Power play fails Phantoms

Youngstown comes up empty with edge

By BRIAN DZENIS

bdzenis @vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Phantoms prefer to play their games 5-on-5 and after Friday night’s 2-1 loss to the Bloomington Thunder, it’s easy to see why.

The team went 0-for-7 with the man advantage, including two instances of 5-on-3 play in the Phantoms’ favor.

“It’s painful. We harp on it. We meet about it. I think at this point, it’s overkill,” Phantoms coach John Wroblewski said. “They were trying to do too much, so we’re going to simplify things and see if we can go from there.

“The whole thing — words can’t describe how disappointed I am in all 10 players, especially the guys out there for the 5-on-3,” he added.

Wroblewski’s issue with his special teams, besides Friday night’s futility, is that if his team gets on the power play too often, it detracts from the overall game plan.

“It’s a team game at that point. You have everyone rolling and everyone is into it and you can build momentum,” the coach said on even-strength play. “Special teams are so isolated. You’re using only select personnel and we have to throw that in a blender. We’re going to do whatever we have to do to figure this out.”

The Phantoms (22-15-4) are in a critical homestead with the Thunder. The two teams have traded possession of the Eastern Conference’s fourth and final playoff spot for the past few weeks, making Friday and tonight’s games a potential eight-point swing between the two sides. After the loss, the Phantoms are now three points behind the Thunder (26-17-3).

“We’re looking at the standings at this point. There’s only 14 games left in the season,” team captain Matt Alvaro said. “You obviously don’t want them to come in your building and have success against you.”

Bloomington picked up its first win at the Covelli Centre. During these last 14 games, the Phantoms will have three more chances to face the Thunder.

Bloomington scored first with Jake Slaker beating Ryan Bednard through the five hole late in the first period while his team was on the power play. The Thunder kept that 1-0 lead through the rest of the first and all of the second period.

The Phantoms’ offense was stymied through the first two periods as the team managed just 14 shots on goal and went 0-for-5 on the power play. That hopeless stretch with a man up also included about 50 seconds of 5-on-3 play when they couldn’t score.

East Palestine product Matt Miller tied the game less than two minutes into the third period. Garrett Hall found Miller with no one near him and the defenseman beat Thunder goalie Hayden Levine stick side with a wrist shot. The Phantoms had another 5-on-3 in their favor, but couldn’t convert.

“We beat ourselves, we knew what they were going to do and they did it,” Alvaro said. “Credit to them, they played a good game, but we beat ourselves. There’s no other way to say it other than we shot ourselves in the foot and we paid for it.”

As soon as the Thunder returned to even strength, Bloomington’s Jake Durflinger raced down the ice and gave his team the lead with 5:30 to play.

The Phantoms will have a chance to spilt the homestand with the Thunder tonight at 7:05.