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Phantoms stop Fighting Saints again for sweep
By Greg Gulas
Youngstown
Alex Esposito had two goals and an assist, Cameron Morrison added two goals and Youngstown rode a three-goal second period to a 5-2 victory over Dubuque in USHL Eastern Conference action Saturday night at the Covelli Centre.
The weekend sweep by the Phantoms — they defeated Dubuque 4-1 on Friday — gave them a series split with the Fighting Saints as both teams won on their home ice.
“We feel like we’re rolling, three straight [wins] and we had three out of four [points] last weekend. We picked up [Jason] Cotton, got [Ryan] Shea back so we feel pretty deep,” Esposito said. “We’re confident right now and just gotta keep this going.”
Dubuque outscored Youngstown 10-3 in its two home wins while the Phantoms returned the favor at the Covelli Centre, holding the Fighting Saints to just three goals in 120 minutes of action for the weekend while posting a 9-3 scoring advantage.
“This weekend, I thought that we showed what we can do as a team,” Phantoms head coach John Wroblewski said. “Al’s [Esposito] game — he surprises you. He’s a hard worker and that’s his No. 1 asset. He puts the opposition to the task on a shift-to-shift basis. The puck finds him at opportune times and he usually does something pretty strong with it.
“Cam’s game is thorough. He plays 200 feet. He’s a natural with the way he gets around the ice.”
The Phantoms (16-10-8, 40 points) struck first when Connor Moore found the back of the net for his second goal of the season, the score coming at 10:42 of the opening period to give Youngstown the early goal advantage.
Dubuque (22-11-0, 45 points) drew even at 16:05 on Petter Makitalo’s goal at 16:05, but the Phantoms quickly regained the lead, needing just 15 seconds to do so after Morrison notched his team-leading 18th goal.
The Fighting Saints held an 11-8 shot advantage heading after the first period.
The Phantoms stretched their lead to 3-1 on Esposito’s goal at 5:45 of the second period and when Esposito added his second goal at 17:26, the Phantoms made it a 4-1 contest.
Not to be outdone, Morrison’s second goal of the night just 32 seconds later made it a 5-1 Youngstown margin with 20 minutes remaining.
“The first goal was a big one because it was the shift after they had scored,” Morrison said. “On the second goal, I just drove the net looking for some space and got a perfect pass back door.”
Dubuque made it a 5-2 game, cutting into the Youngstown lead at 1:27 of the final stanza on Spenser Young’s second goal of the year.
That would end the scoring on the night, however, as the Phantoms improved to 11-5-2 at home.
The loss dropped the Fighting Saint to 12-7 on the road as they were handed their second consecutive setback, just the third time this season that they have lost consecutive games.