43
Phantoms will be without top goalie
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
The goaltender with the Youngstown Phantoms’ record for most wins in a season needs at least another week before he can try to break the mark.
Sean Romeo, who won 31 games last season, continues to nurse a groin injury that he suffered early in training camp.
“Hopefully, I’ll be on the ice in another week,” said Romeo, who went 31-20-0 to help the Phantoms finish third in the USHL’s Eastern Conference. “Sitting on the couch, having to wait is no fun.
“But it’s better to get it [healed] now than have it linger all season.”
This weekend, the Phantoms (0-2-0, 0 points) will open their home schedule against the Green Bay Gamblers, the team they ousted in last spring’s first-round playoff series.
One season before, the Gamblers won a second-round series against the Phantoms.
Phantoms goaltender Jake Moore (0-2-0) is expected to get both starts (tonight at 7:05, Saturday at 2:05 p.m. at the Covelli Centre).
Moore (4-2-0 in the 2012-13 season) was in goal for the Phantoms’ losses last weekend to Team USA by scores of 9-3 and 7-6.
Phantoms coach Anthony Noreen said he’s seen progress.
“I think we got better from Game 1 to Game 2,” said Noreen of beginning his third season as head coach. “We got better from Game 2 to today. Our power-play [unit] did a good job.”
Noreen acknowledged there is room to improve.
“We’re going to tighten up defensively, we’re going to be more consistent,” Noreen said. “One of the things that is hard to teach is ‘touch’ around the net, how to finish. We saw flashes of that from a number of guys.”
Last season, the Gamblers finished second and had home-ice advantage for the first-round, best-of-five playoff series. They never got to use that advantage as the Phantoms split the first two games in Wisconsin then won both games at the Covelli Centre.
“They are going to want to get us back,” said defenseman Kyle Mackey, the only Phantom blueliner returning to this year’s team. “It’s going to be a good weekend — gritty hockey.”
Alfred Larsson, the Phantoms’ captain, agreed.
“It’s going to be a blue-collar game, pretty physical,” Larsson said. “We need to play our game with a lot of hits.”
Green Bay (1-0-1, 3 points) comes to Ohio in second place. Gamblers goaltender Jared Rutledge was selected as the USHL’s Goaltender of the Week after making 39 saves in Green Bay’s 5-1 victory over the Chicago Steel.
Rutledge is a USHL veteran. He spent two seasons in the USHL with Team USA then played last season for the University of Michigan. In the spring, he opted to leave Michigan to return to the USHL, this time with Green Bay.
“I’m sure there is still a bad taste in their mouth,” Noreen said of the Gamblers playoff ouster. “But any time we play Green Bay, one of if not the elite program in the league, you have a little bit extra jump.”
Green Bay won USHL championships in the 2009-10 and 2011-12 seasons.
“Playoff series two years in a row helps build the rivalry,” Noreen said. “We’re at the point where we have a pretty good rivalry.”