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You can call the Youngstown Phantoms drama kings, as long as you call them winners.
Brian Dowd’s breakaway goal at 12:43 of the second period held up as the decider, giving goaltender Matt Mahalak a much-deserved first home victory and the Phantoms their fifth-straight win, 3-2 over the Green Bay Gamblers Wednesday night from the Covelli Centre. Youngstown will go for the sweep of the two-game series and its fourth straight home triumph Friday night at 7:15 p.m.
The Phantoms (7-4-1, 15 points) built a 3-0 advantage through 40 minutes of play on goals by Taylor Holstrom, Scott Mayfield and Dowd, and everything seemed to be clicking for the home side. But Green Bay (7-4-2, 16 points) was tenacious in the third, closing to within one on tallies by leading scorer Anders Lee and Ryan Furne less than three minutes apart.
Resilient Youngstown regrouped in time to smother the Gamblers in the final moments, preventing the visitors from generating any serious scoring chances with goalie Steve Summerhays off the ice for an extra skater. The Phantoms, now 4-0-1 in one-goal games, moved to within one point of second-place Green Bay in the East Division and just two back of first-place Chicago.
Mahalak, getting his first start since Oct. 30 at Fargo, improved to 3-1-1 on the season on the strength of 31 saves. His outstanding play allowed the Phantoms to win despite being outshot 33-9 in the game and 25-5 after the first period. Youngstown’s efficient shooting (33 percent) dealt Summerhays his first regulation loss of the season, dropping the second-year USHL netminder to 6-1-1.
Holstrom got the Phantoms off and running at 12:21 of the first, taking a lead pass from Nick Czinder and tossing an off-wing wrister past Summerhays for his fifth of the season and a 1-0 lead. Youngstown is now 4-1-1 when finding the first goal of the game.
Mayfield showed off his talents with the Phantoms on the power play early in the second. Fellow defenseman Dan Senkbeil found him crossing the Green Bay blue line with speed, and the St. Louis native whistled a blast over Summerhays’ blocker, pushing the lead to two with his third tally.
Dowd’s red light was set up by a brilliant stretch pass by Czech defenseman Andrej Sustr, who was fed by Mahalak prior to that. Mahalak earned the first assist of the season by a Phantoms goalie when Dowd lifted the puck into the goal with 7:17 remaining in the middle frame.
Ryan Jasinsky and Kevin Alberts threw down the gloves for a brief bout in the opening moments of the third, an expected occurrence between pugnacious Green Bay (first in the USHL in penalty minutes) and truculent Youngstown (fourth).
Courtesy: Youngstown Phantoms
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