YOUNGSTOWN, OH – After a tightly-contested opening frame that ended in a 1-1 score, Saturday night's contest at the Covelli Centre opened up in the second period, featuring three goals and two fights along the way to a 4-2 victory for the Youngstown Phantoms (7-2-1-0, 15pts).

"That was probably our best effort since the preseason," said Phantoms Head Coach Ryan Ward. "I thought we were dipping our toes in for a bit, but then Brody Berard got us going, that was big time on the bench, you could feel it. We were playing downhill from there."

Green Bay opened the scoring with just under 90 seconds left in the first period. Nick Knutson used a nice hesitation move at the blue line to blow past the Phantoms defense and then ripped a wrister to the glove side of Tobias Trejbal (28 saves) to put the visitors ahead at 18:38. Youngstown answered back with 18.8 seconds left in the period when Ryan Rucinski hammered home a power play goal. Green Bay challenged for goaltender interference on the play, but the goal stood.

Towards the midpoint of the second period, the tone of the game changed. With 12:25 remaining in the frame, Berard and Maceo Phillips dropped the gloves at center ice. Berard ended the fight with one punch, crumpling the much larger Phillips and bringing the Covelli Centre to its feet.

"Brody is a warrior, that's why we drafted him," said Ward. "We were chomping at the bit to make him a Phantom. He certainly has earned his stripes here."

"I'm not scared of anyone," said Berard. "I wanted to set the tone for the game, and it did."

Three minutes after the Berard-Phillps fight, Rucinski and Knutson dropped the gloves for a few rounds as well, the Phantoms captain taking Knutson to task for a rough hit thrown in the corner. Just moments after the Rucinski-Knutson fight, Cooper Simpson put the Phantoms ahead with a rocket from the inside edge of the right circle for a power play goal. Simpson had hit the post seconds before but found twine at 10:45 with his second attempt. Simpson doubled the Phantoms' lead at 16:56, blasting a one-timer from between the circles past Joey Slavick (20 saves).

"It's good to see (Simpson) have his hard work pay off," said Ward. "He's been a bit snake-bitten as far as scoring, but his playmaking has been outstanding. To see Coop have that tonight where he gets rewarded, just really excited to see it work out for him."

Andrew O'Sullivan sneaked a shot from the right wall past Trejbal at 18:30, trimming the Youngstown lead back to one at 3-2 heading into the third period, but neither side was able to generate much offense in the third. Matouš Kucharcík sealed the game away for Youngstown with the empty-net goal, making a great individual effort to clear the puck to the neutral zone and then win the foot race to open ice, firing the puck to the yawning net at 19:42.

Youngstown and Green Bay wrap up their two-game series with a 4:05pm puck drop Sunday afternoon.

By The Numbers
Shots – 23
Saves – 28
Power Play – 2/4
Penalty Kill – 2/2
Goals – Kucharcík, Rucinski, Simpson (2)
Assists – Hextall, Jardine, Kucharcík (2), McKinnon, Simpson