Staff photo / Brian Yauger Phantoms forward Braiden Clark skates on the ice during team introductions Saturday in the Phantoms’ 7-3 regular season finale victory. Clark recorded a goal and an assist in the win.

YOUNGSTOWN — It’s been a few years since the last time the Youngstown Phantoms reached the postseason. With the 2019-2020 season ending due to COVID and missing the mark in the 2020-21 season, the Phantoms are excited to be back competing in the Clark Cup Playoffs.

While still a roller coaster year, like every year in the world of junior hockey, the Phantoms improved on last season’s win total by 17.

The Phantoms navigated the ups and downs of the season quite well and coach Brad Patterson credits the group he has this year. At the USHL level, players come and go quite often. There’s a high amount of roster turnover.

While the Phantoms have some consistency on the roster with returners like Kenta Isogai and Bayard Hall, new players like Adam Ingram, Kyle Bettens and TJ Schweighardt have been key cogs in the team’s success this season.

“Anytime you have a group with such a high turnover as we did from last year there’s going to be ups and downs for sure,” Patterson said. “Part of that, I look at as a good thing. You learn through experiences good and bad.

“The guys always found a way to adapt, push back on the bads and found ways to build on the goods and ultimately put us in a situation where, what we wanted to do at the start of the year was compete for a Clark Cup and we have that opportunity right around the corner.”

Less than 48 hours after their 7-3 season finale victory over the United States National Team Development Program U-17s, the Phantoms are going to be hitting the ice for the opening game of the Clark Cup Playoffs.

As the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Phantoms (29-23-6-4, 68 points) drew the fifth-seeded Madison Capitols.

Madison is making its first appearance in the postseason since the team was revived in 2014. Coached by former Phantoms assistant Tom Upton, the Capitols finished with a 30-29-3-0 record.

The Capitols, led by defenseman Luke Mittelstadt (19 goals, 36 assists, 55 points) and Kyle Kukkonen (22 goals, 31 assists, 53 points), are one of the quickest teams in the league.

With that speed, obviously the goal for the Phantoms is to shut that speed down.

“They’re probably the fastest team that we’ve seen just putting the teams in the East,” Patterson said. “They’re extremely skilled, really well-coached. Tommy was my assistant years ago. It’s a group that is dangerous all over the ice. It’s our job to figure out a way to slow that down and ultimately capitalize on it.”

Schweighardt returned to the lineup for the regular season finale and is expected to be a major player in the team’s postseason run.

He likely could have returned sooner, but Patterson opted to keep him sidelined just a bit longer to give him maximum time to recover.

“From our end, it was a situation where we knew where we were at,” Patterson said. “We had the home series last weekend here, so you know it was more precautionary. He’s probably been the most physical guy at practice and that’s a good sign. He’s a guy in our leadership core. Those guys work extremely hard.

“He’s been through the wringer, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him have a good game (in the regular season finale). Ultimately, you’ve got to be able to get into full practice action and having him be able to do that for two or three weeks now has been key.”

The entire first round will be in Youngstown. Game one is set for tonight at 7:05 p.m. and games two and three are set for Tuesday and Wednesday. The Phantoms can end the series on Tuesday if they win the first two games of the series.

The winner of the opening round will take on regular season conference champion Chicago, who is currently on a bye.

No matter who they face, expect the Phantoms to be firing on all cylinders both physically and mentally.

“You want to put yourself in a situation to compete for what your goal was at the start of the year,” Patterson said. “To be able to do that, you’re going to have to go through some very good teams. The first one would be Madison, so our goal now is to show up and execute the best we can and put our best foot forward.”

NOTES

The Phantoms 17-win increase this season is second in club history. The team’s highest win differential was in the 2014-15 season, with now-Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor, where the Phantoms improved by 33 wins on the prior season.

Upton also played with the Phantoms during the 2005-06 season, while the Phantoms were in the NAHL. As a defenseman, Upton recorded six points in 18 games before moving on to The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

With 18 games under his belt this season, Phantoms goaltender Jacob Fowler boasts the highest save percentage in the USHL, sporting a .927 in 963 minutes in net. Due to the small sample size, league statisticians won’t rank him until reaching the 1,200-minute threshold.

The Phantoms posted a 3-4-2-0 record against Madison, losing the season series.