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Phantoms thrill largest crowd in team history with OT victory
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
Kevin Conley’s goal at 2:28 of overtime helped lift the Youngstown Phantoms to a 6-5 victory over the Muskegon Lumberjacks Wednesday in a rare, daytime USHL game at the Covelli Centre.
In their annual “School Day” game, it was the Phantoms who schooled the Lumberjacks in the extra session, the win coming after losing a two-goal lead twice in the final period of play.
“It was a great play out of the corner by Matt Miller. We got an odd-man rush out of it and the shot found its way to the back of the net,” Conley said. “We persevered throughout the entire game, came together as a team and got the job done today. We definitely clicked offensively and that was nice to see.”
The Phantoms also saw a full Covelli Centre, with an announced crowd of 5,342. The team’s official Twitter account stated it was the largest crowd in Phantoms history.
Four times this season the Phantoms (9-7-3, 21 points) have scored five or more goals in a game and each time they’ve walked off the ice a winner.
Youngstown, however, had struggled offensively over the past three games with just three total goals over the previous 180 minutes of action.
Head coach John Wroblewski was quick to dish out praise for the Phantoms’ overall effort.
“I have to give credit to the guys. They had two days off over the weekend to kind of regroup mentally,” he said. “They have had a couple of tough road trips with guys playing a lot of minutes. The break was very helpful.”
The Lumberjacks got on the board first at 9:16 of the opening period when Chris Klack found the back of the net for his third netter of the season, a power play goal that gave Muskegon the early 1-0 advantage.
It didn’t take long for the Phantoms to pull even as Cameron Morrison, assisted by Vas Kolias, answered with his 10th goal of the campaign 11 seconds later to forge a 1-1 tie.
Muskegon made it 2-1 at 15:49 of the period when Rem Pitlick, assisted by both Klack and Nate Kallen, rattled the pipes for his team-leading 11th goal of the year.
Two goals in a 31-second span to begin the second period propelled Youngstown to a 3-2 advantage, the first coming off the stick of Lukas Craggs at 2:25 followed by Tyler Drevitch’s goal at 3:06.
For Drevitch, a Middleborough, Mass., native, it was his first goal of the campaign.
The Phantoms, who held a 19-17 shot advantage through the first two periods, held on to their goal advantage heading to the final 20 minutes of play.
Youngstown increased their margin to 4-2 when Chase Pearson notched his second goal of the year at 3:17 of the final frame, but a goal by Robbie DeMontis (his second tally of the year as well) cut the Phantoms’ lead to 4-3 with 14:10 remaining.
Morrison’s second goal of the game at 12:04 gave the Phantoms a 5-3 lead, however, the pesky Lumberjacks refused to go away without making some noise of their own and made it a one goal game again when Pitlick registered his second goal of the game at 13:47.
“The first goal was a good play by Vas Kolias coming down the wing. I just decided to go to the net as I got some goals there this year and tried to go there again. He gave me a good pass and I just put it in,” Morrison said. “The second one was on the power play. We were moving the puck around, got a lucky bounce off of Chase Pearson’s skate and I was able to put it in. The past couple games we were struggling to score some goals so it was definitely nice to find that groove again today. Hopefully it will continue.”
Dante Palecco then forced the extra session with his goal at 1:12, setting up the overtime session.