Staff photo / Brian Yauger Phantoms forward Nathan Lewis fires a shot on net during the second period of Saturday's game.

YOUNGSTOWN — The third game in as many nights in a series is often a tossup. Teams are tired from the already played back-to-back, and they’re tired of the guys in the different colored jerseys lined up across from them.

Setting the tone early in games like that is almost required.

Luckily for the Youngstown Phantoms, coming out of the gates hot is exactly what they did on Saturday, scoring goals in the first five minutes of both the first and second period, to take the weekend series in a 3-1 victory over Green Bay.

“Obviously three (games) in three (days), you kind of have an idea that the game’s going to be a touch slower than the previous two,” Phantoms coach Ryan Ward said. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t pretty, but our guys did a great job just digging their heels in and pushing back and Ryan (Botterill) got a couple big goals. Overall going into the playoffs, this weekend is one where we were going to get our mettle tested, and I thought they did a good job.”

Botterill was the tonesetter in Saturday’s game, scoring both of those quick goals.

The first came in the opening five minutes, with Botterill firing a slapshot to the bottom left corner of the net.

Despite being outshot 12-3 in the opening frame, Botterill’s opening goal gave the Phantoms the edge going into the middle period.

Botterill’s first period goal wouldn’t be the only time he added to the scoresheet.

Just 13 seconds into the middle period, Botterill connected with twine once again. The Portage la Prairie native sits at 29 goals on the year and 53 total points through 56 games.

With a man down, Michigan-bound forward Mikey Burchill extended the Youngstown lead further, beating out Gamblers’ netminder Adam Gajan for the shorthanded goal just two minutes later.

Fast starts are an organizational virtue, and it’s one the team embodied on Saturday.

“We talk a lot about our starts. Not only every game, but every period,” Ward said. “I think you want to own the first three or four minutes of the period just to set the tone, and I thought Green Bay in the first came out hard, obviously Botterill getting that goal was big. We want to come out with our hair on fire and I thought they did a good job, and I thought they did a good job weathering the storm, bending and not breaking. I thought it was a good, complete game. We locked it down when we had to, and our guys bought into playing winning hockey.”

Geno Carcone scored the lone goal for Green Bay on Saturday.

Netminder Aiden Wright had a 22-save performance in his third game in as many nights.

Three games in three nights for a goaltender is out of the ordinary, and something Ward himself isn’t fond of doing, but the Vermont commit shined under the circumstances.

“I thought Aiden was excellent all weekend. He’s got to be the goalie of the week, he was great,” Ward said. “I really don’t like playing goalies three games in a row. In fact, it goes against my philosophy pretty hard. I just felt like he didn’t have a ton of work last night, and we made that decision as a staff, and he was great. He was excellent. He looks poised in there, and I’m really happy to see it. He had a big week with his commitment to UVM, and so it’s good to see that he’s not content and he’s pushing forward here.”

Youngstown’s defense locked the Gamblers down. After surrendering 12 shots in the first period, they allowed just 11 over the following two periods.

The Phantoms (31-19-6-4, 72 points) close out the regular season with a home-and-home with the US National Team Development Program U17s.

Friday’s contest will be at the Covelli Centre and Youngstown will close the regular season out on the road.

Have an interesting story? Contact Brian Yauger by email at byauger@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @_brianyauger.