Downingtown East Cougars

CRANBERRY - North Allegheny has had it's share of disappointments in the first round of the Penguins Cup playoffs over the past few years. Franklin Regional has had a run of playoff disappointments as well. So both schools were looking to erase some playoff history in this years first round. A well played first period saw the upstart Panthers outshoot NA 8-6 and a pretty good goaltender dual between Chris Zelenak and Thierry Clermont. Franklin broke the ice early in the second at 14:30 as Mike Roth stormed down the slot and got his own rebound and beat Clermont to make it 1-0. The game continued to go end to end with both teams having good scoring chances, but the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Panthers. At 13:14 of the 3rd Jeff Hall was robbed by Zelenak from in front as the NA players celebrated prematurely. Then at 9:59, Adam Burger found Roth in alone on Clermont and he made no mistake pulling Clermont out of the net and lofting the puck into the empty net to give FR a stunning 2-0 lead and the Panthers were thinking upset ! It took only 54 seconds as the Tigers money player Dan Lobas walked out of the corner and held on to the puck for what seem to be eternity and beat Zelenak on a huge goal to cut the lead to 2-1 at 9:05. Then on the next shift, it was Lobas again as he spot Jeff Hall barrelling down the middle of the ice and beat Zelenak to tie the score at 6:26. Smelling a wounded opponent, Joe Rosenberg walked around the FR defense but a great save by Zelenak kept the score tied at two. Then with two minutes left, Tyler Haldane of NA was robbed again as Zelenak make an improbable save. The game ended at 2-2 and headed for OT. Through the first overtime and into the second, both schools had chances but failed to end it until, on the power play at 8:57 of the 2nd OT, Lobas found Hall again streaking through the slot and hit him with a pass and Hall buried the backhand to give North Allegheny a hard fought 3-2 victory and a spot in the second round in Class AAA.

CASTLE SHANNON - The South Park Eagles were riding high coming into this years playoffs after an unbelievable upset of Peters Twp to end the regular season. Keystone Oaks has been arguably the hottest team in Class AA, losing only once in its last ten games. A standing room only crows at the Ice Castle was on hand as the 'KO Crazies' were back in playoff form. The home tem came out smokin in the first period as they outshot South Park 12-5, but Ian Episcopo had the hot hand he showed against Peters. At 4:24 of the opening period, Bobby Dipippa wheeled around in the SP zone and found a wide open Jim Fuhs, who deked the Eagle goaltender and gave KO a 1-0 lead. In the second, KO's Dylan Wyrostek took a great cross ice pass from Fuhs and buried and the KO Crazies were in hysteria and the score was 2-0. Then Fuhs wound it up in his own end and skated through the South Park defenders, unleashed a shot and DiPippa banged home the rebound for a 3-0 advantage at 7:57. On to the third, South Park went on a 5 on 3 and just couldn't capitalize, the best chance coming as Justin Juha banked a wide open scoring opportunity off the post. Keystone Oaks went on to a 3-0 victory as Adam Beck got the shutout for the Golden Eagles.

From the first round to the State Finals, we will bring you all of the action from across the Commonwealth !

CASTLE SHANNON - The South Park Eagles were riding high coming into this years playoffs after an unbelievable upset of Peters Twp to end the regular season. Keystone Oaks has been arguably the hottest team in Class AA, losing only once in its last ten games. A standing room only crows at the Ice Castle was on hand as the 'KO Crazies' were back in playoff form. The home tem came out smokin in the first period as they outshot South Park 12-5, but Ian Episcopo had the hot hand he showed against Peters. At 4:24 of the opening period, Bobby Dipippa wheeled around in the SP zone and found a wide open Jim Fuhs, who deked the Eagle goaltender and gave KO a 1-0 lead. In the second, KO's Dylan Wyrostek took a great cross ice pass from Fuhs and buried and the KO Crazies were in hysteria and the score was 2-0. Then Fuhs wound it up in his own end and skated through the South Park defenders, unleashed a shot and DiPippa banged home the rebound for a 3-0 advantage at 7:57. On to the third, South Park went on a 5 on 3 and just couldn't capitalize, the best chance coming as Justin Juha banked a wide open scoring opportunity off the post. Keystone Oaks went on to a 3-0 victory as Adam Beck got the shutout for the Golden Eagles.

From the first round to the State Finals, we will bring you all of the action from across the Commonwealth !