St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Due to the extreme and Egg-scrutiating cold temperatures this week caused by Mr Freeze, a lot of games in Western Pa were postponed. As soon as the games are re-scheduled [and if they are], we will try to keep you abreast of the situation. Below are the games that were postponed at Class A,AA,AAA and Open. If you find out please let us know,wso we can correct our schedule ! UPDATED 2/25/07 ~ ALL GAMES HAVE BEEN RE-SCHEDULED EXCEPT: A 2/13/2007 Tue WM 7:30 Westmont Hilltop Center A Open 2/23/2007 Fri CI 6:30 Derry Johnstown Open

North Allegheny 5 Central Catholic 1 CRANBERRY – North Allegheny’s (13-4-0) Hockey Program has made some significant strides over the past few years and was coached by current Central Catholic Head Coach Tom Pandolfo, who was responsible for two seasons that the Tigers advanced all the way to the Penguins Cup finals. When Pandolfo left the program prior to the end of last season, there was quite a bit of controversy as to why a coach with the success would walk away and the reasons after spending a lot of time with the coach were his own and no longer need to be discussed. So the Tiger program was left as it has been for several times in its history with a coaching search, which resulted in the netting of Jimmy Black, who led Pine Richland to their first ever State Championship last year in Class AA. NA has been adjusting to a very different coaching style and although it is not my job to pick and choose who’s style is better or who is more successful as the history books and Penguins Cups and State Championships will dictate. To date North Allegheny has NONE and the goal is still the same under Jimmy Black. Central Catholic (13-2-0) went to the free agent wire to find a new coach for its program decided Tom Pandolfo was a good fit for their program. And after 15 games of his tenure, it looks to be a pretty good move as the Vikings are in the hunt for the Penguins Cup in his first year. Admittedly, coach Pandolfo will tell you that taking the Viking helm has been quite a learning experience for him and an adjustment for both he and his staff as well as the players. Central’s roadblock, as well as the other Class AAA schools is Bethel Park, who are alone at the top of the league and have meet some challenge, but look to be the unanimous favorite. The Vikings and Tigers will have some company in that chase as February starts the downhill toward the playoffs, as defending champions Mt Lebanon, Meadville and more recently Upper St Clair and McDowell have thrown their hats in the ring as challengers, which is a stretch at this point because of the Bethel dominance, who has held down the # 1 ranking since the early weeks of the season. An all important seeding match-up tonight as Central Catholic is looking to atone for an 8-4 beating at the hands of NA on December 18th at the Harmarville BladeRunners. The opening half of the opening period was pretty uneventful until at 6:42 of the first Central was whistled for a penalty. It only took NA 11 seconds to capitalize as Josh Herbert scored on a rebound into a pretty open net at 6:31 to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. NA had another power play at 5:13 and goaltender John Scalo made a nice stop on Wes Waldschmidt from the slot at 3:45 to keep the score 1-0. North Allegheny nearly had a two goal advantage as Wes Waldschmidt’s shot just missed at 14:43. At 12:53, a CC penalty was nearly disaster but John Scalo made several nice stops to keep the Vikings within one. A time out by Pandolfo to school his troops about their play at 10:23, but Central continued to be outdisciplined by North Allegheny in the second period as the Vikings were whistled again at 7:40. Central Catholic continued to kill the penalty, but the Tigers finally capitalized as Wes Waldschmidt took the game into his own hands and scored on an overpowering wrist shot with 5:31 remaining in the middle period and only :01 left on the penalty. Moments later at 4:34, Doug Dietrich had CC’s best chance of the period, but Max Richards made a key save. In the process, the Tigers took a very undisciplined penalty putting the Vikings on the power play. Central finally got on the board as C.J. Burke converted a tremendous pass from Josh Martin to cut the lead to 2-1 with 2:05 left in the 2nd period. On to the third period and Central was now in the hockey game and had a chance on the power play at 11:51, but the Tigers stiffened and killed it off impressively building momentum in the process. After the penalty kill, CC got caught on an odd man break which resulted in a 3 on 1 and Brady Waldschmidt pounced on a Josh Herbert rebound for a huge goal at 9:26 and a 3-1 lead for the Tigers. North Alleghny’s Wes Waldschmidt would close the door on Central as he made a terrific move in traffic and beat Scalo to the short side on the post with 4:34 to go to make the lead 4-1 and Brett Schindler put the icing on a North Allegheny sweep of the Vikings 5-1 and a very important seeding game which could result in home ice and a bye for the Tigers in the upcoming playoffs.

Now as everyone knows Pa Hockey is the noted historian of Western Pa Hockey, Eastern Pa Hockey and now doing duties Nationwide through the 'Wall of Champions' that tracks State Championship results from 44 states across the United States. With all of that on the plate, we also track the Division Champions of Western Pa Hockey and have so since Interscholastic Hockey began here in Western Pa in 1971. If you'll take a gander at the records attached, we have the Division Championships of every school from the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League, South Hills Interscholastic Hockey League and Lake Shore Hockey League prior to 1999, when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League was formed. You can also find alot of the detail of your respective schools championships on Pa Hockey History at www.pahockey.org and in the Pa Hockey Yearbook, which will hit the streets soon ! Since our friends the Villans are busy with other activities other than handing out Division Championship Trophies, which are NOT given to the teams when they happen. We thought we'd give our 3000 visitors a week a heads up as to when this occurs. I hope thats not bashing our friends too much, cause they're a little sensitive about the subject. We would like to congratulate the following schools for capturing their respective division titles: Class AAA Bethel Park Blackhawks - For 6 out of the last 8 seasons, the South Division title has resided in Bethel Park and resulted in 4 Pennsylvania State Class AAA Championships under Jim McVay. The measuring stick for Class AAA hockey in Pennsylvania is now Bethel Park ! Plum Mustangs ~ For the first time since 2002, Plum EARNS a Division Title and will do so with a sub .500 record. Congrats to the Mustangs ! North Allegheny Tigers ~ NA captures a division title for the 3rd consecutive year and their 5th in the past 8 years. Congrats to Jimmy Black and the Tigers! McDowell Trojans ~ McDowell captured the Lake Shore Hockey League title 7 consecutive years from 1974 through 1980 and in 2007 captures their first division title in 27 years edging out rival Meadville. Congratulations to Head Coach Nels White and the Trojans. Class AA Pine Richland Rams - Pine Richland wins their 3rd consectuive North title and 6th division title in 8 years and is set to defend their Pa State AA championship. Congrats to Bobby Kennedy and the Rams ! Thomas Jefferson Jaguars - Thomas Jefferson wins its 3rd South Division crown under the Dean of Class AA Don Powell. We would like to extend our congrats to the Jaguars ! Latrobe Wildcats - Latrobe wins their first division title since 2002 and that was under current Head Coach Ron Makoski as well. Moon Tigers - The Tigers win their first division title since 1977 in the WPIHL by edging Montour. Congratulations to Craig Bioni and the Moon Hockey Club for ending a 30 year drought ! Class A Quaker Valley Quakers - The Quakers have won their 6th consecutive West Division crown under Kevin Quinn and are set to defend their Class A State Crown Conemaugh Valley Blue Jays - After 7 consecutive East Division Titles, Bishop McCort's reign ends, but only because they were moved to the North Division. Conemaugh Valley captures their first ever division championship Congrats to the Blue Jays ! Freeport Yellow Jackets - Freeport wins their first ever Division title by edging out Bishop McCort. Congratulations to Head Coach Dave Hepler and the Yellow Jackets ! Mars Planets - Mars wins their 4th Division title in 8 years in Class A. Congratulations to Eric Glover and the Planets ! Open Division State College Icers - East Division Champions Hempfield Spartans - North Division Champions Quigley Spartans - West Division Champions Wheeling Park Patriots - South Division Champions

Bishop McCort 4 Westmont Hilltop 1 JOHNSTOWN – Bishop McCort (10-4-1) opened the season at 0-3-1 and since then has been on a roll winning 10 out of 11 games including a 5-4 victory over # 2 Serra Catholic on Monday night. Coach John Bradley’s team is heating up as the first of February is today and the playoffs are right around the corner. The Crimson Crushers have been to the Penguins Cup Playoffs for 16 consecutive seasons and to the Penguins Cup Semi-Final 15 of those years [exception was 1998 when Westmont knocked out the Crushers in the round of 8] including 5 Pennsylvania State Class A Championships and their latest Penguin Cup in 2005, when McCort rebounded from a mediocre start to advance all the way to the State Finals before bowing to Penncrest at HersheyPark Arena. Westmont Hilltop (10-6-0) has rebounded nicely this season after two losing campaigns after 13 consecutive winning seasons up through 2005. ‘King Arthur McArthur’ McQuillan’s Mighty Hilltoppers started the season 8-1-0 and have hit a slide the past 7 games dropping some tough contests to Class A frontrunners Quaker Valley, Mars, Bishop McCort twice, Quaker Valley and Freeport over the past month. Westmont will have to get things corrected quickly if it hopes to defeat those teams in the upcoming playoffs. Bishop McCort opened the scoring at 12:50 of the first on a harmless looking shot to the net by Todd Thomas that handcuffed Ian O’Brien and Jordan Jaco scored into an empty net for a 1-0 McCort lead. At 10:31 Todd Thomas on a pass from freshman Dane Domonkos to make it 2-0 Crushers. AT 5:55, some sloppy play by Westmont defense ended up on the stick of Dane Domonkos, who had a nifty move on Ian O’Brien and beat him on the forehand to give Bishop a commanding 3-0 lead. Shots in the opening period in the first period were indicative of the scoreboard at 17-4 in favor of McCort. On a 5 on 3 at 12:35 of the second period as Chad O’Brien scored on an Eric Miller rebound to cut the lead to 3-1. At 9:48 the Crushers scored on a wraparound that was lost by the official, but confirmed shortly as Todd Thomas scored a critical power play goal to make it 4-1. Bishop McCort seemed content to kill the clock in the third period hemming up the Hilltoppers in their own end for the first half of the period with limited opportunities. Ian O’Brien made a nice stop on Jordan Jaco with 6:09 to play in regulation. Bishop McCort ran out the clock on the Mighty Hilltoppers by the score of 4-1 as the Crimson Crushers continue the torrid stretch and continued to gear for the playoffs.

Franklin Regional 4 Kittanning 3 [OT] Kittanning advanced to the 2006 Penguins Cup before losing to Pine Richland in the Final in March of last year. With much of the team returning and the continuity in the coaching, Head Coach Jon Yackmack had to have optimism coming into this season given those factors. The Wildcats were a TEAM in every sense as a frenzy grew at the Belmont enough to get long-time Kittanning faithful Max Pozzuto and Tim Lane to die the hair gold. Oh how a couple of months can change a lot if not everything and if the Cats had no luck, it may be better than the bad stretch of misfortune hitting the program. The latest setback was an injury to Nick Troup, who now has his arm in a cast, which is the latest snafu for Kittanning. Kittanning assistant coach Jamie King cited Franklin Regional as a very good reason, as he reminded yours truly of the 2-1 double overtime win in the 1997 WPIHL playoffs over FR as the ignition of Kittanning’s fortunes and the ten year run since then that has resulted in a handful of Penguins Cup finals and the annual run the Wildcats seem to put together to compete for the top spot in Class AA. Franklin Regional has been back in Class AA for the 2006-2007 season and has found life in this classification to be up and down depending on the mood of coach Jim Daugherty’s club. A 1-4 start followed by an 8 game run to vault the Panthers to near the top of the rankings and recently two disappointing performances losing to Indiana and Greensburg CC has FR at 10-6-0 and in the hunt for a bye and home playoff berth for the team, but will have to be a result of another winning run over the final month of the season. Talented sophomore Patrick Coyne is now back in the lineup, which gives the Panthers depth a boost, but the question remains will the Panthers play one game this season with their entire roster in the lineup as distractions of all important amateur practices may become the cancer leading to playoff elimination in March. If you don’t believe me just look back at the 2003 Penguins Cup finals, when the side show cost this program a very rare opportunity to advance to the Pennsylvania State Finals and an emabrassing beating at the hands of eventual State Champions Meadville. The Franklin Regional program has been in existence for 26 years and never gotten to the promised land and with limited numbers remaining maybe never be afforded an opportunity again. Kittanning looked like a much different team than we have seen this season in the opening minutes working over the Panthers with good play at both ends of the ice and took the lead on a goal by Zach Avi at 11:25 of the first. Lucas Sasala gave the Kittanning more reason for optimism with 9:42 remaining in the opening period making it 2-0 in favor of the Wildcats. Franklin Regional freshman defenseman Michael Adams lit the lamp with 8:21 to go in the period to get the Panthers back in the game 2-1. FR started to find its legs late in the period and scored the equalizer as hardworking forward Brian Buckley scored on a rebound on the power play with just 2:32 remaining and the score was tied at two apiece. On to the second and Franklin started to open up the Kittanning defense pouring the shots on Joey Mecurio, who was standing tall between the pipes. A great pass from Carl Richter to a streaking Eugene Mack on the power play gave the Panthers a 3-2 lead early in the period at 12:52. Mecurio made several nice stops as the shots were 31-14 in favor of Franklin, but Kittanning was still very much in this hockey game and the Wildcats put together a very nice stretch of hard work and 12-1 shot advantage over the last half of the second period and would tie the game as Zach Avi got the equalizer on a pretty passing play with 3:32 remaining in the second. The play came after a Kittanning shot wrang off the pipe and fell harmlessly under Panther goaltender Anthony Livecchi, who made several stops himself. The Panthers and Wildcats battled through the third period with Kittanning holding an advantage in shots 10-6 in the final period of regulation. Both Liveechi and Mecurio were equal to the task pitching a shutout in the final period. Kittanning had a golden opportunity late in the period on the power play with 2 ½ left, but the FR goaltender and defense stiffened to send the game to overtime. Kittanning was whistled for a penalty behind the play with 8 ticks left, giving FR the power play in overtime. Joey Mecurio was on fire in net for Kittanning robbing Eugene Mack on the back door with a sliding save in the opening minute of the overtime period. The Panthers kept on the pressure and Brian Buckley’s shot wandered out in front where Ryan Kramer got loose and he banged home the rebound to give the Panthers a hard fought 4-3 overtime victory with 3:25 left in OT and only 17 seconds left on the power play.