East Region

The 2006 Penguins Cup Previews are located by clicking on the Pittsburgh Penguins logo. The previews will offer a team by team analysis including top players and a few fearless predictions on the Penguins Cup and Pennsylvania State Finals. Enjoy ! The FINAL Penguins Cup Seedings are located with the PENGUINS CUP 2006 tab and the complete history of the Penguins Cup and Pennsylvania State High School Hockey Championships is available by clicking on the Penguins Cup or Pennsylvania State Championship trophies. Penguins Cup Playoff Schedule - Penguins Cup Semi-Finals Class A - Monday March 13th - Ice Castle Serra Catholic Eagles 4 Bishop McCort Crimson Crushers 0 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Quaker Valley Quakers 6 Sewickley Academy Panthers 3 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Class AA - Tuesday March 14th - Ice Castle Kittanning Wildcats 6 Canevin Crusaders 4 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Pine Richland Rams 4 Peters Twp Indians 3 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Class AAA - Wednesday March 15th - Ice Castle North Allegheny Tigers 7 Meadville Bulldogs 0 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Mt Lebanon Blue Devils 4 Bethel Park Blackhawks 3 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** 2006 Penguins Cup Finals Saturday March 25th - Mellon Arena Quaker Valley Quakers 6 Serra Catholic Eagles 0 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Pine Richland Rams 8 Kittanning Wildcats 3 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Mt Lebanon Blue Devils 3 North Allegheny Tigers 1 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** 2006 Open Championship State College Little Icers 5 Carrick Cougars 3 ***GAME SUMMARIES***

Canon McMillan 4 Thomas Jefferson 3 ROSTRAVER – Thomas Jefferson [11-7-0] enters this evening’s game currently in the 6th slot in Class AA for the upcoming Penguins Cup playoffs and is looking to lock down home ice advantage for the opening round. The Jaguars struggled during early in the 2nd half of the season and for coach Don Powell, it may have been a nice luxury in the back of his mind that he had Cody Krynock in the lineup and the comforting thought is that Krynock is a goaltender by trade and returned in between the pipes to fill a void that many clubs would love to be able to call on. Canon McMillan [9-6-3] has clinched a playoff spot in the upcoming Penguins Cup playoff and is in a log jam with Kittanning and Greensburg CC battling for spots 7 and 8 behind TJ. The Big Macs will need to run the table to even have a chance of a home ice advantage, especially since Greensburg CC owns the tiebreaker by virtue of a 6-4 victory over the Big Macs earlier in the season. A win over TJ would is critical to those plans for coach Dave Fryer’s squad. Nate Bohn opened the scoring for CM at 9:59 firing a wrist shot just inside the pipe for a 1-0 lead. The Big Macs opened up a 2-0 lead with 2:48 remaining in the opening period as Jesse Patnesky buried a wrist shot high over the glove side of Krynock. The Jaguars got on the scoreboard in the second period as Dan Jantzi scored on a rebound at 11:31 to cut the CM lead to 2-1. The Jaguars outshot CM 15-6 in the middle period. On to the third period and after the Big Macs could not beat Cody Krynock at one end, TJ took advantage of a defensive error at 11:27 as Brock Heinauer found a loose puck at the side of the net and deposited it past Mike O’Neill to tie the score at two apiece. The ‘Concerned Citizens of Canon McMillan’ rose to their feet with 6:37 remaining as Jesse Patnesky raced the puck from the center zone in on the breakaway and beat Krynock on the backhand to give the Big Macs a 3-2 lead. With 4:55 remaining Joe Moore scored on a long shot from the right point to tie the score 3-3. Then the goal of the season thus far as Justin Cormack and Jesse Patnesky exchanged a give and go at the Thomas Jefferson blue line and then Patnesky doing his best Denny Savard spina-rama putting the Jaguar defenseman in shock and fired a bullet wrist shot high over the glove side of Cody Krynock with 1:28 remaining to give Canon McMillan a 4-3 lead, bringing the Canon Mac faithful in Murph’s pub to their feet and even possibly got Dave ‘Robin the Boy Wonder’ Fryer and assistants Tim ‘the Green Hornet’ Fryer and Eric ‘Kato Moon’ Boring. TJ pulled the goaltender but could not score the equalizer and the Big Macs held on for a big 4-3 win over the Jaguars.

NEVILLE ISLAND - Thank you to Plum Hockey for providing this report ! The Plum Mustangs and North Hills Indians met at the Island Sports Complex in a battle for one of the two remaining playoff spots. The Indians dominated the early play, outshooting Plum 12-5 in the opening period; but Plum’s goalie, John Bronder, was able to keep North Hills off the board with several sparkling saves. Three minute into the second period, it was the Mustangs who were able to take the lead. Jonathan Smith came free on a breakaway, but North Hills’ netminder Kevin Gubish made the save. Gubish then stopped Ben Colosmo on the rebound, but Matt Giunta shoveled the second rebound over Gubish into the net to make the score 1-0. At 8:31 of the second period, Smith took a pass from Colosmo, skated to the high slot and blistered a wrist shot past Gubish’s blocker to put Plum up by two. The Indians halved that margin at 6:15. Nick Rostek walked out from the corner and wristed the puck off the crossbar over Bronder’s glove to bring North Hills within striking distance. Three minutes later, the Indians took advantage of a Mustang penalty. Plum was unable to clear the puck, and it was Rostek again finding himself all alone in the slot. Rostek waited patiently and beat Bronder with a wrist shot past the blocker to knot the game at two. The game remained tied into the third period. At 8:15, North Hills’ Dave Hansell came in free on a breakaway, but Bronder came up big with the save to keep the game tied. Plum went on the power play with seven minutes remaining, but it was North Hills coming up with several scoring opportunities on the penalty kill. Bronder stopped Rostek with two sharp leg saves, and the Mustangs were able to survive their own power play. With only 3:23 remaining in the third, it was the Giunta-Smith-Colosmo line coming up big again. Giunta carried the puck into the Indians’ zone down the right wing and spotted Smith trailing down the left wing. Giunta hit Smith with a cross-ice pass, and Smith one-timed the puck to Colosmo who came flying down the slot. Colosmo deflected the Smith pass toward the open cage, and the puck slowly trickled into the net to put Plum up 3-2. North Hills put the pressure on in an effort to get the game-tying goal. With 1:13 to go, the Indians pulled Gubish for the extra skater. North Hills had several scoring chances, the last one coming on a slapshot with five seconds remaining; but Giunta sacrificed his body, going down and blocking the shot out of the Plum zone to seal the victory. The Indians outshot Plum 30-24 in the game.

JOIN US IN CELEBRATING PLUM HOCKEY ASSOCIATION'S RETIREMENT OF RJ UMBERGER'S #20! Join us at Center Ice in Delmont on Friday, February 24, 2006, as Plum Hockey Association honors RJ Umberger! RJ was the 1st Pittsburgh-born player drafted in the 1st round of the NHL Entry Draft and is now playing for the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers. RJ will be on hand to greet fans, friends, old teammates and coaches and to sign autographs from 8:30PM until 9:00PM. An on-ice ceremony to celebrate Plum Hockey Association's retirement of RJ's #20 will take place before the start of the 9:20PM Varsity game between Plum and Bethel Park. All are welcome!

Fox Chapel 5 Upper St Clair 2 HARMARVILLE – When you enter mid-February, it’s all about playoff positioning and for Upper St Clair (11-5-0) and Fox Chapel (12-5-2), the most important part of preparing for this post season [since both teams have clinched playoff spots] can be spelled out in one word, avoidance. If you are a Class AAA school and you capture spots 8 through 12 in the upcoming playoffs, the prospects of advancing to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals are slim to none. Why? Because your team will be staring the Mt Lebanon steamroller, with twelve shutouts in 19 games to their credit, and it WILL be a short postseason. Upper St Clair has six games remaining entering the tilt with Fox Chapel and has taken a Blue Devil beating twice this season, so coach John Harford knows all about what needs to take place over the season’s final two weeks. The Panthers will also have to make a choice of goaltenders for the playoffs in either freshman Max Daurora or veteran senior Kevin Gorder and that choice will likely fuel any playoff run for USC. Fox Chapel on the other hand has a no-brainer in between the pipes as Eric Thiessen has been one of the best goaltenders in Class AAA and along with fellow top 25 selection Meadville’s Bryan Danczak, have been a major reason why the Foxes and Bulldogs are up near the top of the heap. If you think Head Coach Jim Damp’s team starts and ends with goaltending, that would be a mistake as FC has found leadership in Kyle Misour, Joey Budz and more recently Justin Kreps, who along with a nice support cast make the Foxes an interesting and equally dangerous playoff team come March to knock off a couple of teams and waltz into the Semi’s, where as we know anything can happen. The game involved very tight checking early on as FC and USC kept the scoring chances to a minimum until Panther scoring machine Mike Penkrot got loose behind the Foxes defense, but Eric Thiessen made a terrific save to keep the contest scoreless. Fox Chapel built momentum off their goaltender and struck first as Zack ‘not Eddie’ Crowe found a loose puck on the doorstep and buried it to give FC a 1-0 lead with 5:31 remaining in the opening period. On to the second period and the Foxes Kyle Misour weighed in to the game burying a wrist shot past Daurora at 14:12 to extend the lead to 2-0. Fox Chapel put the Panthers on the power play and paid for it as Mike Penkrot walked off the near boards and rifled a snap shot up under the crossbar beating Thiessen, who appeared to have the angle, but could not score a major league shot at 12:06 of the 2nd. This game appeared to be headed for a key turning point in the next few minutes, with the next team who scored being able to take a stranglehold of this game. Fox Chapel capitalized on an odd man situation as Joey Budz converted a great pass by Kyle Misour to give the Foxes a 3-1 lead at 9:59. USC had a chance to cut the lead back to one as David Crockett was in on the breakaway, but Thiessen came up big at 8:38. Fox Chapel smelled a wounded Panther and started to press and dominated the later part of the second period scoring chances and converted twice as Dan Uminski beat Daurora low to the glove side for a power play goal at 4:45 and then Chris Hughes scored a big insurance goal at 4:04 to open up this game to a 5-1 Fox Chapel runaway at the end of two periods. Fox Chapel and Thiessen beared down in the third period and limited Upper St Clair’s chances and any momentum. David Crockett scored for the Panthers with 13 seconds left to make the final count 5-2 and give the Foxes a big win in their quest to capture the 7th seed or better with upcoming games against McDowell and the aforementioned Blue Devils.