St Joseph's Prep Hawks

North Allegheny 2 Central Catholic 1 [2 OT] CRANBERRY – The entrance of Mr Who’s Who Bobby Montana, with his trusty camera and Lebo contingent of Head Coach Paul Taibi, Dave ‘the Chocolate Milk Man’ Dorsey, Ron ‘Tom’s Father of Lexington’ Valerino, Bethel Park’s Jim ‘Mort’ McVay with his expert cameraman Dennis Bannon, Meadville coaches Dr. Jamie Plunkett and Dickie ‘this Old House’ Holabaugh. Pine Richland’s Jim Adams, NA Announcer Don Vandergrift, the ‘svelt’ Billy Zuri, Current NA Concerned Citizens Jim Pekins, Dennis Sheran, Ken McGlumphy and former ‘Head Concerned Citizen Tom Pandolfo’ among a jammed packed Cranberry BladeRunners, which is the only place in America you can buy Strawberry Water in an ice rink. North Allegheny (19-3-0) and Central Catholic (14-7-2) are perennial participants in the Penguins Cup playoffs and over the past few years have been in the hunt to move forward in the process of challenging to win it. The Vikings started the playoffs off with a 9-3 hammering of Franklin Regional, but coach Kevin Zielmanski knows that his team must excel against top opponents to be able to get to the promised land. CC is very capable of being a that team and the keys are getting strong goaltending and a consistent effort for 45 minutes, which will be a pre-requisite to entertaining any thoughts of defeating # 3 seed North Allegheny. The Tigers got a taste of what its all about a year ago coming within one goal of capturing the championship of Western Pennsylvania AAA in 2005 losing to eventual Pennsylvania Cup AAA State Champions Bethel Park in the Penguins Cup final. What is different for NA is that they are not the favorite to win the 2006 Cup, which is a double edged sword, because the underdog role gives the Tigers a looser attitude than a years ago, but as a part of this process of contending for a State Championship, every shift, every goal, every mental mistake becomes magnified the further along we get into the playoffs. One emotional lift for the Tigers could be the presence of Chris Simanic, who was a key ingredient to the Tigers winning the 2005-06 Director’s Cup over Bethel Park in December. If anyone hopes to supplant Mt Lebanon, the # 1 or Bethel Park, the defending champion, it will take a monumental effort to get to RMU Island Sports Center. Central Catholic looked to take the lead early in this contest as Chris Urso could not beat NA’s Max Richards at 14:31. Joe Kerr hit the post of an open net at 10:20 after being set up on a nice feed from Chris Urso. The Tigers had the games first power play at 8:41 and could not capitalize, but struck first with 4:02 left in the opening period as Josh Herbert beat Bobby Magyarics with a wrsit shot high over the stick side after a pass from behind the net from Matt Lancaster to give North Allegheny a 1-0 lead. Alan Halapin set up Chris Gilson streaking down the slot, but shot hit the crossbar and the Tigers held a 1-0 lead after the first. On to the second period and Central Catholic was the recipient of another 2 on 1 due to some lax backchecking by the Tigers off the opening faceoff as Chris Urso beat the defenseman at the blue line and found Joe Kerr, who deposited the puck behind Max Richards to tie the score at one apiece just 17 seconds into the second. The game settled into a tight checking affair at both ends as both the Vikings and Tigers looked to seize the lead. With 2:22 remaining in the period, CC went on the power play but could not score. The third period was a very tight checking affair with limited chances at both ends. Central Catholic enjoyed some good pressure for the majority of the period, but the Tigers came on as the game hit the 5 minute remaining mark. Ian McGlumphy had the best chance for NA with 4:14 to go as he hit the side of the net. The Tigers got a golden opportunity with a power play with 3:57 to go, but the Vikings dug in and killed the first minute. Then it happened a penalty against the Tigers with 2:39 to go created a 4 on 4 and a CC power play but we moved on into overtime with a 1-1 score. The first overtime was action packed and end to end as both team have several chances the best coming as Magayrics stopped Matt Lancaster and the rebound by Josh Herbert at 5:57 of the first overtime. In the second OT, North Allegheny had the second great chance as Wes Waldschmidt was stoned from right in front again by the Central goaltender at 9:39. Bobby Magayrics did everything he could to help the Vikings pull off the upset. But it would not be enough this evening. As the Tigers didn’t get a bounce in last year’s Penguin Cup final when they needed it, North Allegheny made their own break as the play started from the Tiger end as Alan Halapin made a nice pass out of the zone up the boards to Chris Gilson, who has been a solid player for the Tigers for several years, who drove the Viking defenseman deep in his own zone and slid the puck over to a streaking Joey Camut, who deposited the game winner past the Viking keeper and to send the Tigers to the Penguins Cup semi-finals next Wednesday.