Phantoms take Steel to the USHL limit

By Jim den Hollander

Editor

Midwesthockey.info

The Youngstown Phantoms pushed its United States Hockey League Eastern Conference semi-final to the five-game limit with a 3-2 edge at the Covelli Centre on Saturday (April 22).

Home teams have captured wins in all four games so far, the Steel opening a 2-0 series lead with wins in a pair of games at the Fox Valley Ice Arena last weekend before Youngstown countered with a 4-1 win and now the 3-2 edge 24 hours apart.

The Steel was held off the board for the first 40 minutes while the Phantoms built a two-goal margin with a first period marker by Austin Pooley, 20, from Dublin, OH and a second period tally by Coale Norris, 19, from Massachusetts.

Marc Johnstone, 20, from New Jersey, finally found an opening for the Steel with 9:56 remaining, but Evan Wisocky, 19, from New Jersey restored the two-goal cushion for the Phantoms 2:29 later.

The Steel struck right back again, Eduards Tralmaks, 20, from Latvia hitting the mesh with 6:37 to play in the contest.

Ivan Kulbakov, 20, from Belarus, took over from there, stopping all the remaining shots to hold on to a 16-save win in goal for the Phantoms. Ales Stezka, 20, from Czech Republic, handled 27 of 30 in goal for the Steel.

The fifth and deciding game in this series will be played at the Fox Valley Ice Arena on Tuesday (April 25).