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Covelli Centre crowd amped up for School Day
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
A much larger-than-usual crowd had the Covelli Centre rocking Friday morning for the Youngstown Phantoms’ School Day game.
“There’s no doubt there was an unbelievable buzz on our bench from the second we got out there until the second the game ended,” Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen said after a 7-3 victory over Team USA’s 17U squad. “It was exciting. It was fun.”
It was loud.
Even the public address microphones were amped up to 11. The playlist was updated to include “Everything is Awesome” from “The Lego Movie.”
The home team noticed.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Phantoms forward Tyler Spezia said. “I was actually disappointed I didn’t get to finish the game because it was so cool and it was loud.”
Approximately 3,500 fans — almost all middle-school-aged children — practiced shrieking when prompted.
“I’m not sure that they knew exactly what was going on,” Spezia said. “But they see fights and they get excited.”
Spezia, Luke Stork and Kiefer Sherwood as well as Team USA’s Nick Boka and Dennis Yan were given game misconducts for their roles in a first-period brawl.
“I always focus on not getting punched in the face,” said Spezia, whose face showed scratches after the game. “Obviously, I didn’t do a good job.”
Stork scored the Phantoms’ first two goals and had a shot at a hat trick (three goals) or a Gordie Howe hat trick (a goal, an assist and a fight).
“I felt good,” Stork said of the Phantoms’ fast start. “Score a goal on the first shift and you always feel good.
“After I got the [second] one, I wanted the third one bad but it didn’t happen.
“Dreams were ruined,” he joked.
Stork’s first goal was a power-play tally 98 seconds into the game.
“There’s no doubt, when you score one [quickly] and the crowd’s into it, you feed on it,” said Noreen, adding it was “the best period of hockey Luke has played since he’s been here.”
Stork watched the rest of the game from the stands.
“It was insane,” Stork said of the fans. “I would have rather been out there because they were going crazy. It was a good atmosphere.”
Phantoms goaltender Sean Romeo stopped 39 shots.
“It was loud, especially early,” the Phantoms’ third-year goaltender said. “It was a great crowd.
“It was fun to play in front of them. I think it helped us get a great start. They showed a lot of energy.”
Noreen said his role players took advantage of extra skating time in the final two period.
“That’s three of your top minute-getters up front [out] so it provided a lot of minutes [to others],” Noreen said.
Newcomers Cameron Smith and Connor Moore scored their first USHL goals. Max Letunov scored two goals and lead-scorer Kyle Connor had the other.