Top-level hopefuls hit the Covelli ice

By Tom Williams

From a fan’s perspective, one of the best things about the United States Hockey League coming to the Covelli Centre in Youngstown will be the chance to see more players.

“With the [North American Hockey League], there wasn’t a whole lot of variety,” said Phantoms coach Bob Mainhardt, who was the head coach of the NAHL’s Mahoning Valley Phantoms for six seasons. “I had some people say, ‘Geez, do you play anybody else other than Motor City and [Team] USA?’ It was understandable.”

The old Phantoms team, which has disbanded, played in the NAHL. Travel considerations meant that most of that league’s regular-season games were played as weekend series. That meant that the Phantoms were usually playing against such Michigan-based teams as the Traverse City North Stars, the Motor City Machine and the Alpena IceDiggers.

The Youngstown Phantoms and the U.S. National Team (also formerly of the NAHL) are the two expansion teams that have turned the USHL into a 14-team top-level junior hockey league.

“The quality of [our] on-ice product at this point is the virtual equivalent of [Canada’s] major juniors,” USHL commissioner Skip Prince said. “Shift for shift, player for player, we are at that level.”

The USHL and NAHL are junior leagues for players ages 16-20 hoping to get picked in the National Hockey League’s draft or earn a Division I college scholarship. Mainhardt said one of the biggest differences in the leagues is variety on the schedule.

“We play everybody in the league and go everywhere in the league,” said Mainhardt, whose team opens USHL play Saturday night at home against the Indiana Ice. “Everyone in the league will come here at least once.

“That’s really nice for the fan, having the variety and seeing what the other teams are made up of,” Mainhardt said.

The Detroit native also believes the team will benefit from seeing more opponents on a regular basis.

“From a competitive standpoint, it’s very tough when you play a team that much,” said Mainhardt of the NAHL format that sometimes had two teams playing three times within 48 hours. “You’re not going to see the same team [consecutively] here in Youngstown pretty much until the playoffs.”

Another big difference is the quality of play.

“There’s definitely a big difference — the guys are faster, stronger,” said Phantoms defenseman David Donnellan, who played last season for the Sioux Falls Stampede and the Tri-City Storm. “Everybody is so much better with the puck — they can score from anywhere.

“Everybody is just so much better; the level of play is just so much faster,” Donnellan said.

Forward Brian Dowd, who played for the USHL’s Chicago Steel two seasons ago, said, “Every time you step on the ice, it’s basically an all-star game.

“Every defenseman in this league has the caliber to be a top one, two, three or four defenseman at whatever college team they go to,” Dowd said. “The young guys who come into this league are impact players right away.

“It definitely gets you ready for college, and it teaches you to play a professional-style game,” Dowd said.

Prince said the USHL is the nation’s only Tier One league.

“We’re the top-quality hockey product available,” Prince said. “The very best players in the United States and North America are coming to this league to play.”

Mainhardt said USHL players “are essentially the top 1 percent of players for their age in the world. With that, you just get an unbelievable level of ability and potential and skill.

“Our job is a little bit tougher,” Mainhardt said. “It’s kind of like harnessing lightning sometimes — you have all these guys with all this ability, and we’ve got to try and bring it together.”

Mainhardt retained Curtis Carr as his assistant coach. After the USHL draft in the spring, they held a tryout camp in June to pick a 25-player roster.

Adjusting to the mind-set of these players has been one of the coaching staff’s tasks.

“In the [NAHL], you had a lot of guys who were not quite good enough that really felt like they had something to prove,” Mainhardt said. “So you always had motivated guys.

“Whereas these guys are good enough,” Mainhardt said. “And they’re good enough for a reason. So it’s a little bit different mentality, that’s for sure.”

After six seasons with NAHL players, Mainhardt is reworking some of his methods.

“On the motivation side, you’ve got to push some different buttons,” Mainhardt said. “When you’ve got a group of underdogs, it’s always easy to motivate them. You give them a game plan, and they are more than willing.

“But when you have guys at the top of their game and the best at what they do, you’ve got to find a way to get that out of them. So it’s a completely different challenge. We noticed that right away with the skill level.”

With teams in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin, road trips won’t be short hops.

“Typically in the [NAHL], you do a weekend stay and play two games in the same place and then you come back,” Mainhardt said. “Whereas with [the USHL] most of the time on the road is going to multiple venues so we don’t see the same opponent two nights in a row.”

The league is divided into two seven-team divisions. Joining Youngstown in the East Division are the Cedar Rapids Roughriders (Iowa), Chicago Steel, Green Bay Gamblers (Wis.), Indiana Ice (Indianapolis), Waterloo Black Hawks (Iowa) and the U.S. National Team (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

After the regular season, four teams from each division will qualify for the playoffs. Each series will have a best-of-five format.

Unlike the NAHL where the playoff division winners qualify for a round-robin tournament, Mainhardt said the USHL has a “more professional” format.

“You have a true champion at the end of the league playoffs — it’s not a championship round-robin tournament all in one location like the [NAHL’s] Robertson Cup,” Mainhardt said. “For the fans, you get to see a true champion, not someone who just happened to get lucky or get hot for the one game.”

williams@vindy.com