Phantoms roll to 11th straight

March 7, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Against one of the stronger teams in the USHL’s Western Conference, the red-hot Youngstown Phantoms scored three power-play goals, killed off 80 percent of their penalties and scored a short-handed empty-net goal.

Friday’s 7-3 victory over the Sioux Falls Stampede was the Phantoms’ 11th consecutive victory. Co-captain Josh Nenadal said the streak hasn’t sunk in.

“It’s not good enough,” Nenadal said. “We’re still hungry for more.”

Kiefer Sherwood and Kyle Connor each scored two goals as the Phantoms snapped the Stampede’s seven-game winning streak. Sherwood’s first goal came from his sweet spot — the left faceoff circle when attacking.

Sherwood took a pass from Connor and blasted the puck past Stampede goaltender Stefanos Lekkas for a 1-1 tie.

Then with 22 seconds remaining in the opening period, the Phantoms’ power play struck again. This time, Max Letunov sent the puck to Sherwood in his favorite spot. But instead of shooting, Sherwood snapped a cross-ice pass to Connor who buried the puck into a wide-open net.

Sherwood said it wasn’t hard resisting the temptation to shoot.

“Our power play, we were working it around pretty well the whole game,” Sherwood said. “He was able to finish it off back-door — it was nice.”

The win keeps the Phantoms (30-13-5, 65 points) one point behind first-place Cedar Rapids in the Eastern standings.

The only criticism the Phantoms deserve is for surrendering early goals at the start of the first and second periods.

“We did a really good job of weathering the storms,” Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen said after his team extended the franchise record for wins for the fifth time. “They had a good start.”

Noreen was referring to the power-play goal by Dakota Joshua (a fifth-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs) 79 seconds into the game.

“We bent a little there but held it together,” said Noreen, who said killing off a 60-second two-man advantage while nursing a 4-2 lead was critical. “Matty Miller makes a big-time block on that five-on-three, probably the play of the game.”

Goaltender Colin DeAugustine (17-6-0-2) made 21 saves.

“Colin made some big saves early,” Noreen said. “The line of [Chase] Pearson-[Matt] Alvaro-Nenadal was our energy tonight. They did a good job defensively, getting pucks out.”

Fifty seconds into the second period, Cooper Marody stung the Phantoms with a swift shot from the slot.

It took the Phantoms just 71 seconds to regain the lead on Sherwood’s second goal. Letunov and Tommy Parran assisted. Four minutes later, Connor’s second goal made it 4-2.

Six minutes into the third period, the Stampede’s Collin Peters scored. The Phantoms responded with three unanswered goals. Pearson scored on the power play to make it 5-3.

After Ryan Lomberg’s goal, the Stampede pulled Lakkos duribng a power play and Josh Melnick, this week’s USHL forward of the week, found the empty net to seal the victory.

“That was the best team we’ve seen in a long time,” Noreen said. “That’s a glimpse of what playoff hockey looks like.”