Loney leads Phantoms to USHL victory

Staff report

LINCOLN, NEB.

Ty Loney scored a goal and an assist to lead the Youngstown Phantoms to a 4-3 victory over the Lincoln Stars in a United States Hockey League game on Friday night.

Ryan Belonger, Chris Bradley and Jiri Sekac also scored for the Phantoms, who improved to 3-0-0 in their second USHL season.

Youngstown visits Tri-City tonight at 8:05 p.m.

Loney’s goal came just 21 seocnds into the start of Friday’s game and was part of a three-goal explosion for the Phantoms in the opening period.

Sekac scored exactly six minutes later, on assists from Cody Strang and Loney, to give the Phantoms a 2-0 lead.

Strang had two assists on the night.

Youngstown only attempted seven shots in the first period.

Bradley’s goal came on a power play and off assists by Mike Ambrosia and Brandon Russo, with 3:03 remaining in the period.

That made it 3-1, coming after Lincoln’s (1-1-0) Eric Scheid scored on assists by John McCarron and Kyle Quick with 6:51 remaining.

The Phantoms made it 4-1 early in the second period on a goal by Belonger, with Stuart Higgins and Ambrosia getting the assists, with 18:53 remaining

Lincoln scored the final two goals in less than two minutes, both on power plays.

First, McCarron scored on helpers by Scheid and Sam Alfieri, with 5:59 remaining, then Matt Prapavessis scored with a man advantage, getting assists by Dominik Shine and Ryan Dzingel with 4:54 to go.

Youngstown, which was 1 for 5 on the power play, was outshot 37-25 by the Stars. Lincoln was 2 for 7 with a man advantage.