Phantoms regroup to jar Rangers

After two straight losses, Mahoning Valley scored four unanswered goals to win.

By GREG GULAS

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

BOARDMAN — It took the Mahoning Valley Phantoms 99 minutes and 25 seconds to take a lead in their weekend series against the Marquette Rangers.

After securing the advantage Saturday, the Rangers failed to pose a threat the rest of the way.

Chad Boeckman, Kyle Verbeek and Scott Moser each had a goal and assist while Jordan Tibbett rejected all but one of Marquette’s 32 shots as the Phantoms defeated the Rangers, 4-1, in North American Hockey League action at the Ice Zone.

“It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but we did what we had to do tonight for the win,” Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt said. “We’ve been winning on false pretenses, getting by on just our talent earlier and it just came back to bite us.”

The Rangers, three for six on power play opportunities during their 6-2 win Friday night, failed to convert on seven opportunities Saturday when skating with the man advantage.

“The penalty kill is really hard work as you are always looking to make the right reads,” Mainhardt said. “Last night, that didn’t happen for us but tonight we made those reads, sacrificed and it paid off for us.

“Your best penalty killer is your goalie and tonight [Jordan] Tibbett made some great saves, especially when Marquette had the man advantage,” he said.

Rangers coach Randy Enders noted that it was a tale of two nights.

“You’ve got to hand it to their goalie tonight as [Jordan] Tibbett made some key saves when we were on our power play,” Enders said. “While it was our formula for success last night, it was their story tonight.

“It would have been nice for us to walk out of here with a four-point weekend, but I am proud nonetheless of the effort that we put forth both nights for the split.

“While we came out on the short end of the score tonight, if we continue to skate like we did this weekend and put forth the same type of effort, then we are going to be all right the remainder of the season,” Enders said.

Unlike Friday’s 6-2 loss when the Phantoms (26-13-4, 56 points) could get no closer than two goals, Mahoning Valley used four unanswered goals to break their two-game losing streak, avoiding their first three-game losing skein.

After a scoreless first period in which the Rangers (23-20-3, 49 points) out-shot the Phantoms 13-12, Marquette drew first blood for the second night in a row when Mike Macari’s 10th goal of the year slipped past Tibbett at 10:41 of the second period.

Boeckman’s wrister at 15:38, his 13th tally of the year knotted the score at a goal apiece and when Nick Kenney registered his third goal with 35 seconds left in the period, the Phantoms took a 2-1 advantage into the second intermission.

Boeckman’s and Kenney’s goals came off of power play opportunities.

Verbeek’s goal just 1:28 into the final stanza increased the Phantom lead to 3-1 while Moser’s empty netter with 23 seconds remaining rounded out the scoring.

The Phantoms held a 35-32 shot advantage, converting two of six power play opportunities as they won for the fourth time in six outings against the Rangers.

Tibbett picked up the win for Mahoning Valley as he improved to 7-6-1 overall, while Beau Christian, Friday’s winning goalie, absorbed the loss to fall to 8-12-2 overall.

Mahoning Valley will close out their six-game home stand on Friday and Saturday when they take on the Traverse City North Stars. Game time is 7:15 p.m. both days.