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Phantoms stumble at home
Steel rebounds from Saturday’s Covelli collapse
By BRIAN DZENIS
YOUNGSTOWN
There are times when a slow start can be expected for the Youngstown Phantoms.
If the team is traveling and gets off the bus the morning of a game against a rested opponent, some sluggishness is expected. Coach John Wroblewski doesn’t like it when that happens, but is understanding about the realities of his sport.
But to have it happen at home against a team with a losing record that they beat the previous night? That’s not going to fly.
“A game like this, that team should have been the tired one,” Wroblewski said. “It’s a disgusted feeling right now.”
The Phantoms dropped a 3-1 decision to the visiting Chicago Steel Sunday night, a struggling team that’s lost eight of it’s last 10 games. The Phantoms beat the Steel, 6-4, on Saturday.
Youngstown (13-10-3) is 1-4 in its last five games, all of which involved falling behind early. This time, the Phantoms were able to have the game tied 1-1 entering the third period, but goals from the Steel’s Billy Sweezy and Jack Gessert showed that depending on a rally is not the most efficient way to get wins.
“I guess we have to get prepared better. We can’t keep going down early,” Phantoms captain Matt Alvaro said. “It’s hard playing catch up every night, it drains you.”
Wroblewski said the issue of falling behind early has plagued the team all through the season and outside of special circumstances, like playing on a travel day, there isn’t a valid reason for it. He’s had routines adjusted and meeting times changed, but the results remain inconsistent.
“It’s really a complex issue that we’re trying to figure out with this club and solve,” Wroblewski said.
Continuing the trend, the Phantoms were the first to concede. Chicago’s Brandon Duhaime beat Phantom’s goaltender Ryan Bednard with a wrister from the slot in the final minute of the first period.
Bednard started in place of Colin DeAugistine, who started the first game of the back-to-back home slate against the Steel. Bednard made 24 saves in the loss.
The Phantoms trailed the whole contest in terms of scoring chances despite having two power-play opportunities in the second period.
On the night, the Phantoms were outshot 27-22. Yushiro Hurano scored the equalizer with 11 seconds left in the second period when he one-timed a feed from Chase Pearson past Steel goaltender John Lethemon.
Sweezy’s game winner was a wrist shot that he floated from the blue line with 10 minutes left in the third period.
“I thought we played a good 40 minutes. We just weren’t hard enough in the end,” Alvaro said. “It was a flutterpuck from the point that beat us. We needed to get a shot-blocker on it.”
According to the coach, Chicago didn’t change much from the previous day. The Phantoms were just flat.
“If you give that team time and space, they’re going to make a ton of plays. They play at a super-high skill level and the have a D-corps that loves to stand up, so if you’re playing slow, their D-corps is going to be up in your face all day long,” Wroblewski said. “If you’re playing fast and make those guys turn and go back, then their forwards don’t get the puck in the right spots.”
The Phantoms will have five days to figure out a way to get out of their early-game funk before heading to Wisconsin to face Green Bay and Madison this weekend.
“We have to be a harder team to play against. It’s unacceptable to lose that game.” Alvaro said. “I guess we played too soft, everybody in there knows it. We have a week of practice to work on things and we’ll be back next week.”