Fairview Tigers - 1977 - 1981 - 1982 AA

DELMONT - The PIHL changed Friday Night's big divisional matchup between Gateway and Plum at the Center Ice Arena from 9:20 to 7:20 and sometimes that works to the advantage of one team or another. Gateway's Dan Serakowski hoped that Plum wrestling the Eastern Division title off of the Gators in 2002 would be a motivation to grab the division lead and move into the Class AAA Elite. Plum has been struggling between the pipes as witnesed in the 6-5 loss to # 2 Cathedral Prep on Tuesday night. The Mustangs Stu Relnick went back to J P Balson to give his netminder a little confidence that he may be the man to put Plum in the drivers seat in the divisional race. Robbie Tunon opened the scoring in the first period to give Plum a 1-0 lead. Gateway's David Himes made several key saves including a 5 on 3 penalty killing situation to keep the game within one as the Mustangs enjoyed an 11-3 shot advantage in the first. Then at 4:53 off the faceoff, Travis Senchur beat Himes on the short side to give Plum a 2-0 lead. with just 53 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Senchur found aloose puck on the doorstep and made no mistake to give Plum a commanding 3-0 lead. Gateway had several power play opportunties in the middle frame but Balson and excellent work by the Plum defense kept them out and the score remained 3-0. Tunon added a power play goal onarebound at 2:39 to extend the lead to 4-0. Then, at 1:10 remaining in the second Ryan Griffin, tationed in the slot took a pinpoint pass from Mike Renna and buried it to turn the game into a one-sided affair 5-0. The Gators had a power play to start the third and Lucas Pepper scored to break Balson's shutout at 14:43 to make it 5-1. Any chance the Gators ha off mountig a comeback was thwarted by Balson who stopped Zach Flora on the breakaway at 14:24. Then the backbreaker for the Gators came at 13:09, as Ryan Griffinstrippedthe Gator defense of the puck and fed Ranna the puck, who beat Himes to put Plum ahead 6-1. To put an exclamation point on impressive Plum victory, Dave Dincau stole the puck from the Gateway defense and beat Himes on the glove side to make the final count Plum 7 Gateway 1. The victory put the Mustangs in sole possession of first place.