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Phantoms’ streak snapped at 17 in Omaha
By Steve Beideck
OMAHA, NEB.
For at least one night, the Omaha Lancers were the Phantoms menace.
The Lancers ended Youngstown’s 17-game winning streak Friday with a 4-2 victory.
“It was a special thing because it isn’t easy to do,” Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen said of his team’s USHL’s rrecord. “Sometimes you need to remember what losing feels like so you know how special it feels to win if we respond the right way.”
Omaha clinched a berth Friday in the eight-team Clark Cup playoffs that will begin April 16, but the Lancers had that in hand before their game before an announced crowd of 3,527 at Ralston Arena was over. Muskegon’s 5-1 victory over Des Moines — a game that started 30 minutes earlier the Omaha’s — assured the third-place Lancers (31-15-8) of a playoff spot. Sioux City and Tri-City locked up Western Conference playoff berths last week.
“It’s great to have that solidified,” Lancers coach Brian Kaufman said. “Playing the right way is the most important part, and I was really proud of the effort our guys gave tonight.”
The Phantoms (36-14-5, 77 points) still have the best record and most points in the league. But Friday’s setback, coupled with a Cedar Rapids’ 7-2 victory over Waterloo got the Rough Riders back to within three points of Youngstown in the Eastern Conference standings.
“We’ve gotten off to some slow starts on the road on Fridays,” Noreen said. “You can’t do that against a team this good that’s big and strong and heavy like Omaha.”
Omaha got off to a good start by grabbing a 2-0 lead in the first period and made it 3-0 early in the second. Two of those goals were scored by center Ryan Donato, and all three were scored by Donato’s line that started the game.
The 6-foot-1, 181-pound Harvard recruit was playing in just his fifth game with the Lancers. Donato has nine points — four goals and five assists — in those five games.
“He’s been great,” Kaufman said. “He came in and fit right in and it feels like he’s been here all year. His line was good and did things the right way and worked hard to earn their opportunities.”
Omaha opened the scoring at 14:27 of the first period when Steven Spinner got behind the Youngstown defense and cut left-to-right in front of the Phantoms goal crease to slip the puck past goalie Chris Birdsall for his 21st goal of the season.
Donato then went to work and scored the next two goals in less than four minutes of game time. He trailed Brendan Smith and Spinner as they worked the puck down the ice.
Spinner dumped the puck back to Donato and he beat Birdsall for the goal at 18:46.
Then at 2:10 of the second period Donato converted a power play goal. The Phantoms then got on the board near the end of the third period when right wing Kiefer Sherwood moved the puck to center ice and launched a pass to left wing Josh Melnick. After receiving the pass at the top of the circles, Melnick got the puck past Lancers goalie Kris Oldham for his 14th goal of the season at 13:53.
Youngstown scored the final goal of the game at 8:32 on Josh Nenadal’s ninth goal of the season. The Phantoms pulled Birdsall in the final two minutes for an extra attacker but weren’t able to convert.