East Region

Bethel Park 2 Mt Lebanon 0 Bethel Park – A Who’s Who night with Bobby Montana, Bob ‘Dr Denton’ Behling, King Tut Bob Sebastian, John McKelvey, Lebo legendary coach Mickey McDermott, members of the Championship Blue Devils Matt Vaughn & Josh Mandic, Jack Bleik, Dave ‘the Milk Man’ Dorsey, Jamie Cummings among the notables of the always entertaining Mt Lebanon – Bethel Park rivalry, that is slated as a doubleheader for tonight and next Monday at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center, which is a great way to showcase two of the areas top programs, who both admittedly would rather have the dates spread out with two months in between, so the league with their wit and quick thinking moved the game up from 8:20 PM to 7:00 PM to extend the distance between games. Bethel Park is off to a terrific start this season at 10-0-0 on the regular season and is ranked # 1 in Class AAA in the Western Pa Hockey Elite 8. Head Coach Jim McVay’s club has yielded just nine goals in their opening ten games and appears to be a cut above the Class AAA competition for this year’s Penguins Cup. The Hawks have wins over Meadville, North Allegheny and Central Catholic during the regular season and have defending State Champions Mt Lebanon in between them and an undefeated campaign. Mt Lebanon surely misses their departed class from a year ago and maybe what coach Paul Taibi really would like to happen is for his team to pick up the scoring pace because the Blue Devils have played solid defense in front of very consistent goaltending through the first half of the season only yielding 14 goals. Lebo still struggles in the big games scoring as evidenced by the Central Catholic and McDowell losses and a narrow win over North Allegheny. The Blue Devils are a team that could mature into a playoff contender by season’s end and remain one of the top 5 Class AAA schools going into the season’s second half. A typical Lebo – Bethel game took a familiar tone in the opening period with Defense being the theme early on. At 8:39, Kenny Lehman picked up a third rebound attempt and deposited it to the stick side of Robbie Behling to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. At 5:03, Bethel went on the power play with an opportunity to up their lead to two but the Blue Devils stiffened. The shots in the opening period were 12-8 in favor of BP. Bethel went back on the power play with 7:28 to go in the second period and although they did not score continued to press the attack and forechecking on Mt Lebanon. The Hawks continued to frustrate Lebo efforts to clear their own zone and get pressure in the Bethel zone. When Bethel’s apparent 2nd goal was waived off at 2:49 of the second period, many wondered if that just wasn’t the break Lebo would need to change the momentum of the hockey games. On to the third period we went and while Mt Lebanon did get the puck in the Bethel zone, the scoring chances were few and far between. Bethel continued to press the attack on Mt Lebanon, almost daring the Blue Devils to mount some sort of attack. The dagger in the Mt Lebanon faithful’s heart came with 6:06 remaining in regulation time as Tyler Trocano’s shot from a weird angle bounced off Robbie Behling’s shoulder and somehow snuck into the net giving Bethel a huge insurance tally and more importantly a 2-0 lead. BP was able to keep the threat of Mt Lebanon scoring to a minimum and shut them down the rest of the way for a 2-0 victory at Bethel BladeRunners. Stay Tuned for the re-matchup less than 72 hours away at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center.

Bethel Park Hockey Association Annual Martian Luther King Tournament January 12 - 14, 2007 Bethel Park Bladerunners FRIDAY January 12th Thomas Jefferson 3 Upper St Clair 3 Bethel Park 5 Central Catholic 2 Shaftsbury 11 Shaler 2 SATURDAY January 13th Bethel Park 6 Thomas Jefferson 2 Upper St Clair 5 Shaftsbury 3 Shaler 0 Central Catholic 5 Shaftsbury 3 Bethel Park 3 Thomas Jefferson 9 Shaler4 Central Catholic 7 Upper St Clair 4 SUNDAY January 14th Semi-Finals Bethel Park 4 Upper St Clair 1 Central Catholic 3 Shaftsbury 2 Finals 2006 Bethel Park MLK Invitational Championship Bethel Park 7 Central Catholic 0 Congratulations to Bethel Park Blackhawks - 2006 MLK Champions Check out the link to the Bethel Park Website !

Cleveland St Edwards Holiday Classic Tournament Schedule Padua 3 Mt. Lebanon (PA) 1 Meadville (PA) 5 St Edwards 1 Gilmour 1 Fenwick (IL) 1 Meadville (PA) 3 Gilmour 3 Fenwick (IL) 5 Padua 5 St. Edward 4 Mt. Lebanon (PA)0 Mt. Lebanon (PA) 2 Gilmour 1 Fenwick 8 St. Edward 4 Padua 4 Meadville (PA) 3 HIGHLIGHTS: Meadville's Brian Noonan scores with 27 seconds to go in the game and Padua scores with :07 left to win it Championship Fenwick 6 Padua 2

Pine Richland 6 Greensburg Salem 2 GREENSBURG – The Greensburg Salem hockey program went through quite a transition over the past Years going from the Indiana High School Hockey League to the Open Division and now into Class AA. The nice part about the re-birth of the Golden Lions is that they now get to compete for a real prize with Penguins Cup eligibility for the first time in several years. The downfall is that they have to deal with the mounds of paperwork that exists in the PIHL, who tell everyone how they treat all of the teams equally, but people who know better know the real story. So as the story would go, Greensburg Salem was really enjoying their return to Varsity hockey and after Monday’s victory over Canevin would have entered tonight’s game against Pine Richland with a 7-2-1 record and a # 2 ranking in the latest Post Gazette rankings and a big match-up with the defending State Champions. The Golden Lions [again this is second hand] showed honesty and integrity but pointing out a paperwork error on their USA Hockey Roster to the Villans of the PIHL and for their good deed were rewarded with two forfeits, a 7 game suspension for Head Coach Anthony DeFazio and a meeger $ 1,200 fine from the blood thirsty league management. If you live in the South or are one of the Villans favorite team status, this is termed an administrative error, but anyone other than that is made an example of, which North Allegheny also found out this week. Pine Richland is ranked # 1 and has a perfect 9-0-0 record under Bobby ‘Boomer’ Kennedy and it really looks than this team is a step and a half ahead of Class AA competition, which means the Rams are a good bet to repeat as Penguins Cup Champions in 2007 and as Pennsylvania State Class AA champions in late March. But anyone who has been around hockey, like Geoff and Jared Bagnato’s dad Mike Bagnato, who played on a couple of North Catholic teams, who cruised through the regular season and then got knocked off in the playoffs. I am not predicting that, but when the bell rings on March 1, Pine Richland will face some battle tested AA teams, who combined with a hot goaltender could end any teams season, which the Rams are well aware of and why they are not letting the foot off of the gas pedal. So before an intimate gathering at Kirk Nevin, it didn’t take the Rams long to get on the board in this contest as George Saad’s attempted pass deflected off a Salem defenseman and behind Shane Talarico just 33 seconds into the game to give PR a 1-0 lead. The Rams gave up a scoring opportunity at the other end but got a big save at 11:11 on Eric Yurinko as Stoney Hildreth stopped from in close. Greenburg Salem went on the power play with a chance to tie the game but the Rams killed it off. The Golden Lions did get the equalizer as Shane Davis stole the and was in on a breakaway and slipped a backhand under Stoney Hildreth to knot the game at one apiece. With 5:28 to go Pine Richland was whistled putting the Golden Lions on the power play. Salem took a penalty and at 2:51 Phil Trombetta made them pay burying a wrist shot from the right hand circle. With 1:47 PR went on the power play Evan Goetz drove a nail through the hearts of the Golden Lions as Evan Goetz found a bouncing puck and buried it to the stick hand side with :01 left on the clock to give the Rams a 3-1 advantage. Shots in the opening period were 12-9 in favor of Richland. At 12:18 of the middle period, Phil Trombetta threaded a perfect goal-mouth pass to George Saad, who made no mistake beating Talarico through the 5-hole to make it a 4-1 count. Moments later at 12:05, the line of Trombetta – Trombetta – Saad combined again but Shane Talarico made a terrific save stretching out and gloving a George Saad shot which had goal written all over it. Greensburg Salem had a 5 on 3 power play at 10:33 for a minute and a half, but Phil Trombetta intercepted a Lions pass and raced 100 feet and beat Talarico on the backhand through the 5-hole to make it 5-1. Hildreth stopped Shane Davis from point blank range in the waning moments of the 2nd period. On to the third period and if the Golden Lions were going to mount a comeback, they started the right way as Eric Yurinko scored at 14:28 to make it 5-2. Shane Talarico robbed Dylan Trombetta at 12:08 who parked on the doorstep. At 8:57, Jake Bosiljevac scored from right in front to make it 6-2 in favor of Richland, which ended up being the final score as the Rams, who outshot the Golden Lions 34 –29 on the evening.

Pa Hockey Developmental Clinics The Murrysville Dek Hockey Center, the Municipality of Murrysville Parks and Recreation and the Franklin Regional Hockey Club in coordination with the Pa Hockey Foundation is offering a Street Hockey program that began in December 2006. Over 100 participants are in the program at the Chipmunk [6-U], Penguin [7-9] and Beaver [10-12] levels, which four teams at the Penguin and Beaver level. Attached are Flyer, Advertisement and Registration Form for the PA Hockey Developmental Clinics and the Franklin Regional Street Hockey League for Fall 2006. Over 2700 copies of the Flyer will be copied and distributed in the Franklin Regional School District to children in grades Kindergarten through 5th Grade. In addition, we will forward these for publishing in the Penn Franklin News and Murrysville Star. These flyers are now being distributed throughout the East Suburbs to help enrich the participation of the sport through the great resources we have here in the East Suburbs in FR, Gateway, Plum, Penn Trafford, Norwin, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Penn Hills, Valley, Woodland Hills, Kiski and other Eastern School Districts. The Allegheny Hockey Association and the Bob Mock Skating Academy out of the Center Ice Arena in Delmont and the North Hills Amateur Hockey Association and Carrie Smilowitz, Skating Instuctor out of the Valley Sports Complex in New Kensington offer programsto begin playing the sport and sustain participation for elementary aged children. Both the Learn to Play Hockey programs will be participating in the 11th Annual Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase Skills Competition on Friday December 29th at 4:00 PM at the Center Ice Arena in Delmont preceding the 11th Annual Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase Skills Competition at 4:30.