St Joseph's Prep Hawks

2007 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships Class AAA – North Allegheny Tigers (19-4-1) vs Holy Ghost Prep Firebirds (26-5-2) April 7, 2007 - Ice Works – Aston, Pennsylvania North Allegheny 6 Holy Ghost Prep 3 ASTON - Holy Ghost Prep opened the season in November defeating defending Flyers Cup champions Cardinal O'Hara 6-4. The Firebirds have been knocking on the exclusive club once held by Malvern Prep, LaSalle, GA and Cardinal O'Hara the past half dozen or so seasons for the past couple of season and last year upset Malvern Prep in the Flyers Cup semis. Keeping with tradition, HGP followed that one up with a stunning 3-2 overtime victory over LaSalle, who was widely regarded as the favorites along with Bethel Park to win this years Pennsylvania AAA crown. Holy Ghost Prep's last trip to the State Finals in 2003 was not a memorable journey as they were throttled by Peters Twp 9-3. Holy Ghost defeated this years Class A finalist Henderson that year in the Flyers Cup AA final for their most significant win to date, but the last two wins over LaSalle and O'Hara 7-3 in the Flyers Cup AAA will really take significance if Prep wins it all. North Allegheny had been to the Penguins Cup final the past two seasons and this year has been up and down under Jimmy Black. The Tigers made two decisions late in the season that propelled them to this stage. The first was to move Wes Waldschmidt to defense where he has been just outstanding and the second is to play more physical with special attention to discipline. Add to that goaltender Max Richards re-finding his groove made the Tigers a way different team than that Bethel Park beat 7-0 in the first half of the season. North Allegheny is a team that became a part of the process the past two years and was able to capture the first Penguins Cup in their 36 year history by beating their nemesis Bethel Park 2-1 in double overtime at the Mellon Arena. Again, it was Wes Waldschmidt who would be the difference as he scored the game winner to send the Tigers to the title. North Allegheny met Holy Ghost Prep in the Director’s Cup Final of the 2003 Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase and it was Waldschmidt as a freshman, who ended that contest with the game winner in overtime and this was after an overtime victory over Bethel Park preceding that contest. Will history repeat itself ? Only time will tell. North Allegheny dominated the opening period of the 2007 Class AAA final outshooting Holy Ghost Prep 13-3 in the opening 15 minutes. The Firebirds opened the scoring with only 1:24 remaining in the 1st period as freshman Tom Seravelli took a lead pass from Nick Seravelli and scored on a breakaway squeezing the puck under Max Richards for a 1-0 lead. The Tigers had several power play opportunities in the opening period and finally broke Fran Begley who made several outstanding saves to keep the Tigers off the board with just 14 seconds to go in the opening period as Wes Waldschmidt scored on a terrific shot low to the stick side of Begley inside the left post to tie the score at one apiece. On to the second period and North Allegheny took advantage of the power play on a 5 on 3 as the shots continued to pile up on Fran Begley by scoring at 11:12 as Josh Herbert would not be denied and scored on a Tyson Stupy rebound to give NA its first lead 2-1. The Firebirds were able to fight off the remaining disadvantages and finally mounted pressure in the North Allegheny zone and were awarded a power play late in the period. Michael Andusko found a loose puck in the right hand face-off circle after some great work by Nick Seravelli and John Soroka and shot it through traffic and behind Max Richards to tie the score again at two apiece with 2:54 to play in the period. Shots in the 2nd period were 11-8 in favor of the Tigers, but Holy Ghost Prep held an advantage in momentum and shots late in the period. State Championships are sometimes won and lost on momentum and despite being outshot in the game, Holy Ghost Prep was very much in this hockey game heading to the final period of regulation and North Allegheny was still playing terrific defensive hockey only yielding 14 shots to the Firebirds. North Allegheny took the lead on the power play with 7:16 to go in regulation as Brady Waldschmidt found the loose puck on tremendous 2nd effort and chipped it past Fran Begley to give the Tigers a 4-3 advantage with 7:16 to go in regulation. Then North Allegheny took a rare unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at a very critical point in this contest under a minute later at 6:19 and the Firebirds made them pay. Flyers Cup MVP Nick Seravelli showed why he is a pure scorer as he looked off his winger streaking down the left side and lofted a wrist shot high over the glove hand side of Max Richards for the equalizer and a power play goal with 5:48 to go and we were knotted again at 3-3. The teams went back and forth over the next few minutes and when Holy Ghost was rushing the puck the other way, behind the play Josh Herbert was trying to return to his position and was interfered with resulting in a penalty and a huge opportunity on the power play with 3:48 to go in regulation. North Allegheny scored their first three goals with the man advantage and they would win this hockey game by taking advantage of Holy Ghost penalties and by showing tremendous discipline of working hard and not taking penalties themselves. Wes Waldschimdt, who finished the State final with a goal and three assists, kept the puck alive behind the Firebird net and Josh Herbert would not be denied as he took the puck from behind the net, step to the front of the cage and overpowered Fran Begley with 2:29 to play for a power play goal, a 4-3 lead and the inside track on a State Championship for a program that has been so close for so many years. If there is a defining moment for this program, the Tigers of North Allegheny, it came with 1:17 to play in regulation time as Wes Waldscmidt, the converted defenseman, who play his entire career as a forward and at mid-season, unselfishly took the role on the blueline to help lead his team to 16 consecutive victories and a State Championship, showed tremendous saavy and patience saw the overload of the Holy Ghost Prep forecheck on left side of the ice (not to be confused with the Bethel Park forecheck) and fired puck off boards ahead for a streaking Josh Herbert, whose relentless effort and skill, outmaneuvered the Firebird defenseman for the puck on a truly great play and fired the puck beating Begley down low to make it 5-3. Josh Herbert finished it off with and empty netter with :37 to go and the euphoria arose in Aston as North Allegheny erased 36 years of history and captured its first State Championship with a 6-3 victory over Holy Ghost Prep. As we drove out of Eastern Pennsylvania, the cell phones were ringing as former Tiger players, coaches and parents heard the ringing in their ears of a very sweet sound of North Allegheny – 2007 Pennsylvania State Champions. The beauty of this victory is that brothers Head Coach Jimmy Black and Assistants Bobby Black, along with assistant Rich Conlin took this group of very talented players and were able to mould a championship team to defeat Central Catholic, defending State Champions Mt Lebanon, the # 1 seed Bethel Park and upstart Holy Ghost Prep as bring joy to many of the families of the North Allegheny program who have waited for this moment for a long time and now they can raise a new banner at CRANBERRY Blade Runners for North Allegheny Tigers and start a new tradition.