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11/20 - North Hills exorcises demons of NA !

Posted by Jeff Mauro at Nov 20, 2001 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
CRANBERRY - Indian coach Jimmy Black has heard all of the hype regarding NA this year, but the coach had a score to settle. North Hills hadn't beaten North Allegheny in several years and Black wanted to put a stop to it. In fact, it may have been before the 8th grade picnic for some the Indians. Would this be the night ? NH Forward Mark Keyser recieved a gift when he collected his own rebound and backhanded the puck past Michael Lagoyda to secure a 1-0 lead. Then it was offensive machine Jake Congalton's turned as he picked up a loose puck and scored on he rebound to put North Hills on top 2-0. With their backs to the wall early NA pressed but could not score on two power play opportunities late in the first. On to the second period and the Indians capitalized on their power play as the opportunistic Congalton backhanded a rebound past Michael Logoyda and all the sudden it was 3-0. A minute later, the Tigers got on the board as Jeff Hall poked a Will Thayer rebound past Casey Dudt-Mulzet to make it 3-1. Back came North Hills late in the period as Dave Reinhart scored on a quick shot at 2:53 and Derek Stein tallied on a breakaway making it look easy at 1:59 and all the sudden the rout was on or so it seemed. With the North Hills fans filling the air with overrated chants to start the third, coach Black knew better. With 8:40 to go NA went on the 5 on 3 power play and it was the freshman goalie Dudt-Mulzet stopping chance after chance to keep the 5-1 advantage. Jeff McConnell and Dan Lobas finally cracked the NH armor, but it would prove to be to little too late and North Hills would relish its 5-3 victory. Each team had 22 shots on the evening before a decent late game crowd. imageimage
Weekly Rankings of the top teams in Pennsylvania. - Pennsylvana Elite 8 (Class AAA, AA, A) - Eastern Pa Elite 8 (Class AAA, AA, A) - Western Pa Elite 8 (Class AAA, AA, A) Note: Make sure to use tabs at the bottom of sheet to navigate between Pennsylvania, Eastern and Western to see all 3 sets of rankings ! - Click on Pa Cup to see Pennsylvania Elite 8 Final Regular Season Rankings ***UPDATED 3/02/02*** FINAL POST-PLAYOFF RANKINGS - 4/1/02 Class AAA # 1 - Bethel Park [Pa AAA Champs] # 2 - Malvern Prep [Flyers Cup] # 3 - Mt Lebanon # 4 - Germantown Academy # 5 - Central Catholic Class AA # 1 - Peters Twp [Pa AA Champs] # 2 - Indiana # 3 - Archbishop Carroll [Flyers Cup] # 4 - Latrobe # 5 - Archbishop Ryan Class A # 1 - Serra Catholic [Pa A Champs] # 2 - Radnor [Flyers Cup] # 3 - Bishop McCort # 4 - Freeport # 5 - Conestoga Only available on Pa Hockey !image
DELMONT - The match-up between Franklin Regional and Gateway is a rivalry, players who know one another and have played together for many years. Lace the skates up and pull the sweater on and throw everything else out the window. The Panthers opened up the scoring in the first period as Jimmy Daugherty redirected a shot from the point past David Himes at 11:14. Back came the Gators and Zach Flora somehow got a stick on a Matt Kopaczynski bullet and the scored was tied at 1-1. With Gateway on the power play, Chris White stripped the puck from the Gators defense and put Franklin back on top 2-1 on a beautiful backhand move on Himes. The Panthers hurt themselves with penalties, as it was Kopaczynski again who walked out from behind the net and slipped a backhander past Brandon Stalliard to knot the game at two apiece. In the second, the game took a physical presence as both teams fought for every inch. Gateway began to win the physical battles and the loose puck as Lucas Pepper scored a power play goal to give Gateway its first lead. Just 17 seconds later, it was Flora again as he went top shelf on Stalliard to give the Gators a two goal lead at 4-2. Mike Mento cut the Franklin lead to 4-3 with a power play goal late in the second. The third period was a hard fought struggle with no scoring and Gateway walked away with a hard fought win outshooting Franklin 30-27. Oh by the way, the game was curfewed with just 1:07 left and for those people who relish winning a curfewed game, it is an asterisk. 44 minutes of hard work for both teams, a great enthusiastic crowd and excitement, which would have made for a great finish. No finish was to be determined because the league has a bad rule that continues to plague its integrity and identity. Sound like sour grapes, well I coached on the winning team in this game and think the rule stinks even though we won. EVERY GAME WITH THREE OR LESS GOAL DIFFERENTIAL SHOULD BE PLAYED IN ITS ENTIRETY ! imageimage
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11/16 - Falcons almost pull it off !

Posted by Jeff Mauro at Nov 16, 2001 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
NEVILLE ISLAND - Doubleheader night at the Island Sports Center featured two AA games. While the Montour-Canevin game was going on in the Olympic Rink, Connellsville and Chartiers Valley would play before an intimate gathering on the Collegiate side. Coach Mark Romesburg's Falcons have struggled only winning a total of 5 games in its 6 year history, but the blue and white are starting to see a few signs of prosperity from the beautiful Divito Park facility which they call home. Connellsville had 14 skaters and 2 goaltenders on the bench for last night's game, which is a rarity for them. After the Falcons opened the scoring in the first, Nick Romesburg found a loose puck on a Zach Ebert rebound and Connellsville found it self in unchartered waters with a 2-0 lead. Could this be the night ! After two undisciplined penalties, Char Valley went on the 5 on 3 power play midway through 2nd. The pressure was on the Falcons young goaltender Cordaro, who made three terrific saves to keep the Colts off the board. Finally, CV's Jared Lioi beat Cordaro on a power wrist shot to the opposite corner and the Colts were on the board. CV tied the game late in the 2nd period and Connellsville's hopes were in trouble. The Falcons regained the led as Jacob Shelky scored a PPG early in the 3rd. Coach Romesburg substituted veteran goaltender Nick Phillips for Cordaro in the third. Phillips, who has seen more rubber than Good Year in his career at Connellsville, stopped 23 shots on the night as CV continued to press for the equalizer. The Colts wishes were answered with 5:39 to play as Brandom Mihm knotted the score at 3-3, for Chartiers Valley second comeback after tying Latrobe on Monday. In overtime, both teams had opportunities, the best coming of the stick of Connellsville's Zach Ebert, who could not beat Danny Malerbo. imageimage
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11/16 - F-Troop celebrates light up night !

Posted by Jeff Mauro at Nov 16, 2001 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
NEVILLE ISLAND - High School Hockey the way it should be on a Friday night at Neville Island Sports, with a standing room only crowd of over 600 to see the rivalry of two PIHL Southwest division foes. Canevin, the 2000 SW Division Champs are in a re-tooling phase under 13 year coach Greg Timmons. Montour, last years division champs with its fabled "F-Troop", looking to keep hold on the division crown under Paul Bonetti, who has done a masterful job at the helm with the Spartans. It didn't take long for F-Troop to get it going as Joe Federoff opened the scoring, which sent the Montour fans into a frenzy. As the battle in the stands between the Montour and Canevin fans escalated, the game on the ice heated up. Jared Coleman sent the Canevin fans reason to screamed as he blasted a slapshot past Spartan goaltender Jeff Milnarcik to tie the game with 4:24 remaining. The second period began with bad news as Brent Freshwater had a skate problem and no one in the Island Sports Center to fix it left 1/3 of F Troop watching from the sidelines. A couple of bad penalties by David Fitzgerald, caused Bonetti to bench his another 1/3 of F Troop early in the second. The young Canevin Squad, could not take advantage of the Montour misfortunes and the Spartans escaped. Canevin now took three consecutive penalties, but Montour couldn't score as Freshwater and Federoff were foiled on each opportunity by Canevin goaltender Patrick Smith. Canevin had several chances as Milnarcik stopped Regis McGrath with only 25 seconds remaining in the second. Now Hollywood, with Milnarcik out of the net Canevin was alone and Spartans defenseman Matt Stevens made the game saving save, which would prove to be the turning point of a wonderful 1-1 game at the end of two. As we mentioned earlier, David Fitzgerald was benched in the second and it would be a great move by Coach Bonetti, who saw his star respond with a shorthanded breakaway goal at 13:10 of the third to give Montour the lead. Then Freshwater got into the act on a retooled skate and fed Fitzgerald on the back door on as pretty a goal as you'll ever see. Montour was rolling now as Supan, Federoff and Jason Myers added goals to turn a close game into a 6-1 pasting of the young Crusaders. Montour outshot Canevin 49-20 on the evening as a testimony to its five goal third period.imageimage