Birdsall returns to C.R., beats old team twice

CEDAR RAPIDS – He returned and conquered.

Goaltender Chris Birdsall and his Youngstown Phantoms finished off a weekend sweep of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders with a 3-2 victory Saturday night before a season-high 4,183 fans at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

Birdsall's name is familiar around these parts, as he spent the previous two seasons with the Riders. He requested a trade in the offseason and was obliged.

The Boston College commit made 33 saves here. Youngstown also beat the Riders, 5-3, Friday night.

'It felt pretty comfortable being in the old rink,” Birdsall said. 'Like being at home.”

Cedar Rapids remains in first place overall in the USHL with 52 standings points on a 26-10 record. The teams play two more games against each other this coming weekend in Ohio.

'I thought they played well and deserved the win,” said Riders Coach Mark Carlson. 'We had a good third period, but not enough.”

The Phantoms (19-11-5, 43 points) have some seriously high-end forward talent in Ryan Connor, Maxim Letunov, Kiefer Sherwood and Ryan Lomberg. Letunov was a second-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues last year, while Connor is a probable first-round pick in this summer's 2015 NHL Draft.

He was 14th among all draft-eligible North American skaters in Central Scouting Service's midterm rankings that were released this past week. Connor assisted Letunov's first-period power-play goal, a wrister in front that beat Riders goalie Ryan Larkin to the stick side.

Cedar Rapids tied the game, 1-1, just 14 seconds later in a rather peculiar way.

Andrew Oglevie skated alone into the right faceoff circle and ripped a shot that appeared to go into the top left corner of the net and right back out. Oglevie raised his stick in celebration, though play continued for another 15 seconds or so.

After a stoppage, officials checked a video review of the play and awarded Oglevie his goal. Then they checked to make sure the hole in the net was fixed.

Youngstown took control of the game in the second period, scoring twice and having the opportunity for even more goals. Cedar Rapids had issues with turnovers and defensive-zone coverage.

Matt Miller made it a 2-1 game with a long shot from the right point through traffic at the 5:40 mark. Matt Alvaro got what proved to be the winning goal at the 15:56 mark.

'We had too many turnovers and weren't tough enough defensively,” Carlson said.

The script was flipped entirely in the third period, as Cedar Rapids finally got going offensively and put on tons of pressure. Evidence was its 20 shots on goal.

Jiri Fronk made it a one-goal game with his team-leading 23rd goal at the 5:06 mark. Dylan McLaughlin dangled, dangled and dangled with the puck, then threw a cross-ice backhand pass to an uncovered Fronk at the side of the net.

Part of a following RoughRiders power play was cut short because of a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty. Larkin was pulled in the final minute, and Cedar Rapids had chances, but Birdsall and company held the fort.

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