Phantoms stay alive, blank the Bandits, 3-0

By Greg Gulas

Mahoning Valley will try to even the series on Friday night.

BOARDMAN — Phantoms goaltender Garret Bartus rejected 30 St. Louis as the Mahoning Valley Pahntoms staved off elimination Wednesday with a 3-0 defeat of St. Louis at the Ice Zone.

The Bandits lead the best-of-five North American Hockey League series, 2-1.

“We’ve said all along that this is a five-game series, and while we really needed this game tonight to force a game four, it’s by far and away our best overall effort in some time,” Phantoms head coach Bob Mainhardt said.

“Garrett has come up huge for us all season long and tonight it was no different,” Mainhardt said. “He made some great stops when we needed them most and kept the puck out of the net the entire game.

“Our main focus right now is on Friday night,” Mainhardt said. “We’ll just stick to our game plan, take it shift by shift and go from there.

The Phantoms took the lead when Alden Hirschfeld’s second goal of the series, a wrister, slipped by St, Louis goalie Cal Heeter 3:56 into the game.

“The big difference tonight was that we played as a team,” Hirschfeld said. “An early goal set the tone for us and we showed plenty of character throughout the game. When you add [Garrett] Bartus’ performance in goal, his play made it a little easier on us the whole night.”

When Brent Dexter added his goal at 11:01 of the second stanza, the Phantoms had built a two-goal margin.

After Derek Graham notched his third goal of the postseason at 15:58 for a 3-0 Mahoning Valley lead, Bartus held his ground the rest of the way and secured the Phantoms’ win.

“I give all of the credit tonight to my defense because they did a phenomenal job out front all game,” Bartus said. “It’s a good feeling to win like this because we just lost two in their barn, but came home to hold serve in our own house.” “You can never look ahead because that is when the opposition sneaks up on you,” Bartus said. “If we just play Friday night like we did tonight, then it should be a good overall game. Both teams skated really hard tonight at both ends of the ice,” he added.

The Bandits held a 30-22 shot advantage, including 20-12 over the final two periods of play.

“I thought it was an excellent hockey game tonight,” St. Louis coach John Cooper said. “Both teams made a couple of mistakes, but in the end it was Mahoning Valley that capitalized on their opportunities,” “Both goalies, [Cal] Heeter for us and [Garrett] Bartus for Mahoning Valley played extremely well in goal.

“When you have 30 shots on goal you are supposed to score a few goals. That just wasn’t the case for us tonight,” Cooper said.

“There isn’t much we can change or for that fact want to change at this point,” Cooper said. “We’ll just stay focused and look to play with the same intensity Friday night as we did in the third period tonight.”

Game time Friday night at the Ice Zone is 7:15 p.m.