St Joseph's Prep Hawks

The Meadville Bulldog Hockey club will conduct the 10th Annual Bulldog Invitational at the Meadville Area Recreation Center on January 13th - 15th, 2006. The Schedule is as follows: Friday January 13th Mt Lebanon 4 St Francis OH 2 LaSalle 4 Thomas Jefferson 2 Sylvania Northview OH 4 Meadville 1 Central Catholic 3 Bowling Green OH 1 Saturday January 14th St Francis OH 14 Thomas Jefferson 2 LaSalle 0 Mt Lebanon 0 Central Catholic 4 Meadville 4 Sylvania Northview OH 8 Bowling Green OH 1 Mt Lebanon 9 Thomas Jefferson 1 Sylvania Northview OH 5 Central Catholic 1 LaSalle 4 St Francis OH 0 Meadville 3 Bowling Green OH 1 Sunday January 15th 8:00 AM ~ Semi-Final - Mt Lebanon 3 Meadville 1 10:00 AM ~ Semi-Final - LaSalle 2 Sylvania Northview OH 1 3:00 PM ~ 10th Annual Bulldog Invitational Final Mt Lebanon 1 LaSalle 0 *** GAME SUMMARIES AND A COMPLETE WRAP-UP OF THE 2006 BULLDOG INVITATIONAL IS NOW AVAILABLE**** All-Tournament Team - 2006 Meadville Bulldog Invitational Matt Bartkowski - Mt Lebanon Jon Wilen - Mt Lebanon John Williams - LaSalle Dan Pyne - LaSalle Alden Hirschfeld - Sylvania Northview Adam Thangsiu - Sylvania Northview

Pine Richland 3 Montour 0 NEVILLE ISLAND – A limited version who’s who night was in the works at RMU Island Sports Center as Frankie Valli and the 4 Spartans, along with many of the ‘Concerned Citizens of Montour’ and former ‘Concerned Citizens’ including Mike Arch, Gary Shiwarski, and Garry ‘Cheese Steak’ Panucci. Montour’s coach Dan Siegel has ramped up his program taking his team to play in competition outside of Western Pennsylvania and many thought this would a rebuilding year and it has been and an 9-0-0 has been re-built a lot quicker than expected mostly due to excellent goaltending of returnee Nick Gialloretto and freshman Matt Skoff and solid defense and consistent scoring led by Zach Perry. This game with Pine Richland would be a big test to see how far the rebuilding phase has come. Pine Richland was expected to be one of the top two teams in Class AA to challenge four time defending Penguins Cup champions Peters Twp. The Rams have cruised to blowout victories over the weaker competition, but have struggled over the past few games, particularly in a win over Moon 3-2 and a 2-2 tie against Canon McMillan. This is December and PR needs to gear up for a playoff run in January and February and head coach Jimmy Black is well aware its time to start playing with a little more intensity for 45 minutes as teams are marking that date with Pine Richland on the calender looking for a notch on the belt by defeating the # 2 ranked team, who has held the # 1 spot for 6 weeks. Montour had trouble getting the puck out of their own early on as Pine Richland pressed the attack dominating the opening minutes. Gialloretto made a terrific sliding stop on Steven Adams at 10:31 of the opening period. Shots were 8-1 in favor of the Rams and they would cash in as Jordan Yoklic pounced on a rebound and beat the Spartan goaltender at 10:14 after a great save on Fodor bounced on the doorstep to give PR a 1-0 lead. The Rams continued their domination in the period to the final whistle outshooting Montour 17-1 in the first period. With the ice tilted in the first period, Montour finally got the puck in the Rams zone and they got a little giddy as Phil Trombetta found Josh Fodor in alone on who made no mistake beating Nick Gialloretto up under the crossbar at 14:18 of the 2nd period for a 2-0 lead for the Rams. Montour would have an opportunity on the power play at 11:21, which would mark a very important chance for the Spartans to get back in the game or at least build some momentum in a hockey game owned by the road team, which continued with an easy penalty kill. At 8:36, the Spartans have a chance in front, but Stoney Hildreth turned aside a shot by Mario Victor. At 6:04 of the 2nd, Gialloretto made another tremendous save on Dylan Trombetta from point blank range. Shots were a little better for the Spartans in the middle period as the Rams held a 10-5 edge. On to the 3rd period and Montour finally mounted a little attack but could not score on Stoney Hildreth. A timeout with 5 minutes to go for Pine Richland and I am sure Jimmy Black reminded his team that this is a 45 minute game. Montour pulled the goalie for the extra attacker with 1:38 left and Josh Fodor made them pay scoring an empty netter with 1:21 remaining to make it 3-0 and would close it out with an impressive win on the road.

North Hills 10 Franklin Regional 2 NEVILLE ISLAND – Franklin Regional [5-3-0] and North Hills [3-5-0] appear to be in the hunt for playoff spots in the 2006 Penguins Cup playoffs. Since the PIHL has reduced the number of teams from 16 to 12, one of these two clubs may be on the outside looking in come March. The Indians have faced tough competition in the form of two games vs North Allegheny [a split], Meadville and Fox Chapel. The losses that will hurt the most for Matt Hansen’s club are the ones to Baldwin and Cathedral Prep. Franklin, on the other hand, is is similar straights to the Indians as Jim Daugherty’s club dropped contests to NA, Fox Chapel and Penn Trafford. This game could be one of those contests, which looms large come late February. North Hills came out smoking in the opening period as at 6:50 of the first as Mark Ringeling picked up a rebound and deposited past Adam Treml. The Indians came right back at 5:35 when Nick Rostek banged home a rebound to make it 2-0. The lead was extended at 2:47 as Joe Waters scored on a wrist shot to make it 3-0 after one period. On to the 2nd period and Franklin Regional got on the board at 8:24 as Turner Andritz made a nifty move to the net and beat Kevin Gubish to make it 3-1. North Hills came right back at 6:54 as Joe Waters wrist shot through traffic low on the ice beat Treml to the glove side to make it 4-1. At 13:35 of the third period, Nick Rostek backhanded a rebound of a Fred Latini shot past Adam Treml to make it 5-1 Indians. North Hills turned this one into a rout at 12:43 as Jeremy Kubit scored and again at 9:08 as Dave Hansell scored on a rebound wraparound to make it 7-1. Franklin’s Dan Neal scored at 5:35 of the final period to make it 7-2. NH came right back at 4:51 as Cory Pellegrino cashed in to make it 8-2 and Danny Stein added another at 2:21 to make it 9-2 and capped off a 10-2 thrashing of Franklin with just 15 seconds left on a goal by Brian Kick.

Fox Chapel 5 Cathedral Prep 1 HARMARVILLE – After the fine staff of Harmarville BladeRunners was kind enough to set up an extension cord for the Bat Computer. The only Sunday night game between the Foxes and Ramblers would get under way in front of a sparse crowd at Harmar. Fox Chapel has been a pleasant surprise in 05-06 for head coach Jim Damp at 6-2-1 and holds one point advantage over North Allegheny in the North Division. The Foxes leadership one-two punch of Kyle Misour and Joe Budz along with the goaltending of Eric Thiessen has been outstanding, but the support players for FC have made the difference as they have been able to handle the teams below them in the standings with relative ease. If the Foxes expect to contend with the top teams, they will need to have a bigger contribution from those players to contend for the division and go further in the playoffs, which has eluded the program over the past few years, despite some pretty impressive regular seasons. Cathedral Prep a/k/a Goaltender University, whose 2005 graduate Ryan Zapolski, is now playing for Junior A Mahoning Valley of the NAHL and ranked one of the top keepers in the entire league entering December. Head Coach Pete McCormick, also a former goaltender at Prep on the 1984 Pennsylvania State AAA championship team, is blessed with an heir apparent to Zapolski in John Mioduszewski, who has been an integral part of a 5-2-0 start for the Ramblers, who have snuck into the Elite 8 with blemishes to # 1 Mt Lebanon and Franklin Regional. ECP is looking to make its 12th straight Penguins Cup playoff appearance, which will be a little tougher since the AAA playoff field has been reduced from 16 to 12 teams. Fox Chapel came out flying in the opening minutes and pelted Mioduzewski with shots before you could blink. On the games 8th shot at 10:48, Kyle Misour walked between the circles and fired a bullet past the ECP goaltender for a 1-0 lead. Misour nearly helped the Foxes go up by two as Steve Bartyinski just missed on a two on one at the 7 ½ minute plateau of period # 1. Prep tied the scored with 5:13 remaining as Robert Balikas banked one off something in front, which bounded past Eric Thiessen to make it 1-1. FC’s Joe Budz hit the post with 4:12 left as the Foxes outshot Erie Cathedral Prep 13-4. On to the second period and Fox Chapel took control of the hockey game outshooting the Ramblers 13-4 in the period. The Foxes would cash in twice as Joe Budz scored at 11:45 with a shot up under the crossbar to make it 2-1 and then scored a great goal using speed and a shot through the 5-hole of Mioduzewski with 5:39 remaining to give his team a 3-1 lead, which it took to the locker room. FC went to work on the power play and Dan Uminski made it count with a wrist shot at 14:29 that skipped past the ECP keeper to make it 4-1. Eric Thiessen stopped Prep’s Jimmy Callaghan from point blank range on the next shift. The Foxes played opportunist as Andrew McCoy was the recipient and deposited it for a 5-1 lead at 10:32. Fox Chapel would outshoot Cathedral Prep on the night 35-13 and cruise to a 5-1 win.

It's always fun to take that trip down memory lane and for two programs in Western Pennsylvania, a significant accomplishment is about to take place. As Interscholastic Hockey is in the midst of its 35th season dating back to April 1970's beginnings at the Alpine Ice Chalet, Upper St Clair and Kittanning [Armstrong] have neared a great feat. Both programs are in striking distance of 500 wins overall including Regular Season, League Playoffs and Pennsylvania State Playoffs. One glance at the USC History recounts the programs success and two Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in 1980 and 1987 in addition to the 1986 and 1990 Penguins Cup AAA titles for a total of four. Stories are told of the Brian Crawford game winner in 1980 in defeating Erie McDowell or of Chris Whittmore's game winner against Malvern to cap an undefeated season for the Panthers in 1987. The same can be said of the Armstrong / Kittanning program and the lore of the Belmont Ice Arena with rich history and many memories. The most significant the 1991 Penguins Cup championship over Meadville before falling in a nailbitter to Council Rock in the AAA final. Once known as the Arrows, the Kittanning program has flourished as the Wildcats and is a perennial contender at the Class AA level. There is only one place you will be able to follow this story and its right here on Pa Hockey...................Congratulations to both programs and stay tuned as we count to history for two fine hockey programs ......Upper St Clair and Kittanning ! Countdown to 500 ...... As of February 11, 2006: *****Upper St Clair - 500 Wins**** Upper St Clair 9 Butler 2 AAA 02/06/06 Monday at the Ice Castle becomes the first team in Pennsylvania State History to accomplish this watershed............Congratulations to all of the current and former players, coaches, parents and supporters for a truly class organization over the past 36 years since 1971 for their leadership, sportsmanship and a true winning attitude exemplified by the Panther organization ! *****Kittanning / Armstrong - 500 Wins Upcoming Schedule Kittanning 8 Peters Township 4 AA 02/15/06 at the Blemont Ice Complex Read the Story in ***GAME SUMMARIES***