The Soo Indians head into the Christmas break on a winning note as the North American Hockey League club beat the Youngstown Phantoms last night 4-3 at the Chi Mukwa Community Recreation Centre to complete a sweep of their North Division rivals.
Prior to last night's win, the Indians used a goal by Jason Blain with 35 second left in overtime to beat the Phantoms 2-1 in the series opener on Friday night. Drew Satterly scored the other Indians goal, while Aaron Rhyner scored the Youngstown goal on a power play in the third period.
Youngstown goalie Tyler Sims, who also played well on Saturday night, stopped 40 Soo shots in Friday's overtime loss while Derek MacIntyre stopped 24 in the win.
Saturday night's game had a bit of a different spin though.
With the Indians looking to move ahead of the Springfield Jr. Blues and back into top spot in the NAHL's North Division, penalties caught up to both teams as they combined for over 100 penalty minutes and 14 power plays, five for Youngstown and nine for the Indians, including a number of 5-on-3 situations handed out by referee Dean Seaborn.
The Indians took an early lead as Satterly scored his second goal in as many nights beating Sims by knocking his own rebound into an open net. Blain then scored his second goal of the weekend with a power play marker at 5:35, which led to Youngstown coach Bob Mainhardt calling a time out to calm his troops.
The timeout seemed to work as his team pulled to within one goal as Casey Russell beat Soo netminder Adam Dekker while on a two man advantage. The Russell goal was Youngstown's second shot of the game.
In the second period, Youngstown tied the scored when Joe Federoff scored on the power play to chase Dekker from the game. Jim Jorgensen gave the Indians a 3-2 lead at 9:18 when he beat Sims.
The second period also saw some sparks as Mainhardt was ejected from the game and was given a bench minor penalty along with two game misconducts. The minor penalty put his club in a hole as well as they were already in line to get one penalty and Phantoms defenceman Charley Fetzer was already serving a penalty.
The penalties along with one received early in the third put Youngstown in a two man disadvantage situation for nearly five minutes late in the second and early on in the third period. The Phantoms managed to hold off the Indians attack and tied the game near the midway point of the period.
Fetzer scored on a point shot that Derek MacIntyre, who entered the game in the second period, never saw. Indians scoring leader Logan Bittle capped off the scoring though at 17:32 of the period as he beat Sims with a perfectly placed shot in the top corner of the net to give the Indians the 4-3 win.
Sims, who was named second star in the game, stopped 35 shots in the loss, while MacIntyre stopped 13 shots in a relief effort.
Indians coach Joe Shawhan said that Saturday night's game was typical of most of the games between the two clubs in how it was decided.
"Other than the first game (a 6-1 Soo win in Youngstown on October 31st), all the games have been identical to tonight's," Shawhan said following the win. "They hung around with an aggressive defensive game. They got great goaltending too. If you have great goaltending that will help you win games."
Shawhan also said that his goaltending is strong and that Dekker, who started but was pulled on Saturday, is just trying to get on a roll.
"Adam's just trying to get himself on a roll," Shawhan said of his netminder. "Last year he progressed as the year went on and eventually he was splitting time with (then Indians starter Bill) Zaniboni, which gave us a chance to rest Bill for the National Championships. This year (Dekker) has been trying to find that consistency. (Opponents) are getting good shots on him, just not many of them."
The Indians coach went on to say that, had it not been for the solid goaltending of Sims, his club could have opened up a bigger lead due to the amount of power plays his team had.
"If they had average goaltending, we very well could have opened the game up by the amount of power plays we had," Shawhan explained. "They hang around. They're going to be dangerous in the playoffs. They could be like (an Anaheim) Mighty Ducks type of team."
The Indians are now off until the New Year when they kick off the second half of the season with games in Toledo against the Ice Diggers on January 2nd and in Youngstown against the Phantoms on January 3rd and 4th.