Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Youngstown’s Zach Morin prepares a shot during the second period of Saturday’s victory over Team USA. Morin scored the first goal of the evening for the Phantoms.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Phantoms raised a banner on Saturday, and then razed the U.S. National Team Development Program (NTDP) defense.

The team celebrated last season’s Clark Cup championship in style, tying a club-high in scoring with a dominant offensive zone performance propelling the Phantoms past the U17s 12-0.

“First and foremost, it was a first class presentation that our organization put on. Obviously, last year was a special year, and to be able to pay homage to the group that was here and obviously we have some returners, but I thought it was great,” Phantoms coach Ryan Ward said. “I thought it was outstanding just to relive that one more time. We talked a lot this week about once that banner goes up returning the page and writing our own chapter here.

After the festivities subsided and the championship banner was raised to the rafters, forward Zach Morin got things rolling for the Phantoms. Morin scored what is expected to be his first of many goals on Covelli Centre ice.

The Phantoms didn’t stop there, keeping the pressure up throughout the opening frame.

University of Michigan commit Mikey Burchill was next, going top shelf to extend the Phantoms lead. Not to be outdone, Ryan Botterill added onto that to put the Phantoms up 3-0 at the end of the first.

“I thought it was a great start,” Ward said. “The energy that our guys had throughout the game was awesome. I thought they defended hard.”

The floodgates opened in the second period, with the Phantoms adding six goals onto their total.

Hunter Ramos opened up the middle-period mayhem with his first of the year. Botterill and Burchill each scored their second of the night, followed by Sam Ranallo and defenseman Tory Pitner.

Matching his jersey number, Miles Gunty tacked on the ninth goal of the evening and the final goal of the second period.

Cousin of former Phantom Chase Pietila, Adam Pietila scored twice in the third period. The first came from finishing off a floater pass from Sascha Boumedienne and the second was an unassisted score.

Owen Bartoszkiewicz was a wall in net, stopping all 25 shots he faced. Bartoszkiewicz returned to Youngstown after a season with the University of Minnesota, pitching a shutout in his return game. In the final game of his first stint, the netminder also had a shutout.

“Owen (Bartoszkiewicz) played great in net and it was nice to see some guys feel comfortable and get on the scoresheet,” Ward said. “Overall, it was a good effort. We had a hard week of practice and they responded well, so that’s a positive sign this early in the season that you have a young group that is hungry and wants to dig their heels in and push back.”

In the 630 days between clean sheets, a lot has changed for the Phantoms. There was plenty of excitement Saturday night and Bartoszkiewicz saw it.

“There was a lot more energy for sure,” Bartoszkiewicz said. “The guys were going, the fans were into it, I think it started this morning like everyone was happy to be here. The fans were showing up, the billets were showing up. It was nice.”

The Phantoms put up 41 shots on goal, much closer to the offensive zone aggression that Ward was looking for in their first two games.

In part, that came from the group cohesion that’s been growing. In the week between the Fall Classic and home opener, the Phantoms worked on a lot, including bonding as a group. Between watching football at captain Andrew Strathmann’s house and a team bowling trip, the week in between games helped bring the team together and the on-ice results seem to have benefitted.

“We were able to take some time, clean up some things and just simplify our game and get back to the identity of what we try to do,” Ward said. “I thought we were able to identify and slow drip teaching points and different things that we wanted to get better at, and I felt the guys responded well and worked hard. It’s always an adjustment. We have 12 or 13 guys who have never played in the league, so for us, it was important to get back to our roots and simplify how we play and play to our identity.”

Not overreacting helps as well.

It could have been easy to panic and make a ton of changes to things, but with a young team, hitting the panic button very likely would have had the opposite effect.

“It’s a process. When you have a young team, you want to see steps like this,” Ward said. “We were a little disjointed in Pittsburgh. I think there’s a lot of factors at play, but when November and December come around, and those young guys feel like themselves and can make plays, that’s kind of what you want to see as we start the season.

“It’s going to get better and better. We have to be patient in our process. We can’t jump the gun and panic over poor performances from 16- and 17-year olds. I think that’s important for us, and to see them today, make plays and play confident is a huge step in the right direction.”

The 12-goal outing is the first time the Phantoms have scored more than eight goals in a game since 2016, which was another 12-goal performance against the U17s.

The Phantoms are at home next week with a pair of games on Friday and Saturday. They welcome Chicago to town on Friday, and Des Moines on Saturday. Both games are set to start at 7:05 p.m.

byauger@tribtoday.com