Video session keyed reversal for Phantoms

Staff report

RALSTON, Nebraska

Youngstown Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen credits a video session for helping his team’s performance in a second game against the USHL’s top team.

Friday, the Phantoms lost, 5-2, to the Omaha Lancers. The next morning, Noreen and his staff took the Phantoms to class.

“We had a long video session today with some teaching points and some emphasis points, and our guys did an unbelievable job of putting them into place,” Noreen said.

Saturday, the Phantoms stunned the Lancers, 4-1, with J.J. Piccinich scoring two goals.

“That’s a good hockey team. That was a good hockey game. It was probably the game this year that I felt most was like a playoff atmosphere for both teams,” Noreen said. “It was fun to be a part of, and it was fun to come out on the winning side.”

It’s not like the Lancers weren’t trying. The Ralston Arena again was sold out, with 3,860 fans creating a raucous atmosphere.

The Lancers, in a fierce battle for the Anderson Cup as USHL regular-season champion, needed points to keep pace with the Indiana Ice and Waterloo Black Hawks.

“You look at the weekend as a whole, from the second period of the first game on, in a series against a tough team, I thought we responded really well,” Noreen said.

In Saturday’s game, Josh Melnick and Piccinich scored first-period goals.

“That was the biggest emphasis point in our video session,” Noreen said. “The two goals we scored [Friday] were both net-front, ugly goals, and that was our biggest emphasis that we placed — getting to the net, and paying the price.

“Every goal, even the last one, the empty netter, was a good example of it.”

Goaltender Colin DeAugustine 30 of 31 shots en route to his third consecutive victory.

“I know it gets the whole bench going when you make a big save, and that can help to start momentum,” DeAugustine said. “It’s not that I’m doing it just for the offense — I’m doing it for me — but I think it does help.”

Omaha’s Jimmy Schuldt scored the only goal in the second period.

“[Colin] has been getting better every single time he goes in the net,” Noreen said. “It’s very easy, in a building like this, when they make it one, and the place is rocking, and they come at us a little bit, to let the tides turn.

“He was the equalizer, and he was the one who swung momentum back in our favor,” Noreen said, “I’m proud of what he’s been able to do here over the past few weeks.”

The Phantoms got a huge penalty kill to start the third period, and then they made it 3-1 on Piccinich’s second goal.

The score came after a wild net-front scramble that featured at least five whacks at the puck before the future Boston University player roofed the puck over Omaha goaltender Hayden Hawkey.

“That was an insane scramble,” Piccinich said. “Between [Zach Evancho] getting his three whacks, my three, it squirted out, and then I just shot it high, and it went in.”