Back-to-back goals in third lift Phantoms

By DAN HINER

sports@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

During the last season’s Clark Cup Playoffs, the Muskegon Lumberjacks eliminated the Phantoms from the first round. The Lumberjacks won three of the four games of the series, and two of the Phantoms’ losses came in overtime.

Saturday night’s matchup between the two teams came down to the wire as well.

With 12 minutes remaining in the third period, the Phantoms faced a 2-1 deficit. But back-to-back goals in a four-minute span allowed Phantoms to come away with a 3-2 win against the Lumberjacks on Saturday night.

Muskegon (1-3-0) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with 15:16 left in the first period on a Matej Paulovic goal, but the Phantoms answered with a goal by Yushiro Hirano tied the game at one with 6:00 remaining in the period, his third goal of the season.

The Lumberjacks scored again early to take a 2-1 lead in the second period after Rem Pitlick scored after an assist from Collin Adams. Muskegon would take the lead into the third period, but the Phantoms came back.

With 11:42 remaining in the game, the Phantoms tied the game at 2 after a goal by Bowling Green commit Lukas Craggs, his third goal of the season. The Phantoms would take the lead on a goal by Cameron Morrison, a Notre Dame commit, with 8:41 left in the game.

Morrison is leading the team in scoring this season, and his go-ahead goal was his fifth goal this season — which moved him into a tie with several other players for 14th in points in the league.

“We knew if we kept playing our game good things would come,” Morrison said. “It showed in the third as we scored two late goals. We just played our game all game. We tightened up in the ‘D zone’, and we had a chance to finish.”

The Phantoms (4-2-1) were more aggressive in the final period. They attempted 16 shots on goal, but seven of those attempts came in the third. Morrison said the team knew it had to out-work Muskegon in order to pull away with a win.

“We knew going into the third we were going to have to work our hardest to pull out the win,” Morrison said. “Our team knew we were going to have to put it into the next gear to work the other team down to win the game.”

The Lumberjacks outshot the Phantoms 17-16, but after facing a late deficit, Muskegon tried maintaining possession of the puck as much as possible. The attempted six shots in the final period, but were held scoreless.

Phantoms goalie Ryan Bedhard, a seventh round pick of the Florida Panthers, came up big toward the end of the game. He recorded 12 saves during the game — three came late in the final minutes of the game.

“We just knew we could give up any more (goals). They had some momentum there in the second, so we had to tighten up and make sure that they didn’t score any more,” Morrison said.