St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Franklin Regional 4 Kittanning 3 [OT] Kittanning advanced to the 2006 Penguins Cup before losing to Pine Richland in the Final in March of last year. With much of the team returning and the continuity in the coaching, Head Coach Jon Yackmack had to have optimism coming into this season given those factors. The Wildcats were a TEAM in every sense as a frenzy grew at the Belmont enough to get long-time Kittanning faithful Max Pozzuto and Tim Lane to die the hair gold. Oh how a couple of months can change a lot if not everything and if the Cats had no luck, it may be better than the bad stretch of misfortune hitting the program. The latest setback was an injury to Nick Troup, who now has his arm in a cast, which is the latest snafu for Kittanning. Kittanning assistant coach Jamie King cited Franklin Regional as a very good reason, as he reminded yours truly of the 2-1 double overtime win in the 1997 WPIHL playoffs over FR as the ignition of Kittanning’s fortunes and the ten year run since then that has resulted in a handful of Penguins Cup finals and the annual run the Wildcats seem to put together to compete for the top spot in Class AA. Franklin Regional has been back in Class AA for the 2006-2007 season and has found life in this classification to be up and down depending on the mood of coach Jim Daugherty’s club. A 1-4 start followed by an 8 game run to vault the Panthers to near the top of the rankings and recently two disappointing performances losing to Indiana and Greensburg CC has FR at 10-6-0 and in the hunt for a bye and home playoff berth for the team, but will have to be a result of another winning run over the final month of the season. Talented sophomore Patrick Coyne is now back in the lineup, which gives the Panthers depth a boost, but the question remains will the Panthers play one game this season with their entire roster in the lineup as distractions of all important amateur practices may become the cancer leading to playoff elimination in March. If you don’t believe me just look back at the 2003 Penguins Cup finals, when the side show cost this program a very rare opportunity to advance to the Pennsylvania State Finals and an emabrassing beating at the hands of eventual State Champions Meadville. The Franklin Regional program has been in existence for 26 years and never gotten to the promised land and with limited numbers remaining maybe never be afforded an opportunity again. Kittanning looked like a much different team than we have seen this season in the opening minutes working over the Panthers with good play at both ends of the ice and took the lead on a goal by Zach Avi at 11:25 of the first. Lucas Sasala gave the Kittanning more reason for optimism with 9:42 remaining in the opening period making it 2-0 in favor of the Wildcats. Franklin Regional freshman defenseman Michael Adams lit the lamp with 8:21 to go in the period to get the Panthers back in the game 2-1. FR started to find its legs late in the period and scored the equalizer as hardworking forward Brian Buckley scored on a rebound on the power play with just 2:32 remaining and the score was tied at two apiece. On to the second and Franklin started to open up the Kittanning defense pouring the shots on Joey Mecurio, who was standing tall between the pipes. A great pass from Carl Richter to a streaking Eugene Mack on the power play gave the Panthers a 3-2 lead early in the period at 12:52. Mecurio made several nice stops as the shots were 31-14 in favor of Franklin, but Kittanning was still very much in this hockey game and the Wildcats put together a very nice stretch of hard work and 12-1 shot advantage over the last half of the second period and would tie the game as Zach Avi got the equalizer on a pretty passing play with 3:32 remaining in the second. The play came after a Kittanning shot wrang off the pipe and fell harmlessly under Panther goaltender Anthony Livecchi, who made several stops himself. The Panthers and Wildcats battled through the third period with Kittanning holding an advantage in shots 10-6 in the final period of regulation. Both Liveechi and Mecurio were equal to the task pitching a shutout in the final period. Kittanning had a golden opportunity late in the period on the power play with 2 ½ left, but the FR goaltender and defense stiffened to send the game to overtime. Kittanning was whistled for a penalty behind the play with 8 ticks left, giving FR the power play in overtime. Joey Mecurio was on fire in net for Kittanning robbing Eugene Mack on the back door with a sliding save in the opening minute of the overtime period. The Panthers kept on the pressure and Brian Buckley’s shot wandered out in front where Ryan Kramer got loose and he banged home the rebound to give the Panthers a hard fought 4-3 overtime victory with 3:25 left in OT and only 17 seconds left on the power play.