Churchill Chargers - 1977 & 1979 AAA

HARMARVILLE – Upper St Clair coach Kip Guenther knows his team is a contender for this years Penguins Cup. The Panthers defeated long time nemesis Bethel Park 7-2 and 4-1 and played some very impressive games in a 3-3 tie versus top ranked Mt Lebanon and 3-2 loss at Meadville, so they know they can compete and beat the top level teams. The problem occurs, it seems when USC looks ahead of teams, which frankly makes them a candidate for a first round upset like the 5-4 loss to Butler a week ago. One thing we need to remember is that the Panthers are a young team and only a year removed from a sub .500 season, so this team has made great strides with the strong play of players like Kris McDonough, Ian Joyce, Jeffrey Greenberg and David Crockett. Shaler coach Ron Steedle, has watched his team compete with the top teams too and took Central Catholic deep into the 3rd twice before bowing, and watched closed games with North Allegheny, Butler and Bethel Park, slip away late in the 2nd period and early in the third with some spurts of offense by their opponents, who put the Titans away. With a team, who’s highest returning forward with 4 goals in 2002-2003, Shaler knows it must play tight defensive hockey to compete with the USC’s, Bethel’s, NA’s and Fox Chapel’s of the world in their quest to sneak into the playoffs. The Titans became the aggressor in the opening period as Mat Yost found Josh Bauer streaking to the net, who buried a one-timer past Kevin Gorder for a surprising 1-0 Shaler lead at 13:43. A back and forth first period with close checking ensued as the Titans took a slim advantage at the break as Nick Bennardo stopped several USC chances. On to the second and Shaler went on the power play early on and made it count as Al Gore blasted a slapshot upstairs through a screen in front past Gorder at 9:56 for a 2-0 Titan lead. USC picked up the pace forcing Shaler into some late 2nd period penalties and finally got on the board as Brian Gorder scored on the power play with 2:49 remaining to cut the lead to 2-1. The Panthers came right back as Anthony Sirabella, capped off a great second effort poking a loose puck past Bennardo inside the post to tie the game at 2:18 and we had a new hockey game 2-2 at the intermission. The third period was much like the first with great end to end action and excellent goaltending by USC’s Kevin Gorder and the Titan’s Nick Bennardo. Enter Shaler captain Graham Papciak, who took a super head man feed from Bobby Snyder and streaked down the off wing and loft a wrist shot over the glove side of Gorder to give Shaler a 3-2 lead with 12:33 remaining. The Titans had an excellent chance to go up by two goals, but John Shannon’s shot hit the crossbar with a little over 7 ½ left in regulation. Back came the Upper St Clair Panthers, as they outshot the Titans 10-4 in the 3rd and 25-18 on the evening, but the bounces would go Shaler’s way as Kris McDonough hit the post late and Ian Joyce and several USC players could not find the net and Shaler pulled of one of the biggest upsets of the season with a 3-2 victory at BladeRunners and improved their record to 7-7-1, after starting 1-4-0.

Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by Fox Chapel Hockey ~ After a week of ups and downs with the 7-6 win over huge rivals Pittsburgh Central Catholic and a tie, 3-3, vs Latrobe in a 57-7 shootaround, Keith Kearney's bunch remained confident with a solid win over Allderdice on Monday 10-1. Senior forward Larry Gizzi will not let the Latrobe game out of the Foxes' mind, as he made a sign simply saying, "Latrobe-3 Fox Chapel-3 NEVER take any team lightly." But...a scary image was placed in the back of their minds as they witnessed their upcoming opponents defeat the respectable Upper St. Clair Panthers 5-4 at the Ice Castle before the Allderdice game. Although Butler has not been competitive in past seasons, this year they are a force to be reckoned with. The power duo of Greg Rogerson and Jared White plus the goal scorer Spencer Crouse in the lineup has proved to be a scary combination for many defenses. To go along with that their goaltending form Jared "Bucky" Holt has been stellar, which is why he will be joining Kreps, Quigley, Misour, and Hendry in the All Star game at the end of the month. So this all set the stage for a huge match-up between the Foxes and red hot Tornado in a late game at Belmont. Butler took the ice and came out prepared as they registered the first 2 shots of the game, but shortly afterward Kyle Misour put home a one-timer from Matt Quigley just 2 minutes into the game. The rest of the first period was played in both ends of the ice and the shots were 8-8 at the end of the first. The opening of second period play saw more of Fox Chapel as fellow amatuer teammate Ryan McDonald put another one past Holt to give the Foxes a 2-0 lead, but not for long. An errant pass by FC in the Butler zone was picked up in mid-ice by Spencer Crouse and taken to the house on a breakaway as he burned Hendry on the glove side to make it a one goal game. Fox Chapel senior forward Corey Day then took advantage of a loose puck in front of the Butler cage and slammed it home to put the Foxes up by two once again. The rest of the period was Butler dominated though as they outshot the Foxes 17-11. After the intermission, one would expect the Butler Tornado to come out of the gates flying, but Fox Chapel shut down almost every opportunity they had with excellent defense in both the offensive and defensive zones. Butler had trouble getting the puck out of their zone and into the FC zone because time after time they were shut down by the hard-nosed defense led by veteran defensemen Jason Kreps and Sam Stack. Butler and FC traded powerplay opportunities but nothing came of either attempt, and suddenly, 2 minutes remained. With the goalie pulled and the extra attacker on Butler could taste the goal they desperately needed, ringing the crossbar and barely missing the net, but still could not find a way past Hendry. The buzzer rang and the game went to the much deserving Fox Chapel Foxes who through hard work and defense defeated the Butler Tornado 3-1. Fox Chapel outshot Butler 34-31.

The results of the 2004 PIHL All-Star games played 1/31/04 @ the Mellon Arena Class A Southwest 4 Northeast 1 Highlights: SW scores three in the 3rd period to break a tight 1-0 game. Pa Hockey 3 Stars ~ Class A # 1 - John Fitzgerald - Blackhawk # 2 - Furman South - Quaker Valley # 3 - Patrick Krumenacher - Westmont Hilltop Class AA Northeast 4 Southwest 1 Highlights: NE scores three in the first period and makes it stand Pa Hockey 3 Stars ~ Class AA # 1 - Zach Diamond - Indiana # 2 - Adam Toy - Kittanning # 3 - Jake Genes - Greensburg CC Class AAA Southwest 2 Northeast 1 Highlights: Chris Ceruti bangs home 3rd rebound with 2:06 remaining gor the game winner for SW Pa Hockey 3 Stars ~ Class AAA # 1 - Chris Ceruti - Penn Trafford # 2 - Matt Vaughn - Mt Lebanon # 3 - Matt King - Baldwin

NEW KENSINGTON ~ Valley is a second year Varsity program and like many programs in their infancy is struggling to find an identity. Coaching is question mark as first it was Mike Konopski prior to entering the Varsity level, and then in its first year Levin Mohney took the reigns and then Jason Markijohn, one of Mohney’s assistants. Tonight’s game against Ferndale, assistant Brandon Jones would be running the show. This situation is reflected by the Vikings 0-11-0 record and a team which is struggling to play competitive hockey. The godsend to the Valley Hockey program will be that in time it will overcome this with the beautiful state of the art Valley Sports Center facility that opened in November, which has an amateur program the Greater Pittsburgh Huskies from the Golden Mile Ice Center, which closed this past spring. Ferndale, A/K/A the International Yellow Jackets, who wrote the book on the use of Foreign Exchange Students to supplement a hockey program from the smallest school in all of High School Hockey with less than 100 boys in their enrollment. Ferndale is a ‘miracle on ice’ to field a team let alone field a competitive one. Brian Riffle, the head coach, is one of the true gentleman of the sport of Interscholastic Hockey together with his long time assistant Tom Callihan, have been the glue to keep the Yellow Jacket program in good spirits. Especially, after a 49 game losing streak was broken earlier this season with a 7-3 win over archrival Conemaugh Valley, another small school. The Yellow Jackets smelled blood early as Sean Riffle finished off a nice pass play with Pehr Lindquist and Per Svensson just 35 seconds into the contest to give Ferndale a 1-0 lead. Valley tied the game as Anthony Perriello scored at 9:07. Then the Yellow Jackets regained the lead as Per Svensson scored on the power play at 1:18. Svensson scored his second at 13:51 of the second and completed the hat trick at 14:40 of the finals period, as Ferndale opened up a 4-1 lead. At 12:11 or the third, Valley’s Bryn Arneson scored to cut the lead to 4-2. At 7:27, Ferndale’s Svensson scored his 4th goal hooking up with line mate Pehr Lindquist, who assisted on all four goals to make it 5-1. Just 17 seconds later Valley’s Dave Roberts cut the lead to 5-3, but Sean Riffle took a pass from Svensson to pur the game on ice 6-3 at the seven-minute mark and a final of 6-3. Ferndale goaltender Dennis Hammers faced 34 shots to get the victory for the Yellow Jackets. Thanks to Kevin Keller for his contribution to this report!

ROSTRAVER ~ West Allegheny coach Sean Hart knows his teams future rests in the hands of some pretty capable players in Marek Polidor and Ryne Sivitsky, who are a couple of real nice looking young players for the Indians. The combination of this youthful influx and a couple of veterans make West Allegheny a very interesting team to pull of a playoff upset or two, especially if Dan Kuzio continues to solidify his play between the pipes. Thomas Jefferson is ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 poll in Western Pennsylvania and the state of Pennsylvania. The Jaguars are a team blessed with scoring and solid defense in front of arguably the best goaltender in Western Pennsylvania Danny Hartman, who is one of the finest competitors of any player at any level. Long Time professor coach Don Powell, was not in attendance due to work commitments, but was on the cell phone monitoring his teams progress from Detroit. The Jaguars are hoping to get their lineup to full strength for the upcoming playoffs and a speedy recovery to Grant Heinauer and Brandon School. TJ went on the power play ion the opening minutes of the game, but West Allegheny had the games first big chance on a breakaway as Ian Skacan was stopped by Hartman at 11:37. The Jaguars struck first as Gary Bucci scored on the rebound at 10:21. The Indians responded on the power play as Justin Hoppe fired a shot front the left point, which hit something in front and found its way over the glove hand of Hartman to tie the game at one apiece with 8:41 to go in the 1st. TJ was buzzing the WA net at 4:39, as Bucci and Luke Wawrzeniak were stopped by Kuzio. Ryne Sivitsky found himself in alone on Hartman but could not beat him at 3:50. On to the second and West Allegheny had a golden opportunity on the power play at 6:03 in a very evenly played hockey game, but Luke Wawrzeniak stripped the Indian defense and beat Kuzio on the glove side at 4:56 to give the Jaguars the lead 2-1. Eric Holzer scored a huge goal on a one-timer at 2:58 to give TJ a two-goal cushion. The third period saw West Allegheny keep on coming, but could only beat Danny Hartman once in 27 shots. Bobby Maliszewski [11:16] and Ryne Sivitsky [9:19], both had excellent chances to cut the TJ lead but could not find the net. Thomas Jefferson was looking for the knockout punch and got it as Zach Hanbury outraced the WA defense to the puck and beat Kuzio on the stick side at 4:56. Holzer closed it out with exactly one minute left beating Kuzio high to the glove side for a 5-1 Thomas Jefferson victory and a perfect 12-0-0 record.