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Smith’s late goal wins it for Phantoms
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
Quinn Smith took full advantage of mad scramble in front of Team USA goaltender Matt McNeely to give the Youngstown Phantoms their third home win of the season.
With McNeely sprawled, Smith found the puck and lifted a backhanded shot into the net to give the Phantoms a 4-3 victory on Saturday at the Covelli Centre.
“Everybody just went hard to the net,” said Smith of his second goal that came with 2:10 remaining in regulation. “[Linemate Mike] Ambrosia made a good play to put his body in front of the [defenseman] that was about to pop the puck.
“It’s still kinda fuzzy but I was able to put it on my backhand and put it over the goalie,” Smith said.
Smith’s goal, which was assisted by Jordan Young and Ryan Belonger, capped a wild period where the Phantoms took a 3-2 lead on John Fritsche’s breakaway goal with 9:15 remaining, only to see the lead wiped out by East Palestine native J.T. Miller’s unassisted goal four minutes later.
“That was probably our first bad decision all game,” Phantoms coach Curtis Carr said of J.T. Stenglein’s cross-ice pass that Miller stole. “So to see Quinn and us battle back was really nice.”
Miller said he anticipated a chance as he lurked near the blue line.
“He had his head down, I was watching him the whole time and I knew what he was going to do with it so I jumped the play and he shot it into my chest,” said Miller who estimated that at least 60 friends and relations were in attendance.
“I dropped it and shot as quickly as I could,” said Miller who surprised Phantoms goaltender Matt O’Connor with the 35-foot shot and his first goal of the season.
Smith said he was “happy with the way we reacted” to Miller’s deflating goal.
“We stayed strong and stayed positive,” Smith said, “We picked each other up and made sure we stayed focus on our main goal, winning the game.”
Smith also scored the Phantoms first goal on the team’s 25th shot. In the first period, McNeely stopped 20 shots while O’Connor had 11 saves.
“We were getting a lot of opportunities but unfortunately we weren’t scoring,” Carr said. “We hit about three posts tonight.”
The victory extended the Phantoms’ (9-10-1, 19 points) winning streak to four. Calling it the Phantoms’ most exciting home game of the season, Carr said, “We played really well and the first period showed that.
“To hold the [18-under] team to under 20 shots through two periods of hockey was pretty good,” Carr said. “It showed how well we were playing.”
After Rocco Grimaldi answered Smith’s first goal, Travis Boyd put Team USA ahead 2-1 late in the second period. Matt Van Voorhis, who had just finished serving a tripping penalty, earned an assist.
Then with three seconds remaining before the second break, the Phantoms’ Ty Loney smacked a rebound off McNeely’s pads into the net for a 2-2 score. Jiri Sekac had taken the initial shot on a feed from Nilan Nagy.
The Phantoms’ next four games will be on the road, starting next Friday at Green Bay. Their next home games will be Dec. 28-29 against Indiana and Des Moines.