Downingtown East Cougars

DELMONT ~ Saturday night is a nice time to take a drive and watch a little hockey and tonight’s adventure took us to Center Ice Arena for a Class A matchup between Deer Lakes and Johnstown. Yes, Johnstown, who usually plays its games at the War Memorial, had to rent a chartered bus to go to Delmont to play a makeup home game from earlier this month. The Johnstown program has been in disarray for a few years and has not fielded a winning team since 1996. Dedicated former Team President Matt Wincer, who continued to bring kids into the program despite its losing ways, was ousted from his position at the beginning of last season, after the PIHL brass complained to the Johnstown School Board, because of Mr Wincer’s his insistence at PIHL Board of Governors meetings that the PIHL needed to be audited in a situation revolving around double billing the teams at the War Memorial for security and other issues, which have still never been resolved nor investigated. Anyway ten players were on the bench for this game for Johnstown’s Varsity team. Deer Lakes has had an interesting season itself under Al Palowski, who’s team is on the verge of playoff extinction for only the third time in the past eight years, which is very impressive despite the low numbers of players playing hockey in Deer Lakes. The Lancers road will be that much tougher due to the academic ineligibility of All Star Rich Bigley and Brendan Orris, who have provided a significant amount of offense for the team. Deer Lakes came out and took control of this game from the outset outshooting Johnstown 17-3 in the first period. Garrett Kurtz opened the scoring at 12:45 for a 1-0 lead. At Matt Romutis took a Kurtz feed and beat Pete Bearjar to open up a 2-0 DL advantage at 7:51. Deer Lakes extended the lead at 7:51 of the first as Jason Graney fired a wrist shot upstairs on the glove side for a 3-0 lead. The 2nd period was all Deer Lakes as they fired 18 more shots at Bearjar, who made several spectacular saves, but the Trojans could only muster 3 shots on the Lancers Jiri Frkal. Finally at 3:56 of the middle period, Stefan Krisay weaved his way around the Johnstown zone and beat Bearjar to make it 4-0. The third period was the Mike Watson show as he scored the natural hat trick starting with a slapshot at 14:51, beating the Trojan defense at 10:42 and finishing a nice passing play from Jason Graney at 5:56 on the power play. Johnstown’s Dan Chorik broke Frkal’s shutout bid in the third period on a breakaway, but Deer Lakes moved within two points of Steel Valley setting up a must win game with Mars on Monday night.

MT LEBANON ~ Mt Lebanon had a little coming out party on Thursday night pasting Central Catholic 7-2 and putting a little exclamation point on their # 1 ranking in Class AAA. Coach Paul Taibi now set his sights on a big matchup with defending Pennsylvania State Champion Meadville in a rematch of a 2-1 Bulldog win earlier in the season. The Blue Devils are looking like a team on a mission and would get to test themselves in a match-up, which many consider a possible Penguins Cup final on March 27th. Meadville coach Jamie Plunkett always likes to know where his team stands and he puts his schedule together in late summer accordingly to set the Bulldogs on course to challenge each year for the crowned jewel of Class AAA, the Pennsylvania State Championship. The Bulldogs are the defending champions and were unbeaten in 19 games until Thursday’s 3-1 loss to nemesis Bethel Park, who has beaten Meadville four straight times dating back to 1999 and maybe caught the Dawgs looking ahead to Saturday’s match-up with Mt Lebanon, which is a recipe for bad things in late February and early March and is frankly, may I use the term Un-Bulldoglike under coach Plunkett. The first period displayed end to end action with tight checking much like a playoff game before another nice crowd at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center as we settled in with Jamie Cummings and a visit from 1976 Pennsylvania State champ Head Coach and Mt Lebanon program founder Mickey McDermott, who its always great to see and more fun to visit with. The Blue Devils had the best chance of the opening period, but Danny O’Sharuk was sharp in stopping Eric Sloan, who found his way past the Bulldog defense and then stopped Tony Valerino on the rebound. The second period was much of the same until 9:29, when Billy Leckenby’s snapshot handcuffed O’Sharuk and trickled past him for a 1-0 Mt Lebanon lead. The Blue Devils turned it up a notch and looked to go ahead by two but Valerino could not find the open net at 8:28 over a fallen O’Sharuk and the Meadville goaltender robbed Chad Uddstrom on a shot ticketed for the upper corner. Meadville could not capitalize on the power play at 4:03 and Mt Lebanon almost went up two as Eric Sloan rifled a shot off the crossbar with just 14 seconds remaining in the middle period, as this one would be 1-0 Mt Lebanon going to third. Close hockey games are sometimes decided by a great play or momentum switch or possibly an undisciplined play by your opponent or a big hit. Mt Lebanon started the final period on the power play and was looking for the knockout and Tony Valerino provided it with a big hit on David Moyer in the third period’s opening shift. Moyer retaliated and received a 2 minute minor, a 5 minute major and a Game Misconduct putting the Blue Devils on a 5 on 3 power play, which was frankly, may I use the term Un-Bulldoglike under coach Plunkett and the Dawgs would have to survive without who many and I consider the best defenseman in Western Pa. Anthony Scarpino made a great play in killing of the 5 on 3 advantage and almost tied the game at 12:55, but a great effort by the Mt Lebanon defense deflected the puck wide of goaltender Matt Vaughn. This would be a turning point as the Blue Devils set up patiently and Billy Leckenby sprung Tony Valerino in behind the Bulldog defense, who place a wrist shot just over the glove of Danny O’Sharuk to give Mt Lebanon a 2-0 lead with 9:47 left. The Bulldogs fought back and poured the pressure on the Mt Lebanon defense and Vaughn for the games final 6 + minutes. Phil Siverd was stoned by Vaughn with 4 ½ left from just in front. The Dawgs finally got on the board with just 9 seconds left as D.J. Durkee scored on a scramble in front, but it was too little and too late for Meadville and Mt Lebo picked up a thrilling 2-1 victory.

Once again...we at Pa Hockey have looked far and wide over the rosters of Major Junior A and NCAA Division 1 Colleges across the United States and in Canada and came up with the players from the State of Pennsylvania playing at that level. Keep in mind that this list does not include ACHA Division 1 or NCAA Division 3. Now we know that when this list gets combed over that we may have omitted a player or two......so if you know of someone playing at that level, please let us know !

DELMONT ~ Saturday night is a nice time to take a drive and watch a little hockey and tonight’s adventure took us to Center Ice Arena for a Class A matchup between Deer Lakes and Johnstown. Yes, Johnstown, who usually plays its games at the War Memorial, had to rent a chartered bus to go to Delmont to play a makeup home game from earlier this month. The Johnstown program has been in disarray for a few years and has not fielded a winning team since 1996. Dedicated former Team President Matt Wincer, who continued to bring kids into the program despite its losing ways, was ousted from his position at the beginning of last season, after the PIHL brass complained to the Johnstown School Board, because of Mr Wincer’s his insistence at PIHL Board of Governors meetings that the PIHL needed to be audited in a situation revolving around double billing the teams at the War Memorial for security and other issues, which have still never been resolved nor investigated. Anyway ten players were on the bench for this game for Johnstown’s Varsity team. Deer Lakes has had an interesting season itself under Al Palowski, who’s team is on the verge of playoff extinction for only the third time in the past eight years, which is very impressive despite the low numbers of players playing hockey in Deer Lakes. The Lancers road will be that much tougher due to the academic ineligibility of All Star Rich Bigley and Brendan Orris, who have provided a significant amount of offense for the team. Deer Lakes came out and took control of this game from the outset outshooting Johnstown 17-3 in the first period. Garrett Kurtz opened the scoring at 12:45 for a 1-0 lead. At Matt Romutis took a Kurtz feed and beat Pete Bearjar to open up a 2-0 DL advantage at 7:51. Deer Lakes extended the lead at 7:51 of the first as Jason Graney fired a wrist shot upstairs on the glove side for a 3-0 lead. The 2nd period was all Deer Lakes as they fired 18 more shots at Bearjar, who made several spectacular saves, but the Trojans could only muster 3 shots on the Lancers Jiri Frkal. Finally at 3:56 of the middle period, Stefan Krisay weaved his way around the Johnstown zone and beat Bearjar to make it 4-0. The third period was the Mike Watson show as he scored the natural hat trick starting with a slapshot at 14:51, beating the Trojan defense at 10:42 and finishing a nice passing play from Jason Graney at 5:56 on the power play. Johnstown’s Dan Chorik broke Frkal’s shutout bid in the third period on a breakaway, but Deer Lakes moved within two points of Steel Valley setting up a must win game with Mars on Monday night.

MT LEBANON ~ Mt Lebanon had a little coming out party on Thursday night pasting Central Catholic 7-2 and putting a little exclamation point on their # 1 ranking in Class AAA. Coach Paul Taibi now set his sights on a big matchup with defending Pennsylvania State Champion Meadville in a rematch of a 2-1 Bulldog win earlier in the season. The Blue Devils are looking like a team on a mission and would get to test themselves in a match-up, which many consider a possible Penguins Cup final on March 27th. Meadville coach Jamie Plunkett always likes to know where his team stands and he puts his schedule together in late summer accordingly to set the Bulldogs on course to challenge each year for the crowned jewel of Class AAA, the Pennsylvania State Championship. The Bulldogs are the defending champions and were unbeaten in 19 games until Thursday’s 3-1 loss to nemesis Bethel Park, who has beaten Meadville four straight times dating back to 1999 and maybe caught the Dawgs looking ahead to Saturday’s match-up with Mt Lebanon, which is a recipe for bad things in late February and early March and is frankly, may I use the term Un-Bulldoglike under coach Plunkett. The first period displayed end to end action with tight checking much like a playoff game before another nice crowd at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center as we settled in with Jamie Cummings and a visit from 1976 Pennsylvania State champ Head Coach and Mt Lebanon program founder Mickey McDermott, who its always great to see and more fun to visit with. The Blue Devils had the best chance of the opening period, but Danny O’Sharuk was sharp in stopping Eric Sloan, who found his way past the Bulldog defense and then stopped Tony Valerino on the rebound. The second period was much of the same until 9:29, when Billy Leckenby’s snapshot handcuffed O’Sharuk and trickled past him for a 1-0 Mt Lebanon lead. The Blue Devils turned it up a notch and looked to go ahead by two but Valerino could not find the open net at 8:28 over a fallen O’Sharuk and the Meadville goaltender robbed Chad Uddstrom on a shot ticketed for the upper corner. Meadville could not capitalize on the power play at 4:03 and Mt Lebanon almost went up two as Eric Sloan rifled a shot off the crossbar with just 14 seconds remaining in the middle period, as this one would be 1-0 Mt Lebanon going to third. Close hockey games are sometimes decided by a great play or momentum switch or possibly an undisciplined play by your opponent or a big hit. Mt Lebanon started the final period on the power play and was looking for the knockout and Tony Valerino provided it with a big hit on David Moyer in the third period’s opening shift. Moyer retaliated and received a 2 minute minor, a 5 minute major and a Game Misconduct putting the Blue Devils on a 5 on 3 power play, which was frankly, may I use the term Un-Bulldoglike under coach Plunkett and the Dawgs would have to survive without who many and I consider the best defenseman in Western Pa. Anthony Scarpino made a great play in killing of the 5 on 3 advantage and almost tied the game at 12:55, but a great effort by the Mt Lebanon defense deflected the puck wide of goaltender Matt Vaughn. This would be a turning point as the Blue Devils set up patiently and Billy Leckenby sprung Tony Valerino in behind the Bulldog defense, who place a wrist shot just over the glove of Danny O’Sharuk to give Mt Lebanon a 2-0 lead with 9:47 left. The Bulldogs fought back and poured the pressure on the Mt Lebanon defense and Vaughn for the games final 6 + minutes. Phil Siverd was stoned by Vaughn with 4 ½ left from just in front. The Dawgs finally got on the board with just 9 seconds left as D.J. Durkee scored on a scramble in front, but it was too little and too late for Meadville and Mt Lebo picked up a thrilling 2-1 victory.