Phantoms can’t mount comeback

Staff report

Muskegon, Mich.

The Youngstown Phantoms fell behind by two goals on the road Saturday night and were unable to recover, falling 2-1 to the Muskegon Lumberjacks.

Maxim Letunov scored the lone goal for the Phantoms (15-31-6, 31 points), his 16th of the season, at 15:49 of the second period. Goaltender Sean Romeo stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced in the losing effort.

Despite out-shooting the Lumberjacks (26-22-4, 56 points) 41-31, the Phantoms only managed to get the puck behind Muskegon goalie Eric Schierhorn once. He made 40 saves on the night.

The Lumberjacks’ Christopher Dodero put the home team ahead 8:44 into the first period with his seventh goal of the season.

There was no scoring again until the 13:42 mark of the second period when Matt Iacopelli put Muskegon up 2-0.

The Phantoms answered a little over two minutes later on Letunov’s goal that was assisted by Josh Melnick and Matt Miller.

It was a fairly clean game with both teams combining for just five penalties. Youngstown went 0-for-3 on the man-advantage and Muskegon went 0-for-2.

The Phantoms got swept over the weekend and were out-scored 7-2.