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Better effort but RoughRiders’ goalie up to Phantoms’ challenge
By Tom Williams
Youngstown
Twenty-four hours after their most lopsided loss of the season, the Youngstown Phantoms played inspired hockey against the USHL’s best team.
Cedar Rapids goaltender Ryan Larkin was even more impressive, stopping all 46 shots the Phantoms launched in the RoughRiders’ 5-0 victory on Saturday at the Covelli Centre. The final score is a bit deceptive as the RoughRiders scored two empty-net goals in the final three minutes.
“Night and day,” Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen said of his team’s effort after Friday’s 6-1 loss. “This was one of the best games we’ve played.
“We were the better hockey team tonight,” Noreen said. ”We executed well, we were hard on pucks, we generated a ton of Grade-A scoring chances, we drew more power plays, we were disciplined.”
The difference in the game was Larkin and the penalty killers in front of him.
“Credit them — they did a real good job on their penalty kill,” Noreen said. “And they did a good job on their power play as well. Their goaltender was probably the key.”
Late in the first period, Jiri Fronk’s even-strength goal set up by Andrew Oglevie and Erik Foley gave the RoughRiders a 1-0 lead.
In the second period, the RoughRiders’ power-play struck twice. With Taylor Best serving a tripping penalty, Cal Burke made it 2-0 on a feed from Hugh McBing.
Late in the period, Oglevie scored on an assist from Ross Colton as Phantoms co-captain Ryan Lomberg chilled in the penalty box for a boarding penalty.
Unlike Friday’s game, the Phantoms took charge in the third period, outshooting the RoughRiders 19-5 (with two of Cedar Rapids’ shots being on the empty net). Larkin stopped everything.
“Cedar Rapids has a pretty good duo of goaltenders,” Phantoms co-captain Josh Nenadal said, referring to Friday’s winner Ben Blacker. “I think they are both top five in every statistic. “That comes from them having a pretty good team up front — their D is pretty solid.
“He played a great game tonight — we had our chances, we had [the puck] sit on the goal line,” Nenadal said. “We kind of have to bear down and put it in there.”
The Phantoms and RoughRiders split their home-and-home series, with the road team winning all four games.
“We’ve learned that we’re a pretty good hockey team when we decide to play,” Nenadal said. “[Friday] night wasn’t our best [effort], but I think we took [the disappointment] to heart.
“The way we played last week is the way we have to play every game and we approached it [that] way tonight,” Nenadal said. “The effort level showed — the puck just wasn’t going into the back of the net.”
The RoughRiders’ penalty killers foiled all four of the Phantoms’ power plays, going 10-for-10 in the two games.
“What I liked about our power play tonight was there were no one-on-one moves,” Noreen said. “Tonight, we really let the puck do the work. We got pucks to the net and we had good traffic [in front of Larkin],
“That’s something we’ll work on this week.”