Posts Tagged ‘Anthony Noreen’

The Youngstown Phantoms are proud to announce that defenseman Mike Gunn has committed to play hockey at Northeastern University beginning in the 2012-2013 season. The Livonia, Mich., native joins nine other Phantoms currently committed to play at the collegiate level and is the first player to commit this season.

The Phantoms acquired Gunn, 19, from the Chicago Steel this offseason just prior to the 2011 USHL Entry Draft. The three-year USHL veteran was voted one of the team’s assistant captains prior to the Phantoms’ home opener against Des Moines on Oct. 14.

“As a staff, we couldn’t be more proud of Mike,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said.   “He’s a natural leader, he works hard and he’s as naturally talented a defenseman as we have. He has the size, the strength and the shot.  When he’s healthy, I think he’s one of the best defenseman in the league.”

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound blue liner has one assist, eight penalty minutes and a plus-2 rating in four games this season. In 39 career USHL games, Gunn has one goal, five assists and 89 penalty minutes.

Last season Northeastern went 14-16-8 and finished sixth in the Hockey East conference with a 10-10-7 record. Through three games this season the Huskies are currently 1-1-1, good for second place in Hockey East.

“Northeastern really attracted me because they have such a great coaching staff and it’s right in the heart of Boston,” Gunn said. “When I visited out there I got to stay with some of the guys on the team in the dorms and I had a great experience. I just loved all of it.”

Gunn said that Assistant Coach Rob Rassey, who was a four-year letterman at Northeastern from 2005-2009 and later volunteered as an assistant coach from 2009-2011, encouraged him to consider the Huskies.

“Growing up in Detroit, I followed Michigan and Michigan State, but when [Coach Rassey] came here he opened my eyes a bit to Hockey East,” he said. “He gave me some of the ins and outs of what goes on at Northeastern and it was a huge help.”

The Youngstown Phantoms have named their captains for the 2011-2012 season, Head Coach Anthony Noreen announced Friday.

Left wing Mike Ambrosia will serve as the team’s captain while right wing Ryan Belonger, center Dylan Margonari and defensemen Chris Bradley and Mike Gunn will serve as assistant captains.

Ambrosia, a native of Chatham, N.J., is in his second season with the Phantoms. The Princeton University commit appeared in all 60 games for the Phantoms last season, putting up 10G-18A-28PTS. He was voted captain by his teammates and the coaching staff.

“It’s a great honor to be chosen by your teammates,” Ambrosia said. “I’m joined by four great guys but this team is full of leaders and we’re all going to help each other. Coach Noreen always stresses team leadership and we need 20 guys to win every night.”

Noreen said Ambrosia has grown into a leader on the ice and in the locker room and was an excellent choice to wear the ‘C’.

“Mike embodies everything we want this program to be,” he said. “He’s not a guy who says a whole lot, but when he does the other players listen.  An individual act doesn’t make you a leader – it’s about how you conduct yourself all the time. I think Mike really represents that.”

O’Connor Named Goalee of The Week

Matt O’Connor was honored by the USHL last week.  The second year Youngstown Phantom was named the top goaltender for the week as he posted a shutout, on the road, to garner the award.

O’Connor backed up the choice on Friday night against Des Moines as he stopped 30-32 shots and recovered from a sluggish first period to keep the Buccaneers scoreless in the final two frames.  The 6’5″ net minder is very competitive, works hard, and seems poised to be the guy between the pipes for the 3-1 Phantoms this season.

The Youngstown Phantoms had their home opener against the Des Moines Buccaneers on Friday night at the Covelli Centre.  The fans who attended were treated to an outstanding hockey game that saw 17-year old prospect Austin Cangelosi score a third period powerplay goal and later add an empty-net score to boost the home team to a 4-2 victory.  The victory marks the first time in their three-year history that the Phantoms won a home opener.

The Bucs got on the board 4:31 after the opening puck dropped.  Trent Samuels-Thomas found the back of the net beating Phantoms goaltender Matt O’Conner from short range. Drake Caggiula and Duggie Lagrone picked up assists for the Bucs on the goal.

The Phantoms (2-1-0) tied the game at 1-1 later in the first period.  Mike Ambrosia scored his second goal of the young season, beating Des Moines goalee Jason Karsdorf. The goal came at the 8:17 mark and Kevin Liss picked up an assist, his first of the season.

Before intermission, Des Moines (1-2-1) reclaimed the lead, 2-1, when Caggiula tallied his second point of the night on a powerplay goal. Samuels-Thomas picked up the assist for the Buccaneers who outshot the Phantoms 12-10 in the opening period.

A funny thing happened before the game started.  I was on the glass grabbing pictures of some of the new Phantoms and an older woman was smacking the glass and screaming.  I informed her in a polite way that the game had not started yet.  She said she was cheering for her grandson to have a good game.  The woman turned out to be the grandmother of Sam Anas (above).  She informed me that she was 80 years old and came all the way from Washington D.C. with Sam’s parents to see the game.  I promised her a picture and got a hug.

The only goal scored in the second period was, you guessed it, a game-tying goal from Sam Anas.  The goal marked the first USHL points in the young career of Anas.  Anas made a beautiful move on the Des Moines red line and burst past a defender before beating Kasdorf with a nice backhand just outside the front of the goal crease.  The goal came at the 11:10 mark of the second and evened the score to the delight of the Phantoms faithful in attendance.

“It meant so much for me to score my first USHL goal with my family here to see it.  It was great and I could not stop smiling”, said Anas, who has made a true jump in class as he was playing high school level hockey not long ago.  “There is not just a few strong guys or a few fast guys at this level, everyone is stronger and everyone is fast. Anything you get, you have earned in this league.”

With 7:54 left in the game, Austin Cangelosi, who was all over the place on every shift the entire game, connected on a powerplay chance that gave the Phantoms a 3-2 lead.  Ryan Belonger picked up the assist on Cangelosi’s fourth goal of the season.

“We definitely had more speed and energy at the end of the periods tonight”, remarked Cangelosi.  “Our chemistry here clicks.  We hang out off of the ice and work hard together when we are on it.  I don’t know if I can keep up this torrid pace with the scoring.  If I score great, if I don’t so be it, as long as we win.”

O’Connor really buckled down between the pipes after the first period to earn the victory in net for the Phantoms, making 30 saves on the 32 shots he faced.

With seven seconds left, Cangelosi tallied an empty-netter with the goalee pulled on a breakaway to ice the game.  Ambrosia snagged another point with an assist.

Coach Anthony Noreen talked about keeping his team composed facing a 2-1 deficit after the first period.  “The first period is over is what I told them.  Let’s look forward to the second period and stick to our game plan.  Let’s outhit them, out forecheck, out back check, and beat them to the puck.  Our plan is threefold.  Number one, we strive to be the most conditioned team in the league.  Number two, we talk about keeping the game uptempo and constantly moving the puck forward.  Finally, we refuse to lose. Refuse to lose the puck, refuse to lose battles, and our guys did a much better job tonight with that stuff later in the game.”

These same two teams will hook up again tomorrow night at the Covelli Centre.

The Chicago Steel guaranteed their fans a win Friday night at the Edge Ice Arena and those fans got one, just not from the hometown team. The Youngstown Phantoms got a pair of goals from center Austin Cangelosi and goaltender Matthew O’Connor turned away everything he faced en route to a 3-0 win.

The game also marked the first career regular season win for Head Coach Anthony Noreen.

“The guys who earned it were the guys in the locker room,” Noreen said. “The players bought in to what the coaches were selling and it’s really their victory.”

After digging themselves a hole early last week, the Phantoms struck first against Chicago. While short-handed, Cangelosi stole the puck off Steel defender Ryan Trentz’s stick and went streaking on goal for a breakaway. The Estero, Fla. native brought the puck from forehand to backhand before roofing it on goaltender Mathias Dahlstrom to give the Phantoms the lead with 2:07 remaining in the period.  It was Cangelosi’s second goal of the season, and second on the penalty kill.

“I’m unbelievably impressed with Austin as a player but I’m even more impressed with him as a person,” Noreen said. “The character he’s shown has earned him the success he’s had.”

The Phantoms would carry a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, but not after a line brawl with 15.7 seconds remaining that saw both Ryan Belonger and Ryan Lowney sent off for fighting. Belonger was tacked with an instigator call for his part in the fight and was ejected for the game.

Despite starting the period short-handed and spending most of it with a short bench, the Phantoms continued to pressure the Steel in the second. They peppered the defense on the forecheck and with1:24 remaining, Cangelosi lit the lamp for the second time after a great feed from Mike Ambrosia and new line mate Stephen Collins, who replaced Belonger on the right wing.

O’Connor continued his sterling play in the third period as the Phantoms and Steel traded chances scoring chances. Chicago pulled it’s netminder with a minute remaining but O’Connor stood tall and Alexander Dahl unselfishly set up Richad Zehnal for an empty-netter to ice it.

“Matt was phenomenal tonight but it was really team defense that won the game,” Noreen said. “Our forwards blocked shots and the ones that got through, Matty was there to stop them.”

The Youngstown Phantoms fell behind early Friday night and could not maintain enough momentum to battle back against Team USA in their regular season opener. A slew of penalties kept many of the Phantoms’ offensive weapons off the ice for large portions of the game and Team USA was able to capitalize on their power-play opportunities to come away with the 10-3 win.

“We never really reached a level of cohesion between our lines tonight because we didn’t play very long five-on-five,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen said. “It’s was a hard lesson that we had to learn.”

The first period started out slowly with neither team able to get an edge. That changed with less than five minutes left when Team USA broke the deadlock. The Phantoms found themselves down two men for 1:22 and were able to kill off the one penalty to make it a five-on-four, but could not finish off the other and Evan Allen beat goaltender Matthew O’Connor to put USA up 1-0. Then with 1:49 left in the period Team USA struck again when Trevor Hamilton was able to string a pass to Tyler Motte in the high slot and he put a wrist shot past O’Connor make it a 2-0 game.

Team USA opened up the second period on the power play and did not take long to capitalize. Luke Voltin put one past O’Connor just 19 seconds in. Tyler Kelleher added another power-play tally a little more than two minutes later and JT Compher tapped in a rebound to put Team USA up 5-0 with 13:00 still left in the second.

The Phantoms refused to back down and that was personified by Mike Ambrosia who put his team on the board when he simply outworked the Team USA defense and muscled it past goaltender Hunter Miska off an assist from Ryan Belonger. Ambrosia wasn’t done yet and he found linemate Austin Cangelosi open – short-handed no less – and the Boston College commit tickled the twine to make it a 5-2 game with 8:41 remaining in the period. But with Team USA back on the power play with 1:34left, Voltin added his second of the period to make it a 6-2 game heading into the second intermission.

The third period opened and once again Team USA caught the Phantoms off guard early when Compher beat Sean Romeo, who came on in relief of O’Connor in the second period. Anthony Louis added the fourth power-play goal of the night for Team USA a little more than four minutes later to stretch the lead out to 8-2. Belonger temporarily took the momentum back for the Phantoms with 7:59 remaining when he sniped a wrist shot from the top of the right circle, sending it through traffic to beat Miska high. But in the end, Team USA had built an insurmountable lead and Clint Lewis and Kelleher added late goals to secure a comfortable win.

“The biggest positive that comes out of all of this is it’s just one game,” Noreen said. “We’ve got 59 games to get better. We’re going to go back to work on Monday and be ready to play on Friday [against Chicago].”

The Youngstown Phantoms have scheduled five preseason games as they prepare for Youngstown’s third season in the United States Hockey League. The Phantoms will visit Team USA and Muskegon before heading out to Sioux City, Iowa for the 2011 USHL Fall Classic.

The Phantoms first two exhibition games will take place the weekend before the Fall Classic. The Phantoms first tune-up is against Team USA on Friday, September 16, at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. The rivalry between the Phantoms and the Muskegon Lumberjacks will be renewed in the pre-season on Saturday, September 17, when the Phantoms make their first trip of the year to L.C. Walker Arena. Both games will start at 7:05 p.m.

The USHL Fall Classic will run from Wednesday, September 21, through Saturday, September 24. The Phantoms will take on the Lincoln Stars and the Sioux Falls Stampede but their toughest challenge may be their Fall Classic opener against the defending Eastern Conference Champions, Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.

“The preseason will be the time when we set our identity,” said Phantoms head coach Anthony Noreen. “We are going to develop this identity from day one. This will also be a time where we can identify which players will fit our program. Obviously some of the guys that start the preseason with us may not be there at the end of it. For me and the other coaches, all of the players, whether they are rookies or our veterans, will all be starting with the same footing. Our players need to do what is expected of them or they will not be here for opening night. We will not be concerned with the scores in the preseason, this will be our time to solidify our systems and the process that we take to win games. I know our process will work but it will take time to determine which players are willing to do what our organization wants both on and off the ice.”

Preseason Games

Friday, September 16, 2011 – Youngstown Phantoms at Team USA @ 7:05 p.m.

Saturday, September 17, 2011 – Youngstown Phantoms at Muskegon Lumberjacks @ 7:05 p.m.

USHL Fall Classic Schedule

Thursday, September 22, 2011 – Youngstown Phantoms vs Cedar Rapids RoughRiders @ 4:00 p.m.

Friday, September 23, 2011 – Youngstown Phantoms vs Sioux Falls Stampede @ 6:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 24, 2011 – Youngstown Phantoms vs Lincoln Stars @ 1:00 p.m.

The Phantoms kick off the 2011-12 regular season on Friday, September 30, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. against Team USA at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.  The Phantoms will open the Covelli Centre with two games against the Des Moines Buccaneers on Friday, October 14 and Saturday, October 15, both games starting at 7:15 p.m.

The USHL has announced the 2010-11 USHL All-Star team and Phantoms defenseman Scott Mayfield and forward Cody Strang have been named Eastern Conference All-Stars.

Both Mayfield and Strang are in their final season with the Phantoms and their hard work on the ice has been recognized by the general managers and head coaches of the USHL.   Even though this is an individual accomplishment, Strang was quick to credit his teammates for this award.  “It’s a great honor,” said Strang. “It takes a lot of hard work but I have to give a lot of thanks and credit to my teammates. Without the hard work they put in on the ice we would not have been able to succeed like we have.”

 Mayfield, a first time all-star, was quick to say that this award would mean a lot less if the Phantoms do not qualify for the post season.  “It feels really good, but I know my teammates are focused on the games ahead,” said Mayfield.  “This accomplishment ranks up there with all of my other personal awards but what means the most is how well the team does.  If we do not make the playoffs, no disrespect, this award does not mean nearly as much.”

Assistant Coach Anthony Noreen gave credit to both players for the accomplishment, but like his two assistant captains, he was also quick to give credit to the entire team.  “It’s a great accomplishment for both of our guys, said Noreen.  “This is also a testament to all the guys in our locker room. What they said is exactly why they are two of our captains. It shows their leadership on and off the ice and this award just gives them the gratification for their hard work.”

For Mayfield this has been a season where the all-star award is just one of a few personal accomplishments that he has earned since this summer.  Over the summer Mayfield competed at the NHL Research, Development and Orientation Camp and back in November,  he also played for Team USA at the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge.   At the Junior ‘A’ Challenge Mayfield won a gold medal and was named the tournament MVP.   With all of these accomplishments Noreen pointed out that the 6’4 defenseman has not changed one bit since he arrived in Youngstown last season.  “If you know Scottie and how humble he is this does not mean much to him,” said Noreen. “The way he comes to the rink would not change even if was not named an all-star. This is great for him and his family but since day one he has not changed who he is or what kind of player he is.”