Posts Tagged ‘Matt O’Connor’

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].”

Note to the Youngstown Phantoms scheduling and promo teams…  Always schedule a team with a cosmic name like “Stars” on Star Wars Night.  The force was with the Phantoms as Youngstown got the best of Lincoln in a hard-fought, shootout, 4-3  victory.  Ryan Belonger, the last shooter for the Phantoms made a dazzling move to give the Phantoms the extra point in a great hockey game.

Lincoln scored the lone goal of the first period to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission. John McCarron scored his 13th goal of the season, this one with a man advantage.  McCarron’s goal (below) came with just under three minutes remaining in the initial period, and Ryan Dzingel was credited with an assist his team-leading 22nd.  The Stars outshot the Phantoms 19-8 in the opening period.

Youngstown was able to tie the game at a goal apiece at the 2:58 mark of the second period when Ryan Belonger scored on  a Phantoms man-advantage.  For Belonger, it was goal 12 on the season and Mike Ambrosia picked up an assist.

Lincoln did not take long to regain the lead when Garrett Peterson tallied at the 6:27 mark.  Peterson took a pass from McCarron to beat Matt O’Connor from a tough angle.  Peterson’s 15th goal of the season was an even-strength score.

The Phantoms would score the next two goals of the game to forge ahead, 3-2.  Jiri Sekac got into the plus column with his 12th of the season.  Ben Paulides gained an assist on Sekac’s game-tying even strength goal which came at the 11:07 mark of the second.  The next Phantoms goal would be recorded by Cody Strang, his 13th of the year.  Strang gave the Phantoms their first lead of the game at the 14:17 mark of the second.

The fifth goal of the second period was scored by Lincoln’s Brent Tate and tied the game, 3-3 at the 16:36 mark.  Tate found the twine unassisted for his ninth goal of the season at even strength.  The hamster race that was the second period found Lincoln ahead 31-24 in the shots on goal department.

In the third period, Ambrosia stole a puck right by the Lincoln blue line and was hauled down and awarded a penalty shot.  Stars net minder, Lukas Hafner , stoned Ambrosia to keep the game tied at three goals each.  The rest of the third period was uneventful for the Phantoms offense, only able to generate four shots on goal.  The offensive lapse did not hurt as the Stars were also unableto find the net forcing a five minute overtime period.

In the overtime, no one was able to score, setting up a shootout to determine which team would get one point and which would receive two.  Lincoln outshot the Phantoms 47-29 in regulation and overtime.  Matt O’Connor had a good game.

This is how the shootout went.  Lincoln sent Zachary Aston-Reese out first and he scored.  Cody Strang tied it up on the Phantoms first attempt.  Peterson was next for the Stars, but before he could unload, O’Connor poke-checked the puck away.  The Phantoms then sent Adam Berkle who was stopped.  The Stars third shooter was Dominik Shine who went top shelf and scored, 2-1 Stars.  Youngstown then sent Jiri Sekac who was stopped.  With a 2-1 shootout lead, Lincoln sent Matt Prapavessis, who tried the five-hole and was stopped.  Youngstown’s fourth shooter was Ty Loney.  Loney tied the shootout at 2 each when he sent a wrister past Hafner.  O’Connor would stuff Lincoln’s final shooter, John McCarron.  Ryan Belonger then became a hero when he put the game-winner past Hafner giving the Phantoms the big two-point win.

With the win, Youngstown jumped to 15-22-4 and Lincoln fell to 19-16-4.  The Phantoms welcome Chicago and muskegon to the Covelli Centre next weekend.

The Youngstown Phantoms (9-17-1,19pts) could not finish the year 2010 with a win as they lost a tough one to the Indiana Ice (13-10-2,28pts) by the score of  5-4. Mike Ambrosia recorded an assist extending his point streak to four games in the losing effort.

After a quiet ten minutes to start the first period, Phantoms forward John Fritsche was sent to the penalty box for tripping at 10:22. The power play was killed off by the Phantoms but the momentum gained while on the man advantage gave the Ice they edge they needed. David Johnstone tipped a pass from Ferlin behind Matthew O’Connor to take the 1-0 lead. Just over four minutes later on a Phantoms power play, Cody Strang banged home an Adam Berkle rebound for his sixth goal of the season. The secondary assist on the tying goal was credited to Jiri Sekac.

Forty-one seconds after the Phantoms goal, forward Ryan Belonger took advantage of a misplayed puck by Ice netminder Casey DeSmith to put the Phantoms up 2-1. The goal was unassisted and it was Belonger’s ninth goal of the season. With 1:42 remaining in the first period, Berkle was issued a two minute penalty for elbowing. Before the Phantoms touched the puck to stop play, Ice forward Will Aide dropped the gloves with Berkle in response to his thrown elbow. On the ensuing Ice power play, Ferlin was able to tie the game at two right off the faceoff in the Phantoms zone. The goal was Ferlin’s second point of the first period and it was assisted by Blake Coleman. At the end of the first, the two teams were tied at two but the Phantoms were able to outshoot Indiana 14-9.

“We responded really well tonight,” said Head Coach Curtis Carr. “After a tough game after the break and the game against Des Moines our guys came out ready to play tonight. It was a tough day of travel and to play a hot Indiana team they way we did, there is nothing but positive things to say after this one.”

Tempers continued to flare as the Phantoms and Ice moved toward the midway point of the second period. With Indiana outshooting the Phantoms 8-5 with 11:35 remaining in the period, Andrew Sinelli dropped the gloves with Ice forward Chris Martin. The Phantoms were a post away from taking the lead when Quinn Smith took a feed from JT Stenglein and made a fantastic move around an Ice defender. Smtih’s shot rang off the far post leaving the game tied at two.

About a minute later on a Phantoms power play, DeSmith made a great save to deny Sekac and on the ensuing dump into the Phantoms zone O’Connor played the puck right to the stick of Ice forward Coleman. With O’Connor out of the net and up around the hash marks, Coleman had a wide open net to shoot at as he gave Indiana a 3-2 lead on the shorthanded goal. Responding to what could have been a back breaking goal Phantoms forward Ty Loney scored to tie the game at three. The Phantoms goal was assisted by Sekac giving him his second assist of the night. The second period ended with the Phantoms on the power play giving them thirty seconds of carry over time. The Phantoms again outshot the Ice 15-10 giving them a two period advantage of 29-19.

The Phantoms could not capitalize on their carry over power play but on their second man advantage of the period Stu Higgins put a one timer in the back of the net to give the Phantoms a 4-3 lead. Ambrosia and Ben Paulides were credited with the assists on Higgins’fifth goal of the year. Eleven seconds later Daniil Tarasov beat O’Connor to tie the game back up at four. Tarasov benefited from a fluky bounce in front of the net as the puck made its way across the line. The Ice were then able to take the lead on their own power play as Tarasov scored his second of the game to give the Ice a 5-4 lead with six minutes to play. Like the fourth goal, the puck this time bounced off of a Phantoms player in front of the net before it crossed the line. The Phantoms pulled O’Connor with under a minute to play but the equalizer was never found as the comeback effort was spoiled by Indiana. The Phantoms were outshot in the third period 14-8 but held the advantage at the end of the game 37-33. The Phantoms recent history repeated itself against the Ice as three of the five Indiana goals came off of bad bounces on its way into the net.

“I have never seen so many bad bounces against one team,” said Carr. “In my entire hockey career I have never seen this many bounce in one season. We are not making excuses but it would be nice if one or two or those bounces would go our way.”

The Phantoms return to the Covelli Centre on January 7 and 8 for games against the Sioux City Musketeers and the Muskegon Lumberjacks. January 7 is Mac ‘N’ Cheese Night sponsored by the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and January 8 is Military Appreciation Night. Both games start at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available by calling 330-747-7825.

The Youngstown Phantoms needed a break.  Heading into this contest with the Indiana Ice, the Phantoms had dropped four contests in a row, all on the road.  It seemed like an eternity since the Phantoms had a home game (December 4), which incidentally was the last time this team won.  A three-goal second period doomed the home team as Indiana collected an even-strength, a powerplay, and a shorthanded goal over the last seven minutes of the frame to post a 7-2 win Tuesday.

Indiana scored at the 13:36 mark when Blake Coleman fired a shot that hit the post and apparently went in.  Coleman’s goal was a powerplay score and he was assisted by Brian Ferlin and Danlil Tarasov. For Coleman, it was the 11th goal of the season.

The Phantoms wasted little time knotting the contest at the 14:39 mark of the opening period.  Dylan Margonari connected for his third goal of the year, an even-strength chance.  Mike Ambrosia picked up an assist on the Phantoms game-tying score.  The first period would come to a close in a 1-1 deadlock.  The Phantoms and Ice were playing very physical hockey and there was no shortage of hits or near fights throughout the game.

Youngstown would grab a 2-1 lead early in the second period when Ryan Belonger stayed hot and scored for the fourth time in the last ten games.  Ambrosia picked up his second assist of the night and sixth of the year.

The roof then caved in on the Phantoms.  Indiana scored three second period goals in the last seven minutes of the stanza to take a 4-2 lead into intermission.  Adam Erne connected for an even-strength goal with an assist from Peter Schneider to tie the game.  Sean Kuraly then broke loose for the Ice to net a shorthanded goal.  Kuraly gathered a loose puck near center ice and raced toward the net beating Matt O’Connor for the go ahead goal.  Tarasov put an exclamation point on the strong period connecting on another powerplay, this time Ferlin got the assist to put the Ice in front 4-2 after two periods.

At the 18:32 mark of the final period, Indiana tacked on another goal to increase the lead to 5-2. Jarrod Rabey picked up the third powerplay goal of the night for the Ice.  Just over a minute later, Coleman got his second of the game, an even-strength tally, and the rout was on.  Chris Martin (not from Coldplay) tacked on a late goal to wrap the scoring up at 7-2 in favor of the Ice.

With the loss, the Phantoms fell to 9-15-1.  Indiana improved to 12-10-2 with the victory.  The Ice outshot Youngstown, 30-25.   Youngstown welcomes Des Moines for a rare Wednesday night game at the Covelli Centre.

“We have to come ready to play 60 minutes.  It seems like something goes wrong that we do not recover well, and we need to”, said Curtis Carr after the game.  “We compete with the best teams in the league and what happened here tonight does not reflect what kind of team we have.”

The Omaha Lancers only make one trip to Youngstown each season.  The Youngstown hockey fans were treated to a great game that featured a couple of Gold Medalists who recently represented the United States.  Scott Mayfield (left) of the Phantoms and Seth Ambroz (right) of the Lancers were honored before the game started as teammates on the US Championship Team.  Ambroz shined a bit brighter on this night chalking up a pair of assists as Omaha broke open a close game in the third period to win 5-2.

The Phantoms did have chances early and got on the scoreboard first when Ty Loney connected from close range to beat Lancers net minder John Keeney.  It was the fifth goal for Loney in only his ninth game this season.  Picking up assists on the goal were Cody Strang and Jiri Sekac.

Omaha wasted little time responding and tying the game.  Nick Oddo knocked in his fourth goal of the season.  The even-strength tally was assisted by Justin Crandall and Ambroz.  Keep the name Ambroz in your memory, he is NHL-bound and really has a nose for the puck.

Before the first period ended, the Phantoms scored a goal to claim a 2-1 lead.  Sekac took the puck top shelf (below, note the water bottle on the net going vertical from the puck) over Keeney’s right shoulder for his fifth.  The even-strength goal yielded assists to Loney and Strang.

The Lancers scored the lone goal of the second period to tie the contest at two goals apiece.  Colin Markison connected unassisted on a power-play goal.  The Phantoms had 22 shots after two periods compared to the Lancers 20.

With 3:36 gone in the third period, the Lancers again scored with a man advantage. The Phantoms  Jordan Young was whistled for hooking.  About ten seconds into the Lancers power-play, Oddo connected and Ambroz gained another assist.  The 3-2 advantage was the first of the night for Omaha.

Stefan Demopoulos picked the pocket of a Phantom inside the Phantom zone and beat Matt O’Connor on a shorthanded chance. The goal was the fourth of the year for Demopoulos, and even when the Phantoms seemed to have momentum, a Lancer deflated the hopes of a game-tying goal.  The Phantoms managed only one shot through the first 14 minutes and only one more the rest of the third period.

Crandall put an exclamation point on things for the Lancers as he floated one past O’Connor to give the team from Omaha an insurmountable three-goal lead at 5-2, which is where this one would end.

After the game, Coach Curt Carr voiced his displeasure with his team only getting two shots on goal in the final period.  “We didn’t come out in the third period, we just didn’t show up. I’m not sure why, I think our guys maybe took for granted that we could ease through.  We need to keep working hard and realize that we are a very young team.”

Scott Mayfield reflected on the loss.  “We are in a slump.  Our first line is rolling, but we need to get the puck on net more, being outshot 14-2 in the final period shows that we are not playing to the level that we should be.  They capitalized, they had a five on three and scored, that is what we need to start doing when we have those chances.”

The Phantoms fell to 5-9-1 with the loss.  Omaha improved to 7-4-2.  The Phantoms host the Dubuque Fighting Saints, a team rejoining the USHL after a nine-year absence Saturday night at the Covelli Centre.  Catch some live hockey, the guys could use a boost in the form of audience noise!

• The Youngstown Phantoms continued to struggle over the weekend going 0-3.  The road trip started with a 4-1 loss at Waterloo on Friday.  Jiri Sekac scored the lone goal in the loss.  Sioux Falls hammered the Phantoms, 8-4, on Saturday.  After jumping out to a 1-0 lead, Sioux Falls scored four unanswered goals to take control of the game.  The third game of the trip on Sunday was a 5-2 loss to Sioux City.  Andrew Sinelli scored his first Phantoms goal in defeat and Quinn Smith stayed hot tallying his fifth point in four games for Youngstown.
• Dylan Margonari (pictured) has made a commitment to play at Minnesota State at Mankato next season.  He plans on studying business management while attending college.  Margonari is the tenth Phantom on the active roster to commit to a college already this season.
• Scott Mayfield will skate for Team USA at the World Junior A Challenge.  The Team USA roster is made up of 22 players, all coming from current USHL rosters.  The tournament goes from from November 8-14 and the Phantoms fine defenseman is playing in the challenge for a second consecutive year.
• The Youngstown Phantoms have acquired former Dubuque Fighting Saints forward Andrew Sinelli in a trade. The Phantoms exchanged their 2011 third round pick to acquire the Michigan State University commit. With Andrew Lamont on injured reserve, Sinelli will be placed in the Phantoms lineup almost immediately.

The Youngstown Phantoms rushed out of the gate to a 4-1 record this season.  Unfortunately, the injury bug has already sunk it’s piercing teeth into the depth chart of the Phantoms who have lost their last three games with a shortened bench.  The Phantoms looked to be getting reacquainted and played sloppy hockey for the first period, which was enough to cost them this game, bowing 2-0 to Green Bay.

Green Bay opened the scoring 8:18 into the first period.  Alex Broadhurst connected from just inside the right face off circle to beat Matthew O’Connor.  Broadhurst was assisted on his second goal of the season by Nolan LaPorte and Sam Herr.

Only 1:10 later, Green Bay made it 2-0 when Travis Lynch scored his second of the season.  Lynch took a pass from Grant Arnold and promptly flipped the puck over O’Connor’s right shoulder (below) to put the Phantoms into a big hole early.

Neither team would score in the second or third periods.  Both goaltenders played very solid games.  O’Connor finished with 42 saves for the Phantoms.  Ryan McKay faced less shots (28) but stopped all of them to earn his first shutout of the season.  McKay made some great saves, but also received a couple of lucky bounces.  The Phantoms hit the post four times, three  times within one minor penalty toward the end of the second period.

After the game, Phantoms Coach Curt Carr talked about the rough results.  “I thought we came out a little flat and I think that we are going through some growing pains right now.  I still like the way we battle and when we play our style of hockey, we are pretty good.”

The Phantoms (4-5) welcome in the Des Moines Buccaneers for a Saturday night game at The Covelli Centre. The puck drops at 7:30, catch some good hockey Youngstown!

After the unpredictability of the 2009-10 season filled with coaching changes, losing streaks, and the valid excuse of being a new team, Coach Curtis Carr is demanding stability.  Defending Champion Green Bay came into town to play the role of bad guy in front of a crowded Covelli Centre audience.

The Phantoms jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Ryan Belonger connected unassisted at the 3:57 mark of the first period.  For Belonger, it was the second goal on the very young season.

The Phantoms added to their lead when Ty Loney (pictured) connected for his third goal of the season jumping the Youngstown lead to 2-0.  Jiri Sekac picked up an assist on the goal that came just 1:01 into the second period.

Green Bay cut the lead in half  when Robert Francis snuck one past Phantoms Goaltender, Matt O’Connor (below).  Francis beat O’Connor at the 8:16 mark of the second period and received an assist from Jean-Paul LaFontaine.

The Phantoms hoisted their lead to 3-1  with 13:49 left in the game.  Quinn Smith tallied his first-ever USHL goal for the Phantoms.

Green Bay made a late push and cut the lead to 3-2 late in the final period.  William Kessel found twine after taking a feed from Austin Czarnik with 4:32 left in the game.

With the win, the Phantoms improved to 4-1 on the still new season, the Gamblers dropped to 2-2-1.  These two teams will hook it up again on Sunday with a rare 5 p.m. start.

After the game Curtis Carr talked about the advantage of having back guys with some experience to start a season.  “There is no doubt, it is very beneficial to not only have guys back with experience, but also guys who have good character and have played together.  The only thing I saw that we need to work on is to come out looser.  We came out sluggish and tight because of the jitters and pressure of playing Green Bay, last year’s champion.”