Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Phantoms center Ryan Alexander fires a shot on net. The Arizona State commit recorded one assist and one shot Saturday night at the Covelli Centre in the Phantoms 3-0 shutout win.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Phantoms haven’t had a shutout in a while.

A long while.

Saturday, the shorthanded Phantoms ended a two-year shutout drought that dated back to Nov 29, 2019, with a stellar performance from goaltender Owen Bartoszkiewicz as the Phantoms took down Cedar Rapids, 3-0.

Tha shutout in 2019 was a 1-0 win over Green Bay.

Bartoszkiewicz made 35 saves on 35 shots from the RoughRiders.

“It was huge,” Phantoms coach Brad Patterson said about his goalie’s performance. “He came through clutch when we needed him, especially in the second half of the game. It felt like we had a lot of guys that were kind of running out of gas and running on fumes and when you do that, you’re going to start to give up things and break down a little bit. … (Bartoszkiewicz) made some timely saves.”

The Phantoms are down multiple players for a myriad of reasons, but despite running only 11 forwards (instead of the usual 12) and five defensemen (instead of six), the Phantoms had no issues getting the offense going.

“We just do what we can,” Patterson said. “Everyone is elite, so be elite at what you’re elite at, it wasn’t rocket science. We always have a game plan X’s and O’s and systematic stuff and we go over that and talk about in-game changes and things like that, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be your attitude, your effort and your compete level that are going to get you through. Tonight, I think our guys did.”

Evan Werner, the 5-foot-7 forward, filled the net first for the Phantoms, scoring his sixth goal of the year, all of which have come in his last eight games.

“He’s a dangerous player,” Patterson said. “Like pucks on his stick specifically. He’s got a great shot, and he’s also got great hands in tight.”

Adam Ingram, who is the team’s leading scorer, is playing slightly out of position right now. While he has experience down the middle, he’s more of a natural winger. That hasn’t slowed him down however as he finished the night with a goal and an assist.

“He’s got that versatility,” Patterson said. “He hasn’t played a lot of center for us this year, except for an exhibition. He took a heavy load throughout the course of last night and tonight. He basically played three lines in every situation.”

Edmonton Oilers sixth round draft selection Shane Lachance iced the game off in the third period, scoring a goal to add on to his first period assist.

The win moves the Phantoms back above .500 with a record of 12-11-2-3. Friday’s game was the first game back at the Covelli Centre since late November.

Since then, the Phantoms picked up wins over the US National Team Development Program U17s and U18s, and lost to Green Bay, Dubuque and Muskegon.

Over the next two weekends, the Phantoms travel to Chicago and Muskegon respectively for two-game tilts against the Steel and Lumberjacks.

To cap off the month of January, the Phantoms host the USNTDP U17s for a three-game series, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

byauger@tribtoday.com