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Large deficit against Steel is too much for Phantoms to overcome
By Jim Flick
Youngstown
The Youngstown Phantoms scored the final two goals, but lost to the Chicago Steel 4-2 Friday night in the Covelli Centre.
The Phantoms (24-14-4) trailed 4-0 in the third period until forward Alex Gacek ended the shutout by slapping home a goal with just 4:04 remaining. Austin Cangelosi and Dylan Margonari earned assists.
With less than a minute left, forward Sam Anas scored the Phantoms’ second goal with Cangelosi and forward Mike Ambrosia credited with assists.
Ironically, Youngstown held a 31-23 edge in shots on goal on the night.
Phantoms coach Anthony Noreen said missed opportunities were the main storyline.
“If we could have taken advantage of our chances in the first period, we could have had the game right there,” Noreen said. “Very easily we could have been up three or four to nothing, we didn’t capitalize, and they were very opportunistic.”
Noreen is not one to accept moral victories in a loss, yet this one was unique.
“I honestly don’t think we played a bad game tonight,” he said. “That’s one of the few times I can say about one of our losses.”
But Chicago (14-27-1) took advantage of an early opportunity, netting a goal just 26 seconds into the game. Forward Phillip Marinaccio slapped the puck past Phantoms goalie Matthew O’Connor for a quick 1-0 lead.
Chicago held on to its 1-0 lead through the first and second periods, but boosted it to 2-0 when Canon Pieper slapped home a goal about four minutes into the final period. Assisting on the goal were forward Christian Hell and forward Jaccob Slavin.
A few minutes later, Steel forward Alli Thomas slapped home Chicago’s third goal, and Marinaccio earned his second assist of the night.
Another shot by Thomas slipped past O’Connor later in the period, giving Chicago a 4-0 lead. The Steel’s Charlie O’Connor assisted on the score.
Then Gacek and Anas found the net.
“It’s for sure always nice to score,” said Anas, the team’s fifth-leading scorer, with 24 points. “But it was a pretty frustrating game. Our line was generating a lot of chances, but for some reason the puck just wasn’t bouncing our way.”
The final onslaught was encouraging, but still, not enough.
“Yeah, it’s kind of frustrating that we generated points at the very end of the game,” Cangelosi said. “We were down by four goals with two minutes left. We did the best we could, but it was just too much for us to come back.”