Phantoms cruise, sweep Fire series

Chicago

Cody Strang scored the game’s first goal 41 seconds into the first period and added another in the second period to lead the Youngstown Phantoms to a 9-3 win over the Chicago Fire in their final road of game of the season Wednesday night at the Edge Arena.

Nick Czinder also scored two goals for the Phantoms (19-35-4), who swept the season series with the Fire 5-0.

Tom Serratore, Scott Mayfield, Adam Berkle and Dylan Margonari also scored goals for the Phantoms.

Jordan Tibbett stopped 33 shots in goal for Youngstown.

Jefferson Dahl and Mayfield each had two assists, while Stuart Higgins, Margonari, Berkle, Richard Young and Andrej Sustr also had assists.

Danny Mattson scored the only goal in the first two periods for Chicago, which fell behind 3-0 and 9-1 before Cole Gunner and Matt Esposito scored goals in the third period.

Connor Wilson made 15 saves for the Fire but gave up all nine goals.

Fedor Dushkin played the final 18 minutes, stopping all nine shots.

Both teams had 33 shots.

Youngstown was 1-for-3 on the power play while Chicago was 0-for-3.

This weekend, the Phantoms will conclude the regular season with two games against the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders at the Covelli Centre.

The games will be played Friday and Saturday night.

The RoughRiders entered Wednesday night in second place in the West Division.

The two games will complete the Phantoms’ first season in the United States Hockey League. Youngstown competed in the North American Hockey League previously.