St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Prep School Hockey League in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and New York

Every year Pa Hockey goes through the process of picking the top 25 players in Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. We invite your thoughts on Pa Hockey on our selections and certainly value your opinions.

       And if that isn't enough our annual list of the top 5 Fans is here and Top 5 Freshman who have come on the scene as well as our Top 5 coaching performances [Western Pa]. Finally, if you are going to start a championship organization and need a place to start and I would guess that these kids are top notch in many people's lists.

  Enjoy it + Comments are welcome..... And if you don't like it you can always discuss in on the Roundtable ..... The Pa Hockey Top 25 is one reason why it the # 1 Interscholastic Hockey Website in the State of Pennsylvania !

     The Pa Hockey Top 25 for Eastern and Western Pa is now posted ........only on Pa Hockey !

2006 Meadville Bulldog Invitational Preliminary Round Friday Mt Lebanon 4 Toledo St Francis 2 Brandon Dornish scored twice for Mt Lebanon and Drew Taucher and James Cichra add singles as the Blue Devils rally from a 2-0 deficit. Andrew Geiger and Chris Jaeger score for St Francis De Sales from Toledo, Ohio. Thomas Jefferson 2 LaSalle 4 Victor Marcques, Eric McLoughlin, John Williams and Ross Denzci score for LaSalle who clip Thomas Jefferson. The Jaguars took a lead in the first period on a goal by Ian Conelley and tied the score at two apiece early in the 3rd on a goal by Brock Heinauer. Dan Pyne stopped 16 shots for the Explorers. Meadville 1 Sylvania Northview 4 Alden Hirschfield score the hat trick for Sylvania and Adam Thangsiu added another in a 4-1 victory over the host Bulldogs. Evan Wisinski scored the lone goala for Meadville Bowling Green 1 Central Catholic 3 Chris Urso scores two goals for the Vikings and Adrien Scherer scores the opening tally as CC defeats Bowling Green. Bobby Magyarics stops 24 of 25 Bobcat shots as Jake Price breaks the Central shutout bid with just 1:15 to play in the 3rd period. Saturday Thomas Jefferson 2 Toledo St Francis 14 Toledo St Francis score 12 goals over the final two periods for an easy win over Thomas Jefferson. Zach Nadolny notched four goals and two assists, Mike Higgins scored two goals and two assists and Chris Jaeger picked up a goal and 5 assists for the Knights. LaSalle 0 Mt Lebanon 0 Mt Lebanon, the # 1 ranked team in the State of Pennsylvania and LaSalle, the # 6 ranked team in Pennsylvania squared off in a classic scoreless tie at the ‘House of Chills’. The Blue Devils Matt Vaughn stopped 14 shots and the Explorers Dan Pyne turned back all 22 shots he faced. Central Catholic 4 Meadville 4 Central Catholic’s Jon Buczkowski scored his second goal of the game with 22 seconds remaining in the third period to knot the score at 4-4. Chris Urso and Glenn Sherwin picked up goals for the Vikings. Meadville led most of the way in the game as Justin Gray, Chris Learn, Pat Leone and Evan Wisinski scored for the Bulldogs. Sylvania Northview 8 Bowling Green 1 The Wildcats won their second game of the Bulldog Invitational with an impressive 8-1 pasting of Bowling Green. Matt Cook and Tim Hurst scored two goals apiece for Sylvania and Adam Thangsiu picked up a goal and two assists. Mt Lebanon 9 Thomas Jefferson 1 The Blue Devils Rick Beuke completed the hat trick in the 3rd period as Mt Lebanon whipped Thomas Jefferson. Drew Taucher and Lou Argentieri picked up a pair of goals cementing a trip to the Semi-Finals for Lebo. Central Catholic 1 Sylvania Northview 5 Sylvania Northview clinched the top spot in their bracket and a date in the Semi-Finals with an impressive 5-1 victory over the Vikings. Alden Hirschfield continued his hot hand with his second hat trick of the Invitational and Tim Hurst and Koury Bourland chipped in singles for the Wildcats. Chris Urso scored for Central Catholic in the 1st period to tie the game before Sylvania rattled off four unanswered goals. Toledo St Francis 0 LaSalle 4 LaSalle clinched an opportunity to defend their 2005 Meadville Bulldog Invitational title and their 4th straight trip to the Semi-Finals. Remy Lynn, Nick Wright, Tom Minton and Rich Evan scored for the Explorers and John Williams picked up a pair of assists in a 51 shot barrage on St Francis goaltender Charlee McAninch. LaSalle goaltender Dan Pyne continued his shutout string of 6 periods during the tournament only yielding 2 goals in 3 games. LaSalle will meet Sylvania Northview in the Semi-Finals. Meadville 3 Bowling Green 1 Meadville came into the final game of the preliminary round needing a victory over Bowling Green to earn a spot in the semi-finals against Mt Lebanon. Meadville opened the scoring as Casey Rogers scored with 6:38o go in the opening period. After the Bobcats tied the score at 1-1 on a goal by Drew Wickard with 4:01 to go in the 2nd period, Pat Leone took a feed from Morgan Nickerson and beat BG’s John Powers on the backhand with 300 left to seize the lead back for the Bulldogs 2-1. Casey Rogers scored a huge goal with 10:00 remaining in the 3rd on a rebound after a terrific play by Aaron Nye to give the Dawgs a 3-1 lead, which Meadville held on and advanced to the semi-finals with a clutch win at the House of Chills.

2006 Meadville Bulldog Invitational ~ Semi-Finals Mt Lebanon 3 Meadville 1 The House of Chills on a Sunday morning for the Bulldog Invitational and it wouldn’t have been complete without the Bulldogs. We were nearly watching a matchup of two Western Pennsylvania Hockey powers, but not Meadville, as Mt Lebanon and Central Catholic appeared headed for a rematch of an earlier season game yesterday afternoon after the Vikings rallied to tie the Bulldogs in the waning moments 4-4. Sylvania Northview took care of all five points and Central Catholic setting the stage for the Bulldogs to defeat Bowling Green and edge out the Vikings on the tiebreakers to gain a spot opposite Mt Lebanon in the semis. For Dawg head coach Jamie Plunkett not the ultimate scenario for the Bulldogs, but I am sure he will take it. An opportunity to face Mt Lebanon, even though this is January, is a good barometer for the 5-2 setback the Blue Devils handed Meadville in early November. The Bulldogs will need to develop a little better consistency come March to make a run and there’s no better place to get started than against the # 1 ranked team in the State of Pennsylvania. There is no question that at this point of the season, Meadville, along with defending State Champions Bethel Park and 2005 Penguins Cup finalist North Allegheny expect to work toward a final 4 berth, but the question is will any of them be able to challenge Mt Lebanon come March. After what Bethel did a year ago knocking off the North Allegheny Tigers [who gave up just one goal in the entire playoffs], anything is possible, but the Blue Devils look pretty strong and the final pieces of the puzzle are falling into place nicely for what needs to happen to erase a 30 year drought. Mt Lebanon and for this weekend and this tournament we’ll call them Mt Lebo 66 as no Murovich, nor Mandic, nor Ferguson, nor Root, nor McDermott in attendance. In fact, coach Paul Taibi tried to summon sound Junior Varsity players for a little depth, but would have to settle for the 13 players who have carried the Blue Devils into the Semis. After watching Mt Lebanon yesterday tie a very good LaSalle team and then throttle Class AA power Thomas Jefferson, a new appreciation for how far the players you don’t read about who will be an important component in the ultimate goal is being developed who we will call Mt Lebo 66 as are preparing themselves for when the other 1/3 of the team returns from AAA tournaments and injury to start the run at the prize that has eluded Mt Lebanon since 1976, and more recently in 2004 when the Blue Devils fell 5 minutes or so shy of a State Championship. The downhill climb for the Blue and Gold will begin as we are only seven weeks shy of the beginning of the march toward April 8th and the 2006 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships. At 12:03 of the opening period, Chris Learn’s slapshot found its way through traffic and Matt Vaughn to giving the road team Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. With 1:11 remaining in the opening period, the Blue Devils tied the game as Jon Wilen beat Brian Danczak from right in front. At 7:46 of the second period, Mt Lebanon went on the power play as Mt Lebo 66 a/k/a the 3rd unit in the arsenal continued to hone its skills for the upcoming playoffs, but was unable to score. Meadville went on the power play at 5:55 to take their shot at capturing the lead. Excellent penalty killing by both clubs kept the score at one apiece. Mt Lebanon went on the power play to start the third period and with 13:42 remaining in regulation, the big stick for the Blue Devils Matt Bartkowski unleashed a wicked slapshot past Brian Danczak to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead. Just 28 seconds later, at 13:18 Ben Rascoe found a loose puck and deposited into the net for Mt Lebo 66 and more importantly a 3-1 lead. Mt Lebanon clamped down on the Bulldogs defensively and Matt Vaughn shut the door the rest of the way as Mt Lebo 66 moves on to the championship with a 3-1 victory limiting the Bulldogs to 18 shots to the Blue Devils 28 LaSalle 2 Sylvania Northview 1. LaSalle is locked in a four way battle for Flyers Cup supremacy with 5-time defending champions Malvern Prep, 2005 finalist Germantown Academy and upstart Cardinal O’Hara. The Explorers, along with Malvern and GA have gone out and strengthened their schedule year in and year out with strong teams from New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania to prepare for the playoffs. LaSalle College under Wally Muehlbronner, now in his 9th year enjoys the annual trip to Meadville, not only for the success his team has had competing for the Bulldog Invitational Championship, which they captured a year ago, but to get a look at a portion of the best of the West. The Explorers played to a 0-0 tie with Mt Lebanon in the preliminary round and that is on the heels of defeating the Blue Devils for the championship a year ago in 2005. Sylvania Northview has been a staple in the Bulldog Invitational for much of the ten-year run of the mid-January event. James Cooper’s team has enjoyed an excellent season in the Northwest Ohio Conference and is many people’s pick to unseat Cleveland St Edwards as the Ohio State Champions in March. The Wildcats feature several super scorers in Alden Hirshfeld and Adam Thangsiu, who have not disappointed in the 2006 Bulldog Invitational as Northview has defeated Meadville, Central Catholic and rival Bowling Green for the only perfect record in the tournament. The Cats had a nice compliment of size, speed and skill, which would be tested by a battled tested LaSalle team for the right to face Mt Lebanon, who bounced host Meadville in the early semi-final. At 14:22 on the power play the Explorers struck as Ross Denczi scored on a quick rebound for a 1-0 lead. The teams battled to a hard fought and end to action, which settled into a goaltending dual between Sylvania’s Craig Trego and LaSalle’s Dan Pyne. The Wildcat’s were finally able to solve LaSalle as Alden Hirshfeld scored his 7th goal of the tournament to knot the game a one apiece as we headed to the ice cut. On to the third period and the game continued to take shape as LaSalle continued to make Northview work at their level. With 3:38 remaining, Tom Minton’s wrist shot from the left circle found its way through the 5 hole of Craig Trego to give the Explorers a 2-1 lead. LaSalle would hold on to move on to the finals to face Mt Lebanon in a rematch of the 2005 Championship. Shots were 29-14 in favor of Sylvania Northview.

 

CORAOPOLIS –

 

      Mars (13-0-1) has been pretty much on cruise control since their November 27^th beating of Quaker Valley at Cranberry. The Planets have outscored opponents 104-11, but a study shows that they have given up twice as many goals in away games than at home. The goal of all of this is for Mars to advance to their first ever Penguins Cup and the looming # 1 seed with a game and a half lead would receive a significant boost with a win over the Quakers. Let’s forget about the Post Gazette # 1 ranking that the Planets have held since the first weeks of the season and lets focus on the mental aspect facing this team that has plagued them in the past. While Quaker Valley was busy with competition over the holidays, coach Tim Coleman’s squad decided to rest and with the lack of competition in Class A, Mars will have to find a way to keep hungry and sharp down the stretch  to try to move on to the Penguins Cup and last week’s 1-1 tie with defending Penguins Cup champ Freeport, is just a reminder that ANY team is just one goaltending performance away from elimination and Quaker Valley will testify to that.

 

     Quaker Valley (13-2-0) lost to Serra Catholic and Mars in November and has reeled off a series of wins to become the hottest team in Class A since those setbacks. Taking into account that the Quakers had a semi-surprised return of Mik Lemieux as a Chirstmas present to QV’s fortunes  brings a whole different element to the offense, which now becomes multi dimensional with Lemieux, Colin South and George Jackson leading the offense and Noah Zamagias move back to defense to solidify a defense with Cody Scott. Head Coach Kevin Quinn’s smile was a little more noticeable as the Quakers got ready to take on # 1 Mars, who now stands in the path of the Quakers redemption of the Penguins Cup loss from a year ago and possibly a 2^nd State Title in 3 years. The underlying philosophy of the Lemieux return may be questioned in some parts and certainly I have been outspoken about Eligibility, but in this case it really has nothing to do about who he is, but the principal is that Mik Lemieux is a player who was developed in the Quaker Valley organization, played three years for the team and SHOULD be eligible immediately for those of you naysayers.

 

        Quaker Valley jumped all over Mars in the opening period as Noah Zamagias gave the Quakers a 1-0 lead. Mik Lemieux made his presence known as he set up Colin South on a nice passing play to extend the lead to 2-0 before the ‘Concerned Citizens’ of Mars and Quaker Valley could get settle in their sets, which was a nice crowd for the premier matchup in Class A for a scheduled 9:00 PM start courtesy of the promotionally challenged PIHL (who sent the Riddler to watch this games instead of someone who might know a little about hockey), who is more interested in promoting themselves than their teams. At 3:18 of the period, the Quakers nearly made it 3-0, but Mars Brady Sipe broke up a play between South and Lemieux with a tremendous backchecking effort to keep the two goal deficit for the Planets.

 

        The second period turned into a goaltending dual between Mars Greg Lewis and QV’s Zach Taylor as the teams battled for the all important third goal of the contest in the first five minutes of the second. Quaker Valley would get the prize as Lemieux took a Colin South feed from the top of the circle and whipped it past Lewis and the Quakers now had a 3-0 lead at 9:12. Mars answered on the power play as Brady Sipe took a shot from the left point and Jake Robasch pounced on the rebound and jammed it past Zach Taylor and the Planets were on the board at 3-1 at 6:08. That momentum didn’t last long as Colin South drew a penalty and put the Quakers on the power play at 4:44. South took a cross ice feed from George Jaskon and fired a bullet off the cross bar that appeared to go in, but just in case Mik Lemieux made sure and tapped it in for a 4-1 QV lead heading to the ice cut. Shots were 33-20 in favor of QV.

 

        Mars did not quit and they could have laid down in this game after Mike Heltman was stopped on the breakaway with 12:25 remaining in regulation. Mars had a golden opportunity with 11 ½ minutes left on a 5 on 3, but Zach Taylor made a great save on Mike Mazzota at 10:38 and Quaker killed it off. On a QV power play, Mars goaltender Greg Lewis made an unreal stop on Mik Lemieux, but left the game under his own power. Mars kept on grinding and finally broke QV as Ian Finney redirected a Michael Tracy shot from the left point through the 5-hole with 3:39 to go and give a glimmer of hope to the Planets. Any fire the Planets had was extinguished just ten seconds later as Colin South found an empty net after Marty Lamneck made a save on Mik Lemieux and it was now 5-2. Time ran out as Mars continued to pressed for goals as Mike Mazzota scored on a beautiful shot inside the post to make the final count 5-3 in favor of Quaker Valley, who pinned the first loss of the season on Mars, which could prove to be a preview of a third meeting and that would be in the Penguins Cup final in March.