USHL Youngstown Phantoms

Phantoms Stall in Sioux City

Published on October 19, 2012 under United States Hockey League (USHL)
Youngstown Phantoms News Release


SIOUX CITY, Iowa - The Youngstown Phantoms' road woes continued Friday night against the Sioux City Musketeers. Despite coming out of the gates with great energy, Youngstown surrendered a pair of goals in the first period and it snowballed into a 5-1 loss.

Second-year center Alexander Dahl scored the only goal for the Phantoms (4-4-0, 8 points), his first of the season. Patrick Spano got the start between the pipes and played admirably, but was overwhelmed by the unrelenting Musketeers attack.

"We had chances," head coach Anthony Noreen said. "The pucks were on our sticks in grade "˜A' areas. Sometimes when things aren't going your way, the harder you try, the worse things get. That's what it seemed like tonight."

Sioux City (2-2-2, 5 points) struck first on a power play just past the midway point of the first. Jake Montgomery fed Jake Guentzel for a one-timer in the slot and he put it past Spano to break a string of 26 consecutive penalties killed for Phantoms. Minutes later the Musketeers had another excellent opportunity with 3-on-1 counter attack but Spano made a sprawling save to stuff Michael Kapla on the doorstep.

But with less than two minutes remaining in the period, Jared Thomas put Sioux City up 2-0 when he threw a rebound on net the bottom of the right circle.

The Phantoms came out of the intermission with renewed energy and registering the first five shots of the second period, but were unable to solve Sioux City netminder Joe Ballmer. It would prove costly for Youngstown as Musketeers would get goals from Cam Brown (on the power play), David Henry and Montgomery over the next 10 minutes to go up 5-0 with 6:21 remaining in the second and end Spano's night.

Goaltender Sean Romeo came on in his stead and turned away 16 shots in 26 minutes of relief.

"[In the second] we were looking around waiting for someone else to do something instead of taking it upon ourselves to turn it around," Noreen said. "That's the sign of a young, inexperienced team."

Dahl finally got the Phantoms on the board 1:35 into the third period when he shoveled in a rebound on the backhand, but the deficit was too great to make up.

"It's a long season, you're going to go through ups and downs," Noreen said. "We need to find a way to get more even-keeled.

Check out the Youngstown Phantoms Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



United States Hockey League Stories from October 19, 2012


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central