Piccinich seals Phantoms win in shootout

Staff report

Youngstown

The Youngstown Phantoms survived a third-period scare to pick up their fifth win of the season Friday night at the Covelli Centre.

After coughing up a 3-0 lead to the Fargo Force in the final period, JJ Piccinich earned the game’s second point with a goal in the fourth round of the shootout for a 4-3 victory.

“It’s huge,” Piccinich said. “I think it might open up the flood gates.”

They’ll play again tonight at 7:05 p.m.

“We did a great job of playing in 40 minutes,” Phantoms assistant coach Brad Patterson said. “But they did a good job of picking up the momentum in the third and we didn’t do a good job of shutting them down.

“Credit to our guys for staying up on the bench the whole time and we get a couple of clutch goals and clutch saves in the shootout.”

The Phantoms were down 4-on-3 for the first 1:43 of overtime, but were able to kill the penalty off.

Goals from bMaxim Letunov and Luke Stork in the shootout set up Piccinich’s winning shot.

The shootout victory snapped a four-game losing streak. The Phantoms (5-9-1, 11 points) got goals from Zach Evancho, Blake Christensen and Kyle Mackey in regulation.

Goaltender Colin DeAugustine turned away 33 of 36 shots to pick up his third win of the season.