43
Parrottino lifts Phantoms over Flying Aces
By Dan Hiner
youngstown
It was just another typical game between the Youngstown Phantoms and the Central Illinois Flying Aces on Tuesday night.
This time, Phantoms forward Michael Parrottino scored the game-winning goal with two minutes left in overtime to hand the Phantoms a 5-4 win over the Flying Aces.
Since dropping the first two meetings with the Aces, Youngstown has won four straight games against the worst team in the league. Three of the Phantoms’ four wins against Central Illinois were one-point victories.
“He can be explosive offensively, or he can be one of the most reliable defensive players we have,” Phantoms head coach Brad Patterson said. of Parrottino. “He plays a lot of minutes in many different situations and I’m very happy for him to get that goal.
“He drives the play for us in all different areas and it was fitting that he finished that play for us.”
Parrottino shot the puck from just in front of the right circle and the puck went over Central Illinois goalie Ryan Snowden’s left shoulder.
The Phantoms blew a 3-1 lead in the third due to aggressive shooting by Central Illinois. The Flying Aces outshot the Phantoms 42 to 26.
Central Illinois’ Calen Kiefiuk scored his second goal of the night to tie the game at 4 with 1:48 left in the third. Kiefiuk’s score came on a power-play goal during a 5-on-3 advantage in the second period.
Samuel Salonen scored for the first time as a Phantom. He found the back of the net with 16:51 left in the second period to give the Phantoms a 2-0 lead. Nicholas Cardelli also scored his first goal with the Phantoms in the third.
Patterson said the team only had “six or seven” practices with the new players, but they’ve already found their roles.
“Hockey-wise, [the new players] already impacted us,” Patterson said. “They’re all tremendous ... different skill sets. That doesn’t mean they’re all gonna come in and score 40 points, but they’re all gonna chip in.”
Salonen and Cardelli came to the Phantoms in a trade from Cedar Rapids on Jan. 30.
Phantoms’ goalie Wouter Peeters finished with 38 saves.
Six days after being traded to Central Illinois, Alex Barber, Zach Metsa and Andrew Petrillo found themselves back in the Covelli Centre. The Phantoms traded the trio to the Central Illinois Flying Aces on Jan. 7.
Barber nearly scored the go-ahead goal for the Flying Aces in the closing minutes of the third. But his shot sailed over the right corner of the net.