St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Mt Lebanon 1 Meadville 1 (OT) Mt Lebanon - This was a who’s who night at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center, but with playoff implications soaring and the bat phone ringing every 30 seconds, we’ll save it for another time. Meadville (15-4-1) and Mt Lebanon (16-3-1) are part of a tiebreaker of tiebreakers of the century, but the Blue Devils really would like not like to even be a part of it since they are in control of their own destiny, with a full game lead on the Bulldogs, North Allegheny (16-4-1), McDowell (15-4-1), and Upper St Clair (14-4-1), who could all end up tied if the aforementioned schools take care of business AND Meadville is able to defeat the defending Pennsylvania State Class AAA champions. Mt Lebanon has not lost in the regular season since January 4th to Bethel Park 2-0 and rebounded from that game to tie the Hawks less than a week later 2-2. The Blue Devils have kept up their non-league slate to prepare themselves for the stretch run and it was in Meadville that coach Paul Taibi got the attention of his team with a midnight madness practice immediately after a sub-par performance against Sylvania Northview. Lebo has playing with fire ever since January in defense of their title. The great statement at center ice of the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center reads ‘Lebo State Champs 1976 and 2006’ which shows the history of a great program and building built in 1977. Meadville and Head Coach Jamie Plunkett are no stranger to these situations and the Bulldogs having been fighting inconsistencies throughout the season, that resulted in a loss to Upper St Clair and surrendering a 2-1 lead late to North Allegheny. The Bulldogs have been on both ends of the spectrum as exemplified by a 4-2 victory over # 1 Bethel Park last week in the annual Blackdog Cup. Desperation is a pretty good adjective to use As home ice advantage, a bye and a lot of tiebreaker situations are on the line as a result of this season ending game between the Bulldogs and Blue Devils and could have a huge impact on the Class AAA playoff landscape. Meadville came out flying in the first five minutes and had a couple of good chances on Robbie Behling, but could not find the net as the ice tilted to the Black and Red before a packed house at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center. The Bulldogs are a very good team when they get their half ice rotation going and they smother opponents with tenacious forechecking, which was on display in the opening period of this contest. With 4:23 remaining in the opening period, the Dawgs were whistled to put Mt Lebanon on the power play, which was unsuccessful. Mt Lebo’s shot blocking was on display late in the period as Meadville attempted to mount an attack late in the period, which ended scoreless. Shots were Mt Lebanon 7 Meadville 5 in the first 15 minutes. Mt Lebanon had its first real good scoring opportunity of the game as Jon Wilen was alone in the slot, but Meadville’s Aaron Nye blocked the shot at 10:42. 730 noonan backhand Meadville pp 622 behling nice save on tip by fedorka 417 jon wilen breakaway 408 mt lebo pp and increased to a 5 on 3 power play at 2:39 as Brooks Behling was hauled down on a breakaway. This was nullified just 6 seconds later when Lebo was whistled for an interference call, which could be a very big turning point of this hockey game. Lebo was whistled for another call creating a 4 on 3 for Meadville and a 30 second advantage to end the period as Mt Lebanon held the advantage in play and shots 10-5 in the second, but the Bulldogs held the lead going to the ice cut 1-0. Just 17 seconds into the 3rd period, Meadville took a penalty putting the Blue Devils on the power play. The Mt Lebanon power play, which looked close to scoring was a little out of sync as the Bulldogs penned them up in their own end and killed it off. Robbie Behling made a nice stop of a Luke Killmeyer backhand at 11:02 and the Dawgs went on the power play after the whistled, with a golden opportunity to extend their lead, but to no avail. An interference call on Meadville at 8:49, put the Blue Devils on the man advantage and then a scary moment as Mike Noonan and Scott Millhouse collided and the Blue Devils were accessed to even things up. Behling made a sprawling save on Pat Leone with 5:53 to play to keep the score 1-0. Meadville has struggled to hold leads late in games this season and Lebo stepped up their efforts as the game headed into the final five minutes. With 2:48 to play, the Blue Devils tied the hockey game as Mike Wagner pounced on a rebound and slid it through the 5-hole of Mike Licinski of a Taylor Phillips shot from the left point. Moments later, Lebo’s Scott Millhouse made a sliding stop of a Morgan Nickerson chance at 1:59. The game headed into overtime with a ton on the line. During the overtime period, both teams battled and limited one another’s scoring opportunities, which prompted Jamie Plunkett to pull goaltender Mike Licinski. Robbie Behling and Lebo 46 would hold off the Meadville attack and when the final buzzer rang, Mt Lebanon was elated, while Meadville was disappointed. The impact culminated with a Central Catholic victory over Upper St Clair 7-5, a McDowell victory over Canon McMillan 9-3, with a result of Mt Lebanon finishing 16-3-2 with the 2nd seed, North Allegheny 16-4-1 with the 3rd seed (winning tiebreaker over McDowell with 7-2 victory head to head), McDowell 16-4-1 (winning their first division title in over 20 years) edging out the Bulldogs for the 4th seed, Meadville 16-4-2 taking the 5th seed and Central Catholic 15-6-0 and Upper St Clair 14-5-1 will get the # 6 and # 7 seeds pending the outcome of the USC – Bethel Park finale. On this night, there is one thing that is very clear and that is that we should have some pretty interesting Class AAA games in two weeks barring no upsets. The matchups in round two with no upsets in round one will shake out with the Blackhawks taking on Seneca Valley (who narrowly lost to BP 4-2 last week with an ENG), Mt Lebanon and North Allegheny will take on either USC or Central Catholic and Meadville will travel to Erie to play McDowell. Round one will feature Meadville – Penn Trafford, Seneca Valley –Fox Chapel and Upper St Clair and Central Catholic will face Plum and North Hills, pending the outcome of the USC – Bethel finale. Let the games begin and make sure to check out the Pa Hockey previews of the 2007 Penguins Cup later this week!