Phantoms roll easily past North Stars 6-3

Stefan Salituro’s hat trick paced Mahoning Valley’s
victory.

By GREG GULAS

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT 

BOARDMAN — Heading into Friday’s home game against the Traverse City North Stars, the Mahoning Valley Phantoms were the second highest scoring team in the North American Hockey League this season having registered 88 goals in their first 23 outings.

Behind Stefan Salituro’s hat trick, the Phantoms showed the North Stars just how powerful an offense they have assembled as they defeated their North Division counterparts, 6-3 at the Ice Zone.

“This game was really a lot closer than the final score indicated. Traverse City is an excellent team that fights you tooth and nail the entire game. After taking a three goal advantage at the outset of the second period, our immaturity allowed them to tie the game with three unanswered goals before we were able to pull away in the final period.

“They [Traverse City] just kept battling back but to our credit we were up to the challenge. It sure is nice to start our four-game homestand on a winning note,” Phantom head coach Bob Mainhardt said.

Mahoning Valley (15-7-2, 32 points) got on the board first at 7:55 of the opening period when Eric Ringel notched his fourth goal of the season.

When Scott Moser added his 10th tally of the year at 12:10, the Phantoms then built a 2-0 margin heading to the second period of play.

Mahoning Valley increased their lead to 3-0 when Alden Hirschfeld notched an unassisted goal just 1:18 into the period.

Slowly and methodically, however, the North Stars (9-7-4, 22 points) fought back to tie the game with three unanswered goals of their own in the period.

A goal by Nathan Urbaniak at 4:11 cut the Phantom margin to 3-1, then two power play scores, the first at 9:45 by Joe Greener and the second by Matt Hughes just 47 seconds later knotted the score at 3-all heading to the final period of play.

“We played well tonight for two and a half periods so I’m not upset at all with our effort. We dug a hole early and then came back, but when you turn the puck over to a team like the Phantoms you expect to pay and that is exactly what happened to us tonight,” Traverse City first-year head coach Anthony Palumbo noted.

“When we fell behind by two scores in the third period, we pulled our goalie with the hopes of generating some offense but that just did not happen. It’s tough to add a goal that late in the game at this level, yet alone two scores.  We took a chance but it just did not work out tonight for us.”

If it weren’t for the play of Salituro in the final stanza, the North Stars might have had a chance for a rare road win (they are now 2-4-2 on the road this season).

Salituro’s first goal of the game at 14:27 of the final period gave Mahoning Valley the lead for good while his second tally at 16:48 gave the Phantoms Valley a 5-3 advantage.

His unassisted, empty-netter with 32 seconds remaining in the contest proved to be the icing on the cake.

“Traverse City is an excellent team but we were just a little better tonight. We came out stronger than they did and let them battle back, so to get the win and start our four-game homestand off on the right foot is a really good feeling,” Salituro said.

“The hat trick is special for me because it is my first in NAHL play. It just doesn’t happen all of the time.  Contributing to a win is even more special.”

The North Stars held a 31-25 shots on goal advantage while Mahoning Valley’s Jordan Tibbett rejected 28 Traverse City shots en-route to his fourth (4-5-0) win of the season.

These same two teams will meet in the final game of their two-game series tonight at 7:15 at the Ice Zone.