Phantoms suffer 5-1 defeat to St. Louis Bandits

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — Cal Heeter made 28 saves and St. Louis opened a 4-0 lead midway through the game, and the Bandits went on to defeat the Mahoning Valley Phantoms, 5-1, in a North American Hockey League game Saturday.

Tom Brooks and Kyle O’Kane scored in the first period to give St. Louis (38-8-2) a 2-0 lead, then Grant Gorczyca and Mike Leone scored 53 seconds apart in the second period to make it 4-0 with 10:04 remaining.

Carl Nielson gave the Phantoms (27-15-4) their only goal, on an assist by Kyle Bailey, with 4:14 remaining in the second period.

St. Louis’ Ben Warda closed the scoring with 9:17 left in the game.

Ben Miller, Nick Condon and David Makowski each had three assists for the Bandits, who play host to the Phantoms tonight at 7. St. Louis has won five of seven games against Mahoning Valley this season.

Garrett Bartus stopped 32 shots for the Phantoms as his record fell to 18-8-3.

The Phantoms, who were 0-for-3 on the power play, were outshot 37-29. St. Louis was 1-for-1 with a man advantage.