St Joseph's Prep Hawks

At the recently held American Hockey Coaches Association meeting in Naples Florida, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) ice hockey head coach Sam Kelly was named the ACHA (American Collegiate Hockey Association) Division II Coach of the Year for the 03-04 season. The American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) is the national coaches organization, which best represents, and promotes the development of the sport of ice hockey in America. It’s primary membership is from the Collegiate programs in the country, however membership is open to all those who have concern and interest in the success of the game. The AHCA recognizes at the yearly conference contributions to the sport in a number of awards and recognizes the Coach of the Year at the NCAA I and III and ACHA I and II collegiate levels. Sam Kelly from IUP is the ACHA DII award winner. Coach Kelly is the Head Coach/General Manager of the Indiana University of Pa. ACHA national program. The IUP program currently has teams competing at the ACHA DII and DIII level. His responsibility includes the overall operation and instruction of both teams. In 15 years under Kelly the DII team has an overall record of 237-160-33 while Kelly’s DIII team boasts a 5-year record of 82-31-8 for a combined record at IUP of 319-191-41. This record includes 14 league playoffs, 9 regular season championships, 10 playoff championship appearances, 3 playoff championships, and 6 ACHA National Championship appearances. In 03-04 both the DII and DIII team maintained a number one ranking in their ACHA respective regions throughout the entire season. The DII team finished with a record of 25-10-5, a regular season UHL championship, and a 9th place finish in the DII National Championships held in Washington D.C. The DIII team finished with a 22-2-2 record, a CHE regular season and playoff championship and a 4th place finish in the DIII National Championship held in Phoenix Arizona. 03-04 ended as the most successful season in IUP Hockey history.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has named the Stellar 6 hockey players for the 2003-2004 season. Congratulations from Pa Hockey to the following players on their selection: Eric Sloan - Mt Lebanon - 2003-04 PG Player of the Year Chris Clackson - Peters Township Timmy Johnson - Serra Catholic Ryan Noone - Serra Catholic Matt Quigley - Fox Chapel Dan Zabkar - Bethel Park The regional Stellar 6 will be named this week and we will release those selections as soon as they become available !

Bill Thomas of Fox Chapel, Jace Buzek of Hempfield and Christian Hanson of Peter Twp are currently playing for the Tri-City Storm of the USHL into the Clark Cup League Championship against Waterloo, which begins tonight. Thomas is the leading scorer for the Storm in the playoffs and was the 3rd leading scorer in the USHL Junior A league for the 2003-2004 season.

The Keystone Games begin in Wilkes Barre-Scranton at the Ice Box in Pittston. Follow all of the action to the presentation of the Medals right here on Pa Hockey 2004 Game Results - Ice Box Pittston, Pa. August 6-8, 2004 Midget Division Central 6 East 3 West 6 South 1 West 4 Central 2 East 5 South 1 South 3 Central 2 East 4 West 3 Final Results Gold ~ East Congratulations to Head Coach Ernie Romeo and the Blue Mountain Pocono Region for capturing the Gold Medal Silver ~ West Bronze ~ East Bantam Division East 7 Central 2 South 9 West 3 West 8 Central 3 South 4 East 3 South 3 Central 1 East 6 West 5 OT Final Results Gold ~ South Congratulations to Head Coach Mark Gonsalves and the Philadelphia / Delaware Valley Region for capturing the Gold Medal Silver ~ East Bronze ~ West Junior Division East 5 Central 1 West 4 South 3 [OT] West 7 Central 0 South 5 East 1 South 5 Central 2 West 4 East 2 Final Results Gold ~ West Congratulations to Head Coach Tim Bosack and the Allegheny Region for capturing the Gold Medal Silver ~ South Bronze ~ East Girls East 4 Central 3 South 3 West 2 West 8 Central 3 South 4 East 2 South 8 Central 4 West 7 East 2 Final Results Gold ~ South Congratulations to Head Coach Greg Dugan and the Philadelphia / Delaware Valley Region for capturing the Gold Medal Silver ~ West Bronze ~ East

2004 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships PITTSBURGH – Archbishop Carroll 4 Peters Twp 2 ‘Peters Township is the champion until someone eliminates them from the playoffs’ has been mentioned quite a few times in the 2003-2004 season. After head coach Mark Cooper’s team defeated both South Park and Kittanning with impressive 4-1 and 8-1 margins and watched top seed Thomas Jefferson lose to Indiana in overtime, they looked to be a sure thing to win it all. Many Peters Twp fans started making arrangements for a three peat for a third consecutive Pennsylvania State Championship, but Indiana had other ideas in the 2004 Penguins Cup and held a 4-2 lead late into the 3rd period, but PT came back and tied the game with 6 seconds remaining in regulation on a goal by Kevin Kustron and then won it in overtime to move on to the Pennsylvania Cup Class AA championship. In the state finals over past two years defeating Archbishop Carroll at Rostraver in 2002 10-3 and then almost duplicating that feat in 2003, beating Holy Ghost Prep 9-3 at IceLine to capture their second State crown in as many years. In fact, Western Pennsylvania has not lost a Class AA State Championship since 1995, when Conwell Egan defeated North Catholic 4-1. So Peters Township was looking to join Erie Fairview [1977,1981&1982], Canevin [1983,1984 & 1989] and Thomas Jefferson [1998, 1999 & 2000] as 3-time Class AA State Champions. In mid-October, as I began to search for information on the internet for the upcoming season, I came upon the Peters Township schedule and interestingly there was a game scheduled with Archbishop Carroll on a Thursday night prior to the Kittanning Invitational, which the Patriots annually attend to face some of the better Class AA teams in the State of Pennsylvania. The game never happened and Head coach Bill Hammonds team looked anything like a State Final contender in that Invitational. The reason was that a handful of the Patriots were not in attendance and when Kittanning defeated them 7-1, I am sure a lot of people wrote off Archbishop Carroll, which is a mistake if you understand that Hammonds annually builds his teams for playoff runs and not for pre-season exhibitions in October. Carroll has won the Class AA Flyers Cup for four out of the past five years defeating Eastern Regional in 2000 by the score of 5-4, Archbishop Ryan 3-1 in 2001, Central Bucks West 8-1 in 2001 and Archbishop Wood 6-3 for its 4th in late March. The Patriots picked the wrong years to win the Flyers Cup because they faced a great Thomas Jefferson team in the 2000 finals at the Mellon Arena and lost 6-1, then met a high powered Beaver team in 2001 at Haverford and lost 8-4 and then received an aforementioned 10-3 pounding from a loaded Peters Twp team at Rostraver in 2002. By far the 2004 opponent in Peters Township would be the best chance for the Patriots to capture their first State Championship since 1981. Peters Township coach Mark Cooper took a gamble to start the game in starting Shane Frey in net as opposed to red-hot freshman Rob Madore. Peters Township came out in the first minute and was all over Archbishop Carroll and took the lead 1-0 when Gerry Raymond buried a wrist shot on the stick side past Mike Silver at 13:20. Bill Hammonds had to be scratching his head, but the whole hockey game would turn on the next faceoff as Shane Aldinger found a streaking John Piotrowicz, who just unleashed a long slapshot from just over the blueline through a screen, which handcuffed Shane Frey and trickled past him in to the net at 13:15 and Carroll was now tied at one apiece. This seemed to pick up the Carroll bench and instead of playing like scared rabbits, this team began to play with the confidence that carried them to the 2004 Flyers Cup. The next few minutes of the game would prove that as Peters Twp went on the power play at 13:00. Patriot goaltender Mike Silver began a magical goaltending performance at this point… as he made several key saves and built momentum for his team in front of him. After Silver robbed Gerry Raymond at 4:33, Carroll took the lead as Eric Tangradi banged home a Eric Chamness rebound [and yes folks, Chamness is related to Scott ‘the shot’ Chamness who lead AC to the 1981 crown] at 4:16 and the score read Archbishop Carroll 2 Peters Township 1. In came Rob Madore off the Peters Twp bench, but I am afraid that the damage had been done at this point and Carroll was not going to let this opportunity slip by. Mike Silver made the save of the hockey game at 3:14 of the first period with a sliding glove save on a sure goal by Si Bishop. Peters Township regained their composure and tied the game early in the second period as Mike Bucci threw the puck to the net and Dustin Roux pounced on the rebound and tied the game at 2-2 with 13:21 left in the period. Peters Township took two bad penalties in a span of 17 seconds, which would swing the momentum of this game back to Carroll. Harry Ireland showed great patience and left his teammates get set up on the two man advantage and found a wide open John Piotrowicz in the slot, who fired a bullet high over the glove side of Rob Madore to give Archbishop Carroll a 3-2 lead at the 12:11 mark. Piotrowicz made an excellent play to keep the puck in just a minute and a half later And Justin Rumsey found Shane Aldinger who beat Madore on the stick side for a 4-2 lead at 10:35 and the Patriot faithful were starting to believe this was their year. Carroll outshot Peters in the 2nd period 15-11 and kept the pressure on the Indians as Matt Lisowski had a great chance for the 5th goal with 2 opportunities at 6:22, which were turned away by Madore, who was keeping Peters chances alive at this point. The Indians had a great chance with 1:02 remaining on a Kevin Kustron breakaway, but Mike Silver rose to the challenge and Archbishop Carroll took a 4-2 lead to the locker room. The Patriot defense and forwards were the difference in the third period as Carroll outshot Peters in the third period 13-4 and limited the Indians to very little zone time. Justin Rumsey, Harry Ireland, Frank Viola, Josh Friedland and the rest of the Carroll defense and particularly the forward line of Matt Lisowski, Eric Tangradi and James Chamness silenced the Peters Township guns with simple solid defense, excellent coverage in the neutral zone and NO penalties to give Peters Township any momentum. Redemption for coach Bill Hammonds, who was a focused different man, who saw an opportunity for his club to capture a State Championship, which had eluded Archbishop Carroll in four trips and whatever he told his team Friday night at their meeting at the hotel, it worked because the easiest way to win a State Championship is to be one of the participants and the way to win it is a team effort and over the past ten plus years, this was one of the best ones I have seen in that period. As I said in my preview, Mike Silver would have to play the game of his life, which he did, but the credit goes to the 19 other guys and coaching of Hammonds, who made believers out of everyone in attendance that Archbishop Carroll deserves to be Pennsylvania High School Hockey Class AA Champions in 2004.