BEAVER TOWNSHIP — The Youngstown Phantoms currently have the best overall record in the United States Hockey League. Coming off a weekend split at Eastern Conference foe Green Bay – they defeated the Gamblers on Saturday, 3-2, dropping a 5-3 decision on Sunday afternoon – the Phantoms (36-12-3-1) have 10 regular season games remaining and are poised for the start of the upcoming play-offs.

Helping the team win their first and only Clark Cup title in 2022-23 was Brandon Gotkin, associate head coach, who says this year’s team has all the components in place to make a deep playoff run, all with the hope of securing a second Clark Cup crown.

“We just have a really good group of kids,” Gotkin told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “They are committed to doing the right things night-in and night-out, are super coachable, and it’s a long season so building your game out toward the playoffs and having that experience of winning the Clark Cup is imperative.

“Just knowing what that looks like and checking off the boxes in your head with the team, they have done a wonderful job with that. We’ve got a ton of firepower up front, have a fantastic goalie and really good defensemen so we are a deep team. We’ve got different ways to beat opponents so it’s been a total buy-in and the kids have just been great.”

Gotkin hails from a hockey family – his father, Rick, is the longtime head coach at Division I Mercyhurst University with 600-plus wins to his credit while leading the Lakers to 34 postseason appearances during his 36 seasons at the helm – with his duties as a defensive mastermind translating into the least goals scored by an opponent (126) of all 16 USHL teams.

“My main responsibilities are just to run the defenseman through the game,” Gotkin said. “Line changes, matching lines and being in charge of the penalty kill and ‘5 on 6,’ when the opposing team is down a goal and they have the empty net. I’m in charge of that so those are my three major duties every game. Plus, I work closely with the defenders, showing them video, working with them doing skills and the overlap with planning for games, along with pre-scouting opponents so it can get quite busy.”

He said he is blessed to work with the group of players that he oversees.

“Goalie Tobias Trejbal is from Czechia, the backstone of our team and should be a high pick in the NHL Draft this summer,” Gotkin said. “Jack Willson is in his fourth season with the team and a steady presence while Cal Huston is a fantastic competitor, a local kid from Boardman who will attend Miami (Ohio) University.

“Carter Murphy is in his second season here while two players that we acquired via trade, Ryan Whiterabbit and Matej Tepley, have been absolutely fantastic. Our young kids, Jack Hamilton, Brayden Thompson, Brody Berard and Jackson Adams have been really good and we are excited about where we are, but there’s plenty of fantastic younger kids that we are expecting to take a big step and continue to play a huge role for us next year.”

The Phantoms drew 5,324 screaming fans for their February 25 ‘Kids Day’ game, a 5-1 win over the Muskegon Lumberjacks.

With the USA’s mens and womens teams both winning gold medals at the recently completed Winter Olympics, Gotkin said interest in the game is at an all-time high.

“Winning both gold medals was huge,” he said. “The thing that comes to my mind was my first year in coaching. I was fortunate enough to work with the Maryland Black Bears of the North American Hockey League, and that summer the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup. You could see a direct impact on how much the community started to support hockey through the Jr. ranks and how youths there wanted to try hockey and grow the game.

“You see the success of our men and women this year and there will be boys and girls that want to try out and emulate their heroes. You see how captivating the whole thing was throughout the country. For me growing up, you see some of these really good American players, like Patrick Kane and all these guys with great careers and I think the Olympic gold, while up for debate, is the most coveted thing to win as a hockey player, right behind the Stanley Cup. You can interchange the two but just to see there are going to be kids who want to be the next Jack Hughes, it’s just fantastic that you have something fresh right in front of your eyes to help grow the game. It’s something that you can look forward to, hopefully emulate and push the puck forward.

“With former Phantoms head coach John Wroblewski winning gold as head coach of the women’s team, that was massive, too. It is huge for just growing the game in the United States and growing the game locally, just to see that John had his stint here in Youngstown, did an excellent job in pro hockey and now mainly works with our women’s Olympic team. Anytime we can put Youngstown on the map in regard to hockey, it’s a positive thing.”

Next week, Liza Oakley, Youngstown State lacrosse head coach, will serve as guest speaker.