The Youngstown Phantoms returned to Buccaneers Arena this evening for the second game of their back-to-back series with the Des Moines Buccaneers. The stadium was packed again with 3,500 fans, hoping to see a repeat of last night's outcome. They were treated to a wild-west style shootout that saw non-stop action and scoring. When the puck finally stopped, the Buccaneers found themselves on the short side of the score-sheet with an 8-6 loss.
Coach Regg Simon changed his starting line-up for tonight's game. Jason Kasdorf started in goal again for the Bucs, but he was supported on defense tonight by Connor Schmidt and Ethan Prow, with Justin Hussar, Tanner Karty, and Chad McDonald starting on offense. Schmidt returned to the ice this evening after sitting out last night due to a one-game suspension for incurring three 10 minute misconduct penalties during the course of the seaon.
The game started with the Bucs looking a bit more disjointed than they looked last night. Their passing didn't seem as crisp, and they had difficulty keeping the Phantoms out of their end of the ice. At 6:45 into the game, the Phantoms drew first blood. The Bucs responded and seemed to get themselves together. They began to play more aggressively and the Phantoms found it more difficult to set up any sort of sustained offensive push. Unfortunately for the Bucs, it wasn't sustained offense that the Phantoms needed – it was simply the right bounce of the puck and waiting for mistakes to make quick goals. Kasdorf left a nice rebound for the Phantoms with about five minutes left in the period, and when the Bucs failed to clear the puck, the Phantoms capitalized and set up a shot that easily beat Kasdorf. Just two minutes later, the Bucs won a defensive zone face-off, but they once again failed to clear the puck. The Phantoms made quick work of the mistake as Chris Bradley found himself with the puck alone in front of Kasdorf and sent it in for an easy score. At the end of the first period, the Bucs found themselves down 3-0 and outshot 14-8.
The fireworks started in the second period. Chad McDonald scored a power-play goal for the Bucs at the 2:35 mark, followed by Gasper Kopitar (power-play) and Trent Samuels-Thomas one and two minutes later. The crowd was on its feet and the Bucs looked like they might have pulled off an amazing comeback, but it was short lived. The Phantoms responded with four straight goals of their own, starting less than a minute later and spanning the next ten minutes. Two of the goals were on the power-play and one was shorthanded. All three were tallied against Christian Frey, who replaced Kasdorf in goal after the Phantoms scored their fourth goal But the Bucs wouldn't give up, and they found their scoring touch again when Chad McDonald and Cal Decowski both scored on the power-play in the last three minutes of the period.
Scoring was only part of the fireworks in the middle stanza. The gloves came off and the rough stuff began in earnest just 31 seconds into the period, when Connor Schmidt and Tanner Karty found themselves in the Bucs penalty box, along with Dylan Margonari and Todd Koritzinsky of the Phantoms. Karty and Koritzinsky were given game misconduct penalties as well during the melee. 16 more penalties would be called by referee Christopher Pitoscia in this period alone. Youngstown's Pat Conte received a game misconduct for Checking from Behind, and 10 minute misconduct penalties were handed out by Pitoscia to Connor Schmidt and Youngstown's Mike Ambrosia and J.T. Stenglein during the course of the second period. When the buzzer sounded, the Phantoms were leading 7-5, but the Bucs had managed to outshoot the visitors 15-9 in the period.
Kasdorf found himself back in goal at the start of the third period. With Frey allowing three goals on just six shots in the second period, it was clear that he was not going to do any better between the pipes than Kasdorf had done for the evening so far. When Cal Decowski scored his power-play goal with three seconds left in the second period, and the play getting physical and gritty, it looked like the Bucs might be able to keep some momentum going into the third period. That was completely erased when Chris Bradley scored for the Phantoms when the period was barely a minute old. Once again, the Bucs won a face-off but failed to clear the puck out of their own end, and the Phantoms were able to capitalize on the mistake.
Pitoscia put his whistle to work in the third period again, calling eight more minor penalties throughout the period. The Bucs found the net one more time when Cal Decowski managed to score a shorthanded goal at the 7:00 mark. By then, it was too little too late. The Phantoms failed to hold the blue line and the Bucs easily entered their zone, but they could never get a sustained attack set up. The Phantoms had little difficulty breaking up any offensive effort the Bucs tried to put together, clearing the puck down the ice to kill time and forcing the Bucs to regroup. When the final horn sounded, the Bucs had lost 8-6. Shots on goal in the third period were 11-10 in favor of the Phantoms, who also took the overall game shots 34-33. The Bucs were 4 for 12 on the power-play, while Youngstown was 2 for 8. Pitoscia called 20 penalties for 75 minutes against the Phantoms, while the Bucs were whistled for 15 penalties and 49 minutes.
The Bucs end the weekend with a record of 13-16-3, still at 29 points and fifth in the Western Conference. Their next game is at Lincoln on January 27, and their next home game is against Omaha on January 28. Joseph Gambardella made his home debut with the Bucs this weekend. Joseph was picked up by the Bucs from the New Jersey Rockets of the AJHL.
All statistical information is provided by Pointstreak and the USHL.
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