Phantoms rally but Tri-City prevails, 5-4

Staff report

KEARNEY, Neb. – Trailing the Tri-City Storm 4-2 with four minutes to play, the Youngstown Phantoms rallied for a pair of late goals, the second by Brett Gensler with just nine seconds left, earning a point in a 5-4 shootout loss Saturday night at the Viaero Event Center.

Entering the third period down a goal, the Phantoms had multiple chances to tie against Tri-City goaltender Carsen Chubak in the opening minutes, but couldn’t pick up the equalizer. Chubak’s saves loomed large when Radoslav Illo threw a shot from the left boards that struck a Phantom and slipped into the goal, raising the Storm lead to 4-2 at 5:19.

But Andrew Lamont roofed a backhand shot over Chubak with 3:10 left and then Gensler scored his team-leading 15th goal that capped a goalmouth scramble and sent the game to overtime.

League-leading scorer Jaden Schwartz fired the shootout winner in the second round of the tiebreaker, as the Storm netted three to the Phantoms’ one. Schwartz scored Tri-City’s first three goals of the night, two of them shorthanded, for the first hat trick against Youngstown this season.

Mario Puskarich’s goal ended the shootout in the fourth round, as only Jiri Sekac’s backhand beat Chubak. Radoslav Illo led off the tiebreaker by beating Phantoms goalie Matt Mahalak with a forehand, as the Storm earned their fourth shootout win of the season.

Schwartz scored at 15:06 of the first period and 5:30 into the second period before the Phantoms got on the board, a power-play tally by Andrej Sustr.

Schwartz made it 3-1 at 12:05 of the second.

Youngstown answered on Stuart Higgins’s sixth goal of the season.