43
Chemistry plays critical role in Phantoms’ success
YOUNGSTOWN
Coaches will tell you a hockey team’s makeup is just as important as its talent level.
With four lines on offense and three on defense, every skater that jumps over the boards has a responsibility to contribute while on the ice. A player willing to block shots on the penalty kill is just as important as the team’s leading scorer. And if the leading scorer is willing to block a shot, that’s what separates the good from the great.
The Youngstown Phantoms are riding a 12-game winning streak and have climbed to the top of the USHL standings with one month left in the regular season. It should be of no surprise the makeup of the team has a lot to do with their success.
“I think the best part is that everyone’s been able to chip in,” said forward Kiefer Sherwood.
“Every game it’s someone new. We have a lot of depth and it’s good to see other guys contribute.”
Sherwood is tied with Kyle Connor for the team lead in goals with 25 this season. While Connor may have more name recognition — he’s expected to be a lottery pick in this summer’s NHL Entry Draft — his teammates’ roles on the team have allowed the forward to excel in areas he does best and some others.
Connor, who has committed to the University of Michigan, has spent some time on the penalty kill of late and was rewarded with a short-handed goal in a Phantoms’ 7-1 win over the Fargo Force during the streak.
“I think I can use my speed out there to my advantage on the penalty kill,” Connor said. “I’ve got a good stick and want to help out.”
That’s only part of the winning makeup head coach and general manager Anthony Noreen has created in Youngstown.
Noreen and his staff haven’t made many trades in his four seasons in charge. It can be a risk to bring in new players at midseason and expect them to adjust seamlessly, especially at the age kids are in the USHL. However in the midst of the organization’s longest winning streak, Noreen called the addition of forward Ryan Lomberg last August as, “far and away the best trade we’ve ever made.”
“When you talk about what we want a Youngstown Phantom to be, he’s it,” Noreen said. “You couldn’t blueprint a player to epitomize it more. No matter what the score is, no matter what the situation is, he’s relentless.”
Lomberg brings a bit of a nasty streak to a team that has plenty of offensive talent. Although the 5-foot-9, 191-pound wrecking ball of a forward arrived in Youngstown with some baggage.
Lomberg, 21, already has two years of college hockey under his belt at the University of Maine, but found himself in need of a change in scenery after some legal trouble his sophomore year of college. He was suspended after a fight at an off-campus party.
So he ended up back in the USHL and bounced between a few teams before landing with the Phantoms.
“We’re definitely playing with a lot of confidence and it’s helping us out a lot,” Lomberg said of the streak. “We’re just focusing on playing the game the right way together, getting in the dirty areas, and we’re just getting the bounces right now.
“Our mentality going in is every game is our game. Either we’re gonna give it to their team or they’re going to take it from us and there’s no way they’re taking it from us now.”
Then there are the goaltenders. Goalie is a position often associated with the more unique personalities in a locker room. For the Phantoms, it’s been the definition of consistent.
The organization put an emphasis on the position prior to the season and added Chris Birdsall to the mix with Colin DeAugustine returning. While it’s more conventional to have a clear-cut starter and a backup, Noreen made it known he wanted both goalies to contribute throughout the season. And they have.
Birdsall is 14-6-5 with a 2.66 goals against average and a pair of shutouts in 27 starts. DeAugustine is 17-6-0 with a 2.87 GAA and two shutouts in 25 starts.
“You look at it very easily during a run like this and you expect one goalie to maybe get the boatload of the starts and it’s really been both,” Noreen said. “I think we’ve had the luxury of having a 1-A, 1-B.”
Good makeup on a roster can make everybody look good, including the coaches. The Phantoms have a makeup that could led them on a deep postseason run.