Downingtown East Cougars

MONROEVILLE ~ Gateway was eliminated from an opportunity to capture the Class AAA East Division crown on Monday night as Franklin Regional defeated Butler to capture their first division title since 1996. Dan Serakowski’s teams now had to turn its attention to securing a home ice advantage and possibly moving up in the playoff seedings, as the Gators honored nine seniors, including a special guest appearance by ESPN Radio’s Mark Madden. Plum has had an up and down season, which is testimony to the balance in Class AAA in 2002-2003. Stu Relnick finally has his whole club back in uniform after fighting the injury bug and is one of those darkhorse teams who hope to make some noise in the playoffs. The Mustangs already own a 7-1 victory over Gateway in December and hoped to avoid the top AAA powers in round one. Gateway came out buzzing in the first period and appeared to take the lead as Zach Flora’s slapshot tricked past B.J Schreib, but mysteriously the goal was waved off by a quick whistle. With the Gators pressuring, freshman Johnathon Smith stripped the defense of the puck and raced on a breakaway and beat David Himes on the glove side for a 1-0 Plum lead. In the second period, the Mustangs extended their lead as the third line of Matt Giunta, Dave Dincau and Mike Dunlap set up a picture perfect 3 on 2 with Dunlap taking a Dincau feed on the backside and beat Himes for a 2-0 Plum lead. With 9 seconds remaining in the period, Gateway tried to set up Matt Kopaczynski for a big shot to tie the game, what transpire next was a backbreaker as the puck caromed to Travis Senchur off the faceoff and the Plum forward moved up ice one on one against the big Gateway defensman and beat Kopaczynski, Himes and the clock with :01 remaining and a 3-0 lead. This appeared to be a backbreaker until the Gators were awarded a 5 on 3 power play and began to apply pressure on Plum, which resulted in a Chris Gyke rebound goal to get the home team on the board at 3-1. With a little over six minutes to play and Gateway on another power play, Lucas Pepper took a Zach Flora pass and buried a shot upstairs over a fallen Schreib to cut the lead to 3-2. The Gators pressured, but Schreib was outstanding stoning Gateway the rest of the way and when John Kalichuk socred an empty netter in the final seconds, the Mustangs earned a 4-2 victory before a big crowd at the Golden Mile. MAKE SURE TO CATCHTHIS GAME TELEVISED IN MONROEVILLE ON CABLE ACCESS CHANNEL 13 AS RON STEEDLE AND YOURS TRULY BRING YOU ALL THE ACTION !

MONROEVILLE ~ Gateway was eliminated from an opportunity to capture the Class AAA East Division crown on Monday night as Franklin Regional defeated Butler to capture their first division title since 1996. Dan Serakowski’s teams now had to turn its attention to securing a home ice advantage and possibly moving up in the playoff seedings, as the Gators honored nine seniors, including a special guest appearance by ESPN Radio’s Mark Madden. Plum has had an up and down season, which is testimony to the balance in Class AAA in 2002-2003. Stu Relnick finally has his whole club back in uniform after fighting the injury bug and is one of those darkhorse teams who hope to make some noise in the playoffs. The Mustangs already own a 7-1 victory over Gateway in December and hoped to avoid the top AAA powers in round one. Gateway came out buzzing in the first period and appeared to take the lead as Zach Flora’s slapshot tricked past B.J Schreib, but mysteriously the goal was waved off by a quick whistle. With the Gators pressuring, freshman Johnathon Smith stripped the defense of the puck and raced on a breakaway and beat David Himes on the glove side for a 1-0 Plum lead. In the second period, the Mustangs extended their lead as the third line of Matt Giunta, Dave Dincau and Mike Dunlap set up a picture perfect 3 on 2 with Dunlap taking a Dincau feed on the backside and beat Himes for a 2-0 Plum lead. With 9 seconds remaining in the period, Gateway tried to set up Matt Kopaczynski for a big shot to tie the game, what transpire next was a backbreaker as the puck caromed to Travis Senchur off the faceoff and the Plum forward moved up ice one on one against the big Gateway defensman and beat Kopaczynski, Himes and the clock with :01 remaining and a 3-0 lead. This appeared to be a backbreaker until the Gators were awarded a 5 on 3 power play and began to apply pressure on Plum, which resulted in a Chris Gyke rebound goal to get the home team on the board at 3-1. With a little over six minutes to play and Gateway on another power play, Lucas Pepper took a Zach Flora pass and buried a shot upstairs over a fallen Schreib to cut the lead to 3-2. The Gators pressured, but Schreib was outstanding stoning Gateway the rest of the way and when John Kalichuk socred an empty netter in the final seconds, the Mustangs earned a 4-2 victory before a big crowd at the Golden Mile. MAKE SURE TO CATCHTHIS GAME TELEVISED IN MONROEVILLE ON CABLE ACCESS CHANNEL 13 AS RON STEEDLE AND YOURS TRULY BRING YOU ALL THE ACTION !

MEADVILLE ~ It is amazing that Bethel Park and Meadville even played last evening as I-79 was a little dicey on the driving end. Maybe Wheeling Park should play their games in Meadville because the roads to Wheeling could not have been nearly that bad or is it the five games in one week or that their games are meaningless since they are ineligible for the playoffs? Anyway………..after arriving at the ‘House of Chills’ it was time to quickly focus on the game at hand………one of Western Pennsylvania’s greatest rivalries Bethel Park and Meadville before a packed house at the MARC. Meadville has struggled as of late and coach Jamie Plunkett had to be concerned since his club has gone on a scoring drought in February. The Bulldogs were still in control of their division and the number one seed if it could defeat Bethel. Bethel Park on the other hand took one on the chin Friday night against a red hot Franklin team and the vibs were starting already throughout Western Pa that this could be the year for a new champion. Head Coach Jim McVay prides his club on discipline and knows that the Hawks have a big target on their back, so dropping the game against the Panthers may have been just what the doctor ordered. The sign of a championship team is how they respond through adversity and Bethel Park has shined over the past three years when their backs were to the wall with three Class AAA Pennsylvania State Titles. In the opening minutes, Bethel Park owned the territorial advantage and the pressure resulted in an interference call in the games opening minutes. Brandon Hanley put the Hawks on top collecting a loose puck and beating Danny O’Sharuk for a 1-0 lead. Bethel Park continued a disciplined 1-2-2 forecheck with bottled up the Bulldogs and another interference call putting the Hawks on the power play at 8:13. Bethel continued its onslaught on O’Sharuk and Grady Clingan found that loose puck again and calmly deposited the rebound through the 5-hole for a 2-0 BP lead, which silenced the ‘House of Chills’. Chris Wehrle got Meadville on the board with a big blast which just trickled past Matt Feige and the crowd was now back in the game and so were the Dawgs 2-1 with 4:49 left in the opening frame. Meadville received its first power play opportunity less than a minute later, but Bethel Park played simple hockey and cleared their crease and the puck to kill it. On to the second and Meadville was coming in waves and this would turn out to be the turning point of the hockey game early on. With the Dawgs buzzing at 11:05, the puck was centered to the front of the net and Feige lost his balance…with a puck in front and a wide open net in front of him D.J. Craven’s looked to be in a prime position to tie the game, but out of no where came Johnathon Glock, who knocked the puck out of the way to safety and preserved the Bethel Park 2-1 lead. The Hawks seemed to feed off of the momentum created by that play as Conner McLean chance was thwarted by O’Sharuk at 10:41, but the Hawks would not be denied as Mike Diethorn simply outworked Meadville in front of their own net with tenacious effort and banged home a second chance and gave Bethel Park a 3-1 lead at 10:21. Meadville almost pulled within one as Brian Bahurinsky’s tip just went wide at 8:09. With a 3-1 lead, Bethel Park now settled into a simple game of getting the puck out of their zone and forcing the Bulldogs to bring it 180 feet to the Blackhawk net. O’Sharuk tried to move the play along but Diethorn intercepted a clearing attempt at 4:56 and deposited it past the sliding goaltender with 4:56 remaining in the second for a 4-1 Bethel Park lead and you could hear a pin drop in Meadville except for the contingent of Hawk faithful who brave the roads on their trip to Meadville. In the third period, Bethel Park shut down Meadville killing off Bulldog power plays and holding the Dawgs to 13 shots on the night and only a handful in the final frame. Matt Feige rebounded from a sub-par performance against Franklin to shut out Meadville the rest of the way for a huge 4-1 Blackhawk victory, which puts BP in control of their own destiny for the # 1 seed in the upcoming Penguins Cup playoffs.

MEADVILLE ~ It is amazing that Bethel Park and Meadville even played last evening as I-79 was a little dicey on the driving end. Maybe Wheeling Park should play their games in Meadville because the roads to Wheeling could not have been nearly that bad or is it the five games in one week or that their games are meaningless since they are ineligible for the playoffs? Anyway………..after arriving at the ‘House of Chills’ it was time to quickly focus on the game at hand………one of Western Pennsylvania’s greatest rivalries Bethel Park and Meadville before a packed house at the MARC. Meadville has struggled as of late and coach Jamie Plunkett had to be concerned since his club has gone on a scoring drought in February. The Bulldogs were still in control of their division and the number one seed if it could defeat Bethel. Bethel Park on the other hand took one on the chin Friday night against a red hot Franklin team and the vibs were starting already throughout Western Pa that this could be the year for a new champion. Head Coach Jim McVay prides his club on discipline and knows that the Hawks have a big target on their back, so dropping the game against the Panthers may have been just what the doctor ordered. The sign of a championship team is how they respond through adversity and Bethel Park has shined over the past three years when their backs were to the wall with three Class AAA Pennsylvania State Titles. In the opening minutes, Bethel Park owned the territorial advantage and the pressure resulted in an interference call in the games opening minutes. Brandon Hanley put the Hawks on top collecting a loose puck and beating Danny O’Sharuk for a 1-0 lead. Bethel Park continued a disciplined 1-2-2 forecheck with bottled up the Bulldogs and another interference call putting the Hawks on the power play at 8:13. Bethel continued its onslaught on O’Sharuk and Grady Clingan found that loose puck again and calmly deposited the rebound through the 5-hole for a 2-0 BP lead, which silenced the ‘House of Chills’. Chris Wehrle got Meadville on the board with a big blast which just trickled past Matt Feige and the crowd was now back in the game and so were the Dawgs 2-1 with 4:49 left in the opening frame. Meadville received its first power play opportunity less than a minute later, but Bethel Park played simple hockey and cleared their crease and the puck to kill it. On to the second and Meadville was coming in waves and this would turn out to be the turning point of the hockey game early on. With the Dawgs buzzing at 11:05, the puck was centered to the front of the net and Feige lost his balance…with a puck in front and a wide open net in front of him D.J. Craven’s looked to be in a prime position to tie the game, but out of no where came Johnathon Glock, who knocked the puck out of the way to safety and preserved the Bethel Park 2-1 lead. The Hawks seemed to feed off of the momentum created by that play as Conner McLean chance was thwarted by O’Sharuk at 10:41, but the Hawks would not be denied as Mike Diethorn simply outworked Meadville in front of their own net with tenacious effort and banged home a second chance and gave Bethel Park a 3-1 lead at 10:21. Meadville almost pulled within one as Brian Bahurinsky’s tip just went wide at 8:09. With a 3-1 lead, Bethel Park now settled into a simple game of getting the puck out of their zone and forcing the Bulldogs to bring it 180 feet to the Blackhawk net. O’Sharuk tried to move the play along but Diethorn intercepted a clearing attempt at 4:56 and deposited it past the sliding goaltender with 4:56 remaining in the second for a 4-1 Bethel Park lead and you could hear a pin drop in Meadville except for the contingent of Hawk faithful who brave the roads on their trip to Meadville. In the third period, Bethel Park shut down Meadville killing off Bulldog power plays and holding the Dawgs to 13 shots on the night and only a handful in the final frame. Matt Feige rebounded from a sub-par performance against Franklin to shut out Meadville the rest of the way for a huge 4-1 Blackhawk victory, which puts BP in control of their own destiny for the # 1 seed in the upcoming Penguins Cup playoffs.

DELMONT ~ Penn Trafford has had a very good season after being forced to move from Class AA to Class AAA by the PIHL. Gary Artz’s club is very close to clinching the 16th and final playoff spot and may have had its best opportunity slip away in a tie to Butler, because the Warriors will have to beat Gateway or Bethel Park to capture that spot. Gateway had new life after defeating Franklin and pulling to within a half game after defeating the Panthers on Tuesday. Dan Serakowski had to turn his attantion to the task at hand as his team watched the Panthers upset Bethel, which all but eliminated the Gators from the division championship race. So Gateway is now locked in battle to secure a home playoff berth. The Gators sprinted to a 5-0 lead midway through the second period as Zach Flora and Rob McCoy each scored a pair and Jonas Rubiano took advantage of a PT giveaway. Chris Cerutti and Matt Haught scored second period goals for Penn Trafford, but Gateway clamped down defensively in the third period for a 5-2 victory at Center Ice.