PA Hockey Game of the Week 4  

 Meadville 3 Canevin 1 MT LEBANON –  

     What lies ahead in 2009 for High School Hockey is really a function of history as we have found in our travels that the 9^th year of the decade has been earmarks for not only Interscholastic Hockey, but for the Canevin and Meadville Hockey programs. So let 2009 beware of the two Class AA foes who faced each other back on October 27^th at the House of Chills, which was not exactly chilly as Canevin defeated Meadville 3-1.

 

      Now back to the history and in the first decade of Interscholastic Hockey, Canevin joined a group of teams out of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League in 1979 and formed the South Hills Interscholastic Hockey League, based out of the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center, scene of tonight’s game between the Bulldogs and Crusaders. The outcry in those days was regarding purity and teams using players from schools other than the ones on the crest and this marked a stance to improve the sport, which stood until about 2005 until the PIHL started the Open Division, which is flooded with impure amateur hockey teams calling themselves High School teams and really the objective is to keep the budget afloat rather than improve the sport.

 

     Up the road in Meadville, a semi-open rink called the Meadville Area Recreation Center was built and Meadville has High School Hockey for the first time. It took a few years for the program to flourish and when Jamie Plunkett arrived on the scene in 1987, the Bulldogs won their first Pennsylvania State Championship in Class AA. Two years later in 1989, the Dawgs won their first Class AAA State title and started a run of eight State Championships, with the last in 2003. Meadville returns to Class AA for the first time since 1988 and is 3-2- thus far.

 

      Canevin moved from the WPIHL to SHIHL in 1979 and then won Pennsylvania State Championships in 1983,1984 and 1989. The Crusaders bid in 1999-2000 was foiled at the Erie Civic Center by future NHLer John Zeiler’s Thomas Jefferson Jaguars as they went on to win the Jaguar’s third straight Pennsylvania AA title. Coach Kevin Zielmanski’s bid for a 2^nd trip to the State Title game in Class AAA was foiled by Meadville’s Nick Tucci at the Mellon Arena in overtime and the Bulldogs went on to fall to Conwell Egan 4-3 in triple overtime at the Grundy in Bristol in 1999.

 

       All has been pretty quiet around Gotham City thus far in 2009, as the villans continue to flourish in a poor economy with fees to all of the ‘Concerned Citizens’, it was almost more subdued in the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center as an intimate gathering of friends and family members with a sprinkling of Canevin students attended a game between # 6 Meadville and # 2 ranked Canevin. From the quick head count, there is no way the gate covered the $ 1000 game cost charged by the PIHL, which was played at Mt Lebanon. 

 

        The opening period was slow to get started as the teams engaged in a couple of power plays and 4 on 4 situations. The Crusaders held a 5-2 shot advantage, although the Bulldogs had a flurry courtesy of some good half ice play at 5:42, but could not score. Canevin opened the scoring on a pretty passing play as Jonathon Kostial made a pretty play with patience and sprung Cam Zappi down the left side, who buried a wrist shot high over the glove side of Taylor Nickerson for a 1-0 Canevin lead at 2:18. Nickerson would make a real nice glove save on Frankie Vance with 1:08 to go in the opening period.

 

        The Crusader’s Nick Randazzo rung a shot off the crossbar at 8:23 and the game remained 1-0. Canevin’s defense turned over the puck in their own zone with 3:25 to play and Zach Bogardus flung a backhand past Julian DeFillippo to tie the score as Meadville registered 6 shots to Canevin’s 7. Vince Nicolella was turned aside by Nickerson on a two on one with :46 to go in the second. The Bulldogs came to life at the end of the period nearly taking the lead as the teams headed to the locker room ties at one apiece.

 

      On to the third period and with 13:05 to go, Canevin’s Frankie Vance hit the post and after the Crusaders failed to score on a power play with 13:01 remaining in regulation it was anyone’s game. Meadville’s Jared Kilburn made a terrific play to fight off a Canevin defender and shove a shot to the net which rebounded to Bill Espy who lofted a backhand over DeFillippo to give the Bulldogs their first lead 2-1 with 10:27 to play. Canevin’s power play at 8:18 was killed by the Dawgs and Meadville got its chance with 4:36 to go and capitalized as Drew Finton banged home a nice low shot from the right point by Rob Macielak and Meadville was in control 3-1 with 3:05 to go. Nickerson stood tall stopping 18 of 19 shots in the game and stoning Jonathon Kostial with a great glove save which glanced of the post and was swept away by the Bulldog defense. Meadville picked up a pretty big win over Canevin and served notice that 2009 could be another year of history.   

 

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The Team Websites section has gone a complete renovation over the last year with lots of new features including updated Standings, Schedules, Links to Individual School Websites, Club History, links to Game Highlights & ***GAME SUMMARIES***, and on and on ! We have completed the sections for ALL of the Western Pennsylvania schools and the Eastern Pa Hockey Team Websites section include the recently completed sections for the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League [ALL 38 Schools], Central Pennsylvania Interscholastic hockey League [ALL 41 Schools] and the Lower Bucks County Scholastic Hockey League [ALL 9 School], the Eastern High School Hockey League and Suburban High School Hockey League and coming soon the Lehigh Valley Interscholastic Hockey League and the North Eastern Pennsylvania High School Hockey League. At some point we will finish the 'Teams That Aren't Here Anymore' Graveyard ! To go with our growing section of the 'Teams that aren't there any more' Section of the Pa Hockey Website, Pa Hockey is adding a new supplementary section called 'Rinks that aren't there any more' the downturn in hockey continues as rinks are starting to close over the past five years and rumors are circulating like buzzards in South Dakota about more perils. NEW !!!!!!!! We have the history of over 70 programs coming to PA Hockey Team Websites later this week. Just look for the PIHL, WPIHL, LKSHL or SHIHL logo and click to view THE COMPLETE history of your favorite programs for Regular Season, League Playoffs, Penguins Cup Playoffs and A SPECIAL FEATURE WHICH INCLUDES THE MEMBERS OF PENNSYLVANIA HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS dating back to 1975 IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR OVER 80 Schools on Pennsylvania's # 1 Interscholastic Hockey Website ......Only on Pa Hockey !

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FINAL - WEEK 18 STANDINGS AND RANKINGS - As of March 1, 2008

 # 1 Ranked Team in each Classification is as follows: 

Class AAA - Pine Richland 

Class AA   - Canevin

Class A     - Quaker Valley

    Please call in the Scores and Highlights to the Pa Hockey Hotline at 412-848-3750 Immediately following the game and they will be posted.

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2008 - 2009 Pa Hockey Standings and Rankings

    Pa Hockey will begin the 2008-2009 Season is under way. The attached file has the Western Pa Hockey Alignment and the Pa Hockey MASTER SCHEDULE. We will also provide the weekly Pa Hockey Elite 8 Rankings for Western Pennsylvania.

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    FINAL WEEK 17 STANDINGS AND POST GAZETTE and PA HOCKEY ELITE 8 RANKINGS - March 1 , 2009 ~ Weekly Post Gazette and PA Hockey Elite 8 Rankings & Standings and UPDATED Pa Hockey MASTER Schedule are here !!!!

www.eteamz.com/pahockey/files/PAHOCKEY0809StandingsWeek17.xls

 # 1 Ranked Teams in Classifications are:

Class AAA ~ Pine Richland Rams  

Class AA ~ Latrobe Wildcats

Class A ~ Mars Planets  

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