Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey Report

November 2007 

Class AAA

WESTERN PA ELITE 8 RANKINGS					2007-2008 PIHL 'AAA'
			WEEK 5 - REGULAR SEASON
			2007-2008 record
DIVISION	CLASS		TEAM	GAMES	W	L	T	PTS
PIHL	AAA		PINE-RICHLAND	5	5	0	0	10	1
PIHL	AAA		SENECA VALLEY	4	4	0	0	8	2
PIHL	AAA		BETHEL PARK	4	4	0	0	8	3
PIHL	AAA		MT LEBANON	5	4	1	0	8	4
PIHL	AAA		UPPER ST CLAIR	4	4	0	0	8	5
PIHL	AAA		MEADVILLE	5	4	1	0	8	6
PIHL	AAA		PENN TRAFFORD	5	3	1	1	7	7
PIHL	AAA		NORTH ALLEGHENY	5	3	2	0	6	8

 

          Pine Richland moved to Class AAA after two consecutive Pennsylvania State Class AA Championships and have not missed a beat in Class AAA with a perfect 5-0-0 mark. The Rams have gone unchallenged in regular season play including an impressive 4-0 win over # 4 Mt Lebanon. Seneca Valley is undefeated as well and has been impressive beating Bethel Park in the St Margaret Fall Face-Off 4-2. Bethel Park is also undefeated at 4-0-0 and heads into a tough stretch of the schedule after losing a dozen seniors from last year’s team. Mt Lebanon looks to be a team in the mix with very good defense and goaltending and Upper St Clair has been perfect thus far, although they will begin their tests with division rival Bethel Park, which will begin a tough stretch for the Panthers. Defending Class AAA champions North Allegheny stumbled early losing to Meadville and Mt Lebanon after winning the St Margaret Fall Face-Off tournament, but seem to be heading in the right direction with a couple of wins after a 1-2-0 start.

  Class AA <td valign="bottom" style="height: 18.75pt; background-color: t

WESTERN PA ELITE 8 RANKINGS					2007-2008 PIHL 'AA'
			WEEK 5 - REGULAR SEASON
			2007-2008 record
DIVISION	CLASS		TEAM	GAMES	W	L	T	PTS
PIHL	AA		LATROBE	6	6	0	0	12	1
PIHL	AA		WEST ALLEGHENY	6	6	0	0	12	2
PIHL	AA		FRANKLIN REGIONAL	7	6	0	1	13	3
PIHL	AA		CANEVIN	5	3	1	1	7	4
PIHL	AA		MOON	6	4	2	0	8	5
PIHL	AA		THOMAS JEFFERSON	6	4	2	0	8	6
PIHL	AA		KITTANNING	5	4	1	0

 

 

Latrobe 4 Canevin 2

 

MT LEBANON –

 

        Latrobe (5-0-0) has started quickly after being ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Pre-Season coaches poll. Wildcat head coach Ron Makoski knows that his team is as individually as any team in Western Pennsylvania at the Class AA level and the Wildcats are coming off an excellent campaign that included a Division title a year ago. Latrobe advanced to round two of the Penguins Cup and is thirsty for more than that in 2007-2008. A veteran team that is very capable of being one of the players come March in the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships. Coach Makoski has a philosophy to allow his players to play at the highest level possible as many of the Wildcats play on two teams and has echoed to his playes his wish for them to concentrate as a group to bring Latrobe an elusive State Title. 

 

        Canevin (2-0-1) has a rich history of State Championships dating back to the early 80’s when the Crusaders captured the Class AA crown in 1982 and 1983 and then again in 1989. A program that has not challenged for that title since 2000, when the Crusaders fell one game short of the Pennsylvania Title game losing to 3-time State Champions Thomas Jefferson in Erie in the final seconds. Enter Kevin Zielmanski, who after 8 seasons at Central Catholic and many near misses returns to coaching after a year sabbatical. The nice luxury for coach Z will be a captive audience of 11 Freshman and Sophomores to work with and one of Class AA’s top returning players in Josh Daley. Canevin will be an interesting team to watch come March and for a couple of years to come. A 2-2 tie with Franklin Regional last Friday has opened the eyes of many as the Crusaders a now ranked # 3.

 

          So before an intimate gathering including some ‘Concerned Citizens of Franklin’ at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center, the Wildcats and Crusaders took to the ice in a back and forth opening five minutes with no score. At 9:26 of the opening period, Michael McCurdy slipped past the Canevin defense and beat Dylan Lutz low to the stick side inside the post to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. Latrobe had a chance to extend their lead at 6:50 of the period on the power play, which was killed by Canevin. The Crusaders got their opening opportunity on the man advantage and almost tied it as Jacob Betzner’s low shot was redirected by Vince Nicolella, but Latrobe goaltender Nick Loyacona made a better save. With 35 to go in the period Dylan Lutz made a bang bang stop on Wildcat sniper JeffJoe Regula. Canevin outshot Latrobe 9-6.

 

         On to the second went and while coach Makoski’s troops rested during the intermission, Professor Zielmanski was drawing up plans on the white board. At 13:41 of the 2^nd period, the Crusaders went back on the power play and could not converted. Then at 10:41 of the period, Latrobe scored on a pretty passing exchange Ryan LaDuke and Michael McCurdy and resulted in a rebound that JeffJoe Regula slapped out of the air for a 2-0 Wildcat lead. Latrobe lost their composure a little after a 3^rd goal was waived off and took a 10 minute misconduct and another undisciplined penalty at 9:01. At 8:32 of the period, Canevin batted a puck out of the air with a high stick and no goal. At 8:04 Loyacona stopped Cam Zappi twice with two very nice saves and made another fine save on Josh Daley at 7:35.  At 4:03 Loyacona stoned Vince Nicolella on a 2 on 1. Latrobe started to find openings in the Canevin defense and with 1:08 to go Ryan LaDuke nearly scored but Dylan Lutz made the save. Despite outshooting Latrobe 27-13, Canevin headed to the locker room down 2-0.

 

        With 1316 to go after the opening four shots of the period and after a big scramble in front, Cam Zappi deposited a wrist shot over the glove of a defenseless Nick Loyacona for a 2-1 lead for the Wildcats. At 12:23 Canevin went back on the power play PP  11:34 rebound Frankie Vance slid one on the ice and under Loyacona for a power play goal and a tie hockey game 2-2. Latrobe responded at 10:39 as Jeff Joe Regula pounced on a Ryan LaDuke rebound for a 3-2 Wildcat advantage. At 9:51 Canevin went back on the power play, but Latrobe had a great chance as Alex Stahl and Mike McCurdy made some tick tac passes and Dylan Lutz made a sprawling save on the shorthanded attempt. The Wildcats Jeff Rossi nearly extended the lead with 5:35 to go, but Lutz made an alert stop to keep the count 3-2. With 3:30 to go Latrobe captilized a couple of strong minutes of hard work in the Canevin end as Zack LaDuke tipped home an Andrew Onge shot to make it 4-2 and give the Wildcats insurance. An untimely penalty at 1:40 put the Crusaders in a little bigger hole and actually sealed Canevin’s fate as time was on the Wildcats side. Shots on goal for the contest were Canevin 37 and Latrobe 18, but Latrobe escaped with a 4-2 victory and held on to the top spot in Class AA.

 

  

Pine Richland 4 Mt Lebanon 0

 

VALENCIA

 

       Pine Richland has won two consecutive Pennsylvania State Class AA championships in the previous two seasons and without a game being played people are already putting their name on the 2008 Penguins Cup and Pennsylvania Cup. A dangerous proposition for some, but with the wall to wall talent of this team from player # 1 to # 20, the Rams are a very solid hockey team. The greatest team of all time, well time and history will tell that story and you have to win the State Championship at the Class AAA level and with the group of schools and traditions that Pine Richland will have to beat, not to mention some pretty good coaches, who are well prepared, let’s just say March could get pretty interesting around these parts. The wild card in all of this may be Dan Szymanski, a goaltender who was playing hockey in Arizona last year and looks to be a pretty capable replacement for Stoney Hildreth. The Rams big line of Dylan Trombetta, George Saad and monster freshman Brandon Saad are just the start of what teams will have to face when combating Pine Richland, who is ranked # 1 in the latest Pittsburgh Post Gazette poll.  

 

      Mt Lebanon’s Paul Taibi doesn’t like to lose in a game of marbles and I am sure he was a little worried after Team Pittsburgh goaltender Robbie Behling went down to injury in last Friday night’s heartstopping win over defending Class AAA champions North Allegheny 4-3, where the Blue Devils scored with just two ticks remaining. The Blue Devils have built some depth with their team for this season and hopefully that will make up for some scoring needed to thrust Lebo into the Penguins Cup hunt in March. The concern of course will be for Mt Lebanon is to develop a big time scoring attack necessary to carry the team in big games, such as Pine Richland, and maybe the win over North Allegheny will be a confidence boaster to provide clutch goals at key times as the # 2 ranked Blue Devils face # 1 Rams at the Infection Connection or Ice Connection or the place with the new scoreboard and home of the Rams.

 

        A limited Who’s Who night of Mt Lebanon and Pine Richland notables on hand including King Tut, Dr Denton, Bags, Mr X Y Axis Cummings, King Arthur of the Hilltoppers, whose Westmont team beat Hampton in the preliminary game and the infamous Bob the Bus Driver from Westmont, who was looking for a big grudge type match in the parking lot below the rink.          

 

           Pine Richland came out and took control in the  first period outshooting Mt Lebanon 11-1 and Robbie Behling looked sharp for the Blue Devils and almost pitched a shutout until with 1:35 to go Dylan Trombetta pounced on a rebound to make it 1-0 for the Rams.

 

           Mt Lebanon closed the gap in the second period and actually mounted some good pressure in the PR end but could not beat Dan Szymanski as the Rams outshot Lebo 7-5 in a pretty evenly played period. With 8:23 to go in the period, Bryan Watt chipped a rebound over Behling’s shoulder to make it 2-0.

 

           The third period was a little show of frustration by the Blue Devils as the shot total ended up 30-11, but the real story of the period was some bad penalties called and bad penalties taken by the Blue Devils including some unusual undiscipline from some of the players, who should know better. Good teams take advantage and have killer instinct and Pine Richland served the knockout with 11:04 to go as underrated defenseman Evan Goetz whistled a slap shot from the top of the right face-off circle past Robbie Behling to make it 3-0 and then the cherry came with 8:22 to play as Dylan Trombetta buried a cross ice feed from Brandon Saad to close out the scoring as the Rams served notice to all of Class AAA that they are for real and will have to be dealt with in March with an impressive 4-0 win over previously undefeated Mt Lebanon.  

 

  The 18th Annual Central Catholic Invitational will be held November 9-11th at the BladeRunners in Harmarville. The Tournament features some of the top High School programs from Western Pennsylvania and programs from Philadelphia and Ontario, Canada.

			2007 Central Catholic Invitational
					FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2007
	TIME	LOCATION	RINK	Score	TEAMS	Score
	4:30	HARMAR	Europe	4	BETHEL PARK VS. MONSIGNOR BONNER	2
	6:15	HARMAR	Europe	1	UPPER ST CLAIR VS MONTOUR	5
	8:00	HARMAR	Europe	5	ST MARY CATHOLIC [ONT] VS LAKE CATHOLIC [OHIO]	0
	9:45	HARMAR	Europe	2	DE LASALLE [ONT] VS BUTLER	1
					SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10, 2007
	TIME	LOCATION	RINK		TEAMS
	8:00	HARMAR	Europe	4	ST MARY CATHOLIC [ONT] VS BETHEL PARK	3	OT
	8:45	HARMAR	USA	3	MONSIGNOR BONNER VS MONTOUR	4
	9:45	HARMAR	Europe	3	CENTRAL CATHOLIC VS. DE LASALLE [ONT]	4
	10:30	HARMAR	USA	3	LAKE CATHOLIC [OHIO] VS UPPER ST CLAIR	4
	3:00	HARMAR	Europe	0	UPPER ST CLAIR VS BETHEL PARK	6
	3:15	HARMAR	USA	0	BUTLER VS ST MARY CATHOLIC [ONT]	3
	6:45	HARMAR	USA	4	CENTRAL CATHOLIC VS. LAKE CATHOLIC [OHIO]	1
	8:15	HARMAR	USA	0	MONTOUR VS. DE LASALLE [ONT]	7
	8:30	HARMAR	USA	5	MONSIGNOR BONNER VS BUTLER	2
					SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2007
	TIME	LOCATION	RINK		TEAMS
	7:00 AM	HARMAR	USA	4	CENTRAL CATHOLIC VS MONSIGNOR BONNER	6
					CONSOLATION ROUND
	11:30 AM	HARMAR	Europe	6	Upper St Clair vs Butler	4
	12:15 AM	HARMAR	USA	4	Central Catholic vs Lake Catholic [OHIO]	3
					PLAYOFF  ROUND
	9:45 AM	HARMAR	Europe	2	Semi - Final ~ Bethel Park vs DeLaSalle [ONT]	5
	10:30 AM	HARMAR	USA	3	Semi - Final ~ St Mary Catholic [ONT] vs Montour	0
					CHAMPIONSHIP  ROUND
	3:00PM	HARMAR	USA	4	Championship Game - De LaSalle [ONT] St Mary Catholic [ONT]	1
	William Downey Memorial Award Winner -

 

Franklin Regional 6 Thomas Jefferson 3 

 

DELMONT –

 

         Franklin Regional’s hockey program has been in operation since 1981, when at the time it combined with Gateway [which was allowed at the time, to form a co-op team]. The very next year, the Panthers went on their own and history ever since has been 5 trips to the Penguins Cup finals and that is all of the further the program has ever advanced. The program has struggled in recent years with numbers and has enough to field a Varsity and Junior Varsity squad, but is unable to field a freshman team in a school district that is somewhat affluent and in my tenure with the program from 1996 to 1999 had two freshman teams in addition to the JV and Varsity. Success in the program resulted directly from those years, which was a culmination in those numbers with four consecutive Penguins Cup final appearances in Class AA from 1992 to 1996 and those two freshman teams in 1998, that was your Penguin Cup AAA finalist in 2003, which fell to eventual State Champions Meadville.

 

           There is a plan in place not only for Franklin Regional, but for almost a dozen programs in the extended East Suburbs through the Pa Hockey Developmental Clinics through a cooperation with Allegheny Hockey Association and North Hills Amateur to begin developmental hockey at the age of pre-school through Dek Hockey, which graduates into Learn to Skate and Learn to Play Hockey in amateur programs and Supplementary High School Developmental Programs that have a cooperation [are you listening Hornets and Junior B Penguins ? I doubt it!] between Amateur and High School Programs, while stressing enrollment in the Amateur Programs as a prerequisite to playing with the school program. The long term effect of this philosophy will be healthy PAHL programs and healthy High School Programs for a long, long time.

 

            The Murrysville Dek Hockey Program developed by the PA Hockey Foundation now has over 160 players under the age of twelve and is feeding Allegheny and NAHA Developmental Hockey Programs in an open exchange, which has stressed skill development, fun in a school and community based program that has participation from Franklin Regional, Penn Trafford, Norwin, Gateway, Plum, Greensburg Salem, Kiski and several other East Communities and will foster the future of the respective High School programs. The Franklin Regional Little Panthers will take to the ice in December with over 20 players from grades Kindergarten through 6^th grade with roughly 40 total players in the pipeline to secure the future of Franklin Hockey for many years.

 

            The current edition of the Panthers is currently ranked # 2 in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 rankings after only losing 3 players from a team that advanced to the Penguins Cup Semis a year ago before falling to this evening’s foe Thomas Jefferson. Coach Jim Daugherty has a squad which is very much capable of challenging for a Penguins Cup final appearance with plenty of depth and two pretty strong goaltenders in James ‘Bobby’ Orr and Anthony ‘I am not from California’ Livecchi. The Panthers are an interesting mix of players with different hockey pedigree, who could mesh into a very interesting contender come March.

 

             Thomas Jefferson’s hockey program has been one of the most successful in Class AA for 25 years dating back to 1981, when a member of the old South Penn League, the Jaguars advanced to their first Penguins Cup. The Dean of AA coaching Don Powell entered the program in the early 90’s and built a powerhouse in the SHIHL and subsequent PIHL into Champions with a High School and Amateur cooperation with some very talented players including current Los Angeles King John Zeiler and resulting in State Championships in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and a tradition of winning that culminated in another trip to the Penguins Cup a year ago before falling to two-time Pennsylvania Class AA champions Pine Richland. Part of that championship run was a young man by the name of Patrick Kenney, who was a terrific hockey player and a wonderful free spirited kid who fell on the wrong side of the tracks, which can happen to any young adult and lead to his disappearance and tragic death, which was recently publicized and brings a tear to anyone who knew him and was a part of the Jaguar family a few years ago. New TJ skipper Ray Landucci has plenty of coaching experience and will do a great job transitioning the program as its first new head coach in nearly two decades. The Jaguars will be in the hunt for the Penguins Cup and their chances increased with the return of Jeffrey Wojanovich in between the pipes, who will join Spencer Neel to give the Jags a very capable goaltending tandem.

 

              As aforementioned, development through Amateur Hockey and cooperation with High School Programs is a recipe for success for both programs and the majority of the champions and successful programs across Western Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania and for that matter the United States. The are pitfalls and problems with ice hockey and they are not mutually exclusive to hockey as High School Programs in every sport experience recruiting through amateur and club programs in Football, Basketball and every HS Sport participated in by student athletes. A year ago, the much publicized transfers of Tino Sunseri to Central Catholic from North Carolina and Rob Gronohowski to Woodland Hills from Buffalo made headlines thoughout the Media and the WPIAL’s handling of those cases was just awful. Neither of those students families moved to Pittsburgh by establishing new residences in Western Pennsylvania, as Sunseri live with his uncle and Gronohowski moved into an apartment, while maintained a very nice residence in an affluent community near Buffalo [my confirmed sources live in both of those school districts in New York and North Carolina]. After much controversy and debate about both cases, the WPIAL and it’s Executive Director Tim O’Malley and PIAA have taken action by rewriting the new Transfer Rule, which will be ratified by the PIAA in Early 2008 and go into play for the 2008-2009 school year. My correspondence with Mr O’Malley in the fall of last year resulted in a suggestion prompted the rule effectively allowing any student who transfers schools if the family changes residences and has school to school sign off from the principals to become immediately eligible for the next season. Otherwise, the Student Athlete is ineligible for a period of one year for Varsity competition, but is eligible to participate in the sport at the Junior Varsity and Freshman level. This rule philosophy comes from the State of Minnesota High School League and my discussion with Mr Dave Stead, who e-mailed me the rule at the time we were debating the rules for the PIHL in 1998.                

 

            The original PIHL rule was exactly the one the PIAA has taken 8 years since to find and the PIHL has twisted and turned into free agency with promotion of Co-Op teams and free agency amongst Public Schools who have used the rule to make quick fixes to their lineups in pursuit of Penguins Cup and State Championships. Mt Lebanon, Peters Twp and Bethel Park of note, both had players with similar circumstances and were permitted to play hockey for those schools over the past couple of years. The Original Unified PIHL Rule also developed a process of appeal through an INDEPENDENT Rules Interpetor, whose job is to rule on WRITTEN Transfer Requests and a right to appeal through a President’s Commission of representatives from a different classification other than the school in question. If the student is not satisfied with the President’s Commission ruling, an appeal could be filed with an Independent Arbitrator and the Legal System for a final ruling and the timing written in the ORIGINAL RULE would allow all of this to be concluded in roughly 30 days, which is plenty of time to rule on a case since school starts in August and the Hockey Season begins in November.

 

           The rule went to the test in the very first year it was implemented as Greensburg CC sued in court regarding a player from Franklin Regional, who lived in the district and was developed by the FR Hockey Club and was recruited by GCC through a spring league. The result was the League backed down and the judge never ruled on the case. The next test was in 1999, when an ineligible player from Shadyside Academy ended up going through the process and into the hands of high-powered attorney’s and the Independent Arbitrator, who ruled that the rule was a very good process, but due to the lack of knowledge of the NEW rule of the family, the player was declared eligible. So the process and rule withstood the legal test as well.

 

           The rule and the process has changed over the first nine years of the PIHL, due to political pressures from the member schools, a lack of leadership with the league and the lack of an independent rules Interpetor, who seems more interested in letting every player play hockey for whatever school they want than upholding the rules. So now we come to the story of Patrick LaFrankie, who played in the Thomas Jefferson program for several years and was rostered and participated for the Jaguars in the St Margaret Fall Face-Off in October. Apparantly, he was also practicing with Serra Catholic as well and plays for the amateur coach in the Amateur Penguins organization, that coaches Serra Catholic. When Thomas Jefferson refused to sign off on the paperwork, they were told that the player would be eligible because of academic or religious reasons by the PIHL Rules Interpetor and is now playing for Serra Catholic.

 

          So with all of the discussion of Development and ways of building a hockey program from the ground up, it all goes for not if there is recruiting, a transfer rule which is not being abided by and the Rules Interpetor who rules based on political agenda’s rather than upholding the rules. The State of Texas High School Hockey Association stripped the 2005 Texas State Championship from Plano West due to an ineligible player, which gives a black eye to the sport, but is an example of upholding the rules. Folks, the PIHL is a convoluted organization, which favors some schools and penalizes others by choice and if you don’t believe it, you are blind and maybe you can answer why Franklin Regional ended up in a division with Montour [Due West], Cathedral Prep [Due North] and Kittanning [somewhat North]?  That is a joke!

 

         But don’t fret ‘Concerned Citizens’, help is on the way because the PIAA WILL ratify a similar rule that the PIHL had in place nine years ago and has failed to recognize in favor of politics and favors to keep their high paying jobs and control of the money and cost, which is threatening to ruin the sport of Interscholastic Hockey as teams are paying nearly $ 1000 a game to play hockey. Wheeeeeeeeeeew…….I feel better now, but TJ is still smarting from that ruling because the JV Program they have been spending the past few years to build is now extinct…trust me because they know as I know that it is wrong and if you don’t !

 

        So when I write about the cause and effect of the Open Division and Co-Op teams, maybe some of you ‘Concerned Citizens’ or so-called ‘Concerned Citizens’ [i.e. Kool-Aid Drinking Politicians] will get the old Fog Horn Leg Horn Bat over the head and wake up. And when you ask me to get involved in the betterment of HS Hockey, my answer is I am. Even though I will not seek political office against a current President who I will hold a undefeated lifetime record of 1-0 against and a commissioner who is unqualified,  does nothing to promote hockey [except bad attempts to steal some of my ideas from Pa Hockey] and never submitted a resume and was supposed to hire the Commissioner and not be it. The problem of recruiting and the problems of the PIHL will continue to co-exist until of course some ‘Concerned Citizens’ step forward and do something about it. The PIAA did and you can too…..but it’s my kids senior year and I need to get a Freshman Parent to go to the PIHL Meetings…..second Wednesday at CCAC Boyce and don’t forget your pillow and coffee!

 

         Oh wasn’t I here tonight to cover a hockey game? Better be careful who I send this one to? So Franklin Regional and Thomas Jefferson commenced there with identical 2-0-0 records and ranked # 2 and # 3 in the Post Gazette Hockey Rankings for Class AA. The Jaguars took advantage of some sloppy play by the FR defense early in the opening period as Dan Jantzi picked out a bad clearing attempt and deposited it low to the glove side of James Orr to give TJ a 1-0 lead at 14:18. The Jaguars had an opportunity to increase the margin on the power play at 13:15, but the Panthers killed it off. Franklin mounted some zone time in the TJ end and Eugene Mack threaded a perfect feed to Johnny Cecere, who buried a wrist shot high over the stick side of Jeffrey Wojanovich to tie the game. The Panthers were not done as Cecere’s backhand pass to Jared Yesko found it’s way thru traffic and Yesko scored from on the doorstep to give Franklin a 2-1 lead at 7:53. Thomas Jefferson went on the power play at 1:38, but this time it would be FR’s Eugene Mack who got behind the TJ defense and beat the Jaguar goaltending on a pretty move to up the FR lead to 3-1 at 1:16. The Panthers outshot TJ 14-11 in the first.

 

          On to the 2^nd period and FR scored again as Shane Crossey pounced on a loose puck and scored to make it 4-1 with 13:10 remaining in the middle frame. The game opened up and Thomas Jefferson’s Dan Nath sped down the right side and lofted a bullet high to the short side over the shoulder of Orr to make it 4-2 at7:33. Franklin answered less than a minute later and got a pretty good break as Wojanovich poke checked Johnny Cecere on the breakaway, but Jared Yesko came late and beat the Jaguar goaltender to increase the margin to 5-2. TJ hooked up to cut the lead again as Dan Nath found a wide open Dan Jantzi on the back door, who made no mistake going upstairs over the glove of James Orr to make it 5-3 with 3:26 to go. Jeff Wojanovich made a spectacular save on Steve Shirk with :04 left in the period and the Jaguars were still in it heading to the third period. FR outshot TJ 14-6 in the 2^nd Period.

 

          Franklin Regional had a great chance to increase the lead as Anthony Talamo’s shot rung off the post at 13:11. TJ turned up the offense in the middle of the period, but could not beat Orr as the lanky FR goaltender made two key saves on Dan Nath at 5:11 and AJ Parkinson at 4:37. The Panthers added an empty netter with :27 to go as Yesko completed the hat trick to give Franklin Regional a 6-3 win over Thomas Jefferson outshooting the Jaguars 34-25 on the night.