St Joseph's Prep Hawks

CHICAGO - A special report for Pa Hockey The day after Team Pittsburgh shocked Team Minnesota in a game with many twists and turns lead the Western Pa contingent to the quarter-finals against Tri-State, who pummeled Team Connecticut 11-1 in the C Bracket finale. Pittsburgh found itself in an interesting position facing a team made up of high school players from Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, which is essentially the all-star team of the Iowa High School Hockey League, who entered the 1/4 finals with a 4-0-0 record with wins over Ohio, Florida, Northwest and the aformentioned Connecticut, which is hardly the road of Team Pittsburgh. Early in this contest the casual hockey fan could see that Team Pittsburgh gave Tri-State fits with a superior skill level and speed. With the early domination in territorial play Pittsburgh looked to take advantage, but a couple of ill-advised penalties put Tri State right in the hockey game even though being dominated on the shot total, the score remained scoreless through one period. Teamn Pittsburgh's bestr chance came as Shane Ferguson got behind the Tri-State defense with 1:37 remaining but Nick LeQuire was equal to the task. Pittsburgh took another penalty early in the second period and it cost them as Bryan Beaman redirected a Geoff Vicek shot from the right point past Bryan Ross high over the glove side to give Tri-State a 1-0 lead and a power play with 15:14 to play in the 2nd period. Tri State put Pittsburgh on the power play at 14:46 and Shane Ferguson tied the score at 1-1 backhanding a Matt Bartkowski rebound past LeQuire. Bryan Ross made a terrific stop from point blank range at 12:33 to keep the 1-1 score. At 9:56, Matt Bartkowski made a good play to settle the puck at the point and move it to Ferguson in the corner, who cycled the puck with Josh Fodor who found a streaking Josh Mandic who made no mistake depositing the puck into an empty net with 9:56 to play and give Pittsburgh its first lead 2-1. The goal was as pretty a passing play as you will see in any hockey game. Pittsburgh put Tri State back on the power play at 9:43 and on a 5 on 3 at 8:56 and gave Tri State a chance to ie the score again, which they did as Derek Kohles banged home a rebound to make it 2-2 with 8:27 to play. As mentioned last night, the line of Fodor, Ferguson and Mandic has been on fire in this tournament and Josh Fodor seized the moment to gain control of this hockey game as he took the puck end-to-end, walked to the middle of the ice and fire a wrist whot high over the glove side of LeQuire, who may have had trouble seeing the shot go in, but Pittsburgh regained the lead 3-2 with 5:20 remaining in the middle period. Pittsburgh went on the power play with 1:37 remaining in the period and Paul Dittrich hit the post with a blistering wrist shot low to the far post and Team Pittsburgh headed to the third period with a slim 3-2 advantage. Pittsburgh has dominated the third period on this tournament outscoring opponents 8-1 in three games and compiled a staggering shot totoal advantage in those periods. Josh Mandic just missed just thirty seconds in as the puck was just brushed wide by the Tri State goaltender. The play of this hockey game came with 13:38 to play in regulation as Josh Mandic picked the pocket of a Tri State forward in the neutral zone and sent Ferguson and Fodor in on a two on one, which Fodor used Fergy as a decoy and blistered a wrist shot up under the crossbar to give Pittsburgh a semmingly comfortable 4-2 lead. Team Pittsburgh effectively ran the lines and kept the pressure on Tri State, who seemed to struggle against the speed and tenacity of Pittsburgh. Bryan Ross made a real nice save from point blank range with 3:15 to play. Two goals are unsafe because one mistake can put a team right back in the hockey game and that's exactly what happened as after a bad clearing attempt Tri State scored on a rebound to cut the lead to 4-3 with 51 seconds to go. Pittsburgh would shut the door in the final minute as Tri State never got the puck out of their zone and Tean Pittsburgh won a little differently, not playing their best game, but good enough to move on to the semi-finals of the 2006 Chicago Showcase for the second straight year. Mt Lebanon's Matt Bartkowski was named the Most Valuable player of the 2006 Chicago Showcase, with solid play at both ends of the ice in the first four games.