Staff file photo / Brian Yauger Youngstown Phantoms defenseman Jack Willson looks for an open teammate to pass to during a January game against Muskegon.

Tonight begins the Youngstown Phantoms’ quest to accomplish something that hasn’t been done in the USHL in over a decade.

The Phantoms finished the regular season on top of not only the Eastern Conference, but won the Anderson Cup with 91 standings points, a 43-14-3-2 record. Now, they look to continue that success into the playoffs and win a Clark Cup, something the Anderson Cup winner hasn’t done since the 2012-13 season.

Going into the playoffs healthy is a luxury not many teams have, but it’s one the Phantoms have this time around. After a regular season mired by injuries throughout, there’s a first time for everything.

“For the first time all year, we’re completely healthy,” Phantoms coach Ryan Ward said. “For us, we feel really good about where we’re at. … I think for me, just seeing how eager the guys are to cut their teeth here. We’ve got a lot of guys with experience in the playoffs, and quite honestly, we’ve got some guys with a bad taste in their mouth (from last year) that want to right the ship. I think for us, the playoff experience we have coming into this year is extremely important. I feel really, really confident about the mindset of where we’re at.”

With Player of the Year nominees across all three position groups – forward, defense and goaltender – it’s hard not to be confident.

Forward Cooper Simpson has 74 points (34 goals, 40 assists) in 61 games with the Phantoms this season, leading the team and finishing the regular season second in the league in points. A Boston Bruins draft pick, Simpson has been a major factor in the offensive zone this season.

Jack Willson has stepped into his own this season, finishing the regular season with 47 points (12 goals, 35 assists) in 57 games. He had a much larger role on the team this season and thrived in the spotlight, finishing as the second-highest-scoring defenseman in the league.

Announcing his commitment to Arizona State University on Thursday, the blueliner hopes to end his Phantoms career the way it started, as a Clark Cup champion.

Goaltender Tobias Trejbal finished the season tied for second in the league in save percentage with a .916. He also boasted the lowest goals-against-average with a 2.12. Trejbal had three shutout performances in 42 games.

All three are up for their respective position awards.

Earning a first-round bye, the Phantoms have had plenty of time in between their last regular-season game and the start of the postseason. During the gap, the Phantoms spent some time over in Maryland, doing team bonding activities and scrimmaged their sister team in the North American Hockey League, the Maryland Black Bears, who also were the regular season champions in their league.

“We’ve had a great 10 days of preparation,” Ward said. “We’ve been able to give you guys some rest. We’ve been able to do some team-building things. We took the guys to Maryland, which is a huge credit to the organization for allowing us to sharpen our pencil in that way. It was a very special trip.”

The Phantoms now welcome Madison to Youngstown with a trip to the Eastern Conference finals on the line.

Madison finished sixth in the Eastern Conference this past season, ending the year with a 32-27-0-3 mark. They took two games from the Green Bay Gamblers on their home ice to advance to the second round.

Leading the way for the Capitols this season were forwards Sam Kappell, who had 36 points (23 goals, 13 assists) in 62 games, and Gustavs Griva, who also scored 36 points (13 goals, 23 assists) in 49 games. While no one on the roster has eye-popping numbers like the Phantoms do, Youngstown has seven players who finished with more points than Kappell and Griva this season – Madison got its scoring by committee. The Capitols had 22 players record at least 10 points this season, compared to the Phantoms’ 17.

In net, Caleb Heil is who to watch out for. Heil spent the brunt of the season in net for Madison, sharing it with four others. He finished the year with a .905 save percentage.

While happy with the results of the regular season, there’s this nagging feeling in the Phantoms’ locker room. No one is satisfied yet.

“We take a lot of pride in having done our job. Obviously, being the regular season champions, winning the East, those are micro goals that we set out for at the beginning of the year,” Ward said heading into the final games of the regular season. “I think for us, we just want to keep building our consistency. … I want to see us going into the playoffs as sharp as possible and just playing the game the right way.”

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals is scheduled for tonight at 7:05 p.m. Games 1 and 2 are at the Covelli Centre. Games 3 and 4 are in Madison, Wisconsin, and if a potentially-decisive fifth game is necessary, the teams will return to Youngstown to decide the series.

NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING RANKINGS

The NHL’s final Central Scouting Rankings were released on Thursday ahead of the NHL Draft in June, and five players with Phantoms ties made the cut.

Hextall headlines the group, ranked as the 34th North American skater. Forward Evan Jardine was ranked 78th, and Kade Stengrim, who is now playing in Canada with the Medicine Hat Tigers, was ranked 93rd. Richard Zemlicka rounds out the list of skaters, ranked 120th.

Trejbal was the third-ranked North American netminder.