Phantoms go from riches to rags in one night in 4-1 loss to Stars

David Dermer

Photo

Mahoning Vally's #18 Johnny Meo is trying to start a fight with Traverse City's #6 Tyler Stephens, during the final seconds of Sundays game.

By John Kovach

After rolling 9-2 Friday, the Phantoms got rocked, 4-1, Saturday.

YOUNGSTOWN — What a difference a night makes for teams scoring goals in hockey.

On Friday night, the Mahoning Valley Phantoms registered an abundance of goals in victory, while on Saturday night they managed to tally one one goal in defeat in another North American Hockey League North Division game.

After scoring seven unanswered goals and routing Traverse City Friday night, 9-2, Mahoning Valley simply had no answer for the resurgent North Stars’ offense Saturday night in a 4-1 loss before an announced attendance of 1,250 fans at the Chevrolet Centre.

Garrett Thompson scored two goals and added one assist and Kyle Bonis also had two goals to lead Traverse City, which broke a three-game losing streak and clinched a playoff spot with the win coupled with the Marquette Rangers’ loss Friday night.

Team USA also sealed a playoff berth Friday as a result of Marquette’s defeat.

The Phantoms (34-12-5, 73 points), who previously clinched a playoff berth two weeks ago, still lead the NAHL North Division by seven points over Team USA (30-14-4), while Traverse City (29-17-6, 64) holds third place.

Alex Lippincott had the lone goal for Mahoning Valley, which was unable to deliver a win for a big group of fans from two local charities — the Relay for Life and Big Brothers and Big Sisters programs — which were guests of the Phantoms.

Coach Anthony Palumbo of Traverse City said Friday’s trouncing plus strong defensive play in Saturday’s game made the difference in the win over the Phantoms.

“Sometimes when you get a slap in the face, you come out with your best effort. We came out very focused tonight,” said Palumbo. “We have a lot of pride and we did not want to leave a 9-2 impression.”

Palumbo said his defense came to play and hustled all over the ice.

“Our defense was very strong. It was one of our better games of the year. Our forwards were hustling back to help the defense. We didn’t do that Friday night,” said Palumbo, noting that, “All of the guys were back-checking.”

Plus he pointed out, “Mahoning didn’t have their best effort.”

Palumbo said that Bonis and Thompson entered the game from two different directions in a hockey sense.

“Actually, Bonis played very well Friday night, too,” said Palumbo. “[Thompson] didn’t play Friday, but when he comes to play, he can make a huge difference.”

The Phantoms will battle the North Stars again today at the Chevrolet Centre at 3 p.m. to conclude their three-game series. All $8.50 tickets will be reduced to $5 in honor of today’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade downtown.

The Phantoms, who are 13-3-1 at the Chevrolet Centre, had 13 shots in the third period but couldn’t connect to mount a comeback.

Meanwhile, the North Stars had 16 attempts in the third and finished the game with a 31-30 shot advantage.

North Stars goalie Dallas Kniss had 29 saves, while Phantoms goalie Garrett Bartus had 27.

The North Stars opened the scoring on Garrett Thompson’s early goal at 15:24 on an assist from Marc Thompson for a 1-0 lead.

Traverse City scored again at 8:32 of the first on Bonis’ goal with assists from Garrett Thompson and Nathan Urbaniak, to take a 2-0 lead into the second period.

The Phantoms, meanwhile, weren’t able to muster any offense in the first period, and were outshot by the North Stars, 15-5.

The visitors continued to dominate the offense in the second period as Bonis scored again on Typer Stephens’ assist at 10:33 to expand their lead to 3-0.

But then the Phantoms finally broke the scoring ice as Alex Lippincott drove to the net down the middle and slipped the puck into the net on assists from Cullen Lundholm and John Houston at 9:51 of the second, to pull his team to within 3-1.

Then neither team scored for the rest of second during which the Phantoms had an 12-5 shot advantage.

However, the North Stars struck again early in the third when Garrett Thompson netted his second goal of the game on an assist from Dan Radke at 19:06 for a 4-1 command.

kovach@vindy.com