Phantoms Ride Special Teams to Preseason Victory
September 6, 2008 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Mahoning Valley Phantoms News Release
BROWNSTOWN, MI - The Mahoning Valley Phantoms scored three special teams goals on their way to a 4-2 win over the Motor City Machine in their preseason opener Saturday night.
Phantoms' head coach Bob Mainhardt thinks the high-scoring special teams play is a result of some preseason rust.
"It's really early on at this point, so neither team was really set up to handle too much special teams play," Mainhardt says.
Brian McGinty opened the scoring at 14:22 of the first period with a power play tally, streaking into the offensive zone and scoring off a long pass from defenseman John Houston.
Phantoms rookie Brandon Saad added a short-handed marker five minutes later, stealing the puck deep in Machine territory and depositing a backhand shot past Motor City goalie Zach Hansen at the 9:04 mark.
The Phantoms got their only even-strength goal when Nick Kenney caught Hansen out of position and hit the open net at 16:37 of the second period. Kurt Washnock rounded out the Phantoms' scoring at 13:53 in the third with the team's second short-handed goal of the night.
Mainhardt says that the team shouldn't buy too much into the win.
"At this stage of the season you can't get too excited or too upset about anything," he says, "basically we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of potential but we've got a lot of work to do."
The Phantoms wrap up the preseason September 13th against Motor City at the Ice Zone in Boardman before opening the regular season against the Owatonna (MN) Express at the Sherwood NAHL Showcase on September 17th.
North American Hockey League Stories from September 6, 2008
- Special Teams Kill Machine as Phantoms Take It, 4-2 - Motor City Metal Jackets
- Phantoms Ride Special Teams to Preseason Victory - Mahoning Valley Phantoms
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