St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Pittsburgh 4 Illinois 1 2007 Chicago Showcase BENSENVILLE, ILLINOIS - Team Pittsburgh opened the 23rd Annual Chicago Showcase with 4-1 loss to a very strong and talented Michigan team and rebounded to defeat nemesis North Dakota 3-2, holding off a 3rd period rally by the Sioux and killing he clock. The opponent for a crucial play-in game for the Elite 8 of the 2007 Chicago Showcase is the host of the annual tournament Team Illinois. The winner of this hockey game will claim the # 3 seed in tomorrow’s playoff round and the loser MAY be playing for pride. This year’s Illinois squad is comprised of some familiar teams for those who follow Interscholastic Hockey Nationwide in New Trier Green, Fenwick, Glenbrook North and Loyola Gold and the Illinois squad is headed by Bob Melton of New Trier. Pittsburgh Head Coach Jim McVay knows the names as his Bethel Park squad has faced New Trier and Fenwick over the past few years and is very familiar with the caliber of hockey needed to be successful against them. Illinois opened the Showcase with a 6-4 win over North Dakota and then succumbed to Michigan 4-2 after holding an early 2-0 advantage. Donned in their Virginia Tech attire, coaches McVay and Fryer went to work to help Pittsburgh advance. With 14:59 remaining in the opening period, Illinois had the first opportunity on the power play and Pittsburgh killed it. Meadville’s Morgan Nickerson had a partial break at 9:35 only to be turned aside by Bartlett’s Steven Tomczyck. Central Catholic’s Chris Urso almost gave Pittsburgh the lead but was turned aside by Tomczyck. Pittsburgh’s first opportunity came on the power play at 7:45, which Illinois methodically killed off. Pittsburgh got another opportunity at 2:19, which was killed by Illinois, but West Allegheny’s Ryan Kumpfmiller nearly scored in the closing seconds on a strong move to the net. Pittsburgh held a 6-3 shot advantage after the opening period. At 14:28 of the second frame, Bethel Park’s David Spadacene just missed on a play set up by teammate Kenny Lehmann and Franklin Regional’s Tim McDonough with a couple of nice lead passes. End to end action ensued in the 2nd as Pittsburgh had the better of the play. At 5:02 remaining, Bethel’s David Spadacene thought he scored, but the puck hit the far post and the game remained scoreless. Moments later at 4:48, Pittsburgh went back on the power play. Freeport’s Zach Hepler’s drive from the left point rung off the crossbar at 4:10. Pittsburgh struck first as Meadville’s Morgan Nickerson fired a laser pass to Bethel’s Logan Bannon, who chipped it past the Illinois goaltender for a 1-0 Pittsburgh lead. Then with 27 ticks remaining in the period Pittsburgh scored again as West Allegheny’s Ryan Kumpfmiller crashed to the net and took a beautiful feed from Pine Richland’s Phil Trombetta for a huge goal and a 2-0 lead. Pittsburgh outshot Illinois 18-5 in the middle period heading to the ice cut. With 15:04 to go in regulation, Fenwick’s Nick Powers had a great chance, but Mt Lebanon’s goaltender Robbie Behling made a super stop to keep the score 2-0. Illinois kept up the pressure and almost scored moments later. With 10:17 to go Pittsburgh was whistled for a penalty putting Illinois on the power play and a chance to get back in the game and it would be Pittsburgh who would ring the bell as Central’s Chris Urso led Meadville’s Morgan Nickerson, who was in on the breakaway and slipped a backhand through the 5-hole of Illinois goaltender Tomczyk with 8:36 to go to make it 3-0. Pittsburgh didn’t waste any time scoring again as Pine Richland’s Phil Trombetta pounced on a Bethel’s Bryan Brown rebound at 7:58 and Pittsburgh was now up 4-0. Fenwick’s K.C. Madock found a loose puck and beat Robbie Behling to make it 4-1 with 4:48 to go and break the shutout. Bethel’s David Spadacene had great chance to score on a breakaway on a great lead pass by Freeport’s Zach Hepler and was stopped on a great save by Tomczyk at 3:09. Pittsburgh would finish it off with a very good defensive effort exemplified by the 36-17 shot advantage including 12-9 in the 3rd period for an impressive 4-1 pasting of Illinois to capture the 3rd seed and advance to the round of 8 for the 4th time in five years.

Wisconsin White 4 Philadelphia 2 2007 Chicago Showcase BENSENVILLE, ILLINOIS - Team Philadelphia entered the 2007 Chicago Showcase with aspirations of winning the Kevin Kodalen C Bracket and advancing to the round of 8 this year. Unfortunately for Germantown Academy Head Coach Gump Whiteside and General Manager Kenny Haas, President of the Suburban High School Hockey League, the area of the Delaware Valley with 141 High School Hockey teams is unable to attract the best players from the Philadelphia area from schools such as Malvern Prep, LaSalle, Holy Ghost Prep, Haverford High and the other premiere programs to participate and even try out for this team. The reasons for which I don’t quite understand, the best players tend to listen to travel coaches, who apparently discourage the participation, which is typical and I know its not from lack of effort to market the program, which is done over all of the 7 League Websites that make up the Flyers Cup program. So with all of that said, Philadelphia needed a victory over Wisconsin White, the 2nd Wisconsin team in the Chicago Showcase, which is a team brought together with players from almost 500 miles of area and really amazing to see kids from Milwaukee to Superior to Madison and all over as a unit of 20. The other remarkable thing is that in all of that area, they do not have nearly the number of High School teams as Philadelphia. As a person who represents Pa Hockey, I am willing to help promote the process of getting the best players here to Chicago on a national stage and challenge the best players in Philadelphia to come experience a great event for themselves. When I first got involved in Team Pittsburgh in 1996, our team was in the C Bracket and after 1997 began the climb the A Brackets, where we have been since 1999 and have not left since. Philadelphia’s plight looked good in the opening period as Wisshickon’s Jayson Ritchey scored to give them a 1-0 lead at 13:04. Wisconsin tied the game on a goal by Vince Hagman at 6:50. The second period saw Philly take the lead again as Justin Krute of the Hill School scored on an assist from Eric DeFelice of Central Bucks West at 6:53 to give the Orange and Black a 2-1 lead. Philadelphia missed a golden opportunity to take a two-goal advantage on a breakaway. Wisconsin White rallied scoring a power play goal by Brody Zebro at 3:43 and then took the lead on a shorthanded goal by Casey Lutz with just :09 left in the period to take a 3-2 lead. The third period was penalty filled and Philadelphia was killing off the majority of them. A late power play gave them a chance to tie the score, but was unsuccessful dashing the hopes of Team Philadelphia advancing to the Quarter-Final round as Wisconsin’s Brody Zebro scored an empty netter with 18 seconds remaining and gave Wisconsin a 4-2 victory outshooting Philly 31-25 in the opener of play on Friday at the 2007 Chicago Showcase.

Pittsburgh 3 North Dakota 2 2007 Chicago Showcase BENSENVILLE, ILLINOIS - Team Pittsburgh opened the 23rd Annual Chicago Showcase with 4-1 loss to a very strong and talented Michigan team. Head Coach Jim ‘Mort’ McVay and assistant Dave ‘the Boy Wonder’ Fryer are pretty studious coaches and had an opportunity to scout North Dakota and Illinois on Wednesday afternoon and any time you give good coaches an chance to see their next opponent, the adjustments and game plan can be made. This is exactly what the coaches hoped to accomplish and from knowing these two guys for a few years, I can tell you that they were pretty confident that Pittsburgh could get back on track. History is another story as North Dakota has been a thorn in Pitssburgh’s side the past few years in the A Bracket, most recently knocking off Team Pittsburgh to advance to the finals of the 2006 Chicago Showcase, were they were defeated by New Jersey. Pittsburgh came out flying in the opening minutes as there appeared to be a mismatch in speed as they caught North Dakota flat footed a couple of times. Seneca Valley’s Matt Jarrett chipped a lead pass to Central Catholic’s Chris Urso, who made a great move on ND goaltender Jamall Wold on a deke and beat him on the forhand for a shorthanded goal and a 1-0 lead at 7:01. Pittsburgh continued to pile on the shots in the opening frame and Bethel Park’s Bryan Brown scored on his own rebound at 5:58 to make it 2-0 in favor of Pittsburgh. With the shots 14-7 in favor of Pittsburgh in the first, a huge one came off the stick of Freeport’s Zach Hepler as his long wrist shot from the right point made it’s way through traffic and past Wold on the stick side at knee level to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead with 4:21 to go in the first period. North Dakota was able to muster some offense in the 2nd period as they began to pressure Pittsburgh, but North Allegheny’s Max Richards came up big at 7:53 of the period stopping the best Sioux scoring chance of the hockey game at 7:53. Pittsburgh countered with some offense of its own as well in the period resulting in a power play with a little over two minutes remaining and continued to control the play, but could not score. North Dakota had a golden opportunity with a shorthanded 2 on 1, but Seneca Valley’s Nick Jones made a terrific play to intercept a pass and Pittsburgh headed to the ice cut with a 3-0 lead and 26-15 shot advantage through two periods. One of the most dangerous leads in hockey is 3-0 and Pittsburgh had many opportunities in the 2nd period to extend the lead to 4-0. North Dakota was able to get on the board at 13:53 as Zach Welding got behind the Pittsburgh defense and beat Max Richards to cut the lead to 3-1. Pittsburgh took a penalty and North Dakota capitalized as Zachery Miller was on the back door and roofed a pass from Scott Samuelson for a power play goal and the lead was now only 3-2 for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh took another penalty giving ND a chance to tie the game, but the Sioux took a hooking call behind the play to nullify the man advantage at 9:43. Pittsburgh took another penalty at 8:37, but a very questionable call and break for Pittsburgh came at 7:15, which kindof killed the North Dakota at that point of the game. Pittsburgh and North Dakota battled over the last half of the third period and each team had their chances and the score remained 3-2 in favor of Pittsburgh. With :52 to go in regulation, Pittsburgh was whistled for too many men creating a 6 on 4 power play for North Dakota. Pittsburgh’s defense and Max Richards stiffened and they held the Sioux off the board to earn a 3-2 victory over nemesis North Dakota.

The 2007 Keystone State Summer Games were held on July 27-29 at the York City Ice Center in York, Pennsylvania. 2007 Keystone State Games July 26-29, 2007 ~ York City Ice Center East ~ Blue Mountain/Pocono/Capital South ~ Philadelphia Central ~ Great Lakes/Nittany/Laurel Mtn West ~ Pittsburgh FINAL RESULTS Bantam Division West 5 East 1 West 1 South 0 East 5 West 4 South 4 East 2 West 4 South 0 Gold - West Silver - East Bronze - South Midget Division South 5 Central 1 East 4 West 3 Central 4 West 3 East 3 South 2 West 5 South 3 East 8 Central 3 Gold - East Silver - South Bronze - West Junior Division East 6 West 1 Central 8 South 3 West 5 Central 2 East 8 South 1 West 9 South 0 East 7 Central 3 Gold - East Silver - West Bronze - Central Female Division East 5 West 2 South 8 Central 3 West 6 Central 2 East 9 South 0 East 9 Central 1 West 3 South 2 Gold - East Silver - West Bronze - South

The Pa Hockey Network was on hand to cover the 2007 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in Aston, Pa. For your own personal memory of the 2007 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships, please contact Heck Video Productions for a DVD or VHS copy of the game footage and play by play with expert analysis and interviews. The 2007 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships will be available online ON-Demand pay-per-view later in the week and we will make an announcement as to the times these will be available.