Phantoms shut out Chicago

Staff report

BENSENVILLE, ILL.

Austin Cangelosi scored two goals and Matthew O’Connor had 22 saves to lead the Youngstown Phantoms to a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Steel in a United States Hockey League game at the Edge Ice Arena on Friday night.

The Phantoms (1-1-0, 2 points) bounced back nicely from their season-opening, 10-3 fiasco at Team USA last weekend.

Chicago (0-2-0, 0 points) continued its streak of poor performances against the Phantoms. The Steel have lost seven of their last eight games against Youngstown dating to the start of last season.

Cangelosi scored the first two goals of the game. The first came with the Phantoms short-handed and trying to kill off a penalty late in the first period.

Cangelosi’s goal (unassisted) came with 2:07 remaining in the period.

He scored again with 1:24 remaing in the second period, an even-strength tally with assists from Mike Ambrosia and Stephen Collins.

The lead held up until the final minute of the game. After Chicago pulled goalie Matthias Dahlstrom, Richard Zehnal scored an empty-net goal with assists by Alexander Dahl and Pat Conte with 37 seconds remaining.

The Phantoms return to action next Friday against Des Moines, in the home opener at the Covelli Centre. Faceoff is at 7:15 p.m.