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Early goals pace the Phantoms over Muskegon at Covelli Centre
Youngstown
One of the largest crowds at the Covelli Centre all year was treated to four Phantom goals, a host of hard hits and even a gloves-off brawl.
That was all in the first 17 minutes.
Youngstown put on its own version of a dazzling ice capade and scored three more times for a 7-3 win over the Muskegon Lumberjacks on Friday.
“We put so many shots on them and it was nice to see some goals finally starting to fall early, no less,” Phantoms coach Anthony Noreen said. “It was an exciting night, for sure.”
Only one minute, 43 seconds ticked away from the opening face off when Richard Zehnal scored the game’s first goal. His fifth of the season, Zehnal emerged with the puck from behind the Lumberjacks’ net after a scrum for it between Sam Anas and a Muskegon defender. The Pardubice, Czech Republic native then flipped a quick backhanded shot inside the right post.
Stephen Collins found Dylan Margonari in front of the net for the second goal at the 11:45 mark.
Anas was the only one still standing for the third goal after a battle in front of the Muskegon net. He scored after Youngstown’s Mike Gunn and John Padulo of the Lumberjacks began pushing and shoving which resulted in the remaining players to do the same. With everybody else falling to the ice, Anas wristed one to the net’s upper left corner.
The fighting continued when Daniel Renouf and Mark Yannis dropped their gloves once the puck was dropped for a face off. Both delivered punches, but Renouf pounded Yannis in the face bringing them both to the ground.
“He’s one of our younger guys and Yannis one of the toughest fighters in the league,” Noreen said. “He went after him, wasn’t scared and looked proud.”
In the second period, Pat Conte shoved Christian Pomerico into the net. Again, the gloves were off and both were sent to the box for fighting with Pomerico getting an extra two minutes for instigating.
Seven other extra circular fights went down and Ryan Bullock was eventually ejected when he cross-checked JT Stenglein in the face late in the third period.
“There were a couple more times tonight when I wanted to get some punches in,” Stephen Collins said.
The fighting was no surprise to Noreen, “we flat out don’t like each other,” he said.
But it went beyond a natural disdain — it lit a fire for all in attendance.
“Fighting gets the crowd into and they love to see it,” Noreen said. “More importantly, our guys are sticking up for us. It gives us a boost on the bench.”
Stenglein’s 15th goal of the season was the Phantom’s fourth goal. All goals in the first period were on a Phantom’s power play.
“That was huge for us,” Noreen said. “Our power play needed to get back on track. We got it started early and they possessed the puck real well.”
Padulo netted the first Lumberjacks’ goal. Coming at 19:13 of the third period, it was the only shorthanded goal of the season for Muskegon as the Phantoms had two players in the penalty box. Bullock and Padulo scored on Phantoms’ backup goalie Sean Romeo late in the third. Muskegon took 14 shots on goal in the third period trying for the comeback.
The Phantoms weren’t having any of that.
“We still wanted to work harder,” Collins said. “We put a lot more shots on net throughout the game.”
Mike Ambrosia scored the fifth goal and Collins netted the sixth and seventh for Youngstown (18-8-2), all in the third period.