Late second-period goals send Phantoms to defeat

Doug Clifford, Brandon Saad and Stefan Salituro scored for Mahoning Valley.

ALPENA, Mich. — The Mahoning Valley Phantoms gave up two goals in the last minute of the second period Saturday and could not recover, losing to the Alpena IceDiggers, 4-3, in a North American Hockey League game.

After Doug Clifford’s third goal of the weekend gave the Phantoms a 3-2 lead with 48 seconds remaining in the second period, Alpena got goals from Josh Nicol and Sam Cheraso with 24 and 12 seconds left, respectively, to take the lead.

The Phantoms created multiple scoring chances in the third period but could never get one past Nick Graves, who picked up his first win of the season for the IceDiggers.

The Phantoms’ best chance came with two minutes left when Alex Lippincott rang a wrist shot off the post.

The loss was the Phantoms’ (6-1-1) first regulation defeat of the season. The Phantoms were the only team in the NAHL without a loss in regulation.

Brandon Saad and Stefan Salituro also scored for the Phantoms, whose all-time record against Alpena slipped to 35-10-0.

Cullen Lundholm added a pair of assists to capture the team lead in points with nine (1-8-9).

Garrett Bartus finished with 28 saves and fell to 2-1-1 on the year. Graves made 27 saves for the IceDiggers.

The game did not feature many penalties, with the teams only combining for seven power play opportunities on the night. The Phantoms finished one for three on the power play while killing off three of four Alpena opportunities.

The Phantoms return home to host Team U.S.A. Friday and Saturday at the Ice Zone in Boardman Puck drop for both games will be at 7:15 p.m.