Phantoms cruise past Motor City in 3-1 victory

By Greg Gulas

Mahoning Valley improved to 12-1 at the Chevrolet Centre.

YOUNGSTOWN — Cody Ganchar’s second period goal proved to be the game winner while Jordan Tibbett rejected all but one Motor City shot for his 22nd victory of the year as the Mahoning Valley Phantoms turned back the Machine, 3-1 in a North American Hockey League game on Thursday at the Chevy Centre.

The win was the ninth in 10 outings this season for Mahoning Valley (31-11-4, 66 points) against the Machine (8-35-1, 17 points) as they improved to 12-1 at the Chevy Centre.

They also won for the seventh time (7-1-1) in their last nine outings.

“I’ve said it a million times but I’ll repeat myself once again. When [Jordan] Tibbett is in goal he gives us a chance to win and that is all you can ask of your goalie,” said Phantoms coach BobMainhardt.

When the puck dropped to start the game, Mahoning Valley’s Johnny Meo set the new Phantoms standard by playing in his 179th game, eclipsing the old mark of 178 set by Brent Dexter from 2005-08.

It’s a record of which Meo is most proud.

“It’s really a nice record to have and while it’s not a scoring record, it’s still a mark that makes me smile. To set the record during a win is equally special.

“We had to play heads up at both ends of the ice while Jordan [Tibbett] made it look easy with his overall play in goal. He’s definitely our star of the game,” Meo stated.

Mahoning Valley got on the board first when Brandon Saad, with assists from Alex Lippincott and Stefan Salituro, scored at 5:21 of the opening period.

The powerplay goal was his team-leading 25th tally of the season.

Former Phantom Dustin Hopfner scored his first goal of the season at 3:58 of the second period as the Machine forged a 1-all tie, but two unanswered goals by Mahoning Valley, the first by Ganchar at 10:02 and the second by Erik Higby with 32 seconds remaining in the frame, gave the Phantoms a 3-1 margin and all the scoring they would need.

For Ganchar, it was his second goal of the campaign and his first game-winning tally of the year.

“I got a lucky bounce off of Nick Shkreli’s skate, saw daylight and was lucky enough to bury the puck in the back of the net,” he said.

Tibbett, now 22-5-1, was pleased with his team’s performance.

“Motor City might be the last place team in our division but we realize that every game in the North Division is going to be a battle.”

Motor City fell to 3-20 on the road this season.“Mahoning Valley is a good team whose strength is their depth,” said Machine coach Sean Clark. “They roll three or four lines at you every night while their defense might just be the deepest overall.”