43
Phantoms clinch 4th playoff berth
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
Next stop, Chicago when Steeltown hockey takes on the Steel.
The Youngstown Phantoms secured their fourth playoff berth in eight USHL seasons with Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Team USA at the Covelli Centre.
“Last year, we felt like we had a great team and it was very disappointing not to make it” said Alex Esposito, who scored the game-winning, shorthanded goal. “This team here, we love each other and we’ve got a great group. “We’re very excited, we feel like we deserve it.”
Next weekend, the fourth-place Phantoms will play the Eastern Conference’s top seed, the Chicago Steel, in a best of-five series. Games 3-4 are scheduled for April 21-22 at the Covelli Centre.
Saturday’s win capped a wild eight days for the Phantoms (34-20-5-1, 74 points). Their playoff hopes were on life support following their 4-1 loss to the Lincoln Stars on March 24.
To finish fourth, the Phantoms needed help to surpass the Green Bay Gamblers (34-22-2-2, 72 points), who hadn’t loss since March 10. A tie wouldn’t help because the Gamblers owned the tiebreakers with more regulation wins.
Help arrived on Thursday when the Gamblers’ winning streak was snapped with a 1-0 loss to the Bloomington Thunder.
Several of the Phantoms watched the game online.
“I don’t know if it was fun — it was very nerve-wracking,” said Austin Pooley, who set up Esposito’s goal. “But Bloomington played a really good game.”
Friday’s 4-2 win over Team USA lifted the Phantoms into a tie with the Gamblers. The mission Saturday was to not lose in regulation. Goaltender Ivan Kulbakov made sure that didn’t happen by posting his fifth shutout, tying Sean Romeo (2012-14) for the franchise record.
“Ivan is the best goalie in the league,” Phantoms first-year head coach Brad Patterson said. “Over the past seven or eight years, we’ve had a lot of good goaltenders in Youngstown and I love them to death.
“If he’s not the best, he’s neck-and-neck with the best,” Patterson said. “He’s been consistent all year.”
Kulbakov (30-16-4-1) made 22 saves.
Six minutes into the game, defenseman Jake Gingell fed Pooley a pass along the boards near center ice. Pooley carried the puck deep into the Nationals’ zone then slid a pass to Esposito in the faceoff circle.
Esposito skated hard to his right to draw Team USA goaltender Anthony Yamnitsky out of the crease, then fired the puck into the net for his fifth goal in six games.
“Jake made a great play,” Esposito said, adding that Pooley showed “great effort” to get the puck deep.
Esposito said his instincts took over as far as shifting so hard to the right for a tough but clear angle.
“I don’t practice it,” the assistant captain said.
Late in the second period, Pierce Crawford scored the backbreaker when banked the puck off defenseman Mattias Samuelsson into the net for a 2-0 lead.
Crawford said he’s never banked in a goal from behind the red line and it wasn’t his intention.
“I was trying to finds [Nicholas] Werbik in front of the net,” Crawford said. “Good things happen.”
Werbik scored an unassisted goal in the third period.