St Joseph's Prep Hawks

2006 Penguins Cup AA Qualifier Moon 7 Greensburg Salem 4 CORAOPOLIS – Greensburg Salem enters this evening’s play-in game with a 16-4-0 record out of the Open Division after a narrow 3-2 victory over Penn Hills. Tonight’s game has a little more significance than any Open Division game as the winner of this evening’s contest will get to experience a tremendous playoff atmosphere of the Belmont Ice Complex against the # 5 seed Kittanning Wildcats. Welcome to the Class AA playoffs for the Golden Lions, who are back in the PIHL after a two-year hiatus in the Laurel Highlands Hockey League and after a league championship and undefeated season a year ago Head Coach Anthony DeFazio’s squad is looking for more in the Penguins Cup playoffs. Moon enters this playoff game with a 9-12-0 record which is good enough for the 12th and final playoff spot for Class AA, but what is what a lot of Tiger faithful like to point to is the happenings in the season’s second half as this team has scored victories over Canon McMillan, Canevin, Kitanning and a near upset of Pine Richland, losing 3-2. Moon is looking for its first ever playoff victory in its history. Greensburg Salem stuck first at 13:39 of the opening period as Shane Davis scored from between the circles to make it 1-0. Moon came right back at 13:10 as Cederic Brazeau picked up a rebound and beat Shane Talarico into the empty net to knot the score at 1-1. Talarico made the games first big saves stopping Alex Hilliker on a rebound at 10:32. Then at 8:34 of the opening period, Shane Davis gathered and intercepted pass and beat Chris DeLorenzo on a backhand. Moon came back at 7:28 as Alex Hilliker scored from right in front to tie the score again at two apiece. Moon took its first lead at 4:56 as Cederic Brazeau got a step on the GS defenseman and beat Talarico on the backhand slipping the puck through the 5-hole for a 3-2 lead. With 28 seconds to go in the opening period Henry Fontana stepped around the Moon defenseman and buried a wrist shot high over the glove hand side of DeLorenzo to tie the score again at 3-3. On to the second period and Moon would get a golden opportunity on a 5 on 3 power play with 9:19 remaining and capitalized as Bryan Ros scored on a bad angle through Shane Talarico for a power play goal to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead. With 7:16 remaining Chris Simoni walked out of the corner and jambed the puck past Talarico and the Tigers now led 5-3. With 6:28 left in the period, Henry Fontana made a nifty move and beat the Moon defense and then DeLorenzo on the stick side to cut the lead to 5-4. With 1:44 remaining in the period, the Golden Lions went on a 5 on 3 power play and Moon used inspired penalty killing to create two breakaway chances for John Davis, but Talarico was equal to the task keeping his team down by one going to the third period. Moon killed off a GS power play opportunity with a little over ten minutes to go in regulation as John Davis ragged the puck for almost 40 seconds. With 2:02 remaining, Chris Simoni found a loose puck in the slot and danced in between the circles and lofted a backhand high over Shane Talarico’s shoulder to give the Tigers a 6-4 lead. Simoni added and empty netter with 1:38 left for a 7-4 advantage and give Moon their first ever playoff victory in their history and a trip to Kittanning Thursday night. For the Golden Lions a trip back to the Open Division playoffs to face Holidaysburg Thursday Night and hopefully next season back to Class AA, where they belong.