Phantoms fall to Gamblers; Chicago in town tonight

By Greg Gulas

YOUNGSTOWN — After playing giveaway Wednesday night, Green Bay’s Anders Lee was much happier that his team played takeaway Friday in the final game of their two-game set with the Youngstown Phantoms.

Lee’s two goals and assist helped lift the Gamblers to a 4-3 victory over the Phantoms on Friday in an USHL game at the Covelli Centre.

More importantly, the win vaulted the Gamblers (8-4-2, 18 points) over the Chicago Steel (8-4-1, 17 points), tonight’s opponent for the Phantoms at the Covelli Centre, into the top spot in the East Division.

The Phantoms (7-5-1, 15 points) fell behind the Cedar Rapids Roughriders (8-5-0, 16 points) and into a tie with the Indiana Ice for fourth place in the division.

Lee, who notched his team-best ninth and 10th goals of the season, had a four-point series, insisting that it was imperative to get out of town with no less than as split.

“After playing giveaway the other night it was nice to salvage the final game of the series tonight,” he said.

“It feels good right now to be in first place, but you have to remember that there are four or five teams in our division that will be fighting for the top spot.

Jon Cooper, no stranger to the Phantoms as he coached the St. Louis Bandits in the NAHL, called Lee’s performance simply outstanding.

“Lee has been a horse for us all season long. He’s a big body who knows how to use it and quite frankly, there are very few defensemen who can stay with him,” Cooper said.

The Gamblers got on the board first just 45 seconds away from the first intermission when Ryan Furne’s unassisted goal, his third of the season, staked Green Bay to the early goal advantage.

The Phantoms’ Jefferson Dahl knotted the game on his power play opportunity at 4:50 of the second period and when Lee’s first goal of the night found the net at 16:57 of the period, the Gamblers took a brief 2-1 lead.

Brett Gensler’s shorthanded goal at 18:36 then knotted the game at 2 heading to the final 20 minutes.

It was the fourth shorthanded goal allowed by Green Bay this season.

Goals by Lee (12:09) and David Makowski (16:38), the latter a power play with a two-man advantage, helped Green Bay to a 4-2 margin.

A goal by Joe Zarbo, his second of the season at 17:46 of the final stanza, cut the Green Bay lead to 4-3 but it was too little, too late as the Gamblers held on for the victory.

“I am not disappointed with our effort at all tonight. This is the best 60 minutes that we have played in a long time,” said Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt.

“If we play with this effort the rest of the way then we are going to win a lot of games. Goalie Matt Mahalak (3-2-1) gave us a chance to win. His effort was absolutely great tonight.

“We’ll take the positives from tonight’s game and build on them. Our players aren’t too happy with the outcome tonight, but we have a chance to get back on the winning track [tonight] against a pretty good Chicago Steel team,” added Mainhardt.

The Gamblers held a 27-23 shot advantage while Green Bay’s Ryan McKay (2-3-1) rejected 20 Phantoms attempts to pick up his second win of the campaign.