St Joseph's Prep Hawks

CHICAGO - A special report from Pa Hockey So Team Pittsburgh defeated New York and California in the opening two games of the 2006 Chicago Showcase and with a 2-0 record to guarantee a spot in the quarter-finals on Saturday. Now the fun is to begin as they would have the honor of sharing the ice with Team Minnesota, the same team who has won the Chicago Showcase countless times over the years under the late great coach Ted Brill and more recently under Dave Hendrickson, who is a joy to talk to every time one comes to the rink and I have gotten to know over the past few years. Last year's schooling of Team Pittsburgh 7-1 in the semi-finals would be a reminder to the returning players of last years team of the significance of Minnesota High School Hockey to the rest of the United States as a leader of the sport and how programs should model and conduct themselves in this sport. As a casual fan its just a thrill to watch our boys from Western Pa match up against the 'Institution' of Interscholastic Sports in America. Former Team Pittsburgh players Ryan Vesely of Greensburg CC and Chris Perry of Hempfield were on hand with their Team Pittsburgh to cheer on the team, seven years removed from Team Pittsburgh's lone trip to the finals in 1999, a 6-2 setback to no other than Team Minnesota. The early part of this contest consisted of some penalty killing by Team Pittsburgh of the lethal Minnesota power play and some great goaltending by Thomas Jefferson's Cody Krynock, who is a great story because he didn't start tendinmg goal for the Jaguars until January after a stint on defense. Team Minnesota had a better of the chances and the shot advantage at 10-6 but the opening 17 minutes was a fast paced scoreless tie. The second period Team Pttsburgh would get a golden opportunity at 16:07 as Brock Heinauer kept the play alive in the Minnesota zone and Chris Urso found Timmy O'Brien on the back door who just missed and Urso banged home the rebound to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. Minnesota kept plugging away at Pittsburgh and capitalized on a turnover as Brian McMillin fired a low slapshot past Cody Krynock at 11:57 to tie the game at one apiece. Pittsburgh failed to clear the zone again at 5:26 and McMillin was open again on the weak side beating Krynock on a slapper to give Minnsota a 2-1 lead. Pittsburgh did start to get more chances late in the period with a 12-11 shot advantage and almost ties it at the buzzer as Timmy O'Brien and Brock Heinauer both had great chances, but Minnesota goaltender Alex Petersen made a spectacular save throwing his body at the loose puck and keeping Minnesota in front 2-1 at the ice cut. So Pittsburgh had to be satisfied playing the Minnesota team to a one goal game and could have settled for the great effort guys speech, but this team would be tested even further when they put Minnesota on the power play at 15:17 and then yielded a PPG goal at 14:43 as Alex Braden redirected a pass past Krynock after some excellent puck movement to make it 3-1 in favor of Minnesota. Matt Bartkowski hit both posts on a slapshot at 13:30 and the deficit remained two. Moments later Pittsburgh dug another hole with a penalty at 13:02, but was able to kill it off and gain a little momentum. A power play came their way at 11:26 that turned into a 5 on 3 at 10:19 putting Pittsburgh in a nice position to get back in the game. Then Tean Pittsburgh seized the moment as they moved the puck quickley and Kevin Miller beat Petersen on a wrist shot low to the glove side to cut the lead to 3-2 with 9:05 remaining in a definite change of momentum. Pittsburgh turned up their game and applied the pressure to Minnesota with 6 1/2 left in regulation. Josh Fodor, who has been part of Team Pittsburgh's best forward lines with Ferguson and Mandic at both ends of the ice showed great patience and found a wide open Kevin Pawlos on the doorstep, who made no mistake and buried a wrist shot high up under the crossbar past Petersen with 4:56 to play to knot the score at 3-3 in a dramatic turnaround. With 3:32 remaining, Josh Mandic gathered the loose puck in the neutral zone and found two streaking linemates creating a 3 on 1 and as Josh Fodor drove the Minnesota defenseman to the net, Shane Ferguson served as the trailer and took a nice feed from Mandic and buried it low to the glove side erupting the Pittsburgh bench and the Team Pittsburgh faithful in attendance giving the a 4-3 lead. Team Pittsburgh played to win in the final minutes and penned up Minnesota in their zone with quick shifts and tenacious forechecking to seal a monumental victory for this team and a watershed win for Western Pennsylvania hockey, who is now on the map and this group can relish an accomplishment 22 years in the making. Coach Paul Taibi showed his class by presenting team manager Dev Klasnick with the game puck for his 22 years of service and class to Team Pittsburgh, who is now the # 1 seed heading to the quarter-finals of the 2006 Chicago Showcase. Sounds nice..............but it was a great thrill to watch and people from Western Pa should really be proud of this great moment !