‘Kids’ Day attendance sets record for Phantoms

By John Kovach

But more than 5,000 fans at the Chevrolet Centre weren’t enough to cheer on a victory.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley Phantoms’ hockey team had the benefit of a record-breaking 5,000-plus fans cheering for them during their game Tuesday morning against the U.S. National Team (under-16) at the Chevrolet Centre.

Most of the announced attendance of 5,013 fans — the largest crowd in Phantoms history — were children off from school for the morning, with many of them seeing their first hockey game.

But hardly any of the huge gathering, that also included many teachers and parents, were cheering for the U.S. team during the seventh meeting of the season between the two North American Hockey League North Division rivals.

Despite that disadvantage, the third-place U.S. team from Ann Arbor, Mich. upended the first-place Phantoms, 5-3.

The victory improved U.S.’s losing record against the locals this season to 4-3-0.

Mahoning Valley (31-12-5, 67 points) maintained its seven-point lead over the Traverse City North Stars (27-12- 60), while U.S. (24-23-3, 53 points) climbed to within seven points of the North Stars.

The Phantoms trailed 4-3 in the waning seconds and battled to get the puck for a chance at the equalizer, but Stuart Higgins scored for the U.S. team with 1:46 left on assists by Stephan Johns to seal the verdict.

The Phantoms were in the game until the end. They cut their deficit to 4-3 early in the third at 18:53 on Nick Kenney’s power-play goal from in close on assists from Stefan Salituro and Nick Shkreli.

After that, Mahoning Valley could not penetrate the defensive shield erected by goalie Will Yanakeff, who had 26 saves of the Phantoms’ 29 shots; and the locals ran out of offensive gas.

“This was a great environment,” said winning coach John Hynes, in his sixth season with the U.S. team. “The fans really got into the game cheering. Give credit to the Phantoms’ organization. They put on a good show.”

Hynes said both teams were determined in the third period to take control, but that Yanakeff’s goal-watching made the diference.

Mahoning Valley coach Bob Mainhardt said the game was a win for all of the young people of the area who got a chance to watch and learn about hockey — and in that sense also served as a win for the Phantoms.

“We had a lot of young fans and we hope they come back,” said Mainhardt. “It was a learning experience for a lot of young fans who were seeing hockey for the first time.”

Mainhardt said the U.S. team did a better job taking advantage of its opportunities.

“We had a couple of shots go into the net after the whistle,” he said. “That was some bad luck on our part.”

Phantoms’ goalie Jordan Tibbett had 18 saves on U.S.’s 23 shots, but got off to a bad start.

He gave up the first two goals of the game in the opening period to Jacob Fallon at 11:26 on assists from Michael Mersch and Matthew Nieto, and at 1:38 when Emerson Etem connected on assists from Austin Czarnik.

The first goal by Fallon was a short tap-in through a big hole through the left of the net.

But the Phantoms struck back a short time later when Robert Harrison connected on a power play goal with 34.8 seconds left in the first on assists from Brandon Saad and Salituro.

However, U.S. outscored the locals by 2-1 in the second period, beginning with Frankie Simonelli’s long shot (about 20 feet) in a power-play situation with assists from Mersch and Nieto.

But again the Phantoms retaliated at 16:06 when George Saad drove to the net and hammered in the puck from about six feet out on David Chaney’s assist, to pull the locals within 3-2.

Then the Phantoms failed to score the equalizer for a long span of 15:41, before Nick Shore connected from in close with 1:35 left on assists from Czarnik and Etem to give U.S. a 4-2 lead entering the third period.

Mahoning Valley will hit the road this week, playing two games against the Motor City Machine on Friday and Saturday at 7:10 p.m. in Yack Arena at Wyandotte, Mich.

kovach@vindy.com