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Phantoms can’t hold 3-0 lead, fall to Waterloo
By Tom Williams
Youngstown
One night after their best defensive effort of the season and with a chance to open up a nine-point lead on the race for a playoff spot, the Youngstown Phantoms collapsed into a shootout loss.
Despite being outshot 52-24, the Waterloo Black Hawks, the seventh-place team chasing the Phantoms, scored four straight goals to overcome an early 3-0 deficit in posting a 5-4 shootout victory at the Covelli Centre.
“We had our chances, we had a lot of opportunities to score goals and it was the same old story, we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities and they did,” Phantoms coach Curtis Carr said.
“I’m glad we got the point, but it’s a little disappointing at this time of year to be up by three goals and then not finish it out. But at least we managed to battle back and get ourselves a point.”
Trailing 3-2 going into the third period, the Black Hawks took the lead on goals by Jamie Hill and Tyler Zepeda.
Phantoms captain Adam Berkle forced overtime when his shot from near the blue line beat Black Hawks goalie C.J. Motte with 3:25 remaining in regulation.
“I saw there was an opening on the right side and there weren’t too many guys [defending] so I tried to put it there,” said Berkle of his eight goal of the season. “It went straight in.”
In the first shot of the shootout, Alex Guptil beat goaltender Jordan Tibbett for the only goal in 10 attempts.
“It was definitely huge for us to get it to overtime,” Berkle said. “Any point right now is big for us.”
The win snapped the Phantoms’ four-game winning streak as well as the Black Hawk’s five-game losing streak.
With 11 games to play in the USHL regular season, Youngstown (20-24-5, 45 points) has a six-point lead over Waterloo (16-24-7, 39 points). The Black Hawks play on Tuesday at Dubuque before they host a rematch with the Phantoms on Friday.
“Unfortunately, Waterloo made good on a couple of power plays, they bounced one in off us for their third goal and we had a missed assignment on the fourth one,” Carr said.
The Phantoms had the first power play of the third period, but the Black Hawks scored. With Phantoms defenseman Justin Stevens about to be whistled off for tripping, the Hawks lifted Motte for an extra skater just before Hill dumped the puck on goal and it slid under Tibbett to tie the game.
With 4:38 remaining in regulation, Zepeda beat Tibbett with a 40-foot shot for the Black Hawks’ first lead.
Early on, the Phantoms dominated. Danny Mattson set up Ryan Belonger for his 15th goal of the season midway through the first period. Mattson engineered stole the puck near the Black Hawks’ blue line then led a 2-on-1 break with Belonger.
Two minutes later, Cody Strang pounced on a rebound and backhanded it past Motte for a 2-0 lead. Mattson’s shot from the blue line bounced off Motte’s pads to Strang at the side of the net.