East Region

2006 Meadville Bulldog Invitational Championship MEADVILLE - Mt Lebanon 1 LaSalle 0 Mt Lebanon and LaSalle squared off in a rematch of the 2005 Final and more recently a preliminary round game played to a scoreless tie a day ago. The Blue Devils defeated Meadville 3-1 and LaSalle turned back Sylvania Northview 2-1 to set an all Pennsylvania title game. The work ethic displayed by the Explorers in the tournament has been the key to their road the title game, while the Blue Devils have continued to get solid play from the dozen players who have dressed during the tournament, now known as LEBO 66. The teams battled to an even strength scoreless opening period until Mt Lebanon went on the power play at 5:37 of the opening period, which LaSalle was able to kill off. As evenly played a first period as the previous three periods in the preliminary round and even last year’s final the opening period shots were 6-6. The Blue Devils had a good opportunity on the initial shift of the 2nd, but Rick Beuke was turned aside by Dan Pyne, who has been stellar thus far in the tournament. With 5:54, Mt Lebanon was guilty of covering the puck in their own crease and John Williams was awarded a penalty shot and he tried to high to the glove side of Matt Vaughn, who snatch the puck out of the air and kept the Explorers off the board, much to the delight of King Tut’s ‘Concerned Citizen’s of Mt Lebanon’ and the Lebo 66 contingent on the bench. The Blue Devil’s would get another opportunity on the man advantage with 1:20 remaining in the 2nd period. With 1:05 left in the 2nd, some beautiful passing precipitated Rick Bueke finding Jon Wilen on the back door, who slammed home a shot past Pyne breaking nearly 1 hour and 5 minutes of scoreless hockey played between Lebo 66 and LaSalle. The Explorer’s continued to work and press for the equalizer and missed a couple of golden chances with a little over six minutes remaining as Matt Vaughn and the Lebo 66 defense dove scratched and clawed to keep the puck out and a 1-0 lead. With 1:41 remaining, the Explorers took a frustration penalty as the reality that the Lebo 66 was in control of this one playing a very good LaSalle team to nearly 90 minutes of scoreless hockey and capped it off with a 1-0 victory and the first championship of the Meadville Bulldog Invitational for Mt Lebanon.

Every year Pa Hockey goes through the process of picking the top 25 players in Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. Soooo....... after much anguish and paring down a list of about 100 players the Top 25 in Western Pa is here and its sister Top 25 in Eastern Pa is here as well. And if that isn't enough our annual list of the top 5 Fans is here and Top 5 Freshman who have come on the scene as well as our Top 5 coaching performances [Eastern and Western Pa]. Finally, if you are going to start a championship organization and need a place to start .... our Top 10 Scholars are a great place to start and I would guess that these kids are top notch in many people's lists. Enjoy it + Comments are welcome..... And if you don't like it you can always discuss in on the Roundtable ..... The Pa Hockey Top 25 is one reason why it the # 1 Interscholastic Hockey Website in the State of Pennsylvania ! The Pa Hockey Top 25 is now posted on Pa Hockey !

Preliminary Round Results North Allegheny 5 St Ignatius 0 Bethel Park 3 Dublin 1 Montour 1 Carmel 1 North Allegheny 8 Carmel 3 Dublin 3 Montour 2 Bethel Park 6 St. Ignatius 4 North Allegheny 5 Dublin 2 St. Ignatius 5 Montour 1 Bethel Park 3 Carmel 1 Semi-Final - Bethel Park 4 St Ignatius 1 - North Allegheny 5 Dublin OH 3 SUNDAY Jan. 15 Finals North Allegheny 2 Bethel Park 1 OT HIGHLIGHTS: Wes Waldschmidt scores early in OT to earn the title for the North Allegheny Tigers

Serra Catholic 6 Quaker Valley 4 ROSTRAVER – Serra Catholic is off to a 9-1-0 start and has handled the Class A competition with relative ease with the exception of the 6-2 loss to defending Penguins Cup champions Bishop McCort back on December 5th. The Eagles are very accustomed to big games at Class A because they have been involved in the majority of them for the past five years. For head coach Tom Mooney this will be a good opportunity to see how far this team has come since the beginning of the season and more importantly pick up a win over a QV team which figures to trying to claim the # 1 seed in the playoffs beginning in March, especially with a rematch set for February 13th at the Airport, which could be a huge game if Serra could knock off the undefeated Quakers. Quaker Valley is currently ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 Statewide poll and is undefeated on the season with a win over Bishop McCort under its belt. Head coach Kevin Quinn’s squad is one of three teams in Western Pennsylvania that are a cut above the competition in the weak 12-team Class A Division in Western Pa. In fact, some of the QV faithful are very positive thinkers and made it out to the PA Hockey Scholastic Showcase to get a look at defending Pennsylvania Class A Champions Penncrest, currently ranked # 1 in Eastern Pennsylvania and # 2 in the state of Pennsylvania. The Quakers will definitely be a part of the process and a win over Serra will go a long way in capturing the # 1 seed in the playoffs since Serra looks to be the only team that can unseed them due to the weak Class A competition and the rarity of important games at this level. Early in the opening period at 11:01, Quaker Valley found themselves on the opposite end of a 5 on 3 disadvantage and at 10:44, the Eagles cashed in as Josh Werner scored into a wide open net behind Zac Zinger, who made the initial save, but had no chance on the rebound. With another 1:44 left on the 2nd power play, the Quakers could not afford to dig a 2-0 hole and they were successful in killing the Serra man advantage. At 4:42 of the first, Serra took a 2-0 lead as Bryan Hickey beat Zac Zinger cleanly from in close. Quaker Valley would get their first opportunity on the power play with 23 seconds left in the first and it didn’t take long as George Jackson found a loose puck on the doorstep and converted a rebound with 5 ticks left to cut the Serra lead to 2-1 at the end of one. At 13:48 of the second, the Eagles reclaimed the two goal lead as Aaron Nolte set up Steven Gruhalla, who made no mistake beating Zinger. Serra came right back at 13:07 as Josh Werner picked up his 2nd goal of the evening coming right down the slot and extending the Eagle lead to 4-1. At 7:56 of the second period, Furman South unleashed a wrist shot which beat Jeff Smaracheck to get the Quakers back in the game at 4-2. Serra came right back at 6:13 as Aaron Nolte unleashed a wrist which I don’t think Zac Zinger ever saw giving the Eagles a 5-2 lead. The Quakers went back on the power play at 5:27 and converted as Mikail Lemieux danced through the slot and beat the Serra Catholic goaltender with a wrist shot to cut the margin to 5-3. The Quakers went back on the power play with less than a minute to go and would carry over to the third period. On to the third and the Eagles killed off the remainder of the penalty. With 11:08 remaining, Qv would get another chance to cut the lead with a power play. With 9:23 Jeff Smaracheck made a great save on Colin South, who appeared to have a wide open net. With 8:45, QV got another power play but could not score. And yet another power play with 5:27 to go and a 5 on 3 with 4:56 to play. As Serra appeared to kill off the disadvantage, Furman South made a terrific play and a better shot as with 3:05 to play South buried a wrist shot high over the stick hand side of Jeff Smaracheck, who made several nice saves during the 5 on 3 and the lead was now slim 5-4. Quaker Valley brought the kitchen sink in the final minutes but the Eagle defense and Smaracheck stiffened and held the Quakers out and when Steve Gruhalla scored into the empty net with 10 seconds left, QV would have their first loss of the season 6-4. Serra now can control their own destiny by winning out including a February 12th matchup with Bishop McCort and a rematch the very next night against Quaker Valley.

North Allegheny 3 McDowell 1 CRANBERRY – When North Allegheny hired Tom Pandolfo three years ago, there was an instantaneous change to the hockey program with a reputation of being rich on talent, but never winning anything. Sure, the Tigers won the WPIHL Championship a handful of times in 1977, 1995 and 1999, but the true measure in this Interscholastic Hockey era is the success in the Penguins Cup and the State Championship of the State of Pennsylvania. This is and always has been the goal of the program, but now its attitude and expectations are geared toward it. After the Penguins Cup finals loss to Bethel Park a year ago and loss of some key personnel, the Tigers have re-tooled and are once again on course for another strong regular season at 10-1-0, but more importantly positioning for another playoff run in March. North Allegheny’s tribute to consistency over Pandolfo’s tenure was evidenced by its 3rd consecutive Director’s Cup title in a 4-2 win over Defending Pennsylvania Class AAA State Champions Bethel Park. The McDowell hockey program has a long history in Class AAA in Western Pennsylvania, which began to take form in the inaugural Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in 1975. In the early days, the Trojans were the dominant team in the Lake Shore Hockey League in Northwestern Pennsylvania, who were in the hunt for Class AAA State Championships in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, & 1980, only to fall short by a game or two. After some pretty good success in the early 2000’s with a couple of Penguins Cup semi-final appearances, coach Paul Mancini has inherited a group laking the front line talent to compete with the Bethel Park’s. Mt Lebanon’s, Meadville’s and now North Allegheny’s for the ultimate prize as the Trojans are off to a respectable 6-4-0 start. McDowell skated stride for stride with the Tigers for the opening 14 minutes as John Cleary kept NA off the board. North Allegheny went on the power play in the final minute of the period to take the lead. At 13:39 of the second period, NA finally solved Trojan goaltender John Cleary with just 3 seconds left in the power play as Alan Halapin scored on a rebound to make it 1-0. With 9:04 remaining in the period, Dylan Rohrer picked up a loose puck at center ice and raced toward John Cleary only to be stopped, but had the presence and tenacity to pick up his own rebound and score a very big goal to make it 2-0. McDowell came back to cut the lead to 2-1 at 6:10 of the second period as Andy Kohler scored on a high shot over the shoulder of Max Richards, which seemed to fool the Tiger goaltender. With 8:15 remaining Alan Halapin scored a huge goal sneaking a snapshot past John Cleary to make it 3-1, which gave the Tigers Insurance. North Allegheny was able to skate out the clock defeating their former division rivals and moving closer to a home playoff berth.