Phantoms hit home stretch leading tight division race

By Tom Williams

YOUNGSTOWN — Unlike recent North American Hockey League seasons, the Mahoning Valley Phantoms (35-16-5, 75 points) find themselves in an extremely tight race in the final weekend of the regular season.

Tonight, the Phantoms take on the Alpena Ice Diggers (26-23-6, 58) in the regular-season finale at the Chevrolet Centre.

Friday, the Phantoms and IceDiggers will play at the Ice Zone in Boardman in what could be a playoff preview as the Phantoms try to win their second-straight division crown.

At the moment, no one knows which five teams in the division will be the four to qualify for next week’s postseason or how they will be seeded.

“I think it’s great for the players and great for the fans so we’re going to have some action-packed games, that’s for sure,” Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt said Wednesday.

Trailing the Phantoms are the U.S. National Team (34-16-5, 73) and the Traverse City North Stars (33-17-6, 72).

“The entire playoff race has come down to this last weekend,” Phantoms defenseman and assistant captain Carl Nielsen said. “We need to beat Alpena if we want to win the division because USA is right on our heels.”

The Ice Diggers are tied with the Marquette Rangers (25-23-8, 58) for fourth place.

Mainhardt agrees this year’s finish is the closest the Phantoms have experienced.

“The last couple of years, we’ve been set with our [playoff] spot at this point of the season,” Mainhardt said. “So it’s kind of nice to have games that are meaningful.”

Expect the Phantoms to go all out in the race to secure home-ice advantage for the best-of-five series that begin next week.

“It’s always a challenge as a coach whether to rest players,” Mainhardt said. “But somebody has been nipping at our heels the whole time.

“All season, we kind of figured it would come down to this,” Mainhardt said.

Like the Phantoms, the North Stars have two games remaining. Traverse City plays at Marquette on Friday and Saturday.

Team USA has three games remaining — Friday and Saturday against last-place Motor City Machine (11-43-2, 24) and Sunday against the IceDiggers.

“It’s been such a tight race all year,” Mainhardt said. “We’ve been able to sit atop the division for most of the year, but it’s been very, very tight.”

In six previous meetings, the Phantoms are 5-1-0 against the IceDiggers.

“Crashing the net will be key,” said forward Erik Higby, who has two goals and four assists in six games against the IceDiggers. “We’ve seen their goalies kick out bigger rebounds so we’ve got to be in position when they come.”

Should teams finish tied on Sunday, the tiebreaker is determined first by most wins, followed by head-to-head competition, goal differential in head-to-head games, total goal differential and coin flip.

williams@vindy.com