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Late goal gives Phantoms home win
By Charles grove
YOUNGSTOWN
Jason Cotton’s screaming slapshot sent Covelli Centre fans up out of their seats and into celebration on Saturday as the Youngstown Phantoms prevented an overtime session with Tri-City.
Cotton’s goal put the Phantoms (19-12-4-5) up 3-2 with 21 seconds left in regulation and an empty netter by Cameron Morrison made it 4-2, securing the points needed to keep the squad in fourth place in the standings.
The Storm came into Saturday’s game with the best away record (13-5-4-0) in the USHL’s Western Conference. They were winners on Friday night, defeating the Phantoms 2-1.
Youngstown head coach John Wroblewski said his team has shown in the past that it’s capable of bouncing back after losses.
“Once again, this group has proven they can have a disappointing night one night and then they can rise up to a challenge on the next night and make up for it, which I think is what we accomplished tonight,” Wroblewski said.
Noah Lalonde got the scoring under way 14 minutes into the game on a scramble in front of the net to give the Phantoms the early lead.
But that lead was short-lived as Tri-City’s Nico Strum netted a power-play goal less than two minutes later to tie things back up.
Youngstown conjured up a response to Tri-City’s equalizer just a few minutes later when Yushiroh Hirano lasered a shot from the right side past goaltender Dayton Rasmussen with about 12 seconds left to give the Phantoms all the momentum after the first period.
Neither team scored in the second period despite numerous chances. Things seemed to be going Youngstown’s way fairly uneventfully until Joe Cipollone rifled a shot that deflected off Phantoms goalie Ryan Bednard’s stick. The bounce went the way of the Storm as the puck trickled over the line and things were tied 2-2 with 7:03 remaining in regulation.
Wroblewski said he changed nothing about his team’s strategy after Cipollone’s goal and said his team went for the win rather than playing conservatively and hoping for overtime.
“With seven minutes left you’re just trying to advance pucks our of your zone and play percentages,” Wroblewski said. ”I’m not really thinking about getting games to overtime at this point. If you play to get to overtime bad things can happen.”
That plan to keep attacking led to a 2-on-1 for the Phantoms and the eventual game winner in the final minute of play.
“I just remember going on a line rush and trying to get a shot off and missed the net wide but it rolled around the corner and when it came back to me I just tried to shoot it as quick as I could,” Cotton said. “I honestly thought it was going right into the goalie’s chest since I hit the middle of the net. I was just trying to get it on net and see what happened.”
This time last year, Youngstown began a month-long winning streak that carried them to the top of the standings. But Wroblewski said he wants this year’s team focused on winning stretches of their schedule from here on out and not worrying about winning streaks.
“I don’t think we’re built for that type of winning streak,” Wroblewski said. “I’d like for us to be able to go into a three-game segment and win two of those or if we look at a seven game stretch we want to take four. Something along those lines I think is more tangible for this club.”