Phantoms Under-18 Team Reaching Player Development Goals
January 28, 2009 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Mahoning Valley Phantoms News Release
BOARDMAN, OH (Wednesday, January 28th, 2009) - The Mahoning Valley Phantoms Midget-Major-or U-18 AAA-hockey team is continuing its success in terms of player development in its second year at the Ice Zone in Boardman.
Founded for the 2007-2008 season, the midget-major team competes in the MWEHL Tier 1 Elite Hockey League, consisting of top-level under-18 teams from as far east as Pittsburgh and as far west as Los Angeles.
In less than two seasons, the team has already sent three players to the Phantoms' Junior "A" team, including defensemen Trevor Shively and Kyle Van and, most recently, forward Cody Ganchar.
Phantoms Assistant Coach and Director of Player Personnel Curtis Carr says that from a development standpoint, the Phantoms' U-18 AAA team has been a big hit so far.
"This is only our second year with the midget-major team, and our main goal for them has always been player development," says Carr. "In addition to Van and Shively moving up this season to play with our junior team, many other players from last year's national finalist team moved on to play Tier-III Junior 'A' in various leagues across the country.
"This year our focus is on skill development and though the [U-18 AAA] team is pretty young, we've got some very exciting and very talented prospects on that team who will all move on to solid junior careers."
Ganchar, who was called up to the Phantoms' junior club on January 11th, has already registered his first assist and carries a +1 plus/minus rating through three games so far. He says that thanks to the midget-major team, he was ready to step into a productive mid-season role with the Phantoms.
"Midget-major gave me a place to build my confidence and focus on my skills," says the Cleveland native. "The faster and more highly skilled game at that level really prepared me well to make the move to juniors as seamless as possible."
The U-18 AAA team, coached by Milo Cermak, is off this weekend; they'll return to action on February 7th when they travel down I-76 to take on the Pittsburgh Hornets in MWEHL league play. The midget major team is led in scoring by Ty Loney, who has 11 goals and 11 assists on the year.
The Phantoms, meanwhile, continue regular season play this weekend when they head to northeast Michigan for a two-game series on Friday and Saturday nights against the Alpena IceDiggers. Both games are scheduled for 7:00 PM starts.
The games will be broadcast locally on ESPN Radio 1240, WBBW-AM, and worldwide at MVPPhantoms.com via B2 Networks. The pregame show will begin at 6:45 PM both nights.
Phantoms season tickets and individual game tickets are now on sale at the Phantom Box Office at the Ice Zone in Boardman. Call (330) 965-7500 for more information.
North American Hockey League Stories from January 28, 2009
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- Phantoms Under-18 Team Reaching Player Development Goals - Mahoning Valley Phantoms
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