Phantoms can’t hold early lead

Staff report

MUSKEGON, MICH.

Nathan Walker scored a power-play goal to give Youngstown an early 1-0 lead but the Muskegon defense blanked the Phantoms the rest of the way, giving the Lumberjacks a 4-1 win in a USHL game Saturday at the L.C. Walker Arena.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Youngstown (23-20-0, 46 points).

Walker’s goal came at the 10:04 mark of the first period off an assist by Luke Stork.

The Lumberjacks (26-14-8, 60 points) tied the game a few minutes later on Christian Heil’s first goal with Muskegon.

The Lumberjacks added two more goals in the final two minutes of the second period.

At the 18:09 mark, Adam Gilmour slithered home his 17th goal of the season courtesy of a slick pass from Frederik Tiffels that was also helped by Ramus Bengtsson.

Then, with ten seconds left in the period, Chad McDonald fired a hard slap shot past Romeo on a two-on-one odd man rush to make it 3-1.

Riley Alferd and Bengtsson were credited with the assists on the McDonald goal.

Muskegon added an empty-net goal with 1:36 left in regulation with Brian Morgan scoring his 19th goal of the season.

Lumberjacks goalie Jordan Uhelski (5-4-3) stopped all nine shots in the final period and 29 of 30 for the night. Sean Romeo had 28 saves off 31 shots for the Phantoms.

Muskegon improved to 2-2-1 against Youngstown with three meetings left this season.