
Vindicator Correspondent
YOUNGSTOWN -- After Friday's win over Alpena, Mahoning Valley Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt said his squad was looking forward to playing their North Division counterparts, the USA National Under-18 Team, in the final two games of the North American Hockey League Showcase.
Mainhardt predicted the Phantoms would have to keep mistakes to a minimum and be opportunistic if they expected to come away with victories.
Saturday afternoon at the Chevrolet Centre, the Phantoms played with plenty of intensity, forging a 3-2 lead at the onset of the second period. But five unanswered goals by the U.S. squad proved to be too much to overcome as Mahoning Valley fell, 9-4.
"Our boys played really well and you cannot fault their effort. For the better part of 55 minutes, the game was a lot closer than the final score indicated," said Mainhardt.
"You cannot let down for a minute because [the U.S. team will] make you pay. Take away a couple of silly penalties and a different bounce of the puck here and there and the game is a little different."
Strong play
Rhett Rakhshani followed his hat trick against Traverse City with two goals and two assists while Bill Sweatt added two unassisted goals and an assist to pace the National Team to their third straight win in the Showcase.
"This team has a lot of talented kids; players willing to play simple, team hockey. That in turn allows their games to be fully utilized," USA coach John Hynes said. "This is a close-knit team. They get along well and really like each other."
Rakhshani got USA on the board first with a power play goal at 10:17 of the opening period.
The Phantoms' Drew Satterley, who paced Mahoning Valley with two goals (he is now the team leader with 21) then answered with a power play shot of his own to knot the score at a goal apiece.
When Sweatt scored the first of his unassisted tallies at 14:43, USA grabbed a 2-1 lead. But Chris Fairbanks of the Phantoms added a score at 18:19 to tie the game at 2 after the first 20 minutes.
Satterley's second goal at 1:19 of the second stanza gave the Phantoms a brief 3-2 margin, but unanswered goals by Brian Strait, Tony Mosey, Rakhshani, Sweatt and Luke Popko over the next 20:46 gave the National squad a 7-3 lead.
"My goals tonight were team goals. I'm trying to be more patient with the puck, tying to attack more and be a little more assertive," Rakhshani noted.
"I've really had some good line combinations. They pick for me while the give-and-go was working tonight as well."
Too much to overcome
The Phantoms' Jake Roadhouse scored at 8:41 of the third period to cut the USA lead to 7-4, but Chris Summers (14:15) and Ryan Flynn (14:52) added two insurance markers for the National Team.
"They're a good team, but we paid for every mistake that we made tonight. We'll hopefully come back against them [today] and do what we didn't tonight," Satterley said.
Marc Menzione, who registered two goals for the Phantoms, agreed. "When the game was 3-2, we had momentum but mistakes just proved too costly for us."
Each team had 30 shots on goal.
In other Showcase games, Carter Camper and Brett Jendra each scored two goals to pace the Cleveland Barons to an 8-1 victory over the Traverse City North Stars.
The Phantoms and USA National squad will square off in the final game of the Showcase tonight at 6:30 p.m. at The Ice Zone.