Posts Tagged ‘Youngstown Phantoms’

The Youngstown Phantoms were battling more than just the Indiana Ice this weekend and it showed. The Phantoms (16-8-2, fourth East) fell 3-0 Saturday – shutout for just the second time all season – while nearly a third of the team was fighting the flu as well.

“We’re not very healthy right now. We had about six or eight guys who were cleared medically, but were probably at about 60 percent,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said. “Obviously Austin Cangelosiwas one of those. He played last night but was just physically unable to do anything [tonight]. That’s why he was out of the lineup, the same with Zach Tatrn.  But give [the Ice] credit. They had their chances and they put them in the back of the net. We had ours and we didn’t.””

The Ice (17-7-4, second East) jumped out a one-goal lead before the two-minute mark in the first period when Sean Kuraly spun a backhand pass to John Doherty on an odd-man rush and the former Dubuque Fighting Saint put it past Matt O’Connor. Then, after two straight checking from behind calls against the Phantoms, the Ice were given a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:25 and the league’s top-ranked power play capitalized. Robert Polesello got a stick on a Daniil Tarasov one-timer and redirected into the net to stretch the lead to 2-0 at the 14:29 mark.

Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the second, thanks to some terrific goaltending on both ends. About halfway through the period Todd Koritzinsky found Sam Anas undetected in front of the net and the Potomac, Md. native pulled the puck on his forehand and tried to stuff it in, but Ice goaltender Jon Gillies stretched his 6-foot-5 frame to get a glove up and make the save.

“Jon Gillies – if there’s a better goaltender in the league, I’d like to see him,” Noreen said. “He was phenomenal tonight.”

Then after a failed 3-on-1 attempt for the Phantoms, Polesello found Tarasov, who was floating around the Youngstown blue line, with a homerun pass. Tarasov went in on his own and faked backhand before bringing it to his forehand for the shot but O’Connor read him the whole way and denied the reigning USHL goal-scoring leader on the breakaway to give the Phantoms something to build on heading into the final period.

“In no way, shape or form should Matt have any blame tonight,” Noreen said. “He gave us the chance to win.”

Unfortunately, it was not to be. An overaggressive forecheck gave the Ice a 4-on-2 going the other way and Kuraly beat O’Connor with a one-timer from the right circle to stretch the lead to 3-0 with 12:55 left in regulation and it was more than enough.

“That third goal was kind of the way the weekend went for us,” Noreen said. “We made one mistake and it ended up in the back of our net.”

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.

Earlier this week, Youngstown Phantoms right wing Ryan Belonger said the team might need a lucky bounce to beat the first-place Green Bay Gamblers. On Friday night, the Green Bay native provided that bounce.  Belonger redirected a rocket point shot from Mike Gunn off of his skate with 13:06 remaining in the third period to give the Phantoms (15-6-1, T-second East) a 4-3 lead en route to an eventual 5-3 win over the Gamblers (19-4-1, first East) in the Resch Center. Luck, however, had little to do with it.

Mike Ambrosia had a pair of goals to go along with an assist, while JT Stenglein and Alex Gacek also scored for the Phantoms. Austin Cangelosi added a pair of helpers on both of Ambrosia’s goals while Matthew O’Connor made 26 saves to secure his 12th win of the season.

“Is it nice to get a win going against what’s probably the best team in the league? Absolutely,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said. “But I don’t think we treated it very different from any other game.”

“It was a good confidence builder to know we have the ability to do it, but it took 20 guys going hard for 60 minutes to do it”, said Noreen.

The Phantoms did not take long to get on the board, taking a 1-0 lead just 2:23 into the first period off of Gacek’s fifth of the season. Daniel Renouf stepped into a slap shot from the top of the right circle and the rebound caromed to Gacek on the backdoor. The Miami University commit got it on his backhand, spun around to bring it on his forehand and threw it past Green Bay goaltender Ryan McKay into an open net.

The Gamblers tied it up a little more than three minutes later when Alex Kile found Sheldon Dries alone in the front of the Youngstown goal after a failed Phantoms clearing attempt. Grigory Dikushin put Green Bay up 2-1 at the 12:41 mark on an odd-man rush after a great feed from Peter Maric.

Belonger nearly tied it up with 15 seconds left when Cangelosi dropped it to him in the slot, but the Green Bay native’s backhand was knocked away by McKay and the Gamblers carried that lead into the first intermission.

Stenglein knotted things up on the power play 7:50 into the second period. The Greece, N.Y., native walked around the Gamblers defenseman to go in alone on McKay and then reached around the netminder to push the puck into the back of the net.

“He just willed that puck in,” Noreen said. “He had a bad angle coming in and his only chance to score was to walk around the goalie and he did that and put it in with one hand.”

Alexander Dahl earned a penalty shot when he was hauled down by Jordan Schmaltz after sneaking past the Green Bay blue-liner, but McKay made the save on his backhand attempt to preserve the tie.

Green Bay then retook the lead on a power play with 6:51 to go in the second. The Gamblers simply outmanned the Phantoms down low in front of the net and Sam Herr dug it out of a scrum and swept it past O’Connor. But just 79 seconds later, Ambrosia tied it once again. Cangelosi put a puck in Ambrosia’s wheelhouse and the Phantoms captain’s shot deflected off a defender’s stick past McKay. The teams ended the second period locked at 3-3.

After Belonger’s goal gave the Phantoms the lead, Ambrosia sealed the game with his second of the night. Cangelosi fed it to him on the half wall and he fired it low and past McKay to make give the Phantoms the two-goal cushion.

“I tell the guys all the time that if they want to know what our team is all about, just look at No. 14,” Noreen said. “Just the way he acts off the ice, watch the way he plays the game and watch what he does in crucial situations down near the end. Then, to hear him after the game in the locker room say, ‘this is what we expect to do, it’s no big deal’ – that’s the reason he’s our captain.”

The Youngstown Phantoms created memories for more than just their fans Saturday night at the Covelli Centre. The Phantoms (14-6-1, T-second East) defeated the Chicago Steel 3-1 and gathered nearly 700 stuffed animals to donate to Akron Children’s Hospital of Mahoning Valley from their third annual Teddy Bear Toss.

JT Stenglein scored two goals and Ryan Belonger netted one as well while Mike Ambrosia andAustin Cangelosi both added a pair of assists. Goaltender Matthew O’Connor turned away 24 of 25 shots to record his 11th win of the season.

“I can’t remember seeing him give up one rebound the entire night,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said of his goaltender. “He ate up everything.”

Chicago (7-14-1, eighth East) took the lead on the power play just under 11 minutes into the first period with Stenglein in the box for interference. Michael Fallon grabbed the puck off a failed clearing attempt, skated it in and wristed it past O’Connor.

But less than seven minutes later, Stenglein redeemed himself on the man-advantage.  Cangelosi handed it to Ambrosia on the half-wall and the Princeton commit skated it in the corner, drew the Chicago defense, then backhanded a pass through a miniscule opening and Stenglein punched it in on the backdoor.

The goal triggered a downpour of hundreds of stuffed animals from the stands that halted play for nearly five minutes as staff and players cleared the ice. When it was all said and done 681 stuffed animals were collected and the Phantoms and Steel entered the first intermission tied at one.

Stenglein found the back of the net again at the 12:08 mark in the second to put Youngstown up 2-1. Cangelosi skated the puck out of his zone and moved it over to Ambrosia, who got the puck on net from the left side. The rebound caromed out into the high slot where Stenglein was trailing and quickly wristed it back toward goal for his 12th of the season.

Belonger, who left the ice in the first period after a collision with Chicago’s Patrick Polino, stretched the lead to two goals 2:13 into the third. Steel defenseman Ryan Trentz lost the puck behind his net and Belonger got it on the goal line and beat Mathias Dahlstrom from the nearly impossible angle – especially for a right-handed shooter – to cap the scoring.

“It was a bit scary for us when Ryan got banged up in the first period,” Noreen said. “But he got cleared and goes out and scores a goal. Maybe that hit cleared him up a bit.”

The Youngstown Phantoms came into Thursday’s game against Sioux Falls winners of their last four games.  For about 80% of this game, a 2-1 shootout loss, the Phantoms looked like the dominant team. A late goal and getting beat in a shootout, the Phantoms fell to 12-5-1.  Sioux Falls pulled through in a nailbiter to end the Phantoms recent dominance and nab a big road win.

The Phantoms got their only goal in the first period despite being outshot 10-7. Stephen Collins found the back of the net with 2:26 to go in the first third of the game.  The goal by Collins was his first of the season.  Richard Zehnal and Pat Conte picked up assists on the goal.

In the second, both teams had powerplay chances.  In Fact, Sioux Falls had three of them compared to the Phantoms one.  Give credit to the defense of the Phantoms and Matt O’Connor to keep the Stampede off of the scoreboard through two periods. After 40 minutes of play, the Phantoms clung to a 1-0 lead.  The Stampede had 23 shots compared to Youngstown’s 19.

In the third period, the Phantoms played more physical but Sioux Falls was able to tie the game with 4:22 remaining in regulation.  Ed McGovern scooped up the puck just to the right of O’Connor’s stick side of the crease and pushed it past before O’Connor could turn to make a play on it.  The shots on goal still favored the Stampede after three at 29-22.

In the overtime, O’Connor made a couple of sensational glove saves to keep the Phantoms afloat.  Stampede goaltender Stephon Williams made some pretty saves in the extra session as well.  In the end, nobody scored and this game went to a shootout.

In the shootout,  Austin Cangelosi scored as Coach Noreen’s first shooter, but that was it.  For Sioux Falls, Justin Selman and Kyle Rankin scored.  Mike Ambrosia tried to tie it, but his shot sailed the crossbar and hit the glass securing the win for the Stampede.

“The negative was that we set a bar as to what our potential was,”, said Coach Anthony Noreen afterwards.  ”We played ok and I even thought we played good at times, but we definitely did not to play to our potential.  The positive is that we got a point out of it and head out to our rival, Muskegon, to compete for four huge points.”

The Phantoms hit the road for games at Muskegon on Friday and Saturday.

The Youngstown Phantoms were nothing if not opportunistic Friday night, pouncing on turnovers and poorly placed rebounds to beat the Fargo Force 3-1. The game was Youngstown’s third win in a row and league-high seventh win on home ice.

JT Stenglein (above) extended his goal-scoring streak to five games while Alexander Dahl and Sam Anas also found the back of the net for the Phantoms (11-5-0). In goal, Matthew O’Connor was the confident, economic netminder that fans and coaches are coming to expect, turning away 19 of 20 for his league-leading ninth win of the season.

“He [O'Connor] was really calm in there – didn’t give up a lot of rebounds,” Head Anthony Noreen said. “Even after he let in the one, and they came at him with a little flurry, he was just what he’s been lately: the backbone for our team.”

Stenglein put the Phantoms ahead of the Force (5-10-3) in the first-period on the power play. Mike Gunn sent a feed for him across ice that was tipped by Fargo’s Austin Farley and into open ice in the high slot. Stenglein grabbed it and whipped a snap shot on net, beating goaltender Zane Gothberg on the glove-side for his seventh goal of the season.

Just 42 seconds later, Dahl notched the first goal of his United States Hockey League career to put the Phantoms up two. Defenseman Kevin Liss led a rush the other way and took a shot on net from the right half-wall. The rebound caromed into the high slot and Dahl, whose father made the trip from his hometown of Eau Claire, Wis., to watch the game, fired it straight past Gothberg.

“It felt so good to get it out of the way,” Dahl said. “It’s been a big chunk of the season with no goals and I was kind of frustrated, but it was nice to finally get going. I’m excited to show dad the puck. Really excited.”

Anas extended the lead to three goals with a little more than two minutes remaining in the second period. Fargo defenseman Justin Wade coughed up the puck below the left circle and the Potomac, Md. native gobbled it up and then fired it five-hole for his sixth of the season.

“There aren’t many people on our team or in hockey in general that can score that goal from that angle,” Noreen said. “And don’t think for a second that Sam wasn’t aiming for exactly that, because we see him do that all the time in practice.”

For the second straight year, Guy Fieri has come to Youngstown as a guest of honor of the Phantoms.  Fieri, personal friends with Phantoms owner Bruce J. Zoldan, attended the Kentucky Derby in Louisville in May with Zoldan when Animal Kingdom, owned by Team Valor of which Zoldan is a major investor, won in an amazing come-from-behind victory to win the Roses at famed Churchill Downs. Fieri joined Zoldan and his party in the winner’s circle.

The wildly popular Fieri, the host of NBC’s “Minute To Win It” and the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” was amicable and friendly with everyone who he crossed paths with.

Fieri’s advertised appearance on Veteran’s Day was well-publicized and the Phantoms enjoyed their biggest crowd of the season.  A lot of people left the Covelli Centre carrying barbecue sauce, Fieri’s newest creations.

Less than 24 hours after the Youngstown Phantoms handed defending champion Dubuque a 5-2 setback, the Fighting Saints returned the favor.  The Phantoms trailed 4-0 but fought back to make it 4-3 but never got closer.  Sam Anas had a pair of goals for the Phantoms in defeat.  Tyler Lundey also tallied twice for the visiting Dubuque team.

John Doherty got Dubuque on the board when he knocked the puck in for the third time this season.  Doherty was assisted by Mike Matheson on the opening goal that came 8:33 into the first period.  The Fighting Saints picked up another goal before the end of the period. Eliot Grauer got his first goal of the season with 1:30 left in the first to put Dubuque ahead, 2-0.

The second period saw the Fighting Saints put up a couple more goals to take a 4-0 lead.  Tyler Lundy connected twice for the visitors to notch his fifth and six goals of the season.  The first goal came at even-strength and the second was with a man advantage.

At that point, something kicked in for the Phantoms, namely Sam Anas.  Anas helped the Phantom get back into the game with his third and fourth goals of the year. Both of the goals scored by Anas were on powerplay chances, a department the Phantoms have really been struggling with.  Before the first Phantoms goal, the home team was 0-29 in their most recent powerplay drought. J T Stenglein and Richard Zehnal picked up assists on the first score.  Anas connected from a bad angle, something he has been pretty proficient with, unassisted to cut the score to 4-2 at the end of the second period.

Sean Romeo (above) got a start because Matt O’Connor was between the pipes in both, the Friday and Saturday games.  Romeo struggled at times but stopped some good shots by Dubuque to keep it close.  A three game stretch in three days is tough for a young team to perform at the USHL high-level brand of hockey.

In the third period, the Phantoms nudged closer when Stenglein picked off a pass and scored a shorthanded goal 7:34 into the final stanza.  Dubuque watched a 4-0 lead go to 4-3 with over ten minutes left in the game and the result still hanging in the balance. The Fighting Saints were whistled with 3:37 left in the game for slashing.  Unfortunately, the Phantoms only got one good shot, whereas the Fighting Saints took two.

The Phantoms were right there, one would get the feeling if there were three minutes extra to play, that they somehow would have found a way.  With the win, Dubuque raised its record to 9-3-1.  The Phantoms fell to 8-5-0 and showed a whole bunch of heart in the loss.  Many teams fold up the tent and switch everything.  Credit Anthony Noreen for sticking to his guns, as it almost paid off tonight.

“We did not play 60 minutes tonight, we only played about 40″, said Noreen.  ”The first twenty minutes we did not play to our standards.  I told the team not to pay attention to the scoreboard and they were able to get back in the game.  In years past, this game may have ended up 9-0 instead of 4-3 because there would have been some pouting and they would not have stay focused.”

Without their best defenseman, Chris Bradley, and their leading scorer, Austin Cangelosi, away at a World Junior Tournament, give Noreen and the boys credit for being so competitive.  Both Bradley and Cangelosi scored goals for Team USA earlier in the day and Noreen surely could have used the points in Youngstown.

“The thing I liked about our powerplay tonight was that things just seemed more urgent”, commented the coach.  ”I want our powerplay to go out there and outwork the penalty kill.  ’Want’ to get to the net, ‘want’ to score goals.  There are a lot of teams in this league that we could hit that probably would not hit back.  That team [Dubuque] is the most skilled team in the league, but they are also one of the most physical.  I thought our physical play, for playing our third game in three days with a shortened lineup, was impressive.”

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.