Staff photo / Brian Yauger Garrett Dahm (15) of the Phantoms battles with Team USA’s Connor Kelley Friday night at the Covelli Centre.

YOUNGSTOWN — In the last home game of 2019, the Youngstown Phantoms found themselves on the wrong end of a physical battle, falling 5-2 to the U.S. National Team Development Program.

Goaltender Dominic Basse faced a peppering of shots all night from the Team USA attack. The Phantoms allowed a total of 33 shots on the night.

“It’s tough to win a game when you play a good chunk of it in your own end,” Phantoms coach Brad Patterson said. “I think our transition game wasn’t great, credit to them. I thought they took their time and space on their forecheck, consistently put pucks behind our defense and made it work. We were reluctant to do it the other way.”

Neither team was able to score in the first period and the first half of the second, but once Phantoms winger Josh DeLuca got the team on the board, the floodgates opened.

Team USA rebounded after the DeLuca goal with three of their own in the following three minutes. Top NHL prospect Ty Smilanic tied the game at one with Daniyal Dzhaniyev and Matthew Beniers scoring right after.

Scoring his first USHL goal was Phantoms winger Jake Suede who scored just after the flurry of Team USA goals.

Suede has had two goals taken away from him in earlier games and his coach is glad that he finally got the monkey off his back.

“He’s had a slow start,” Patterson said. “Not in terms of his play, but he was out with some injuries. He had surgery over the summer. He’s a competitor. You can put him in any situation and he’s always got energy and it was just a matter of time before he put one in the net.”

Team USA put two more goals past Basse in the third period to seal the victory. Dylan Peterson scored his first goal of the year and Luke Tuch, another top 2020 draft prospect, tucked away the game-sealing goal.

The Phantoms and the Team USA U18s are no strangers to each other this season, playing twice before, but the physicality between the teams hit a level that hasn’t been seen yet. Patterson isn’t sure where it came from, but was glad it was clean.

“It was physical, but it was clean both ways,” he said. “Guys playing hard. That’s the expectation every night.”

The Phantoms, who have had no problem making the most of a few opportunities this season had a problem against Team USA Friday night. As a team they were held to 12 shots.

“When you look at the shot chart … I don’t think you’re going to win many games when you have 12 shots,” Patterson said. “I think they did have some blocks, but at the end of the day, our puck management between the top of our circles and the top of their circles was not very good and a direct result in three or four goals.”

Team USA’s speed was another difference maker as they came out quick before the Phantoms had a chance to catch up.

“They were heavy on the forecheck, they’re fast skaters,” Patterson said. “That’s one thing I think that club does at an elite level. They do a lot of things on an elite level but I think we weren’t prepared for it early and it took us a while to catch up.”

The Phantoms take on Team USA again tonight in Michigan before spending the next couple weeks on a five-game road trip.

The next home game for the Phantoms will be Jan. 3 against the Madison Capitals.