PHANTOMS HANG ON FOR 5-4 WIN, EARN WEEKEND SWEEP 100TH USHL WIN FOR COACH WARD; RESENDES AND BENÁK EARN TWO POINTS EACH

YOUNGSTOWN, OH – For the second time in six weeks, the Youngstown Phantoms (29-15-0-1, 59pts) had to hold off a furious comeback from their archrival, but this time Youngstown held on to win in regulation, taking a 5-4 victory over the Muskegon Lumberjacks Saturday night at the Covelli Centre.

“(Tonight’s game) had a little bit of everything,” said Phantoms Head Coach Ryan Ward. “For us, the start I loved, tons of passion, tons of emotion. The crowd was fantastic; Covelli was rocking. That was awesome, really got the guys going. Had a couple of fluky bounces at the end, but again we didn’t give up a whole lot. Our guys played hard and stuck with it.”

The first period featured three goals and three fights, the gloves coming off the first time when the game was just 31 seconds old. The team captains squared off against each other in the opening minute, Coleson Hanrahan and David Klee dropping the mitts to get the crowd fired up early. Kazimier Sobieski and Matthew van Blaricom took their turn at fisticuffs at 5:43. Youngstown opened the scoring at 9:01 when Michael Mesic put home a rebound for his 12th of the campaign. “I think (Mesic) is becoming a leader,” said Ward. He’s maturing as a player. He understands how hard you have to work to have success and be a go to guy every day. Credit to him, he’s done a wonderful job of coming here and establishing himself as a leader and a great locker room guy. He does a lot of little things that you don’t notice, and it doesn’t stick out to you until you watch the game back, but he’s playing outstanding.”

Youngstown doubled their lead at 14:43, five seconds after a power play ended, when Jack Hextall’s wrister from the slot found its way past Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev (22 saves) and into the cage. Hextall’s seventh of the season chased Gadzhiev to the bench in favor of Stephen Peck (5 saves). David Deputy and Landan Resendes had a quick fight at 17:05, bringing the crowd to its feet once more. Matti Butkovskiy welcomed Peck to the game by scoring on the second shot Peck saw on the night, a toe drag to a snap shot that tucked inside the far post with 5.1 seconds left in the opening frame. Butkovskiy has three goals in his first five USHL games. The Phantom scoring run continued at the 5:56 mark of the second period when Adam Benák stole a pass from Peck and redirected it into the empty cage. It was the 14th goal of the season for Benák and gave him at least one point in every game against Muskegon this year. “It’s amazing to see how hard (Benák) works,” said Ward. “I think he’s going to be playing this game for a long time.” Peck ended up leaving the game just over a minute later, sending Gadzhiev back into the cage.

Muskegon broke the Phantoms scoring run with back-to-back power play goals, coming from Tynan Lawrence at 19:11 of the second and David Klee at 7:23 of the third respectively. Youngstown held onto their 4-2 lead until the 18:07 mark of the third when Landan Resendes scored into the empty net, putting the Phantoms up 5-2. The Resendes marker wound up being the game winner, with Muskegon getting goals at 19:16 and 19:50 from Drew Stewart to make things interesting. The Jacks won the ensuing faceoff after Stewart’s second goal made it 5-4, but never got another shot on net as Conner de Haro pinned the puck to the end wall to waste the rest of the clock.

Melvin Strahl got the win for Youngstown, his league-leading 23rd of the season, stopping 12/16. His best save of the night came in the second period when he dove backwards to cover a puck that had leaked through and was trickling towards the goal line. Strahl has won nine of his last 10 starts.

Youngstown’s victory marked the 100th USHL regular season win for Coach Ward, who hit the century mark in just 169 games. Ward owns a record of 100-53-16 in the regular season and was the fastest Phantoms coach to 100 wins, edging out Brad Patterson, who needed 178 games to win 100. “It’s been an absolute privilege to be here, it’s a great organization,” said Ward. “I’m very fortunate to work with unreal people. All the players that have sat in those stalls made it pretty easy for us.”

The Phantoms have six games left on their homestand, continuing it Thursday with the annual School Day Game and the Green Bay Gamblers coming to town for a 3-in-3 weekend.

Shots – 32

Saves – 12

Power Play – 0/5

Penalty Kill – 1/3

Goals – Benák, Butkovskiy, Hextall, Mesic, Resendes

Assists – Benák, Kerr, Hanrahan, Jardine, Resendes, Sluys

Box Score - https://ushl.com/ht/#/game-summary/12224