Staff photo / Brian Yauger Phantoms forward Hunter Price moves down the ice while being hounded by Waterloo’s Myles Hilman.

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — In the first game of the team’s new era, the Youngstown Phantoms are still piecing everything together.

With three goals early in the third period, the Waterloo Black Hawks dashed the Phantoms’ chances to pick up any momentum, as Waterloo took down the Phantoms 5-2 as a part of the USHL Fall Classic, held at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

“I thought we had moments where we did stuff, but overall I think we got away from our identity a little bit,” Phantoms coach Ryan Ward said. “That’s a good team, I give them credit. I thought that we really really got away from our tracking gap pressure and we got beat up the ice all night. We’ll clean it up here and move on and look forward to tomorrow.”

Waterloo (1-0) got on the board in the first two minutes of the contest as defenseman Aaron Pionk, brother of Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk, put one past Phantoms goaltender Jacob Fowler.

They would score early again in the second period, as this time Gavyn Thoreson beat Fowler.

Turnovers were an issue for the Phantoms (0-1) on Saturday. That unpredictability with the puck threw the team off its game.

“We mismanaged the puck quite a few times today,” Ward said. “I think when you’re not predictable in how you play and where the puck’s going, I think it gets everyone a little bit out of sync and I think it’s something that we certainly will look at and address here.”

There were no shortage of opportunities at the net however. Forward William Whitelaw had seven shots on goal, connecting with the back of the net in the third period. Andrew Strathmann scored in his Phantoms debut as well, getting one in at the tail end of the second period. He registered four shots on goal.

The offensive zone aggressiveness which paid off on those two goals has been exactly what Ward has been preaching since he got the job.

“That’s part of what we talked about. It’s going to be a staple of our game,” Ward said. “Getting to the net and being heavy at the net front, in any league. Every coach is telling their guys that. The two times we did it, we had success and I think moving forward, we have to be way better. We were not hard at their net today and it’s something that we have to clean up.”

The big thing about Saturday was experience. There are a lot of young players on the Phantoms’ roster and playing at the Fall Classic gives them a unique experience. NHL scouts from across the league were in attendance as well as representatives from dozens of Division I colleges.

With that shock out of the way, Ward expects Sunday’s contest to be a lot different.

“I think we had spurts and I think some of our young guys got experience,” Ward said. “I think that’s the most important thing. Anytime you come in here to the Fall Classic and put a ton of eyes on you, for the young guys it’s something a little bit different and something that they have to adjust to. I think now that we got that out of the way, hopefully we can get back to playing hockey here.”

The Phantoms play again today at noon against the Des Moines Buccaneers. As the Phantoms get more comfortable, expect to see the aggression go up and play at 100 percent. According to Ward, they only showed around 40 percent on Saturday.

“We have to get back to playing (our way) at the end of the day,” Ward said. “That was 40 percent of how we can play. Not taking anything at all away from Waterloo, they had a great game, they were ready to go. We have to get back to playing our brand of hockey and sticking to our identity.

“Good teams have to bounce back. You never want to lose two in a row. That has to be a staple here this year. We’ll look at it, we’ll clean it up and we’ll get back at it.”

byauger@tribtoday.com