Belonger’s goal propels Phantoms

Staff report

GREEN BAY, WIS.

Earlier this week, Youngstown Phantoms right wing Ryan Belonger said his team might need a lucky bounce to beat the first-place Green Bay Gamblers.

On Friday night, the Green Bay native provided that bounce.

Belonger redirected a rocket point shot from Mike Gunn off of his skate with 13:06 remaining in the third period to give the Phantoms the lead en route to a 5-3 victory in the Resch Centre.

Luck, however, had little to do with it.

Mike Ambrosia had a pair of goals to go along with an assist while JT Stenglein and Alex Gacek also scored for the Phantoms (15-6-1, 31 points). Austin Cangelosi assisted on both of Ambrosia’s goals while goaltender Matthew O’Connor made 26 to secure his 12th win.

Green Bay (19-4-1, 39 points) remains in first place in the Eastern Conference with the best record in the USHL. The Phantoms are second.

“Is it nice to get a win going against what’s probably the best team in the league? Absolutely,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said. “But I don’t think we treated it very different from any other game.

“It was a good confidence to know we have the ability to do it, but it took 20 guys going hard for 60 minutes to do it.”

The Phantoms did not take long to get on the board, taking a 1-0 lead just 2:23 into the first period off of Gacek’s fifth of the season.

But the Gamblers tied it up a little more than three minutes later when Alex Kile found Sheldon Dries alone in the front of the Youngstown goal after a failed Phantoms clearing attempt.

After Belonger’s goal gave the Phantoms the lead, Ambrosia sealed the game with his second of the night. Cangelosi fed it to him half wall and he fired it low and past McKay to make give the Phantoms the two-goal cushion.