Phantoms fall behind early, lose to Muskegon

Staff report

MUSKEGON, Mich.

The Youngstown Phantoms’ two-game winning streak was snapped on Friday night, 4-1 to the Muskegon Lumberjacks in a United States Hockey League game.

The Lumberjacks (4-5-0) jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first period and added another tally in the second to stretch their own winning streak to three games.

The Phantoms (6-3-0) were without leading scorer Austin Cangelosi and defenseman Chris Bradley, who are playing with Team USA at the World Junior A Challenge, but they dominated play in the third period.

“There’s no doubt we miss [Bradley and Cangelosi]. They’re both a big part of what we do — not only on the ice, but off it,” Phantoms coach Anthony Noreen said.

“But we’re not going to make excuses. If anything, it’s a chance for guys to step up and kind of have the spotlight a little more. We just didn’t do that tonight.”

The Lumberjacks scored first when Jordan Masters stuffed a rebound past Phantoms goaltender Sean Romeo on a power-play at the 5:15 mark of the first.

Travis Belohrad notched Muskegon’s second goal with 9:53 left in the period when he knocked a rebound past Romeo. Just 15 seconds later, Matt DeBlouw put the Lumberjacks ahead 3-0 off a defensive zone turnover.

Matthew O’Connor came on in relief of Romeo after that goal.

“Pulling Sean wasn’t because of his play. It was more to shake things up a bit and get a spark,” Noreen said. “And to Matt’s credit — coming off the bench cold — he did a tremendous job.”

Alex Gacek scored for the Phantoms with 7:39 remaining in the third period on assists by Jordan Young and Todd Koritzinsky.

Ryan Bullock scored Muskegon’s fourth goal, also with a man advantage.