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Nathan Walker may have moved on to the the AHL and is working on breaking into the NHL but his impact is still being felt by the Phantoms. We all know he's a talanted forward but now we'll get to see how good of a scout he is. This is because the Phantoms have announced they have acquired his former teammate, Lukas Klok, with the Czech HC Vitkovice U20 team. I don't like repeating details, especially when there are official announcments  but I think Jason Kohler's statement bears quoting:

“Nathan’s a guy coming out of our program whose opinion we really respect, and he couldn’t have spoken any higher of Lukas,” Noreen said. “That was very important to us – to hear it come from Nathan. He thought Lukas would be a guy we’d love here that plays our style and would help us. We’re excited to have him.”

Klok split last season between the U18 and U20 squads and averaged over a point per game in 24 games with 23 assists, 4 goals and 40 penalty minutes and a plus/minus of +22. After being called up to the U20 team, he recorded 1 goal, 4 assists and 57 PIMs and another +22 rating. The 6'1", 175 pound defensman is described as having excellent two-way skills and poise under pressure. It's possible he will be available to play in Friday's game versus Indiana.

To make room for him on our roster, already maxed out on import players, the Phantoms traded Swedish forward Sebastian Vidmar to the Chicago Steel for a 4th round Phase 1 pick in the 2014 draft. Vidmar only cracked the lineup in one game against Waterloo and did not score and recorded a -1 rating and 1 shot on goal. This should be a good deal for both Vidmar and Chicago since he was struggling to get on the ice due to the Phantoms having a plethora of talented forwards. Likewise, Chicago is struggling for offense and identity and Vidmar certainly can help there.

This is just another example of the aggressiveness of the Phantoms front office. Last year we saw the Stenglein/Brown trade early in the season and then bringing Walker into the fold. The trade for Alex Smith just prior to the start of the season certainly helped defensively and, a little surprisingly, gave us an offensive boost as well. They certainly have a knack of identifying the players they feel play Phantoms hockey and will fill the key roles both on and off the ice. I think it takes a certain amount of maturity as an organization to take the advice of a young import player with unique experience and put in the effort to get Klok over here. I can only imagine the paperwork and immigrations issues.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Klok can bring to the table. We've had great success with our European import players who have adapted well to the North American game and the Phantoms style of Hockey. Let's all give him a warm welcome when he hits the Covelli ice!

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Category: Game Recap
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Since family matters kept me from catching the webcast of the Indiana game, I'm combining this weekends recaps. I'll probably do this for a lot of road trip or home & away weeks. With the Phantoms struggling to keep puck out of their net and keep their cool, Friday's game was a welcome glimmer of relief on the horizon. The Chicago Steel are a team that looked to be struggling even worse and we started the weekend on home ice. The conundrum was weather to give Jake Moore some relief this weekend and play affiliate call-up, Colin DeAugustine, in abcentia Sean Romeo. Moore had played all 11 games starting in pre-season and it was quite evident he needed some rest. However, the Steel are a team hungry to establish an identity and, more importantly, win their first game. The question was weather they would chance that to a goalie who hasn't played a single USHL game and if so, could he handle it. The answers was "yes" to both and the later emphatically.

DeAugustine, who plays for the NAHL Johnstown Tomahawks, faced a few Steel shots early on including a Steel power play. He showed no sign of being nervous and looked sharp from the beginning to the end. Chicago may not have generated a lot of good chances but they put 27 shots on net and DeAugustine turned aside all 27. The Steel had over a minute of a two-man advantage on the power play and still failed to get one by the Phantoms goalie. The Covelli crowd may not have been large, but the rookie from Burgettstown, PA certainly got the faithful into a frenzy. He also had a few friends and family there too.

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Category: Opinion and Editorial
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Well, I didn't get around to a game recap from the Waterloo game. Between a bad cold and crappy viewing conditions I didn't feel I could give a review that would either be informative or critical. I'll keep it brief because it sets up the importance of this weeks games. Despite another great effort from Piccinich with a goal and Connor with a couple assists, the Blackhawks doubled us up 6-3. Letunov scored his third of the season goal and Shwalbe put in his second. The Phantoms were without the services of Josh Nenadal, who was serving a 1 game automatic suspension for abuse of officials during the Cedar Rapids game.

The Phantoms managed to hang in and tie it 2 goals a piece at 8:42 of the second period on the Schwalbe goal and looked to be the stronger team at that point. However, they seemed to lose their discipline and things turned ugly real quick. Tommy Parran took an elbowing penalty leading to a 'Loo goal at 15:21. The coughed up another one about 0:45 later. Alex Smith took a roughing penalty less than a minute after that. That all lead to Fredric Larrson dropping the gloves with Alec McCrea with less than a minute to go in the period. I don't know what transpired before during of after the fight but coach Anthony Noreen was ticketed a bench minor for abuse of the officials. Matt Miller took a crosschecking minor with 0:05 to go in the second.The Blackhawks took advantage of a 2 man advantage plus another goal later in the period before Letunov closed out the scoring.

That brings us to this week with a 1-4-1 record. The good news is that the Phantoms scorers are leading the USHL points race. Kyle Connor has 11 points (3g, 8a) to lead the league and Piccinich (6g, 3a) and Letunov (3g, 6a) are tied with 2 others for second. It's been pretty obvious that offensive capabilities is the least of our issues. Affiliate goaltender Colin DeAugustine has been called up, just in case Sean Romeo isn't cleared to play from his nagging injury, now identified as lower body in nature pulled groin. DeAugustine sat on the bench last year and if Romeo isn't good to go, I fully expect to see him play sometime this weekend to give Moore some much deserved rest. Defenseman Kyle Mackey will be eligible to return from his 4 game kneeing suspension on Saturday.