Late Steel goal stings Phantoms in Ill.

Staff report

BENSENVILLE, ILL.

Forty-six seconds away from overtime, the Chicago Steel’s Robbie Payne’ stung the Youngstown Phantoms with a game-winning goal.

Payne beat Phantoms goaltender Sean Romeo to lift the Steel to Saturday’s 3-2 victory. It was the Phantoms’ 15th loss in their past 16 games.

Victor Bjorkung and John Ernsting assisted.

Two minutes into the second period, Artem Artemov scored Chicago’s first goal. CJ Smith and Jake Bunz earned the assists.

A minute later, the Phantoms tied the game on JJ Piccinich’s power-play goal. Trey Bradley and Kyle Connor assisted.

Halfway through the second period, Conor Lemirande’s power-play goal gave the Phantoms a 2-1 lead. Luke Stork and Bo Pellah assisted.

Five minutes into the third period, Smith’s power-play goal tied the game, 2-2. Ernsting and Alec Vanko set up the goal.

The Phantoms went 2-for-7 on the power play. Their penalty killers gave up one goal in three tries.

Romeo made 10 saves while Cale Morris made 17 for the Steel.

The loss was the second in two nights for the Phantoms, who fell to Team USA, 4-2, at the Covelli Centre on Friday.

Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen called that game “the best 60 minutes we’ve played, all year. “Bar none, period, best 60 minutes we’ve played all year long.”

The Phantoms played with only five defensemen.

“Credit them, I thought they did a great job back there,” Noreen said. “As a unit, that’s probably as good as our ‘D’ corps has been all year long.

“We were [missing] two guys who log some pretty heavy minutes for us,” Noreen said. “Credit is due to [Steven] Ruggiero, who played more minutes tonight probably than he has the last couple of games combined. That was by far the best hockey game he’s played all year long.”

Next weekend, the Phantoms will travel to Dubuque, Iowa, to play two games against the Fighting Saints. Their next home games will be on Feb. 7 against Muskegon and Feb. 9 against Indiana.