Phantoms prepare for second-half chase

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

Halfway througH their first USHL season, the Youngstown Phantoms are poised to make a playoff run and challenged to increase their fanbase.

After 29 games, the Phantoms have 13 wins, 14 losses and two overtime losses for 28 points and fifth place in the East Division of the top-tier junior league.

The top four teams in each division qualify for the postseason and the Phantoms find themselves in a tight race. Second-place Indiana (16-11-1, 33 points) is only five points ahead of the Phantoms. Trailing the defending-champion Ice are Cedar Rapids (15-13-2, 32 points) and Chicago (13-12-4, 30 points).

The only East team feeling secure in the playoff chase is first-place Green Bay (21-6-3, 45 points).

Being in the hunt with an expansion team has Phantoms head coach/general manager Bob Mainhardt excited for the second half.

“We’re in the mix and it’s a tight division,” Mainhardt said before Wednesday’s practice at the Covelli Centre. “It’s been said all along that it’s really anybody’s division.

“We definitely feel that with if we make the right adjustments and continue to improve, we feel that we have a very good chance at playing in the playoffs,” Mainhardt said. “We feel that if we can attain that goal, we can make some noise and take a run at a championship.”

What gives Mainhardt hope for a stronger second half is his belief that his players have not yet played to their full potential.

“We feel we have a lot of players that literally the sky is the limit [on their potential],” Mainhardt said. “With this [lineup], we really feel that we’re just scratching the surface, that’s why we’re so optimistic.

“We really feel that the vast majority of our players have not shown their best play yet,” Mainhardt said. “They are working hard and they are getting there, but when they do finally turn that corner, I think we can be a very scary team.”

More scoring and fewer penalties are Phantoms goals. For most of the season, forward Taylor Holmstrom has led the Phantoms in scoring. His eight goals, 15 assists and 23 points has him tied for 30th in league scoring. (The USHL has 14 teams, seven in each division.) He also leads the team with a plus-12 plus/minus rating which measures being on ice when even-strength goals are scored.

Next is forward Brett Gensler with 10 goals, nine assists and 19 points that ties him for 51st. With 18 points apiece, forwards Jefferson Dahl and Brian Dowd are tied for 58th.

In goal, Jordan Tibbett, who played two years for Mainhardt with the Mahoning Valley Phantoms in the North American Hockey League, has a 7-7-0 record and 3.71 goals-against average. Matthew Mahalak’s numbers are 6-7-2, 3.95.

Killing penalties has been a problem. The Phantoms have been shorthanded 214 times, 33 times more than their nearest competitor, Fargo.

What Mainhardt enjoys about the USHL is the tremendous potential of the players.

“On each team, there’s literally a handful of 12-14 guys — more like an armful of guys — that depending on how their next year or two goes are going to be NHL players,” Mainhardt said. “It’s really exciting to see those guys and it’s very exciting to coach them.

“We literally have 14 guys in our locker room that could play in the NHL, no doubt,” said Mainhardt who added that the other seven “aren’t writeoffs.”

“There is nobody in our locker room who you could say that he doesn’t have a chance to make the NHL whereas in the past that was the majority of our team,” Mainhardt said.

Mainhardt coached the Mahoning Valley Phantoms for six seasons in the lower-tier NAHL before the team was disbanded last spring.

A bigger challenge awaiting the Phantoms is attracting more fans to the five-year-old arena. After 14 home games, the Covelli Centre’s main tenant has averaged 1,671 fans, well below the 3,000 the team wants to attract.

With the holidays over and no longer having to compete against high school football, Mainhardt believes attendance is about to rise.

“I think it definitely will,” Mainhardt said. “The word is getting out. There’s no doubt that [the USHL is] a different game and this is a different entertainment value than has ever been in this building.

“We all know that word-of-mouth is the best form of advertisement and that takes time,” Mainhardt said. “Whereas 3,000 is the number we’re looking at, we were realistic that we weren’t going to get that right from the get-go.

“We definitely are not content but we’re also not dismayed,” Mainhardt said. “We know we are going to get there and we are going to continue to build up the market and this organization.

“It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill — it’s just going to get bigger and bigger every day,” Mainhardt said.

williams@vindy.com