OT win finishes 3-game sweep

The Phantoms rallied from a two-goal deficit late in the game to beat Alpena.

ALPENA, Mich. — After coming back to tie from two goals down in the final eight minutes of regulation, Miles Winter picked up the puck at his own blue line, skated the length of the ice, and fired a laser over the glove of Alpena goaltender Nick Graves 7:38 into overtime to secure the Mahoning Valley Phantoms a 3-2 victory and a three-game sweep of their North Division semifinal series.

“One of their guys threw it to the point, and I just saw the two defensemen slumping down at the blue line,” Winter said. “I picked up the puck and ended up with a breakaway; I saw the opening glove side and took it.”

The Phantoms’ second overtime win of the series gave the team a berth in the North Division Finals against the St Louis Bandits.

Mahoning Valley has now won nine of its last 10 games and 12 of its last 14.

It only took 5:34 for Alpena to jump out to a lead for the second straight game. Jon Puskar picked the pocket of Derek Graham at center ice and started a 2-on-1 shorthanded break for the Ice Diggers. He fired a wrister over the glove of Phantoms goaltender Garrett Bartus.

With 7:14 left in the second period, Alpena’s Russell Anderson redirected Jimmy McCusker’s shot from the point. The goal, Anderson’s third of the playoffs, came with the Ice Diggers enjoying a 5-on-3 power play.

In the third period, after Chad Boeckman fired a shot from the high slot off the right post, Kyle Bailey picked up the rebound and slotted his first goal of the playoffs to pull the Phantoms to within one at the 11:08 mark.

“Alpena was getting the better of us there for a while, but we thought we were getting some good opportunities,” said Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt. “Their goaltender was playing great, as he was all series. We just knew we had to stick with it and the key was getting that first one. After that, we really started taking it to them — that was the difference.”

With just 5:45 left in regulation, the Phantoms’ Jon Madden stepped up to tie things up. After Derek Graham got a shot wide from a one-on-one rush, Alden Hirschfeld picked up the loose puck in the corner and found Madden lurking at the top of the point. Madden’s wrister beat Graves high on the glove side and evened things at 2-2.

“We knew it was going to be a tight series,” said Mainhardt. “Every shift counts, one bounce here, once bounce there, could be the difference. It was a sweep, but it was a battle, and with the overtime games, it was a much tighter series than a sweep would entail.”

Bartus turned aside 31 of 33 Alpena shots while limiting the Ice Diggers to just one power play goal on five opportunities. It was his third career playoff win in as many starts. He finished the series stopping 126 of 132 shots he faced.

The series schedule against St. Louis will be announced.