St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Pittsburgh 3 North Dakota 2 2007 Chicago Showcase BENSENVILLE, ILLINOIS - Team Pittsburgh opened the 23rd Annual Chicago Showcase with 4-1 loss to a very strong and talented Michigan team. Head Coach Jim ‘Mort’ McVay and assistant Dave ‘the Boy Wonder’ Fryer are pretty studious coaches and had an opportunity to scout North Dakota and Illinois on Wednesday afternoon and any time you give good coaches an chance to see their next opponent, the adjustments and game plan can be made. This is exactly what the coaches hoped to accomplish and from knowing these two guys for a few years, I can tell you that they were pretty confident that Pittsburgh could get back on track. History is another story as North Dakota has been a thorn in Pitssburgh’s side the past few years in the A Bracket, most recently knocking off Team Pittsburgh to advance to the finals of the 2006 Chicago Showcase, were they were defeated by New Jersey. Pittsburgh came out flying in the opening minutes as there appeared to be a mismatch in speed as they caught North Dakota flat footed a couple of times. Seneca Valley’s Matt Jarrett chipped a lead pass to Central Catholic’s Chris Urso, who made a great move on ND goaltender Jamall Wold on a deke and beat him on the forhand for a shorthanded goal and a 1-0 lead at 7:01. Pittsburgh continued to pile on the shots in the opening frame and Bethel Park’s Bryan Brown scored on his own rebound at 5:58 to make it 2-0 in favor of Pittsburgh. With the shots 14-7 in favor of Pittsburgh in the first, a huge one came off the stick of Freeport’s Zach Hepler as his long wrist shot from the right point made it’s way through traffic and past Wold on the stick side at knee level to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead with 4:21 to go in the first period. North Dakota was able to muster some offense in the 2nd period as they began to pressure Pittsburgh, but North Allegheny’s Max Richards came up big at 7:53 of the period stopping the best Sioux scoring chance of the hockey game at 7:53. Pittsburgh countered with some offense of its own as well in the period resulting in a power play with a little over two minutes remaining and continued to control the play, but could not score. North Dakota had a golden opportunity with a shorthanded 2 on 1, but Seneca Valley’s Nick Jones made a terrific play to intercept a pass and Pittsburgh headed to the ice cut with a 3-0 lead and 26-15 shot advantage through two periods. One of the most dangerous leads in hockey is 3-0 and Pittsburgh had many opportunities in the 2nd period to extend the lead to 4-0. North Dakota was able to get on the board at 13:53 as Zach Welding got behind the Pittsburgh defense and beat Max Richards to cut the lead to 3-1. Pittsburgh took a penalty and North Dakota capitalized as Zachery Miller was on the back door and roofed a pass from Scott Samuelson for a power play goal and the lead was now only 3-2 for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh took another penalty giving ND a chance to tie the game, but the Sioux took a hooking call behind the play to nullify the man advantage at 9:43. Pittsburgh took another penalty at 8:37, but a very questionable call and break for Pittsburgh came at 7:15, which kindof killed the North Dakota at that point of the game. Pittsburgh and North Dakota battled over the last half of the third period and each team had their chances and the score remained 3-2 in favor of Pittsburgh. With :52 to go in regulation, Pittsburgh was whistled for too many men creating a 6 on 4 power play for North Dakota. Pittsburgh’s defense and Max Richards stiffened and they held the Sioux off the board to earn a 3-2 victory over nemesis North Dakota.