St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Franklin Regional 4 West Allegheny 2

CORAOPOLIS –

West Allegheny (13-4-0) just completed its roughest stretch of the season with losses to Franklin Regional and Canevin back to back to fall out of a top two spot and back to 4^th ranked in a Class AA that has only really four teams in contention at this point to contend for a Penguins Cup. The Indians have rebounded with a win over Indiana and would like to send a message to Class AA, that West A intends to contend in March and a great way to start wold be to knock off Franklin Regional, which is the 5^th and final game against the other top 3 contenders. Head Coach Norm Cook will also need to establish depth in the playoffs to compete for the Class AA Penguins Cup. 

Franklin Regional (13-2-1) is ranked # 3 in the latest Post Gazette Class AA rankings and after losing to Kittanning a week ago after surrendering another third period lead similar to their only other loss to Latrobe. Head Coach Jim Daugherty is looking for his club to adopt the killer instinct it displayed in their first meeting with West Allegheny where the Panthers outshot the Indians by a wide margin and walked away with a 4-0 victory. If the Panthers hope to contend for a Penguins Cup a little over a month away, they must be able to put teams away in the third period when they have the lead. The loss at Kittanning was just another reminder that this team despite its record has its flaws, which may become exposed in March.

Good action in the opening minutes as Franklin’s Eugene Mack hit the post and then Ryan Kumpfmiller was stopped by FR’s Anthony Livecchi. At 12:40 of the opening period, the puck was forced to the front of the net and Ryan Crossey got a freebie tap in to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. At 7:23 of the period, Ryan Crossey had a great chance on a breakaway, but Kyle Mortimer made the save.  A little over a minute later at 6:16,  Shane Corssey made a terrific play to keep the puck in the zone after a rebound was kicked out near the blue line and Crossey raced down the slot amnd beat Mortimer to make it 2-0 at 6:16. Franklin could not capitalize on the man advantage at 5:49 and the scored remained 2-0 after one as the Panthers outshot West A 11-5.

On to the second period and Kyle Mortimer made a terrific toe save stop on Anthony Talamo after a real nice setup by Ryan Crossey at 11:22. West Allegheny would answer as Jeff Cupelli took a lead pass from Ryan Kumpfmiller and beat Livecchi to cut the lead to 2-1 in favor of Franklin. West Allegheny had a chance to tie it on the power play at 10:16, but Franklin had an even better scoring opportunity on a 3 on1 at 8:32 but was unable to even register a shot.Mortimer made another great save on Ryan Crossey, which seemed to lift his team and the Indians responded by turning up the heat in the Franklin end in an effort to tie the game. West A took a very bad penalty with 1:46 to play in the period and the Panthers made them pay as Eugene Mack walked the Indians defense and buried a wrist shot with 57 seconds to play in the period for a huge goal and an even bigger momentum swing as FR outshot West A 9-8 in the 2^nd period.