Announcement
Canevin 2 Montour 1 (OT)
NEVILLE ISLAND –
Canevin (13-2-1) has had a terrific season under Kevin Zielmanski in his first year with the Crusaders. With wins over West Allegheny twice, the Crusaders appear ready to challenge for the Penguins Cup in 2008. A pretty young team with some crafty veterans and adequate goaltending is a good reason why the Crusaders are a close # 2 ranking behind Latrobe. Canevin is looking to finish strong in the regular season and wrap up a top 4 seed for the playoffs and could nail down a 2nd seed with a win over Franklin Regional, should the Crusaders run the table.
Montour (8-6-1) is part of the pack of teams that fall behind West A, Latrobe, Franklin and tonight’s opponent Canevin. The Spartans are working toward a possible # 5 or # 6 seed in the Penguins Cup playoffs, which could land them in a second round playoff game against one of the top 4. Montour has rebounded from a disinterested first half of the season with big wins over Canevin, Kittanning and Peter Twp in a modest streak for Head Coach Dan Siegel. The Spartans would love to put another notch on their belt by defeating the Crusaders for a 2nd time this season.
So before and intimate gathering of the ‘Concerned Citizens of Montour’ and always ‘Concerned Citizens of Canevin’ the two rivals squared off. At 12:42 of the 1st period Montour went on the Power play that was killed by the Crusaders. Montour earned a a 1-0 lead at 3:19 of the opening period as Steve Schott took a pass from behind net from Michael Harrington and buried it past Zack Bogden. A Canevin Power play at 2:31 was killed by Montour.
In the 2nd period Canevin went on the ccipower play at 7:05 and again at 5:06 but could not score. At 3:32 of the 2nd a Montour Power play and the game remained 1-0. At 1:38 Vince Nicolella just missed after set up by Cam Zappi and Canevin went back on the power play to no avail, but Canevin had significant pressure in the closing seconds but was unable to score.
Early in the Third Period at 13:16 to go Canevin Power play and this time at 11:30 of the period Vince Nicolella scored on a 2nd rebound burying a shot low to the glove side of Scott Tapler to tie the score at 1-1. At 9:41 of the period, Canevin had another power play, but could not capitalize. Another man advantage at 7:21 for Canevin and Montour was able to kill it off and the score remained 1-1. With 4:51 to go, Canevin got a little over zealous clearing the front of the net and put the Spartans on the power play, but they couldn’t score. With 3:12 to go and a delayed penalty, Vince Nicolella had a wide open net and missed a great chance to give the Crusaders a 2-1 lead. Josh Daley hit the post at 1:51 after a rebound. Bogden made a real nice glove save n Michael Harrington with 35 seconds to go in regulation.
In overtime, Canevin had a lot of chances and near misses and then Josh Daley found the puck behind the net a threaded a nice pass to John Faciano # 20 who snuck a wrist shot past Scott Tapler for the game winner and give Canevin a hard earned 2-1 overtime win. When the chips were down, Canevin came up with another level to their game and never let Montour off the mat, which could be a tell tail sign of the Crusaders rise to prominence in Class AA and for the Spartans a very tough setback.
