Phantoms spilled, 3-2, by Topeka rally

Mahoning Valley had a 2-1 lead before the Roadrunners came back.

Special to The Vindicator

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — Dennis Brown had two goals and Josh Kamrass had two assists, as the Topeka Roadrunners used more than 16 minutes of power play time to their advantage in edging the Mahoning Valley Phantoms 3-2 on Wednesday afternoon in the opening game of the Robertson Cup Championships at the Hardees IcePlex.

Down 2-1 after 40 minutes, the Roadrunners got three third period power plays and two goals to get the comeback win.

“We did not play well at all,” said Phantoms assistant coach Curtis Carr after the game. “We came out of the gates really slow; then in the second period, we started to play pretty well, took control of the game. But in the third period, we just let everything go by the wayside.”

The Roadrunners drew first blood when, deep inside the Phantoms’ zone, Bryon Paulazzo picked up a loose puck behind the net and stuffed a wrap-around goal in behind Phantoms goaltender Garrett Bartus to put Topeka up 1-0 heading into the first intermission. After killing off a 5-on-3 man-disadvantage and a four minute Topeka power play early in the period, Mahoning Valley tied things up at one-all at the 8:29 mark of the second period. On the power play, Derek Graham’s shot from the bottom of the left circle found its way between the legs of Topeka goalie Bryce Merriam. Robert Harrison and Miles Winter picked up the helpers on Graham’s fourth goal of the playoffs.

Just 3:03 later the Phantoms took the lead when Harrison threw a shot in from 55 feet out, and Alden Hirschfeld deflected it out of mid air for his fourth tally of the playoffs.

After a questionable penalty call, Brown tallied his first of the game 4:59 into the third period — firing home a low shot through a maze of traffic and off the left post to tie things up at two.

Five minutes later, just as their power play expired, Brown one-timed home his second of the night, finishing off a 2-on-1 with Kamrass, and giving the Roadrunners the lead for good.

Bartus turned aside 24 of 27 shots he faced.

The Phantoms play the host St. Louis Bandits tonight at 8:30. Mahoning Valley ends the round-robin on Friday afternoon against the Alexandria Blizzard.