Cassaro, Dennison happy to get back on the ice

September 27, 2018 at 12:08a.m.

Defenseman missed

most of playoff run

YOUNGSTOWN

When the Youngstown Phantoms hit the ice today for their first game of the USHL regular season, no one will be more excited than defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro.

“It’s a special one,” said Cassaro of the game against the Tri-City Storm at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, Pa. “It will be emotional but I can’t wait to play.”

Cassaro all but missed the Phantoms’ most successful playoff run. On Jan. 20, the Toronto native injured a quad muscle in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Storm at the Covelli Centre, causing him to sit out most of the rest of the season.

“I chipped the puck off the boards and stepped to the middle of the ice,” Cassaro said.

That’s where he collided with a Storm player “knee on knee and I tore my quad,” Cassaro said. “I couldn’t bend my leg for a good month-and-a-half, couldn’t walk normally as well.

“So there was a lot of rest and a lot of rehab,” Cassaro said, adding he’s “stronger and better” after the recovery.

The Phantoms went on to finish second in the Eastern Conference then advanced to the USHL’s Clark Cup Finals for the first time in the franchise’s nine years.

Cassaro watched all but two of the playoff games. He dressed as a seventh defenseman for the final two games of the series. Fargo won the best-of-five series, 3-1.

Cassaro is one of three Phantoms defensemen returning. The others are Liam Dennison and Steve Holtz, who is recovering from an injury.

Five forwards are back from May: Craig Needham, Joey Abate, Dalton Messina, Jack Malone and Trevor Kuntar.

Dennison can’t wait to lace up his skates.

“It was kind of a heartbreaking way to end the season,” Dennison said. “You’re always looking to battling again and getting back on the ice.

“We’re champing at the bit to get back at it.”

The USHL’s Fall Classic begins today and runs through Sunday.

The Phantoms will play the Dubuque Fighting Saints on Sunday at 1 p.m.

In the past, Fall Classic games were preseason contests. This season, the USHL has expanded to a 62-game season, with the Fall Classic games counting.

Brad Patterson, who is beginning his third season as Phantoms head coach, isn’t sure whether he likes the change.

“I don’t know, we haven’t done it,” Patterson said. “We’ve prepared the same way, we just had to do it in a quicker format.”

The Phantoms have been scrimmaging against NAHL teams. Today will be their first action against USHL competition.

The Phantoms will rely on newcomers. Kuntar is suspended from today’s game for a penalty earned in a scrimmage game. Malone is questionable with an injury.

The top eight scorers from last year’s team have moved on. Abate scored 15 points in the regular season, but had six in the playoffs, tying him for sixth.

Also departed are goaltenders Ivan Prosvetov and Wouter Peeters.

Prosvetov was the postseason workhorse, then was drafted in June by the Arizona Coyotes in the fourth round of the NHL Draft in June. He’s playing for the Saginaw Spirt of the Ontario Hockey League.

Replacing them are Jon Mor and Justin Evenson. Last season, Mor played for the U.S. National Development Program.

Last week, the Phantoms traded a draft pick to Tri-City for Evenson, who played the CCHL’s Brockville Braves last season.

Unlike the other USHL teams, the Phantoms will be making a 45-minute bus ride to the arena for the Cranberry games.

“We’ll enjoy it, sleep in our own beds,” Patterson said.

As the most Eastern team in the USHL, the Phantoms log the most time in a bus in trips to Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.