St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Delmont - Franklin Regional 3 Greensburg Salem 3 (OT) When you get to this point in the season, for the teams that have clinched playoff spots, its all about positioning. With Greensburg Salem’s (11-7-0) division title hopes dashed by a paperwork snafu and a forfeit of two games, the Golden Lions are now setting their sights on wrapping up a playoff position the old fashioned way of earning it and Head Coach Anthony DeFazio would like it no other way. You see, Salem played a lot of hockey over the past five years including a majority of their play in the Laurel Highlands League with dicey drives to Altoona and over the Laurel Mountains that resulted in players and families getting home well after midnight to play in a league that really ended their season in a meaningless way and not in the Pennsylvania State Hockey Championships or Penguins Cup. The Golden Lions the opted for the Open Division, which is a manufactured league of teams playing hockey for medals that look like the were stolen from Chuck E Cheese’s pinball gallery. Salem was handed a spot in the Class AA playoffs a year ago and lost in a playoff game against Moon and went home. Coach DeFazio and the Greensburg Salem Hockey Club has taken their medicine and with a win tonight against division foe Franklin Regional could wrap up a playoff spot by earning it for the first time since 1999, when Larry Weimert’s team completed a miraculous second half of the season turnaround to sneak into a playoff spot edging out Franklin Regional by one point. Franklin Regional has already has clinched a playoff spot and coincidentally has been playing in Class AAA since Salem last was in the playoffs in 1999 and was really a second tier AAA program with the exception of 2003 when FR went all the way to the Penguins Cup finals beating AAA powers Mt Lebanon and Bethel Park before their magic carpet ride was ended abruptly by Meadville in the Penguins Cup final. With a program diminishing in numbers and frankly in trouble of becoming non-existent, the Panthers enrollment numbers for the school dipped below the Class AAA Mendoza line opting Franklin back to Class AA. So the Panthers, who have been under the radar with the run of Pine Richland in Class AA and the emergence of Moon and Latrobe and re-emergence of Thomas Jefferson, are trying to catch one of those schools and capture a first round bye in the top 4. The FR lineup is back to the now you see him now you don’t phase with players missing for those all important Kool-Aid practice sessions when amateur coaches threaten bench time for players who miss for high school games and it’s really getting old at this point as Junior C teams and midget AAA teams who are not even ranked in the top 40 in the country are performing this function. In the end, Franklin will need to win three out of their last four games or start the playoffs at home as a 5th-7th seed and face a very good goaltender and likely an upset instead of a bye and become a darkhorse for the 2007 Penguins Cup. Franklin came out storming in the opening period and controlled the play from the outset outshooting GS 10-2 with one power play opportunity but no scores as Lion goaltender Shane Talarico was flawless. Greensburg Salem had two power plays of their own in the final six minutes and although unsuccessful on the first one at 1:21 of the opening period shifty Shane Davis beat two FR defenders and whipped a wrist shot past Anthony Livecchi to give Salem a 1-0 lead. The Golden Lions almost made it two zip, but Carl Richter made a nice play to clear the zone and draw a penalty in the process to turn the tide and the momentum late in the opening period. A series of penalties and makeup calls were prevalent in the early part of the second period and Hank Fontana found open ice on a 3 on 3 situation and was in on the breakaway at 13:49 only to be stopped by Livecchi. Greensburg had a golden opportunity on a 5 on 3 power play but it was Franklin who was the aggressor and killed the first penalty and force a turnover a nice play by Eugene Mack, who found a wide open freshman Steven Shirk, who deposited the puck into a wide open net to tie the score at one apiece with 7:02 remaining in the second period. The Panthers started to find their rhythm and with 2:37 left in the period Turner Andritz made a great play to keep the puck in the zone and fire it to the net and the shot hit freshman Johnny ‘63’ Miller and the young Franklin forward has easy pickins and an open net for a goal and a 2-1 Panther lead. The game picked up pace late in the period as Eric Yurenko had a breakaway only to be stopped by an acrbatic save as Anthony Livechhi sprawled out like Dominic Hasek to stack his pads and snag a shot ticketed for the upper half the net and stone the GS sniper to keep FR in the lead 2-1. The Panthers struck late in the period as Ryan Kramer spotted another freshman defenseman Michael Adams and threaded a perfect pass from the opposite corner to the right faceoff circle and Adams unleashed a wicked slapshot to the stick side of Shane Talarico and into the net with :05 to go and give Franklin Regional a 3-1 lead at the ice cut. Franklin Regional was well on their way to victory, but had the most dangerous lead in hockey of two goals. Greensburg Salem was pretty lifeless and looked to be headed into its final games with West Allegheny and Thomas Jefferson in a possible must win situation. Sometimes you need a little luck in games like this and with all of the struggles in the long road back for the Greensburg Salem Hockey Club and a real heads-up play by an unlikely source as David Hamilton got the puck in the corner and just threw an attempted pass to the front of the Franklin net and it caromed of a Panther defender through the 5-hole of Livecchi with 5:13 to go in regulation to give the Golden Lions new life and now a 3-2 hockey game. Salem now had momentum and with their top line on the ice and well rested Franklin was now on its heels and GS took advantage as Hank Fontana found a loose puck after a scramble in the right circle and buried it up under the crossbar to tie the score at 3-3 with 4:45 to go and we had a brand new hockey game. The Golden Lions almost won it as Shane Davis shot with :01 was turned aside by Anthony Livecchi and as the teams battled through overtime for a 3-3 tie.