Posts Tagged ‘Dylan Margonari’

The Youngstown Phantoms responded to a trouncing in their series-opener with three power play goals to help down the Green Bay Gamblers 5-3 Sunday at the Resch Center. The win evened the best-of-five Eastern Conference Semifinal series at 1-1 heading back to Youngstown for Games 3 and 4.

Soren Jonzzon netted a pair of power-play goals and Dylan Margonari bookended the scoring with first-and-third-period tallies. Austin Cangelosi also put one in on the man-advantage as the Phantoms went a perfect 3-for-3 on the power play.  Goaltender Matt O’Connor, who was pulled after the first-period of Game 1, was superb between the pipes, turning away 40 of 43 shots, including 24 in the third period.

“It was definitely a bit of an eye-opener last night,” O’Connor said. “Tonight was a must-win game for the team. We knew that going back home down two games would be a big hole to dig ourselves out of and it was a great way to carry some momentum heading back to the Covelli Centre.”

Margonari scored the game’s first goal, and his first of the postseason, 4:49 into the first period.  Ryan Lowney led a 2-on-1 rush and picked out Margonari streaking toward the net. The Greensburg, Pa. native quickly corralled the puck and put it past Gamblers goaltender Ryan McKay to put the Phantoms ahead for the first time in the series.

“Hockey’s kind of a game of karma – when you do things the right way, it seems like you get the bounces,” Noreen said. “Last night, we didn’t do things right and honestly, we didn’t deserve any bounces… Tonight our guys had a better approach [to the game] and when you put that sort of effort in, you seem to get those bounces.”

“I sat down with Matt and 8 o’clock this morning and he flat-out said to me, ‘Coach, I’m going to steal one,’” Noreen said. “You just saw the confidence all day. He kind of had that swagger.”

The Phantoms return to the Mahoning Valley for Games 3 and 4 this Tuesday and Wednesday at the Covelli Centre. The puck drops at 7:15 p.m. EST both nights.

Trailing 5-4 with under three minutes left in regulation, Ryan Belonger gave the Phantoms a chance to win with a game-tying goal. Ian McCoshen snuck a long one past Matt O’Connor in overtime to erase the heroics of Belonger and send the Youngstown Phantoms to their second straight overtime loss, 6-5, in a wild one.

Waterloo scored first as Vince Hinostroza scored just 2:54 into the contest.   By the end of the first period, however, it wa the Phantoms who took a 2-1 lead into the intermission.  Goals by Dylan Margonari, who was assisted by J. T. Stenglein, and Chris Bradley‘s unassisted gem temporarily vaulted the Phantoms into the lead.

A wild second period saw five total goals scored, unfortunately for the purple Youngstown skaters, three of them were by Waterloo.  Austin Cangelosi pulled out a shorthanded goal, unassisted, 6:12 into the second to increase Youngstown’s lead to 3-1.  After Tony Cameranesi cut the lead to 3-2 with a Waterloo goal, Mike Ambrosia scored to give the Phantoms back the two-goal lead with three-and-a-half minutes to play in the period.

Goals for Waterloo from Scott MacDonald and a Taylor Cammarata powerplay goal with just three seconds remaining in the period tied the game at four goals apiece.

In the final period, Waterloo jumped out to a 5-4 lead when Mark Naclerio scored with 6:57 elapsed in the final stanza.  Neither team would muster much offense until the final horn was ready to sound.  Belonger then took an unassisted chance and put the puck into the net, beating Stephon Williams with 2:35 left in the game.

In the overtime, McCoshen scored with 3:36 gone in the extra session to lift Waterloo to the victory.

Matt O’Connor faced 41 shots and stopped 35 of them in a gallant effort between the pipes.

With the loss, the Phantoms fell to 51-29-15 and trail Indiana by one point for second place in the Eastern Conference playoff race.  Dubuque is only one point behind the Phantoms and this race for second, third, and fourth places looks to be heading down to the wire.

The Phantoms will now travel to Chicago to face an Ice team that has been pretty well removed from the playoffs and has nothing to lose.  On the other hand, Youngstown needs the points and will have to put their best skate forward.

The Youngstown Phantoms picked up right where they left off on Friday with a dominant 6-1 win over Team USA Saturday night in the Covelli Centre. It was the Phantoms’ (28-14-5, third East) second win of the weekend, and third straight overall against Team USA (19-20-4, sixth East) after dropping their first four meetings of the season.

Six different players found the back of the net for the Phantoms, led by Alex Gacek who scored a goal and set up three others. JT Stenglein, Dylan Margonari and Eric Sweetman each notched a goal and an assist, while Pat Conte and Soren Jonzzon tallied the others. Matthew O’Connor near perfect between the pipes, stopping all but one of Team USA’s shots for his 25th win of the season.

“There was really no change in our game from the first minute to the last minute tonight,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said. “We talk about not looking at the scoreboard and I thought we did a really good job of that tonight.”

Conte got the scoring started at the 8:02 mark in the first period. Sweetman read a play in the defensive zone, intercepted the puck and jumped up to lead a 2-on-1 rush. He moved the puck to Conte at the left circle and the Niagara Fall, N.Y., wristed it past Hunter Miska.

Stenglein put the Phantoms up two 1:45 later when he finished off a tic-tac-toe play on the backdoor. Then in the waning seconds for the first, Gacek forced a turnover in the neutral zone and chipped it out for Margonari, who came streaking in on the left wing and roofed a wrist shot to give the Phantoms the 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

Jonzzon scored the Phantoms’ lone goal of the second, batting the puck out of mid-air from inside the crease into the net at the 9:18 mark to make it 4-0. Hudson Fasching responded for Team USA, burying the puck on a 2-on-1 just 34 seconds later, but that would be the only goal O’Connor would grant.

Gacek snuck behind the Team USA defense 1:25 into the third period and went in on a breakaway. He cut center from the left, making Miska move laterally before depositing the puck between his legs to put the Phantoms up 5-1.

“I found a loose puck and used my speed to try to burn a couple of defenders,” Gacek said. “Then I took him across the crease and he opened up five-hole, so I just slipped it in there.”

Then with 8:01 remaining in regulation, and the Phantoms down a skater, Gacek hit Sweetman flying down the left wing and the defenseman flashed the offensive skills, putting it past Miska for his third goal of the season.

“It was a nice sweep this weekend – to get the four points,” Gacek said. “But we can’t let our highs get too high. We’ve got a tough rest of the schedule moving up and we just need to keep moving forward.”

Since 2009, the Phantoms have been playing hockey without having much postseason experience.  Finding themselves in an unfamiliar position, contending for a playoff spot, the Phantoms outshot, outhit, and looked sharper a majority of the game, but lost 4-2 to the Chicago Steel.  Unlucky would be a soft adjective.  Cursed would be closer to the truth.

The Steel put the first goal of the game up in less than a minute.  At the 26 second mark of the game, Phillip Marinaccio snuck the puck past Phantoms goaltender, Matt O’Connor.  The goal was the second of the season for Chicago’s best kept offensive secret. Andrew Miller was credited with an assist on the initial goal.  Before the smoke even cleared from the pregame fireworks, the Phantoms trailed.

After the early goal, O’Connor buckled down and made some good saves.  After two periods, the Phantoms still trailed 1-0.  In the second period, at least 70% of the action took place in the Chicago zone, but the Phantoms could not capitalize on the good looks they were getting.  The Steel had three less shots, 16,  than the Phantoms, who let it fly 19 times.  Steel goalie Alex Sakellaropoulos either must have felt like he hit the lottery, or he should go buy a few tickets after the game because the Phantoms had chances in the second period but were their own worst enemies with the puck.

In the third and final period, the Phantoms let a couple more chances get away.  Sam Anas was turned away right at the doorstep early in the period.  Chicago made the Phantoms pay when they scored a goal shortly after to take a 2-0 lead.  Canon Pieper recorded his goal of the season at even-strength.  Pieper was hanging out by the net when Jaccob Slavin rocketed a nice pass in front of O’Connor from the top of the right faceoff circle. Just outside of the goal crease on O’Connor’s glove side sat Pieper who tapped in the puck from short range for the goal with just over 16 minutes left in the game.

Chicago would strike again with 10:36 remaining in the game.  The Steel had just killed a penalty and the puck was still in their zone when Marinaccio and Ali Thomas broke out with the puck forming a timely two-on-one break.  Marinaccio carried the puck across the line and headed toward O’Connor before giving it up at the last second where Thomas was able to push it into the net for a 3-0 lead.

With 4:04 left in the game, the Phantoms ruined Sakellaropoulos’ perfect night.  Alex Gacek beat the Steel netminder glove side to make it a 4-1 game.  Austin Cangelosi and Dylan Margonari picked up assists on the even-strength chance.

With 59 seconds to go in the contest, the Phantoms again scored.  This time, Anas was able to light the lamp for the 12th time this season.  Cangelosi and Mike Ambrosia recorded assists.  However, too little too late was a proper adage on thos night for the Phantoms.

The Phantoms (24-14-3) took 31 shots and the Steel (14-27-1) got off 23 shots.

The Youngstown Phantoms, powered by a four-goal outburst in the first period, looked as good as they have all year in defeating the Muskegon Lumberjacks, 7-3.  Matt O’Connor is too good of a goaltender to give that kind of lead to, and he and the Phantoms defense and special teams held up their end of the bargain in the win. O’Connor turned away 21 of 22 shots in notching his 15th win of the season.

The first period of the game featured four goals from the hometown Phantoms. Richard Zehnal got the party started with his fifth goal of the season just 1:43 after the start of the game.  Sam Anas earned an assist on Zehnal’s momentum-starting goal.  The Phantoms then broke an 0-23 powerplay drought when Dylan Margonari found the back of the net with a man advantage with 11:45 to go in the first period. Margonari’s ninth goal of the season was assisted by Stephen Collins.

The Phantoms showed no slowing up and Anas nabbed a goal of his own scarfing up a loose puck that was batted around the Muskegon crease for what seemed like hours, stuffing the puck past Lumberjack netminder John Keeney. Anas’ goal was also a powerplay chance in which Chris Bradley and Margonari were credited with assists. To put an exclamation point on a grand first period, another powerplay goal was recorded by the Phantoms. J.T. Stenglein notched goal number 15 with a man advantage. Austin Cangelosi and Mike Ambrosia earned assists. All that on just ten first period shots.

“There was a big scrum on that powerplay in front of the net”, said Anas.  “Eventually the puck trickled out toward me and I shot it high and it went in.”

Anas picked up a two-minute minor for roughing in the third period.  The scrappy Phantom possesses great skills and is about half the size as many of the other skaters the ice.  This penalty was hard to figure out though as Anas was in a headlock on the side of the net while the refs chased down other problems developing elsewhere.

“I have had penalties before, even picked up a roughing in Green Bay.”

The second period featured a frustrated Lumberjack team unable to convert on their powerplay opportunities.  Lots of pushing and shoving (26 penalty minutes combined on 12 penalties), lots of smack talk, but no goals for either team.  Muskegon pulled starting goaltender Keeney and inserted Paul Berrafato between the pipes.  The Phantoms held a 21-12 advantage in shots after two and handled their four-goal lead with care.

“We don’t like to judge on results”, said Anthony Noreen when asked about breaking the 0-23 powerplay drought.  “I thought we did a really good job protecting the puck. We watched films and told the guys to just keep it simple tonight.  Our powerplay has been good, we just weren’t scoring.  Tonight, after we got one, it was contagious and we popped a couple more in.”

In the third,  the Lumberjacks snuck one past O’Connor to make it 4-1 in favor of the Phantoms.  With 16:15 to go in the game, the Phantoms got that goal right back.  Mike Ambrosia connected for the ninth time this season.  Ambrosia’s goal was unassisted and swung the pendulum back toward the Phantoms.

With 9:56 left to go in the game, the Phantoms threw more wood on the fire as Stephen Collins made it 6-1.  Collins’ second goal of the season was of the even-strength variety and Michael Gunn nabbed an assist.

In picking up his 15th win of the season, O’Connor turned away 21 shots.  He was replaced by Sean Romeo with about five minutes left in the game.  Romeo gave up two goals, but to his defense, he was pretty well shielded from seeing what was coming on the Lumberjack’s first score.  Ryan Bullock got the unassisted score to make it 6-2.  Less than a minute later John Padulo beat Romeo on a rebounded shot that clanked the post.

The Phantoms (18-8-2) put the final nail in the coffin with Collins getting a second goal on the evening to make it a 7-3 game.  The goal came with 2:51 remaining and closed the door on the scoring.  Fights and tempers were plentiful and frequent in this one.  Carve it out any way you want to:  with an axe, like a Lumberjack, or a chainsaw, like a Phantom.

“We tell these guys to stay urgent and not pay attention to the scoreboard”, said Noreen.  “They did a pretty good job staying focused and executing.”

The Indiana Ice jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first 31 minutes of the game, and the Youngstown Phantoms were unable to chip away in time, falling 5-2 Friday in the Pepsi Coliseum. Dylan Margonari and JT Stenglein scored for the Phantoms (16-7-2, fourth East), but an 0-for-5 night on the power play helped secure the victory for Indiana (16-7-4, second East).

The Phantoms, buoyed by three power plays, outshot Indiana 12-5 in the first period, but the Ice made the most of what few chances they had. At the 10:25 mark, Emil Romig found Justin Bailey sneaking into the slot and he swept the puck past Matt O’Connor to give Indiana a 1-0 lead. The Phantoms had a plethora of opportunities in the remainder of the period, but Jon Gillies turned away them all and the Ice carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

Youngstown started the second period short-handed and went two down after a hooking call on

At that point, Noreen replaced O’Connor with Sean Romeo, who shutout the Ice for the remainder of the game.

“We wanted to get Matt some rest – we’re going back to him tomorrow – and we wanted to spark the team a little bit,” Noreen said. “Sean came into a tough situation – coming in cold off the bench against maybe the most explosive team in the league – and he shut them down.”

Margonari put the Phantoms on the board in the final minute of the period. The Minnesota State – Mankato commit intercepted a pass in his own zone, blew past the flat-footed blue liner and roofed the puck on Gillies, knocking the netminder’s water bottle off the top of the net. The goal, scored with 55 seconds left in the period, made it a 4-1 game after 40 minutes.

“We talk about not looking at the scoreboard and that’s something Margo doesn’t do,” Noreen said. “He plays hard start to finish.

Less than five minutes into the third period Stenglein cut the Ice’s lead in half. The Greece, N.Y., native got the puck with speed at center ice, navigated through the Indiana defense and beat Gillies with a low wrist shot on the far post for his team-leading 14th goal of the season. But the Phantoms were unable to capitalize on a pair of late-period power plays, and Tarasov scored an empty-netter to seal win for the Ice.

“Our guys don’t like losing – we’re not going to accept it,” Noreen said. “Hopefully we’re going to learn from it and have a better level of execution tomorrow.”

in the first minute. Daniil Tarasov capitalized on the two-man advantage and put a one-timer past O’Connor to give the Ice the two-goal lead 46 seconds into the period. Sean Kuraly made it 3-0 when he won a foot race and beat O’Connor all alone. Then John Doherty stretched the lead to four goals at the 11:05 mark.

The Youngstown Phantoms followed up a marquee win over first-place Green Bay Friday night with a convincing 7-4 victory over the Des Moines Buccaneers Saturday night to secure the second place slot in the United States Hockey League’s Eastern Conference heading into the holiday break.

The Phantoms (16-4-1, T-second East) got a pair of short-handed goals from Mike Ambrosia and Austin Cangelosi, and five other players – Soren Jonzzon, Dylan Margonari, Alex Gacek, Jordan Young and Eric Sweetman – found the back of the net to give them a win in one of the United States Hockey League’s toughest road arenas. Goaltender Matt O’Connor made 33 saves to enter the break with a league-leading 13 wins.

“Before the game, we said, ‘If we are going to get to where we want to get, we’re going to need to win on the road in a hostile environment,’” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said. “[With the break coming up] we wanted to treat this game like a playoff game.”

Jonzzon put Youngtown on the board just 34 seconds into the first period, netting his first goal in a Phantoms uniform.  Des Moines (10-11-1, fifth West) answered just 73 seconds later when Mac Olsen deflected a centering feed from Garret Allen just past O’Connor to knot things up at one apiece.

Margonari retook the lead just 2:19 into the second when Cangelosi fed him in the slot on an odd-man rush. Less than two minutes later – and short-handed to boot – Cangelosi blew past the Des Moines defense and beat Kasdorf with a low wrister on the blocker side to put the Phantoms up 3-1.  But the Buccaneers came roaring back, scoring two unanswered goals to tie it again. Kevin Irwin redirected a puck past O’Connor while short-handed at the 12:35 mark and less than four minutes later, Trent Samuels-Thomas poked one past him in the midst of a scrum to tie the game at 3-3.

The Phantoms found themselves on a short-handed 2-on-1, but Cangelosi sent his shot wide. The puck, however, took a fortuitous bounce off the end boards and floated right onto Ambrosia’s stick, and he threw it on net and past Kasdorf, who was caught out of position, to give the Phantoms the 4-3 advantage heading into the third period.

At the 2:40 mark in the third, Gacek intercepted a failed Buccaneers’ clearing attempt on the right-wing half wall and beat Kasdorf with a wrist shot for his second goal in as many nights. The Buccaneers pulled Kasdorf in favor of backup Christian Frey, but he did not fare much better, and Young beat him with a point shot less than two minutes later to stretch the Phantoms’ lead to 6-3.

Anthony Greco made it a 6-4 game when he beat O’Connor on a 5-on-3 power play at the 6:41 mark, but Sweetman regained the three-goal lead when he beat Frey with a wrist shot from the left point. O’Connor weathered the remaining Buccaneers chances, and the Phantoms skated off with their third straight road win.

The Phantoms resume USHL play on Dec. 28 when they take on the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in Iowa. The puck drops at 8:05 p.m. EST.

A night after seeing their four-game home winning streak come to an end, the Youngstown Phantoms took the first step toward starting a new one against the defending Clark Cup champions, Dubuque.  JT Stenglein and Richard Zehnal led the way with a goal and an assist apiece and goaltender Matthew O’Connor turned away 19 of 21 shots as the Phantoms (8-4-0) came away with the 5-2 win over the Dubuque Fighting Saints Saturday night at the Covelli Centre.

The loss was the second in a row for the Fighting Saints (8-3-1), who came into the night allowing an average of just 1.81 goals a game. Brent Norris, Sam Anas and Dylan Margonari (empty net) also scored as the Phantoms improved to 5-1 at home this season.

“The difference tonight was instead of worrying about who we were playing, we played to our expectations,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen. “And we did it for 60 minutes.”

Zehnal (above) opened the scoring 8:18 into the first period with a slap shot from the point that made it past Dubuque goaltender Gabe Antoni, thanks in part to a screen from Pat Conte. Dubuque, however, came back to tie it a little more than six and a half minutes later when Max Gardiner punched the puck past O’Connor in a scrum in front of the Phantoms net.

It appeared both teams were destined to enter the first intermission tied, but with 1:35 remaining in the period, Dubuque turned it over just inside the blue line. Stenglein nabbed the puck, cut to the middle and let loose a snap shot to give the Phantoms the lead 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Norris, who was moved from center on the top line to wing on the fourth, put the Phantoms up two at the 15:14 mark in the second. The Ottawa, Ontario native refused to give up on a play, winning a battle in front of the net and muscling the puck into the goal.

“It wasn’t a demotion – more of a balancing of the lines,” Noreen said. “We knew against a very good, very deep Dubuque team we going to need four lines. He brought some offense that we needed. That was not a fourth line tonight.”

But Ray Siro was able to cut into the lead later in the second, scoring with 2:03 left to make it a one-goal game heading into the final period.

With a little more than five minutes remaining in regulation Anas got the puck at center ice and moved it to Zehnal on the left wing. The Czech Republic native toe-dragged around Dubuque defenseman Matthew Caito and let loose a quick shot. Antoni made the save but did not control the rebound, which kicked out into the slot, and a trailing Anas scooped it up and wristed it high to put the Phantoms up 4-2.

“It was just a little toe drag – a little lucky,” Zehanl said. “I just tried to get the shot off and Sam was there.”

With less than 10 seconds remaining and Dubuque’s net empty, Eric Sweetman knocked the puck off Mike Matheson’s stick at the point and it floated to center ice. It came down to a foot race for the puck that Margonari was not going to lose.

The United States Hockey League announced its weekly awards on Monday and a pair of Youngstown Phantoms took two of the three accolades. Center Dylan Margonari (above) was named CCM Offensive Player of the Week and defenseman Jordan Young was named CCM Defensive Player of the Week for their efforts in a pair of decisive wins over the Tri-CityStorm and the Omaha Lancers.

This is the first time either Margonari or Young has captured the league’s weekly honors and the second time this season a Phantoms player has earned one. Earlier this season, Matthew O’Connor was named the Reebok Goaltender of the Week after shutting out the Chicago Steel.

Margonari, a Minnesota State – Mankato commit, racked up four goals over the weekend as the Phantoms recorded the first wins over Tri-City and Omaha in franchise history. The Greensburg, Pa., native scored the game-winning goal in the 5-1 win over Tri-City Friday and netted a hat trick to propel the Phantoms to a 5-2 victory over the Lancers on Saturday.

Young (above) recorded the first goal of his USHL career Friday night against the Storm. The following night in Omaha he saw increased ice time with Kevin Liss out of the lineup and set up Margonari’s third goal of the game. The Cave Creek, Ariz., native was + 2 on the evening and is currently tied for fourth among all USHL defensemen with a + 7 rating this season.

“He’s very good offensively, but where Jordan has really picked his game up is in the defensive end,” Noreen said. “He has blocked a bunch of shots and been a very good penalty killer for us to go along with running a power play and being an offensive threat every time he’s on the ice.”

The Phantoms travel to Muskegon, Mich., to take on the Lumberjacks on Friday before returning to the Covelli Center, where they are undefeated this season, to host the Indiana Ice on Saturday.

If Dylan Margonari had it his way, the Youngstown Phantoms might never leave Nebraska. After recording his first goal of the season Friday night against Tri-City, the third-year center from Greensburg, Pa., netted three goals to lead the Phantoms (6-2-0) to a 5-2 victory over the Omaha Lancers (4-3-1).

“It must be something in the air out here,” Margonari said.

After falling behind 2-0, the Phantoms – buoyed by a four-goal second period – scored five unanswered goals to record their first win over Omaha in the franchise’s three seasons. Sean Romeo got the start in net for the second straight night and turned away 17 of 19 shots to secure the sweep on their Nebraska road trip.

“We came out here saying nothing less than four points would be accepted,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said. “We saw some adversity last night and we saw even more tonight, but the guys just kept battling.”

Margonari got the Phantoms on the board 1:53 into the second period with a quick snap shot from the slot to beat Lancers goaltender Thatcher Demko, who was making his first career United States Hockey League Start.

“Coach told us that it was a new goalie in net and to just throw pucks on him,” Margonari said. “That’s what I did and the snow ball just started rolling from there.”

Todd Koritzinsky tied it up for the Phantoms a little more than four minutes later. The first-year winger out of Middleton, Wis., got the puck from Richard Zehnal on the right wall, weaved through traffic and sent a back-hand five-hole for his second of the season.

“Todd is going to have a bright future with the Phantoms both this year and down the road,” Noreen said. “Tonight when we called his number, there was no doubt he was going to come through and he did.”

JT Stenglein gave the Phantoms their first lead of the night at the 10:59 mark in the second when he beat Demko with a snap shot from top of the left circle. With 6:47 left in the period, Margonari struck again, digging the puck from under Demko and muscling it past the goal line to give the Phantoms a 4-2 lead heading into the third period.

Just 28 seconds into the third, Margonari completed his hat trick, beating Demko with a glove-side wrist shot.

“[Margonari] could go an entire season without scoring a goal, an assist or any points at all and he could still be our MVP,” Noreen said. “He does everything the right way… and the guys feed off his energy.