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Phantoms allow six unanswered goals in loss
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Phantoms forward Ryan Lomberg moves the puck past Chicago defenseman Nate Kwiecinski during Monday’s game at the Covelli Centre. Despite Lomberg’s hat trick, the Phantoms lost 7-5 to the Steel.
Phantoms allow six unanswered goals in loss
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown Phantoms had a man advantage for nearly six minutes toward the end of the second period Monday night against the Chicago Steel.
The USHL’s second-ranked power play failed to produce a goal and by the time the two teams were back at even strength, the Steel had a 4-3 lead.
Chicago scored nearly every way imaginable and held off a late Phantoms surge to earn its second straight win at the Covelli Centre, 7-5.
“I thought we came out real strong,” Phantoms forward Ryan Lomberg said. “We stuck to our game plan doing what we neeeded to do.
“Then we kind of veered away from it, but we’re going to do whatever we can this week to get better. It’s not going to happen again.”
The Phantoms (7-5-1, 15 points) were a lousy 0-for-7 on the power play after going 1-for-7 in a loss to the Steel on Sunday. They got a shorthanded goal from Lomberg in the first period, but that’s all the Phantoms special teams would account for.
In contrast, the Steel (7-5-2, 16 points) were 1-for-4 with a man advantage, while also getting a third-period shorthanded goal.
“Special teams are huge,” Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen said. “[Penalty] kill’s gotta be better, power play’s gotta be better. If anyone should know, we can’t be giving up shorthanded goals.”
Colin DeAugustine had another rough night in net for the Phantoms. After giving up four goals in less than 25 minutes on Sunday before getting pulled, DeAugustine allowed seven goals on 32 shots to the Steel on Monday.
The Phantoms have given up 12 goals the past two games to Chicago.
“Number one, that’s a good hockey team,” Noreen said. “They have some skilled players and credit them.
“Over the weekend, they buried their chances and we found the goaltender a lot.”
Lomberg, who ended up with three goals and an assist for a plus-three rating, spared no expense talking about his team’s defensive performance. .
“We just got to get better all around defensively,” Lomberg said. “We just gotta be better.
“That can’t happen.”
The Phantoms got off to a much better start than Sunday, scoring the game’s first two goals. Kyle Connor continues to produce, recording his sixth goal of the year.
After Lomberg’s shorthanded goal, the Steel’s John Ernsting got one back to cut into the Phantoms’ lead just before the first intermission. Lomberg made it a two-goal game again early in the second, but six unanswered goals by the Steel put things out of reach.
“We should be scoring those types of numbers every weekend and we’re gonna score those type of numbers,” Noreen said.
“Obviously, we need to be a little bit better defensively.”
The Steel leapfrogged the Phantoms in the Eastern Conference Standings with the two-game sweep. The Phantoms are 5-0-0 vs. the expansion Bloomington Thunder and just 2-5-1 against the rest of the league.