Mahalak too tough in Phantoms’ 3-1 win over Chicago

The goalie backstopped Youngstown’s second straight win.

By GREG GULAS

Vindicator Correspondent

YOUNGSTOWN — The Chicago Steel must be wondering what they need to do in order to defeat their East Division rivals, the Youngstown Phantoms.

Matt Mahalak stopped all but one Chicago shot while goals by Taylor Holstrom, Adam Berkle and Tom Serratore helped lift the Phantoms to a 3-1 decision over the Steel on Saturday night in a USHL game at the Covelli Centre.

“We’ve had an excellent scouting report on Chicago so we know what to expect and from whom we should expect the action,” said Mahalak.

“We’ve had our share of success so far against the Steel and a lot of that is a direct result of our defense,” he added. When they help out, like they did tonight by blocking their share of shots out front, it makes it easier on me around the net.

“We struggled early defensively but have come on of late and that has been a key, especially the last two nights,” Mahalak said.

The Phantoms struck first when Holstrom notched his sixth goal of the campaign at 16:35 of the opening period.

It was his team-leading 17th point of the season and was enough to send Youngstown into the first intermission with the goal advantage.

The Phantoms outshot the Steel 16-8 in the period; the former number representing the third time this year that Youngstown has gotten off that many missiles in a frame.

The Steel then unleashed an offensive assault on Mahalak in the second frame, outshooting Youngstown 11-5 but to his credit nothing slipped past the Phantoms’ goaltender, enabling Youngstown to hold on to the slim 1-0 margin with 20 minutes remaining.

It was also the first time this season that Youngstown held an opponent scoreless for the first 40 minutes.

Youngstown increased its lead to 2-0 at the 10:00 mark of the third period on Berkle’s tally.

With an assist from both Serratore and Brian Dowd, it was Berkle’s sixth goal of the season and his second in as many nights against the Steel.

The Steel avoided their fourth shutout of the season when Jake Chelios rattled the back of the net at 15:24 of the period, cutting the Phantoms lead to 2-1.

Serratore then helped Youngstown regain its two-goal margin 50 seconds later with his fifth goal of the year, enabling them to sweep their weekend series with Chicago while moving to 2-1-1 on their homestand.

“We hit a rough spell but the team has reacted the way that they needed to and the result was the best 120 minutes of hockey that we’ve played this season,” said Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt.

“Tonight, you were watching a future NHL goalie in Matt [Mahalak],” he added. “[Friday] night, Jordan Tibbett won his fourth in a row and tonight we got Matt back in the win column so it was an excellent weekend overall.

“With the Christmas break right around the corner, we must now stay focused and cannot look ahead,” Mainhardt said.

Youngstown moved to 10-8-2 (22 points) overall and 6-5-1 at the Covelli Centre, winning for the fourth time in as many tries against the Steel.

Chicago fell to 10-9-3 (23 points), dropping their third in a row while falling to 1-4-1 in their last six.

Youngstown held a 33-26 shot advantage with Mahalak improving to 5-5-2 overall when in goal for the Phantoms.

The Phantoms will play the fifth and final game of that five-game home stretch Thursday at 7:15 p.m. when they play host to the Indiana Ice at the Covelli Centre.