Phantoms facing must-win contests in USHL

By Tom Williams

williams@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

With six games remaining in the USHL regular season, it’s crunch time for the Youngstown Phantoms and the Waterloo Black Hawks in the race for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot.

Heading into Friday’s action, the Phantoms (21-28-5, 47 points) and Black Hawks (20-28-7, 47) are tied for sixth place.

With one more game to play and the owner of the first tiebreaker, the Phantoms have a slight edge.

But they need a win, something they haven’t experienced since March 11 at Waterloo in a 5-2 contest.

“Head-to-head comes first, which makes it even more interesting,” Carr said. “Hopefully we don’t have to go down that road.”

The second tiebreaker is most wins. At the moment, the Phantoms have 21, one more than the Black Hawks.

The top six teams in each conference qualify for the postseason, with the top four in each bracket assured home games.

Neither the Phantoms nor the Black Hawks can capture fourth as Team USA (28-23-5, 61) is out of their reach and is assured of finishing no lower than fifth place.

The Muskegon Lumberjacks (23-25-8, 54) hold the fifth spot. A season-ending winning streak by the Phantoms or Black Hawks could threaten the Lumberjacks.

The Phantoms, who have lost their past four games, are hoping to start a streak in the other direction.

They’ll face Team USA twice this weekend in a home-and-home series that begins Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Covelli Centre.

So far, the Phantoms have done well against the Nationals, going 4-0-1. Three of the five games were determined by a shootout.

Waterloo has two home games this weekend — Friday against Cedar Rapids (38-11-5, 81 points) and Saturday against Muskegon.

Last weekend, the Phantoms concluded a three-game road trip with a 4-3 loss to the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) RoughRiders and a 4-1 defeat to the Omaha (Neb.) Lancers.

On the positive side for the Phantoms, forward Stu Higgins returned to action last weekend after being out since Feb. 25 with a broken bone in his hand.

Higgins picked up two assists against the Rough Riders, giving him a season total of nine goals, 11 assists and 20 points.

Forward Jiri Sekac picked up a goal and an assist against the RoughRiders for his eighth multi-point night of the season. He comes into this weekend riding a three-game point streak.

Forward Quinn Smith scored the goal against the Lancers, snapping a 17-game drought.

Next week, the Phantoms conclude the regular season with four games in five nights. Their final road trip will take them to Des Moines on Tuesday to face the Buccaneers (25-23-6, 56) and Cedar Rapids on Wednesday.

The final homestand will be against the Indiana Ice (35-17-4, 74) on April 8 and the Chicago Steel (9-39-8, 26) on April 9.