The Youngstown Phantoms built up a four-goal lead over the first period and a half of hockey.  Des Moines fought and clawed their way back, but it was too little, too late.  When the zeroes hit the board and the final buzzard sounded, the crowd at The Covelli Centre breathed a sigh of relief as the hometown Phantoms were victorious, 5-4, to run a franchise-high winning streak to four.

Youngstown wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as Brian Dowd netted his third goal of the year at the 1:29 mark.  The goal was scored on a power-play and Dowd was assisted by Brett Gensler putting the Phantoms in front early.  The Phantoms would end the night 2 for 6 on power-play chances.

Less than a minute later, at the 2:18 mark, Des Moines got an unassisted goal from Ryan Walters, his fifth on the season, to tie the contest at 1-1. 

The Phantoms pulled back in front on a Nick Czinder goal, his fourth, to reclaim the lead 7:14 into the game.  Andres Sustr racked up his sixth assist of the year on Czinder’s goal.

Almost eight minutes later, Taylor Holstrom connected on an unassisted power-play goal to increase the Youngstown margin to 3-1.  The two power-play goals scored against the Buccaneers were a rarity.  Going into this game, Des Moines had only surrendered seven power-play goals on the entire season.

The first period would come to an end with the Phantoms ahead 3-1, but the fireworks went off at the 18:04 mark as Richard Young and the Buccaneers Brandon Carlson dropped the gloves.  Young  took a couple of punches with little-to-no effect before flooring Carlson.  The two players received 5 minute fighting penalties and Young received an extra 10 minutes for misconduct.  Young would also serve a penalty in the third for too many men on the ice for a grand total of 17 penalty minutes on the night.  

The Phantoms started the second period in a rush when Adam Berkle connected for his fourth of the year.  Berkle was assisted by Stuart Higgins on his fourth of the year just :39 into the new stanza putting Youngstown in front by the score of 4-1.

At the 8:37 point of the second, Gensler scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season on an unassisted chance from close range.  The goal by Gensler, the #1 Star of The Game, put the Phantoms up 5-1 in what was shaping up to be a blowout.

Goals by Taylor Wolfe and Dan O’Donoghue later in the second period cut the Phantoms lead to 5-3 heading into intermission.  The insurmountable 4-goal lead was cut in half.  Statistically, Youngstown had somewhat of a mental edge at this point as Des Moines carried an 0-5 record if they were behind going into the final period.

With just over ten minutes left in the game, Des Moines Defenseman H.T. Lenz snuck one by Jordan Tibbett to cut the lead to 5-4 in favor of Youngstown. 

After a few rushes and a couple of great stops by Tibbett, the Phantoms played the last two-and-a-half minutes with at least a one-man advantage and successfully worked the clock down to secure the victory.  With the 5-4 triumph, the Phantoms climbed to 6-4-1 and won back-to-back home games in sweeping the Buccaneers.

Jordan Tibbett picked up both the Thursday and Friday victories between the pipes for the Phantoms.  Tibbett was praiseworthy of his defense after the game.  “We have done a great job of communicating and I’m seeing most of the shots while they are picking up the rebounds.  I can’t ask for anything more than that.”

Coach Bob Mainhardt seemed relieved at the two home wins.  “It’s been a long time coming.  We have worked hard so it is nice to get a reward.  We know we have more work to do to get better.  We let teams stick in games that we shouldn’t so we have some room for improvement, but right now, we are pretty happy.”

The Phantoms return to action on Wednesday against Green Bay at home.  The puck hits the ice at 7:15 and Youngstown hockey fans are encouraged to give this team a chance and take in a game.