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Y-town playoff hopes take hit
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Phantom Jiri Sekac celebrates after scoring the first goal of the game Friday night against the Chicago Steel.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Youngstown Phantom Andrew Sinelli chases the puck down the ice while being pursued by the Chicago Steel's Jimmy Devito (20) and Peter Hand (27) .
Next: Youngstown vs. Muskegon Lumberjacks, today
at 7:30 p.m. at the Covelli Centre
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown Phantoms’ hopes for home playoff games this spring took a severe hit on Saturday when the Muskegon Lumberjacks walked out of the Covelli Centre with two precious points after a 4-2 win.
The Lumberjacks’ penalty killers excelled, killing off seven of the Phantoms’ eight power plays including four in the third period. As a bonus, Isaac Kohls’ shorthanded goal late in the second period gave the Lumberjacks a 3-1 lead.
“We’ve scored a lot of power-play goals against that team,” said Phantoms assistant coach Anthony Noreen, a little surprised at how well the Lumberjacks played. “Their penalty-kill did a great job tonight blocking shots and their goalie was tremendous.”
Paul Berrafato stopped 36 shots as the fourth-place Lumberjacks (18-18-8, 44 points) opened up an eight-point lead on the sixth-place Phantoms (16-24-4, 36 points). The top six teams in each division make the USHL playoffs but only the top four get home games.
The Phantoms’ power play lost a key component late in the second period when Midseason All-Star Cody Strang (31 points) was ejected for abuse of an official.
“Not having Cody hurt us,” Noreen said. “He runs the our first unit but I thought the guys who filled in [Stu Higgins, Danny Mattson] did a good job.
“We had good puck movement, we had good opportunities with shots on net,” Noreen said. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
Perhaps the biggest hurt came in the second period not long after Lumberjacks forward Matt DeBlouw snapped a 1-1 tie.
The Phantoms appeared to tie the game when Jiri Sekac came out from behind the Lumberjacks net and scored as Berrafato was late getting across the crease. However, the goal was waved off when referee Tom Chmielewski ruled that another Phantom was in the crease.
The video replay did not have the Phantoms coaching staff in a charitable mood.
The Phantoms took the lead 1-0 on their first power play. Sekac sent a cross-ice pass to Strang in the faceoff circle and when the Lumberjacks defenseman chased, Strang sent a soft pass into the crease where Ty Loney tapped it past Berrafato.
Trailing 3-1 in the third period, Stephen Collins gave the Phantoms a huge lift when he stole the puck and scored on a 2-on-1 breakaway.
“That’s a line [Collins-Dylan Margonari-Andrew Sinelli] that is on paper probably our fourth line, probably not our most skilled line,” Noreen said. “But they move their feet, they work hard and they arguably were our best line on the ice tonight.”
Goalie Jordan Tibbett made 29 saves.