News and Announcements
Plum breaks tie and goes on to defeat Highlanders
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Dec 23, 2005 4:00PM PST
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CASTLE SHANNON -
Special Report provided by Plum Hockey
The Mustangs snapped a 2-2 tie with a three-goal outburst in a span of 1:03 early in the third period to defeat the Baldwin Highlanders by a score of 5-2. Plum’s only two Seniors, Matt Giunta (2G, 2A) and Jonathan Smith (1G, 3A) each had four-point nights; and Sophomore goalie John Bronder turned in a solid 32-save performance for the Mustangs. After an evenly played first period that saw Plum outshoot Baldwin by the narrow margin of 8-7, Baldwin scored early in the second period. Sam Smith fired a shot from a sharp angle, and the puck caromed off of Bronder’s stick into the net to give the Highlanders a 1-0 lead. Plum answered that goal three minutes later. At 9:54 with Plum on a power play, Giunta muscled the puck to Jonathan Smith who found Junior Andy Weston open in the slot. Weston roofed the puck over Highlander goalie Ryan Smith’s blocker to knot the score at one. Just 38 seconds later, the Mustangs got their first lead of the game when Jonathan Smith took a Giunta pass in the slot and fired almost the identical shot that Weston scored on, beating the Baldwin goalie over the blocker, top-shelf style. With only 1:35 to go in the second, Baldwin caught Plum in a bad line change. The Highlanders found Mike Swindell all alone at the Plum blue line and sent him in on a breakaway. Swindell made a slick move to the backhand and slid the puck past Bronder to even the game at two. The Mustangs came out smoking early in the third, and it paid off early when Giunta score Plum's second power play goal on a rebound of a slapshot from Freshman Jon Gratton at 12:14 of the period. Weston picked up an assist on the goal. Fifty-seven seconds later, Giunta pounced on another rebound and rifled it into the cage to give the Mustangs a two-goal lead. Jonathan Smith and Junior Matt Eller each assisted on Giunta’s second goal. The Highlanders then called timeout to regroup, but it was Plum who took advantage of the time out. On the ensuing face-off, Plum dumped the puck into the Baldwin zone. The Baldwin netminder misplayed the puck, and Sophomore Anthony Sciulli made him pay by shoveling the biscuit into the Baldwin net just six seconds after the timeout, making the score 5-2. Junior Shawn O’Connor and Jonathan Smith assisted on the Mustangs’ fifth goal. The Highlanders continued to pressure Plum in an effort to get back into the game, but Bronder turned away all 14 Baldwin shots in the third to secure the win for Plum. The Highlanders outshot the Mustangs 34-26 on the evening.![image](https://photos-images.active.com/file/1/60/604905/original/e882b01d-5f50-4bf1-9919-38c19ec4d05b.gif)
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NA fights off an early Norwin challenge
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Dec 22, 2005 4:00PM PST
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North Allegheny 9 Norwin 0
DELMONT –
Norwin has struggled this season to a 1-8-0 mark as the season hits the midway mark. Head Coach Dave Warren has his team entered in the upcoming Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase against the likes of Central Catholic, undefeated West Allegheny and of course North Allegheny, the defending Director’s Cup champions. The Knights will look to start the second half of their season tonight as they have competed at the Class AAA level, instead of take the easy route as others have done in the Open Division. Norwin’s hockey program will be much better off in the long run by competing at a higher level as their Junior Varsity and Freshman numbers continue to grow toward fielding three full teams for the first time in recent memory.
North Allegheny’s hockey program has never struggled with numbers and Tom Pandolfo has a very talented group of younger players, who are beginning to get comfortable at the Varsity level. The Tigers are now part of a process, which they should be each year, of the chase for the Penguins Cup. With 2005’s Penguins Cup fresh enough in memory to be motivation to get back there, this is a team that dominated Class AAA a year ago only to fall short of their goal. With Mt Lebanon firmly entrenched as the favorite someone in Class AAA needs to claim that they want to challenge the Blue Devils and that list is becoming shorter and will get shorter before we get to March’s playoffs. North Allegheny, Bethel Park and Meadville look to be there with possibly a handful of other wannabees and my question is who? The team who is even thinking about it better have goaltending, play strong physical defense and be able to survive the playoffs early rounds.
Norwin played the first period like a team that is not 1-8-0 and skated with the Tigers stride for stride. A couple of penalty exchanges on the power play led to a 4 on 4 situation with 3 minutes to go in the opening period and Norwin took a penalty to put NA on the power play. Mike Pochan made several nice stops on the Tiger power play as the shots rang to 9-1 in favor of North Allegheny. Jeff Mihalo had a nice chance for the Knights with just under a minute to play but Adam Lutty made the save. Pochan stopped Chris Simanic with just 2 seconds to play in the first.
At 14:41 of the second period, Wes Waldschmidt picked up a wide shot off the boards and slipped it past Pochan to give NA a 1-0 lead. Chris Simanic picked up his own rebound at 11:41 on the power play after another couple of nice stops by Pochan to make it 2-0. After Norwin changed goaltender’s, Danny Gaertner greeted the new Knight goaltender Stewart with a quick goal to make it 3-0 with 11:15 remaining in the period. At 8:20 of the 2nd, Paul Dittrich walked down the slot and unleashed a wrist shot up under the crossbar to make it 4-0 after a scoreless first. With 57 seconds remaining in the period on the power play, Alan Halapin unloaded a wicked wrist shot high over the glove side of Stewart to make the count 5-0 and the shots in the period 24-7 for the middle period.
Norwin just ran out of gas and any hope in the third as the Tigers turned the game into cruise control and added four more goals and rung up a shot total of 43-10 for a 9-0 victory over the Knights. Danny Gaertner scored on a backhand at 13:16, Chris Simanic scored on a deke and backhand at 9:14, Nick Vaglia scored at 5:44, and Chris Gilson finished a nice back door pass from Simanic with 1:42.
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STATE COLLEGE -
Special Report provided by the State College Hockey Club
State College 4, Greensburg-Salem 1
State College defeated Greensburg-Salem by a score of 4-1 on Thursday night, December 22 at Penn State. Little Lion Team Captain and senior Kurt Collins put the Golden Lions in the hole early, scoring unassisted just 29 seconds into the game. A. J. Defazio tied the game with a power play goal at 2:04 into the second period. Defazio goal was assisted by Hank Fontana and Shane Davis. State College answered the goal in less that a minute when sophmore Brian James scored on an assist by Nick Petrick and Kurt Collins at 3:01 into the 2nd period. State College broke away in the 3rd period with goal scored by senior defenseman Jason Pogue just 26 seconds into the period. The goal was assisted by Brian James. Sophmore defensman Dan Petrick sealed the win for State College with a power play goal at 6:52, which was assisted by his brother, a junior, Nick Petrick. Sophmore goalie for State College, Calvin Michael stopped 12 of 13 shots by the Golden Lions. Shane Talarico, the Golden Lion goalie stopped 13 of 17 shots. ![image](https://photos-images.active.com/file/1/60/604905/original/67a8651e-24ed-41c9-b0f3-61ca56d4cfee.gif)
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Ferndale wins a thriller in OT over Richland
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Dec 22, 2005 4:00PM PST
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JOHNSTOWN -
Special Report provided by Ferndale Hockey Club
Ferndale 4, Richland 3 OT
Jesper Baeck scored 42 seconds into overtime. Evan Krupa and Carl Swarting assisted on the goal. Ferndale tied the score with 2:35 left in the third period on a goal from Shawn Toth, assisted by Swarting. The score was tied after one period as Frank Rovida scored for Richland and Ryan Mikolic for Ferndale. In the second period, Ferndale took the lead on a goal by Swarting, but Rovida tied the game with 1:58 left in the second. An early third period goal by Russell Gray gave Richland a 3-2 lead. Ferndale outshot Richland 43-24 with Francess Anzalone of Richland playing a solid game in goal. Troy Callihan turned away 21 Richland shots![image](https://photos-images.active.com/file/1/60/604905/original/79662203-7637-4648-8322-d52f3ca337c2.gif)
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The Meadville Bulldog Hockey club will conduct the 10th Annual Bulldog Invitational at the Meadville Area Recreation Center on January 13th - 15th, 2006.
The Schedule is as follows:
Friday January 13th
Mt Lebanon 4 St Francis OH 2
LaSalle 4 Thomas Jefferson 2
Sylvania Northview OH 4 Meadville 1
Central Catholic 3 Bowling Green OH 1
Saturday January 14th
St Francis OH 14 Thomas Jefferson 2
LaSalle 0 Mt Lebanon 0
Central Catholic 4 Meadville 4
Sylvania Northview OH 8 Bowling Green OH 1
Mt Lebanon 9 Thomas Jefferson 1
Sylvania Northview OH 5 Central Catholic 1
LaSalle 4 St Francis OH 0
Meadville 3 Bowling Green OH 1
Sunday January 15th
8:00 AM ~ Semi-Final - Mt Lebanon 3 Meadville 1
10:00 AM ~ Semi-Final - LaSalle 2 Sylvania Northview OH 1
3:00 PM ~ 10th Annual Bulldog Invitational Final
Mt Lebanon 1 LaSalle 0
*** GAME SUMMARIES AND A COMPLETE WRAP-UP OF THE 2006 BULLDOG INVITATIONAL IS NOW
AVAILABLE****
All-Tournament Team - 2006 Meadville Bulldog Invitational
Matt Bartkowski - Mt Lebanon
Jon Wilen - Mt Lebanon
John Williams - LaSalle
Dan Pyne - LaSalle
Alden Hirschfeld - Sylvania Northview
Adam Thangsiu - Sylvania Northview
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