St Joseph's Prep Hawks

MEADVILLE - Meadville and St Ignatius met in the finals of the Bulldog Invitational, which would be a tall hill for Jamie Plunkett's squad to overcome the three time Bulldog Invitational champions from Ohio. Meadville had confidence due to its 5-1 preliminary round victory over Ignatius but knew it was helped by two 5 on 3 goals in that contest. Justin Werle scored to give Meadville a 1-0 lead in the first period on a power play goal at the 7:51 mark. Meadville held onto the slim advantage until St. Ignatius tied it with 9:46 left in the 3rd period on a goal by Jeff Leciejewski. D.J. Craven tipped a David Moyer shot with 6:05 left in regulation to give Medville a 2-1 lead on the power play. goal. The Wildcats tied the game with 32 seconds left on a goal by Dan McClain. McClain is the Wildcats top player and he took a shot just inside the blueline that fooled Dan O'Shurak and went between his legs for the equalizer. The championship went into the first 15 minutes of overtime provided both teams chances to end it but both goaltenders played well. St. Ignatius goaltender Chris Sanchez was the MVP for his team. He made 56 saves on the evening including 18 in overtime. The ice was resurfaced after the first overtime and the teams changed ends and the second overtime ended with 4:02 remaining as Brian Bahurinsky scored on a rebound from a Justin Werle slapshot. Sanchez came out to play the Werle shot and couldn't control the rebound as Bahurinsky scored in to an empty net for a 3-2 final. Werle was named the MVP for Meadville.