Andon Cerbone’s game-winner leads Youngstown to Game 1 win over Cedar Rapids
Seeing their 2-0 lead evaporate and being outshot 29-11 between the third period and the first overtime combined, the Youngstown Phantoms needed just one shot in the second overtime to send the Covelli Centre crowd home happy on Friday night, as they downed the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders 3-2 in Game 1 of Round 2 of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Youngstown leads the series 1-0 and can eliminate Cedar Rapids with a win on Sunday.
“The resolve of our guys!” said Phantoms Head Coach Ryan Ward. “Double overtime. Those moments are big. Those moments mean a lot to our group. We still have a young team; the more experiences we have throughout this playoff run and this season are just things we can fall back on.”
Youngstown built a 2-0 lead by the time regulation was halfway gone. Andrew Strathmann opened the scoring at 5:19 of the first period.
Strathmann’s low wrister from the right point went through at least two pairs of legs on its way to the cage before finding its way through Bruno Bruveris’ (29 saves) five-hole to give Youngstown the lead. Matthew Perkins doubled the Phantoms’ lead at 7:10 of the second.
After Chase Pietila’s shot from the center point was blocked, the puck settled in the slot for Perkins. With Justin Varner blocking Bruveris’ vision, Perkins snapped a wrister to the twine just past Bruveris’ blocker.
Cedar Rapids finally got on the board at the 12:00 mark of the middle frame. After an offensive zone faceoff win on the power play for the ‘Riders, the puck found its way to Tyson Gross inside the right circle. He snapped a wrister past Jacob Fowler (40 saves) for his first goal of the playoffs.
With time winding down in regulation, the Cedar Rapids special teams struck again. With Andon Cerbone in the box for hooking, the RoughRiders pulled Bruveris to the bench for the extra attacker, creating a 6-on-4 advantage. Working the puck to the edge of the blue paint, Dylan Hryckowian made a between-the-legs backward pass to Jacob Kraft at the right post. It took a couple of whacks at the puck, but Kraft got it to trickle across the goal line with 1:11 left in regulation to tie the game at 2-2. The Roughrider power play was 2/5 on the night, while Youngstown’s was 0/6 and is just 1/36 now on the season against Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids carried the play in overtime, outshooting Youngstown 16-4 in the first extra frame, but could not find a game-winning goal.
On the opening shift of the second overtime, Cedar Rapids forward Ryan Walsh took a puck away behind his net and tried coming up the middle to clear the zone.
As he stepped in front of the cage, he had his pocket picked by Kenta Isogai.
Isogai slid towards the middle and then dropped a blind backward pass to Cerbone, who fired it into a wide-open net just 39 seconds into the second overtime to give Youngstown the win.
The victory snapped Youngstown’s six-game losing streak in the playoffs, which dated back to Game 3 of the 2018 Clark Cup final.
It was the second-longest playoff game in team history, losing out to the double overtime loss to the Muskegon Lumberjacks in April of 2015 in a game that lasted almost 95 minutes.
Cedar Rapids will have a much-needed day off after playing six-plus hockey games in the last eight days.
The series will resume on Sunday at 7:05 p.m. when Youngstown will have a chance to eliminate the RoughRiders and move on to the Eastern Conference Final.
By the numbers
Shots – 32
Saves – 40
Power Play – 0/6
Penalty Kill – 3/5
Goals – Cerbone, Perkins, Strathmann
Assists – Cerbone, Isogai, Pietila (2), Strathmann
Box Score - https://ushl.com/ht/#/game-summary/10806
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