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Phantoms go out on high note with overtime win
By BRIAN DZENIS
YOUNGSTOWN
Cam Morrison and the Youngstown Phantoms couldn’t give fans playoff hockey, but they gave them quite the finale.
With 11 seconds left in overtime, Morrison converted a penalty shot to close out his team’s season with a 5-4 win against Team USA.
“I couldn’t have pictured it any better, ending the year like that,” Morrison said. “It’s story book right there. I couldn’t have imagined a better way.”
Youngstown finishes the season in fifth place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference at 31-20-4. The team saw its playoff hopes fade away in late March.
The Phantoms will have 17 players leave the team. That covers the entire defense, save Carter Ekberg, goalies Charles DeAugustine and Ryan Bednard and eight forwards.
“It’s a fresh opportunity to create something new. It’s a great challenge as a coach and we’re going to have to evolve as a coach and a team,” coach John Wroblewski said. “We’ll have to quickly find our strengths and weaknesses and find a system that works for everybody.”
Among the departures, captain Matt Alvaro and all three assistant captains, Chase Pearson, Lukas Craggs and Matt Miller are moving on.
Alvaro assumed the captain’s role during his second season in Youngstown and will continue his hockey career at the University of Vermont.
Miller spent his entire junior hockey career not far from his hometown of East Palestine. For college, he’ll be a few hours away from the Mahoning Valley at Ohio State.
By a large margin, the Phantoms’ leading scorer was the rookie Morrison, who was the league’s second-highest scoring skater. Morrison averaged a point per game with 37 goals and 32 assists in his lone season with the Phantoms. He is eligible for the NHL draft this year.
Morrison’s setup man, Chase Pearson, dished out a team-high 40 assists to go with 12 goals. The Detroit Red Wings own his draft rights, but Pearson will head to the University of Maine.
Forward Yushiroh Hirano, the USHL’s first Japanese player, is one qualifying round away from an Olympic berth. Team Japan will travel to Riga, Latvia to enter a round-robin competition against Germany, Austria and Latvia from Sept. 1-4. He has a goal and two assists for the national team. He proved himself as a top-line winger with 24 goals and 22 assists.
He’s ineligible to play in the NCAA because he got paid while playing in Sweden last season. Hirano will go pro and attempt to catch on with an ECHL or AHL team.
The Phantoms saw a four-goal lead go up in smoke Saturday night. Morrison got the night started with a wrister, which sparked a stretch where his team scored three goals less than two minutes. After Morrison got his second goal and Tommy Apap and Kevin Conley found the net, Team USA’s Evan Barratt broke the shutout.
USA fourth-liner Logan Hutsko strung together a hat trick through the second and opening minute of the third period to tie the game.
Wroblewski concluded his first season as a head coach Saturday night.
“There’s a lot of introspection coming,” Wroblewski said. “Coaching at this level with these players. It’s an unbelievable experience coach guys with their future right in front of them.”