St Joseph's Prep Hawks

2007 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships Class AA – Pine Richland Rams (23-1-1) vs Haverford High Fords (20-2-0) April 7, 2007 - Ice Works – Aston, Pennsylvania Pine Richland 8 Haverford 6 ASTON – Haverford has won three consecutive Flyers Cup AA championships and done so in impressive fashion and unfortunately the first two trips to the State finals have come up empty against Peters Township and Pine Richland. The Fords have won 14 straight games dating back to the 7-6 loss to Conestoga in early December and have beaten some pretty good teams including Cardinal O'Hara, the Class AAA finalist, Conestoga and South Jersey power Washington Township. Haverford is a high scoring team with an explosive offense and seems to have its way with opponents and has built a loyal following of boisterous fans during the playoffs that could be a factor since the Ice Works is a home game for the State Finals. Head coach Brian Cleary will have to overcome a scoreless two trips to the last two Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships with a 4-0 loss to Peters Township in 2005 at the Hersheypark Arena and another 4-0 setback to Pine Richland a year ago at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center. Haverford High is looking to capture its first State Crown since 1992, an 8-4 victory over Greensburg CC in the Class A game in Pittsburgh. Pine Richland has been the king of Class AA since they knocked Peter Twp out of the Penguin Cup in last year's semi-finals and if you have been around the club a little, they make you feel like they are ten time champions, which is part of the swagger of being defending champions. My feeling is that with this field in this year, that is a dangerous proposition. Sure the team went 20-1-1 and went virtually unchallenged throughout the season, but a 1-1 tie with Greensburg CC, a narrow almost 3-2 win over Moon in overtime and a 2-1 loss to upstart Franklin Regional are signs of a team not so dominant. Bobby Kennedy's club is the best team in Class AA all year and has met the challenges of repeating as Pennsylvania State Champions with wins over Hampton, West Allegheny and Thomas Jefferson to capture its 2nd straight Penguins Cup AA Championship. The final step in the road is the same Haverford team that the Rams defeated a year ago. The Rams last trip to Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania State Playoffs was nearly 30 years ago, held up the road at the Lafayette Ice Rink in 1977 as Pine Richland fell short bowing to eventual champions, Churchill Chargers in the preliminary round 4-1, who are a team that Bob Kennedy’s Upper St Clair team defeated in 1980 on their way to their first State Championship over Erie McDowell. Pine Richland and Haverford met for the 2006 Pennsylvania Class AA Championship a year ago at Robert Morris Island Sports Center in a very tight low scoring contest and the re-match would be a little different and if anyone was paying attention to the Pa Hockey previews of the # 1 and # 2 ranked teams in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 rankings, my sense of this game was a very wide open and explosive State Final between two very explosive offensive clubs. The Rams and Fords engage in combat in the opening minutes of this state final as it was obvious that Haverford was going to play the physical card off the bat and the defending State Champions were not going to back down as they matched Haverford hit for hit before a jammed pack Ice Works of spirited Haverford faithful and the always Concerned Citizens of Pine Richland. The Rams would strike first as George Saad took a Phil Trombetta pass from the left circle and buried a low snap shot past Jason Hazleton for a 1-0 Pine Richland lead. Dylan Trombetta extended the lead with 3:28 to go in the opening period taking a nice pass from brother Phil Trombetta and depositing it past Hazleton to give the Rams a 2-0 lead. George Saad struck again with just 27 seconds to play in the opening period and Pine Richland was off and running with an easy looking 3-0 lead after one period, outshooting the Fords 7-4. When Pine Richland took a 4-0 lead on a goal just 17 seconds into the second period on a goal by Eric Febert, it really looked like the Rams were going to blow out Haverford and the fact that the Fords were still unable to score a goal in a State Final was looming large at this point of the contest. A great shift by Haverford’s top line of Steve Karpinski, T.J. Haeberle and Chris Campli changed the momentum of the hockey game and on their very next shift, that combination was able to get the Fords on the board as Campli threaded a beautiful pass to Haeberle, who in one motion swept the puck past Stoney Hildreth to give Haverford their first goal in three years of the State Final at 11:57 and it was now 4-1. Pine Richland was still in control or so it seemed and Haverford rose like the Phoenix out of the ashes exactly a minute later at 10:57 as it was T.J. Haeberle again beating Hildreth to give the Fords new life at 4-2. Pine Richland was able to get the puck out of the zone after extreme pressure by Haverford, who out shot its opponent 14-7 in the second period. Matt Lohman scored a very big goal at 6:30 of the period as his long slap shot found its way through traffic and behind Jason Hazleton to make it 5-2 in favor of the Rams. Back came the Fords at 4:43 as swift skating defenseman Shane Coyle showed great presence on the power play of throwing the puck to the net from the far boards and handcuffing Ram goaltender Stoney Hildreth with 4:43 to play and the ravenous Fords fans were back in the spirit and their team back in the game 5-3. On the very next shift, the Haverford faithful were thrown into a frenzy as Jimmy Hazleton found the puck in the left circle and fired a low wrist shot low on the ice past Hildreth with 4:24 to go in the middle period and the Fords were now within one goal at 5-4 and had it going all their way in a wild second period. In this state championship, Pine Richland would take advantage of key moments and again late in the period would scored a very big goal in the hockey game. After an icing brought the face-off the length of the ice with under a minute to play, the line of Dylan Trombetta, Phil Trombetta and George Saad, as they have done all season long for the Rams, would deliver in a very big way as Saad wone the faceoff and the crafty Dyaln Trombetta threaded an almost unreal pass to brother Phil on the back door, who slapped the puck out of the air from just off the ice with just :01 remaining the period, sending Haverford to the ice cut down 6-4 and probably wondering how the momentum of a second period that they absolutely earned in 15 minutes could be suck right out of them. The third period picked up right where period number two left off as Reed Loney’s slapshot from just over the blue line found its way past Hazleton to make it 7-4 for the Rams with 13:48 to play in regulation. The Haverford faithful were on their feet again as Jimmy Hazleton took the puck from behind his own net and weaved through center ice firing a wrist shot low on the ice past Hildreth at 13:05 to cut the count to 7-5. The Fords showed great resilience time and time again in this State Final and it looked like a very good chance that they may be able to win the State Championship that has eluded them for three years when T.J. Haeberle scored a terrific goal shorthanded on a great display of passing with Chris Campli as Haeberle took the return pass and buried it up under the crossbar with 9:49 to play and this game was now 7-6 and anyone’s hockey game. Pine Richland showed why at this point they are a championship team as they gathered their composure and began to play defense in front of Stoney Hildreth, who to this point was not having his greatest game of his career, but he showed the fortitude as he has throughout the playoffs for Pine Richland to come up big when his team needed him the most. Jimmy Hazelton had a tremendous opportunity from the left circle to tie the game at 7 apiece and he cut loose a wrist shot, similar to his two goals in the contest low to the glove side and Stoney snagged it out of the air as to say ‘not today gentlemen’, which in my opinion was the turning point to the fortunes for both clubs. After that save Pine Richland’s defensive unit of Kyle Adams, Matt Lohman, Geoff Bagnato, Evan Goetz and the forward lines began to play great defense in front of their goaltender and forced Haverford to take a penalty with 4:49 to play with hard work and great effort. Pine Richland’s George Saad would put the exclamation point with a huge insurance goal, again combining with Phil and Dylan Trombetta, who set up the play and give the Rams an 8-6 lead and renewed confidence in their ability to play defense. The Ram sophomore forward Saad added that “the team was really nervous when the game was tight and he was proud that the team was able to play strong defense and rally around Stoney (Hildreth) to create a momentum swing” which ultimately was the difference in the contest. Haverford became frustrated as the Rams shut them down like a carnival ride at midnight and the Fords unraveled over three years of empty trips to the State Finals and the game turned ugly with really cheap and undisciplined play by Haverford, who turned a terrific and exciting hockey game into an ugly spectacle of unsportsmanlike behavior and a score of penalties and misconducts, which is unacceptable at any level and will more than likely be swept under the rug by a playoff committee more interested in squabbling over trophies and making coaches wear helmets to practice than enforcing discipline to protect the players (The history includes the 2001 Class A State Final bench clearing brawl between Serra and Springfield, where both teams were assessed 10 players getting 10-game misconducts, only to see the PIHL and Eastern Pennsylvania reduce those penalties to lesser penalties and in my mind endorse un acceptable behavior giving the sport of ice hockey in Pennsylvania a black eye administratively). To Pine Richland’s credit, they turned the other cheek and showed tremendous restraint in taking NO penalties over the final 20 minutes of the contest, which is a testimony to a champion in itself. Pine Richland was able to survive the final minutes and walked away with an exciting 8-6 victory for the 2nd straight year over Haverford completing an excellent coaching job by Bobby Kennedy, who captured his third overall State Championship as a player and coach, including Bethel Park’s first State Championship in 1997 and in 1980 as a player for Upper St Clair.