BOX SCORE

YOUNGSTOWN, OH – The Youngstown Phantoms (40-18-0-1, 81 points) used a trio of third period goals to overcome a slow start and break at 2-2 tie and claim a 5-3 victory over the Chicago Steel Saturday night at the Covelli Centre.

"Good teams find a way to win when you don't have your best stuff," said Phantoms Head Coach Ryan Ward. "Overall, that's a massive two points for us. I'm proud of the guys for sticking with it and finding a way to grit this one out."

Chicago opened the scoring just 3:30 into regulation, a net-front redirect by Jackson Crowder for a power play goal to stake the visitors to a 1-0 lead that they'd take to the locker room at the first intermission. Youngstown evened the game at 4:38 of the second on Kazimier Sobieski's seventh goal of the season, a wrister to a yawning cage after Jack Parsons (21 saves) was out of position due to a scramble in the crease. The Steel retook the lead at 13:55 on Henry Major's wrister from the high slot, but Conner de Haro leveled things up at 17:07, snapping one to the twine off a nice pass from Jack Hextall.

The Phantoms took their first lead of the night 1:51 into the third when Sobieski's cross-ice pass found Matti Butkovskiy alone at the weak-side post for an easy tap-in. Michael Mesic scored on the empty net at 18:19, with Owen Lepak, who also stopped 18/21, earning his first USHL assist on the play to give Youngstown a 4-2 lead. The Steel kept things interesting when Blake Vanek redirected a point shot past Lepak at 19:18 to get Chicago back within a goal. Off the ensuing faceoff, however, Justin Kerr created a turnover in the Chicago end and worked the puck to Butkovskiy, creating a 2-on-0 below the hashmarks. Butkovskiy passed across to Ryan Rucinski, who buried the puck past Parsons for his 14^th goal of the season, removing any doubt from the outcome.

The victory gave Youngstown 40 wins on the season, tying the 2014-15 team for the most in team history. The win also moved Youngstown into a three-way tie at 81 points atop the Eastern Conference with the Phantoms owning a game in hand on both Madison and Dubuque. Youngstown wraps up their five-game homestand Sunday with a 4:05pm puck drop against Chicago.

By The Numbers
Shots – 26
Saves – 18
Power Play – 0/3
Penalty Kill – 3/4
Goals – Butkovskiy, de Haro, Mesic, Ruscinki, Sobieski
Assists – Butkovskiy, Hextall (2), Kerr (2), Lepak, Sobieski