Battling against a determined opposition and a hostile crowd with an illness-depleted lineup, the Youngstown Phantoms nonetheless earned their first-ever USHL victory Saturday night, 5-4 over the Des Moines Buccaneers.
The Phantoms, who were forced to shuffle their lines due to four players out sick, built leads of 1-0, 3-1 and 5-2 at Buccaneer Arena on their way to atoning for last Saturday’s Opening Night loss to Indiana. Jefferson Dahl led the charge, scoring twice in the second period including the eventual game winner. He was just part of the story for the aggressive Phantoms as they threw 42 shots at the Des Moines net.
Goaltender Matt Mahalak picked up the victory for Youngstown in his first USHL start, turning away 25 of 29 Buccaneers shots. After Ryan Walters stuffed in an unassisted goal early in the third to draw the Bucs to within one, Mahalak teamed up with the persistent Phantoms defense to lock down the win.
Just like Opening Night against Indiana, the Phantoms drilled home the game’s first goal early in the proceedings. Stuart Higgins led a 2-on-1 break with Brett Gensler open on the right, but he elected to shoot after faking a cross-rink pass. It was the right decision as it whizzed by Eric Mihalik in the Des Moines net to put Youngstown up 1-0 at 3:34.
After Connor Frick tied the game with a seeing-eye shot from the left point, the Phantoms went right back to work in the offensive zone. Nick Czinder swung a centering pass from behind the goal line into the wheelhouse of Andrew Lamont, who promptly buried a one-timer at 7:03 to quickly restore the visitors’ one-goal edge.
It would become a two-goal advantage a little more than six minutes later courtesy of two defensemen, J.D. Carrabino and Jean-Laurence Beauchemin, skating in their first USHL contests and playing at forward to boot. Carrabino collected an errant Des Moines pass at the outside of the right circle and flung it toward the goalmouth, where Beauchemin deftly tipped it past Mihalik to make it 3-1 with 6:41 to go in the first.
Des Moines’ T.J. Tynan capped the opening frame scoring at 17:18 by deking to the low slot during a power play and depositing a high wrister over the blocker hand of Youngstown goalie Matt Mahalak.
Even though Youngstown surrendered Tynan’s late goal in the first, it kept the accelerator pressed to the floor to open the second, courtesy of center Jefferson Dahl. Dahl, who scored 15 goals for the Green Bay Gamblers last season, nailed his first two of this campaign in a span of 1:39.
Dahl’s first of the season, a bad angle slap shot from the right wing, chased Mihalik from the Des Moines net at 5:40 to make it 4-2. Then, with the Phantoms shorthanded, he took a smooth headman pass and tossed a backhand past new Buccaneers goalie Charles Williams to push Youngstown’s lead to three goals at 7:19.
The Buccaneers’ Austin Coldwell got a lucky bounce just shy of the midway point of the second to draw the home side to within 5-3. His attempted pass into the low slot hit a body and slid past an unaware Mahalak to give the crowd at Buccaneer Arena some life.
Courtesy: Youngstown Phantoms
