Announcement
Canevin gets a break and holds off West Allegheny 2-1
Canevin 2 West Allegheny 1
CORAOPOLIS –
West Allegheny coach Norm Cook learned one thing about his team after their 4-0 loss to Franklin Regional last Friday night. The Indians will need both leading scorers Ryan Kumpfmiller and Jeff Cupelli in the lineup and the rest of the lineup to contribute key goals for West A to contend for the Class AA Penguins Cup in March. There is no question that the Indians are contenders and along with Latrobe, Franklin Regional and tonight’s opponent Canevin are the odds on favorites to win it all. West A made it to the Semi-Finals a year ago and is looking to go one step further this season and with the goaltending of Kyle Mortimer and Anthony Sweet, will be a tough team to beat when the bell rings.
Bishop Canevin has never won anything in hockey, it’s because Canevin is the hockey power that everyone remembers that won State Championships in 1983. 1984 and 1989. And when it comes down to it, that history and tradition is pretty important, but in the scheme of the 2008 Penguins Cup AA, I liken this race to 1998, when out of nowhere came Thomas Jefferson to win three straight Pennsylvania State Class AA crowns. For Kevin Zeilmanski, that was the year when he took the helm at Central Catholic and won the Class AAA Penguins Cup, only to fall to LaSalle in the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships. A new start at Canevin, coach Zeilmanski has had a profound effect on the Crusaders in his first year and with a combination of youth and veterans and some pretty good goaltending in Zach Bogden, is in the thick of things in Class AA and has to be one of the teams to watch come March.
Overcoming West Allegheny is one of those obstacles that has held Canevin back the past few years and this is a big week that the teams will meet twice and could very well decide the top two or three seeds in the Penguins Cup playoffs. The Crusaders and Indians have waged many battles over the last few years and these two over the next week will be pretty important in the seeding of the Class AA playoffs. Canevin and West Allegheny both skated hard in the opening minutes with the Crusaders having an edge in the territorial play in the opening minutes. Vince Nicolella had a great chance at 11:41 only to be turned aside by Kyle Mortimer. Canevin continued to press and went on the power play at 4:32, but West A stiffened. The Crusaders kept on coming and it finally paid off when with 53 seconds to go in the period Cam Zappi converted a Josh Daley pass beating Mortimer for a 1-0 Canevin lead.
On to the second period and West Allegheny picked up their pace and would get the equalizer at 6:38 as Ryan Kumpfmiller beat the Crusader defense and Zack Bogden to knot the score at one apiece. Canevin almost pulled ahead at 5:29 as Mike Mannsmann had a golden opportunity on a 2nd rebound with a wide open cage, but Kyle Mortimer robbed him with a phenomenal glove save. At 3:28 Jeffrey Cupelli beat the Canevin defense but Bogden stoned him and West A was given a power play, but could not score as the game headed to the ice cut tied at 1-1.
Canevin came up with the big goal to take the lead at 10:20 as Vincent Nicolella scored on another nice feed from Josh Daley and the Crusaders were now on top again 2-1. West Allegheny apparently tied the game with 7:22 to go as Ryan Kumpfmiller buried a wrist shot upstairs past Bogden. The play was blown dead as referee Jeff Sheran ruled that a Canevin player was in the crease and called a goaltender interference penalty, much to the dismay of the ‘Concerned Citizens’ of West Allegheny and to the delight of the Blue Raspberry Canevin faithful. It was a very good call from my angle as not one Crusader was within a stick length of the offender from West A, who was clearly in the goal crease and got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Needless to say, this was a very big break for Canevin, who could not convert the power play. The Indians got another chance with the man advantage, but Canevin stood tall and with the goalie pulled furiously tried to tie the game, but the Crusaders withstood a final minute barrage for a 2-1 victory. Canevin cannot rest on it’s laurels too much as these same teams will meet again on Monday.
