HOCKEY Barons' Jalaba finishes Phantoms, 4-3

Vinny Jalaba's goal gave Cleveland a two-game series sweep of Youngstown.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN - Vinny Jalaba's goal with 2 minutes, 49 seconds remaining lifted the Cleveland Barons to a 4-3 win over the Youngstown Phantoms, in a Junior A/North American Hockey League game at The Ice Zone Saturday night.
The win, the fifth in a row for the Barons (12-5-1, 25 points), gave Cleveland a sweep of the two-game series with the Phantoms this weekend.
Youngstown (9-6-4, 22 points) lost for the sixth time in their last seven outings.
"This is a season of peaks and valleys and that is exactly what is happening for these two teams right now," Barons coach Tim Alexander said. "We started slow as the Phantoms showed plenty of intensity right from the outset.
"They out-shot us 16-2 in the first period, yet we felt good in that we only trailed 2-1. I told our players to continue to play our system, trust in each other and good things would happen."
The Barons got on the board first when Jason Weeks (assisted by Neal Sheehan) scored a shorthanded goal. The Phantoms then scored two unanswered goals, the first by Kevin Huck (unassisted) at 7:06 and the other by Matt Lombardo at 15:50 to take a 2-1 lead after one period.
"We made some adjustments to our lineup tonight and it really worked out for us," Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt said.
"We sat our top two scorers and our top scoring defenseman and our guys really responded," he added.
The Barons scored the only goal of the second period, by captain Nick Biondo, with an assist from both Brian Bicek and Jalaba, at 7:58 to tie the score at 2.
"Vinny Jalaba is a real gamer for us," Alexander said. "He played for the Detroit Compuware team that won the national title two years ago. When they disbanded, we were able to pick him up in the expansion draft."
A goal by Adam Thomas at 9:05 of the final period gave the Barons a brief 3-2 lead. When the Phantoms' Greg Brown (with an assist from Casey Russell) scored at 12:56, the score was tied at 3.
"We tried to create traffic to the net on the goal that tied the game in the final period," Mainhardt said. "We had a ton of shots on goal but their goalie, Ian Keserich, is an excellent goaltender.
"When you have that many shots on goal, you expect more pucks to squeak into the net," he said.
Just when it looked like a shoot-out would decide the outcome, Jalaba's goal proved to be the game winner. He also added two assists.
Keserich rejected 42 of 45 Phantom shots on the night, recording both wins in goal for the Barons this weekend.
Youngstown goalie Tyler Sims, a native of Sinking Spring, Pa., who turns 18-years-old today, had 19 saves as the Phantoms out-shot the Barons, 45-23.