Lumberjacks stun Phantoms to steal home-ice advantage, series lead

By KEVIN CONNELLY

kconnelly@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Phantoms vs Lumberjacks

Gallery

What began as a battle of grit and toughness ended nearly 100 minutes later as a battle of attrition.

Muskegon forward Will Graber scored the game-winning goal on a re-direct off a shot from the point by Joseph Cecconi to give the fourth-seed Lumberjacks a 2-1 win in double overtime in Game 3 of the USHL Eastern Conference semifinal.

More importantly, it gave the Lumberjacks a 2-1 series lead over the top-seeded Youngstown Phantoms.

The goal came with 5:13 remaining in the second overtime period and ended one of the longest games in USHL playoff history.

“I thought we outplayed them,” Phantoms coach Anthony Noreen said. “Their goaltender stole the game.”

Lumberjacks netminder Eric Schierhorn, who led the league in save percentage in the regular season, was a wall Saturday night at the Covelli Centre. He stopped 44 of 45 shots and made some acrobatic saves throughout both overtime periods.

“I’m cramping, I’m dehydrated, but it feels so good,” Schierhorn said. “My teammates were doing everything they could to make my job easier and we just have that attitude that we’re not gonna quite and we were gonna win that game.

“And we stuck to it.”

With the win, the Lumberjacks stole home ice from the regular-season league champion and now have a chance to close out the best-of-5 series at home on Monday night.

“It’s never been easy for us,” Noreen said. “We knew this series wasn’t going to be easy, but we’re just going to have to go win the next two.

“I mean we won 17 in-a-row. Two in a row should be easy to this team.”

The game was scoreless for the first 40:32, before Phantoms defenseman Vas Kolias beat Schierhorn at 19:28 of the third period.

Tyler Sheehy made a nice cross-ice pass to feed the streaking defender, who buried it past Schierhorn for his second goal and fourth point of the series.

“I can’t give myself too much credit,” Kolias said of his play this series. “Obviously it all starts with my teammates. Every single goal and assist I’ve had comes off great plays from the guys.

“Just proud to be a part of this team right now.”

The Phantoms thought they had seized the momentum with a late third-period goal by Ryan Lomberg that would’ve given them a two-goal lead and a series lead. Instead, the officials waved it off on the ice, saying it caught the post and not the net.

That gave the Lumberjacks life, which they turned into momentum with a game-tying goal just seconds later courtesy of Matheson Iacopelli. He has torched the Phantoms in the series for four goals and an assist. His goal came at 7:56 of the third period and held up to force overtime for the second time this series.

Colin DeAugustine stopped 45 of 47 shots in net and deserved a better fate than a re-directed shot to end overtime.

“He was an absolute wall tonight,” Kolias said of his goaltender. “He cannot hang his head. He played like an absolute monster. He was a savage out there. There’s nothing else to say.”

The Phantoms power play went 0-for-6 Saturday night and has now scored only twice on 18 chances in the series. Their penalty kill has been a strength, killing off 13-of-14 Lumberjacks power plays and adding two shorthand goals in a Game 1 loss.

Top-line defenseman, and East Palestine native, Matt Miller missed his second consecutive game due to what the Phantoms are calling an upper body injury. Noreen is hopeful to have the defensive leader back for Game 3. Miller had 13 points and was a plus-11 in the regular season.