The rejuvenated West Michigan Phantoms increased their winning streak to three games as the Yellow Shirts played a hard fought game against their arch-rival Howies and came away with a 7-6 shoot-out victory.This shoot-out contest against Howies was only the second overtime shootout by the Phantoms since the team migrated to the Cedar Springs venue back on October 16th of 2006.Ironically, the teams last shoot-out occurred on July 15th, 2007 and during that overtime clash the Phantoms defeated the same Howies team by the final of 10-9.As the night got underway, the Phantoms and Howies would go toe-to-toe with only a pair of two-goal differentials occurring during the entire contest, one to Howies and one to the Phantoms.Besides that, the game would feature several strikes by Howies, in which the Phantoms would strike right back within minutes.With the Phantoms up 5-3 with 4:52 remaining, the Phantoms Trent Kik would be ticketed with a two-minute-minor for slashing and Howies would answer a little less than 45 seconds later to bring the Hockey Tape Boys to within one.With the power-play goal giving Howies some much-needed third period energy, the team would continue to mount pressure and that pressure would pay off 1:14 later as Max Sieplinga would tally his fourth goal of the night to ultimately tie the game at 6-6 with a mere 2:16 remaining.Despite a few scoring chances by both teams during the final minutes, both netminders would be equal to the task as the third period buzzer would sound deadlocked at 6-6.As mentioned earlier, the Phantoms and Howies would clash for the second time in under six months in the shoot-out. During the 4-round shoot-out, Howies Max Sieplinga would capture a1-0 lead for Howies during the second round as the marksman would riffle a rocket over the blocker of the collapsed Phantom netminder Wootton.Immediately after the Sieplinga strike, the Phantoms would send defenseman Brad Zehr over the boards for the teams third shot.Brad would make good on his opportunity and even the shoot-out at 1-1.Howies would not be able to beat the Phantom netminder during their third shot.As the Phantoms opened up the final round of the shoot-out (Round #4), Trent Kik would give the Phantoms their first shoot-out lead of the night, as the Grand Rapids native would again manage to beat the Howie netminder, just like his defensive teammate did one shot before.With the Phantoms in sole control of the games destiny, the games fate would rest with Kevin Wootton in the Phantom goal.A Howies goal would end the contest tied at 6-6, a Wootton save would earn the Phantoms a 7-6 victory.Despite the entire Phantom bench nervous with how their goaltender would perform with the pressure of the game on the line, the 21-season veteran netminder would mange to deflect the puck towards the right wing and the Phantoms bench would rally over the boards to celebrate the victory with their netminder.The Phantom victory was the third straight by the Phantoms, who improve their record to 4-5.On the scoreboard, Gordie Anderson would tally a pair of goals for the Phantoms, Jason Devroy, Casey Rosenberg, Matt Zehr and Brian Doctor would each strike with singletons.One interesting fact from the Howies side, is that Max Sieplinga would not only tally four goals during the contest, but would also strike with Howies lone shoot-out goal and that of the other two goals by Howies during the contest, Max would capture two assists.On the Nautys Penalty Minute board, Howies would be ticketed with a game-high four minors for eight minutes, while the Phantoms would be ticketed with only three minors for six minutes.The Phantoms out shot Howies 29-28 on the contest.The team will return to action next Sunday at 5:00pm to close out the regular season against the Red Devils.With a Red Devil victory over the GVSU A-team on January 6th, the Phantoms will finish in fourth place regardless of the outcome next Sunday against the Red Devils. Mike Shaver and Matt Myers must pay their $65 in order for the Phantoms to play.
