Blake Montgomery and his Lincoln Stars teammates earned their sixth straight victory with a 3 - 0 victory over the Youngstown Phantoms at the Covelli Centre.
The Stars scored a pair of power-play goals late in the third period and earned their second consecutive 3 - 0 victory after defeating Waterloo.
Yan Shostak earned his second straight shutout with 13 saves to give Lincoln its first back-to-back shutout victories since March 19th & 20th, 2010. Shostak has not allowed a goal over his last eight periods and has gone 170:24 minutes since last allowing a goal at the 10:24 mark of the first period October 5th at Sioux Falls.
Lincoln is off to its best start to a season since an 8 & 1 start to the 2015-16 season. The 2023-24 season is also the best start to a season in four seasons under head coach Rocky Russo.
Lincoln came out strong, scoring the game's first goal and outshooting Youngstown, 15-3, in the first period. Matthew Maltais jumped behind the defense and scored on a breakout pass off the far wall at 6:28 of the first to open the scoring. The Stars improved to 6-0 when scoring first this season.
Neither team lit the lamp in the second as the Stars were outshot, 7-4, in a quiet period. It marked the fourth time this season that neither the Stars nor their opponent scored in a period and the first time that it happened in the second.
The Phantoms only put three shots on net in the third period, matching their first-period total, but hit the post once and had several chances to tie the game before a five-minute major penalty at the 14:11 mark proved to be the turning point in the game. Layne Loomer and Alex Pelletier scored power-play goals 1:50 apart on the five-minute man advantage to ice the game.
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