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Canevin gets a break and holds off West Allegheny 2-1
Canevin 2 West Allegheny 1
CORAOPOLIS –
West Allegheny coach Norm Cook learned one thing about his team after their 4-0 loss to Franklin Regional last Friday night. The Indians will need both leading scorers Ryan Kumpfmiller and Jeff Cupelli in the lineup and the rest of the lineup to contribute key goals for West A to contend for the Class AA Penguins Cup in March. There is no question that the Indians are contenders and along with Latrobe, Franklin Regional and tonight’s opponent Canevin are the odds on favorites to win it all. West A made it to the Semi-Finals a year ago and is looking to go one step further this season and with the goaltending of Kyle Mortimer and Anthony Sweet, will be a tough team to beat when the bell rings.
Bishop Canevin has never won anything in hockey, it’s because Canevin is the hockey power that everyone remembers that won State Championships in 1983. 1984 and 1989. And when it comes down to it, that history and tradition is pretty important, but in the scheme of the 2008 Penguins Cup AA, I liken this race to 1998, when out of nowhere came Thomas Jefferson to win three straight Pennsylvania State Class AA crowns. For Kevin Zeilmanski, that was the year when he took the helm at Central Catholic and won the Class AAA Penguins Cup, only to fall to LaSalle in the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships. A new start at Canevin, coach Zeilmanski has had a profound effect on the Crusaders in his first year and with a combination of youth and veterans and some pretty good goaltending in Zach Bogden, is in the thick of things in Class AA and has to be one of the teams to watch come March.
Overcoming West Allegheny is one of those obstacles that has held Canevin back the past few years and this is a big week that the teams will meet twice and could very well decide the top two or three seeds in the Penguins Cup playoffs. The Crusaders and Indians have waged many battles over the last few years and these two over the next week will be pretty important in the seeding of the Class AA playoffs. Canevin and West Allegheny both skated hard in the opening minutes with the Crusaders having an edge in the territorial play in the opening minutes. Vince Nicolella had a great chance at 11:41 only to be turned aside by Kyle Mortimer. Canevin continued to press and went on the power play at 4:32, but West A stiffened. The Crusaders kept on coming and it finally paid off when with 53 seconds to go in the period Cam Zappi converted a Josh Daley pass beating Mortimer for a 1-0 Canevin lead.
On to the second period and West Allegheny picked up their pace and would get the equalizer at 6:38 as Ryan Kumpfmiller beat the Crusader defense and Zack Bogden to knot the score at one apiece. Canevin almost pulled ahead at 5:29 as Mike Mannsmann had a golden opportunity on a 2nd rebound with a wide open cage, but Kyle Mortimer robbed him with a phenomenal glove save. At 3:28 Jeffrey Cupelli beat the Canevin defense but Bogden stoned him and West A was given a power play, but could not score as the game headed to the ice cut tied at 1-1.
Canevin came up with the big goal to take the lead at 10:20 as Vincent Nicolella scored on another nice feed from Josh Daley and the Crusaders were now on top again 2-1. West Allegheny apparently tied the game with 7:22 to go as Ryan Kumpfmiller buried a wrist shot upstairs past Bogden. The play was blown dead as referee Jeff Sheran ruled that a Canevin player was in the crease and called a goaltender interference penalty, much to the dismay of the ‘Concerned Citizens’ of West Allegheny and to the delight of the Blue Raspberry Canevin faithful. It was a very good call from my angle as not one Crusader was within a stick length of the offender from West A, who was clearly in the goal crease and got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Needless to say, this was a very big break for Canevin, who could not convert the power play. The Indians got another chance with the man advantage, but Canevin stood tall and with the goalie pulled furiously tried to tie the game, but the Crusaders withstood a final minute barrage for a 2-1 victory. Canevin cannot rest on it’s laurels too much as these same teams will meet again on Monday.
Woodland Hills fights off Kiski and penalties to score big win move into 1st place
Woodland Hills fights off Kiski and penalties to score big win
DELMONT –
When I glanced at the schedule for Monday Night for Interscholastic Hockey, I usually will try to find a couple games in Class AAA, AA and A to watch a couple of Penguins Cup contenders on one trip killing two birds with one stone. You’d figure in early January you could find some intruiging match-ups and on this night I could not. So plan B sent me to Delmont for a game between my former team Woodland Hills and Kiski. Both schools play in the Open Division and have avoided the Class AAA for several years now because the PIHL will not allow them to play in Class AAA nor Class AA nor Class A because they do not have developmental programs, which is their stance, but the reality is that they have pigeon holed all of these so-called Developmental teams in the Open Division.
The Open Division is made up of schools who no one else including the schools in Class AAA wants to play period. The are a unique way for the PIHL to bill for their poor service and an additional fine base for people who choose not to attend their boring but recently entertaining meetings, because some people are raising questions about their SECRET finances. Word on the street is that one of their former Treasurer’s companies is under Federal investigation, which does not surprise me and should not surprise any of you either.
So you have 4 West Virginia schools (excluding Wheeling Park who opted for Class AAA), 9 Co-Op schools ranging from Carrick or Ringgold, who has several schools represented on its roster to Derry, who has just one or two players from another school, which tells me that they could not find ONE OR A COUPLE more kid in their district to put in uniform to become a pure High School Team from Derry Area (or maybe that one kid is pretty good ?). I am not here to pick on any one of those schools, but there is NO MOTIVATION for any other schools to build hockey programs if their players are plucked by surrounding schools, which has led to the demise of South Allegheny, West Mifflin, Steel Valley, Belle Vernon’s, Penn Hills, Blackhawk, and other schools who will never resurface as a hockey program EVER. How is this Developmental Hockey? It’s not, it’s a billing machine with bad processes.
A quick glance at the Flyers Cup, which is a part of the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships shows that Eastern Pa has a Class AAA division with only a dozen schools and the rest of the 100 plus schools is either Class AA or Class A. To delve even further, Massachusetts has it’s Super 8 Division and the 3 A, 2 A and 1 A Classifications. Illinois has the Red Varsity and then a combined State Championship for rural Co-Op teams. The point is that every school has an opportunity to play for a State Championship and there is not this mess of teams that no one wants to play [that is according to PIHL logic and NOT MINE] in any other State in the Country, but right here in Western Pa, with the exception of New York, which has the battle between Federation Sanctioned School Teams and USA Hockey Club teams, which is a whole other story.
During the National Invitational Scholastic Showcase, two local Co-Op teams tried to schedule games right in the middle of our event, which goes to show you that this is not an exclusive problem to Western Pennsylvania. Co-Op Teams are NOT HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY, they are SELECTED PLAYERS WHO FORM A TEAM AND PLAY UNDER A PARTICULAR HIGH SCHOOL BANNER, which I still can’t understand how a principal can sign off on to validate a roster.
To round out the Open Division lineup are nine schools including Holidaysburg, Altoona, Connellsville, Ferndale, Allderdice, Ambridge, Trinity, and tonight’s combatants Woodland Hills and Kiski. These schools and teams are the BEST at reporting scores and results to PA Hockey as they religiously send in their highlights and Pa Hockey is the place you can find out what is happening with the Open Division as we rank them weekly. So why is Altoona, Holidaysburg, Woodland Hills, Connellsville, Allderdice, and Ambridge who all have pretty good teams not in Class AA where they could be competing for a State Title?
And people wonder why the Kool-Aid serving Junior B,C,D and probably next E & F and Midget AAA [glorified AA teams] programs are flourishing, well that is the next editorial. So Woodland Hills and Kiski, with nothing more to look forward to than playing the other 5 Co-Op teams in their divisions and maybe Carrick [who wasn’t allowed to participate in the Open Division playoffs last year], continued their rivalry with one another in pursuit of Ford City [a/k/a Armstrong Central – Kittanning] for first place.
After watching the first period, I came to the quick realization that both Woodland Hills and Kiski, would be pretty good Class AA teams and the Woodland Hills team I was watching had way more talent in their lineup than I had 11 years ago (when we competed pretty well [didn’t win a lot of games but competed] in Class AAA] and what a shame they are not playing for anything except their schools, which is more than we can say for some others, who choose to take the lazy Co-Op route. Woodland Hills took a 3-1 lead in a very close opening period courtesy of goals from Billy Sullivan, Nate Simon and Zach Brown and Kiski’s Phil Cappo scored the lone Cavalier goal.
The second period was a barrage of penalties as Kiski had numerous power plays and outshot the Wolverines 21-5, but Woody High had the only goal courtesy of defenseman Matt Frank, who found enough energy to score while helping kill off several 5 on 3’s and other penalties. Ryan Hast was superb stopping all 21 shots in the second period.
The third period continued to be a penalty fest as Woodland Hills continued to kill them off and Darren Pellegrino scores a shorthanded goal at 13:43 to make it 5-2 Wolverines. Kiski mounted a comeback with two power play goals by Colin Mahoney, but the Wolverines Zach Brown scored his second to close it out for a 6-3 WH win. Ryan Hast continued his strong play in the third period stopping 17 of 19 Kiski shots and 47 of 50 shots on the evening as the shot clock was more like a slot machine, courtesy of 12 Kiski power plays to only 3 for Woodland Hills, which was a little lopsided.
Maybe next time these teams meet, it will be in Class AA next year and for a Penguin Cup playoff spot.
Pennsylvania Schools ranked Nationally by USHSHO.com
Franklin Regional starts 2nd half off strong over West A 4-0
Franklin Regional 4 West Allegheny 0
DELMONT –
West Allegheny is off to a terrific start at 11-1-0 with the only blemish a 5-4 overtime loss to # 1 Latrobe, which was a rematch of a second round playoff game last season. Norm Cook has a solid goaltending tandem in Kyle Mortimer and Anthony Sweet and lots of veteran leadership including Ryan Kumpfmiller and Jeff Cupelli. The Indians have a stranglehold on a playoff spot and are looking to nail down a top 4 seeding to clinch home ice through the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals, which is where they advanced a year ago. With Pine Richand now in Class AAA and out of the picture in Class AA, West A looks to be in the mix with Latrobe, Canevin and tonight’s opponent Franklin Regional.
The Panthers are a team that continues to impress after their Director’s Cup final appearance against Bethel Park, in a game where FR was toe to toe with a Class AAA giant only to fall short in the third period. Franklin Regional has dominated the opponents they should beat and when it comes down to teams where they have to raise their level of play, this team is challenged. One example is an early season loss to Class AAA State Champions North Allegheny Tigers in the St Margaret Fall Face-Off, that FR lost 3-2 in the final seconds, another loss to # 1 Latrobe in the final minutes and a third period collapse against Canevin, resulting in a 2-2 tie. Franklin Regional, to become a champion, must demonstrate an ability to play a complete 45 minute game and do so for 5 games in the playoffs and if they can do that then they will go where no other FR team has gone before.
The Class AA Penguins Cup race in 2007-08, looks very much like ten years ago when out of nowhere came Thomas Jefferson to win it all. So we could see a Franklin Regional – West Allegheny Penguin Cup final or possibly a Canevin – Latrobe final in March. The Panthers came out flying in the opening period and dominated West Allegheny outshooting them 7-0, until the Indians registered their first shot at 9:13 courtesy of Ryan Kumpfmiller, who almost slipped a low shot past James Orr. FR struck first with 6:06 to go in the opening period as Jared Yesko converted a goal mouth feed from Eugene Mack to give Franklin a 1-0 lead. The Panthers held an 11-3 shot advantage in the first period.
West Allegheny goaltender Kyle Mortimer kept his club in the hockey game in the second period as the teams traded power plays, but again in was Franklin Regional that just seemed to be one step ahead of West A, outshooting them 11-5 and 22 – 8 thru two periods, but with a 1-0 lead, this was anyone’s hockey game heading to the third period.
West Allegheny had to be feeling pretty good heading into the final period, in a game very similar to the Latrobe playoff win in March, they were outplayed and still had a chance to win. Franklin’s inability to bury opponents added to the suspense, but that all came to a end at 12:55 of the third period as Stephen Shirk banged home a rebound after Brian Buckley had two chances turned aside by Mortimer. With 11:05 to go, Tyler Fitzgerald hit the post and West A took a bad penalty with 10:52 left moments later and another one at 10:11 to put FR on a 5 on 3 and a chance to put the Indians away. Franklin did not let this opportunity slip as Johnny Cecere took a Eugene Mack pass and slipped it inside the post behind Mortimer with 9:11 to go in regulation to make the count 3-0. With 6:17 to FR scored again but the goal was waived off and the score remained 3-0. The Panthers would close it out on another 5 on 3 as Turner Andritz scored with a low shot to the stick side to make it 4-0 in favor of Franklin Regional, who out shot West Allegheny 43-13 on the evening and picked up an impressive 4-0 win at Center Ice Arena.
