East Region

Canon McMillan 5 Indiana 3 SOUTHPOINTE – Indiana has started off the regular season 1-1-0 with a victory over Chartiers Valley 5-3 and an opening loss to Greensburg CC 3-1. The Indians season appeared in jeopardy a lot earlier than that as the Indiana Ice Center closed in July due to mechanical difficulties and the status of the rink fka the ‘House of King Samuel’ turned into the House less King Samuel’ was up in the air for most of the summer. Finally, after much lobbying by Indiana Hockey supporters the rink re-opened prior to the start of the regular season saving hockey in Indiana, not only for HIS, but for IUP and the Indiana Amatuer Hockey Association, but the casualty would be Sam Kelly, who has dedicated much of his career to hockey in the town and if anyone had common sense would realize that the first coach of the Indiana program is a builder and would find a way to make sure he is employed at the rink he made flourish. Canon McMillan is also to off to a slow start at 1-2-1 after a great season and capturing the number #1 seed berth in 2004-2005, which was easily its best season in the clubs history. The Big Macs schedule has been murderer’s row with all teams who made last season’s Penguins Cup quarterfinals including an opening night loss to Montour 4-2, a 3-3 tie in Kittanning, a 6-4 win over Elizabeth Forward and a 7-4 loss to undefeated West Allegheny resulting in a 1-2-1 record. Tonight’s game is a key early season matchup between two teams with playoff positioning aspirations and could be a tiebreaker game come March 1. This game between Head Coach Dom Glavech’s Indiana club and Dave Fryer’s Canon McMillan club was end to end with good action at both ends. The best Big Mac chance came at 7:16 of the first period as Jesse Patnesky had the Indiana goaltender down but could not beat him and then Nick Cusilito shot the rebound and a sprawling Mike Kennedy stopped him. Moments later, Joe Appolonia had a chance on a partial break, but Michael O’Neill was equal to the task. Indiana went on the power play with 1:42 remaining in the first period, but it was the Big Macs Justin Cormack who provided the fireworks as he stripped the Indiana defenseman of the puck and fired a forehand low on the ice past Mike Kennedy for a shorthanded goal with 41 seconds remaining to give CM a 1-0 lead. At 14:44 of the second, Indiana was caught napping again as Jesse Patnesky took a Cormack steal and deposited a backhand high over the shoulder of Mike Kennedy for a 2-0 lead for Canon McMillan and two shorthanded tallies. At 14:10 another penalty on the Big Macs and just 19 seconds later another chance for the Big Macs, which Kennedy stopped. With 11:56 remaining in the middle period, the Big Macs went on the power play, but the Indians were able to keep the score 2-0. Indiana’s Troy Gaydosh had a great opportunity with 7:25 to play in the period on a 2 on 1, but Mike O’Neill turned aside a wrist shot to keep the Indians off the board. With 4 ½ minutes left Canon Mac threw a flurry of shots at the Indiana goal and Mike Kennedy made several brilliant saves the last robbing Corey Griffith from on the doorstep to keep it a two goal deficit for his team. On the power play for CM again at 3:32 and the Big Macs finally were able to solve Kennedy as Jesse Patnesky picked up his second goal, this time a power play goal for a 3-0 lead. On to the third and the Big Macs struck again at 12:17 as Matt Rivetti found a wide open Corey Griffith in front and fed him for a quick one timer past Kennedy and a 4-0 lead. Then with 9:45 remaining in the third, the Indians struck as Joe Appolonia scored on a rebound of Jay Pettina over a fallen O’Neill to make it 4-1 and brought the intimate gathering of ‘Concerned Citizens of Indiana’ to their feet. At 9:26, the Indians had a chance to creep closer on the power play and they did as Steven Geisel caught O’Neill off the post and a wraparound later at 7:37 brought our count to 4-2 with plenty of time remaining. Then the old adage to throw anything to the net applied as Adam Rusiewicz wrested a shot to the net, which resulted in a rebound which John Ogden deposited past O’Neill with 3:32 left and all the sudden it was 4-3. A hush fell over the throng of very ‘Concerned Citizens of Canon McMillan’ crowd in attendance, but was restored to a roar as Jesse Patnesky deposited an empty netter for the hat trick with 46.6 seconds left for a 5-3 Big Mac lead and the victory as the clock ran out on Indiana.

Peters Township 8 Chartiers Valley 3 SOUTHPOINTE - Peters Township is off to a quick 2-0-0 start with victories over Elizabeth Forward and Beaver. The defending Class AA Pennsylvania State Champions are expected to be back there again and for head coach Rick Tingle it is a not a matter of whether, it is a matter of who will be in the lineup every night. With several players who play travel hockey jockeying between the Hornets and the Indians, the fact of the matter is that while players are looking to further their careers after high school in Junior A and Collegiate hockey by being seen, these kids love playing before and with their peers for Peters Township. Many of these players learned a very important lesson in life last March from predecessor coach Mark Cooper, when he had them turn their jersey’s over in the regular season finale vs Thomas Jefferson. The lesson is this….as long as you play this game, it is better to play for the emblem on the front of the jersey rather than the name on the back. With this in mind the Indians survived several close calls against Greensburg CC and Canon McMillan and went on to capture the 2005 Penguins Cup over Pine Richland and then shut out Haverford 4-0 to capture their 3rd Pennsylvania Cup in four years. Chartiers Valley coach Paul Bonetti went through a dream season in 2005 – 2006 and I am not talking about the Open Division thrashing of a bunch of bad teams and the Nailers Cup. I am talking about the re-birth of the Colts Hockey program, which endured a horrible campaign the prior year, which almost led to extinction. The beauty of the 2004-2005 season was the fact that many players who were not playing for the Colts came back to the program and lead them into the Penguins Cup playoffs by virtue of a very bad playoff system, which put the Colts, who were clearly a good Class AA team against the # 3 seed Montour Spartans. CV upset Montour in overtime and then went on and came within a period of upsetting # 1 seed Canon McMillan. So from that standpoint, Chartiers Valley hockey is alive again and now they are back in AA where they belong, but the first three games were not so kind as the Colts dropped contests to Class AA powers Indiana 5-3 & West Allegheny 7-5 and a less than spirited effort in a loss to Latrobe 8-2. Just 14 seconds into the opening period, Chris Morford threw a puck into the air which eluded CV goaltender Mike Evangalista to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. The Colts would have the first opportunity on the power play at 7:31, which was nullified as CV was whistled to produce a 4 on 4 situation at 6:07. This situation would seemed to favor the Indians and Dustin Roux made the most of it at 5:02 with a backhander of a loose puck high over the shoulder of Evangalista to make it 2-0. Eddie Olczyk got behind the Peters defense resulting in a penalty and another CV power play at 4:06. With 1:23 remaining in the first period, Gerry Raymond picked up the puck behind the opposition net and wheeled around into the slot and fired a blistering wrist shot upstairs over the Char Valley goaltender to make it 3-0. On to the second period and the onslaught continue as Dustin Roux parted the red sea and the Colts defense and undressed the Chartiers Valley goaltender in the opening minute for a beautiful goal and a 4-0 lead. At 11:16, Chartiers Valley would have a chance to get back in the game as Peters was whistled for a double minor. At 8:19, Ryan Kelly tired to elude the Peters defense and got the result he wanted as the puck trickled past Timmy Fitzgerald, who replaced Mike Mastracci, who pitched a shitout in the first period. At 7:29, it was Dustin Roux again who made pylons of the Chartiers Valley defense and buried a wrist shot past Evangalista to complete the hat trick and make it 5-1. Just 11 seconds later Jake Della Valle buried a Jeff Hannan setup in the slot to make it 6-1 at 7:18. Jake’s next goal was even more impressive at 1:37 as he made a strong move to steal the puck and buried a shot on the far side to make it a lopsided 7-1 in favor of the Indians. Chartiers Valley scored with just 12 ticks remaining in the 2nd as Ryan Kelly picked up his second goal on the power play as he slipped the puck through the five hole to make the count 7-2. The Colts started the third on the power play and Eddie Olczyk Jr cashed in at 12:23 to make it 7-3. With 9:24 remaining, Eric Windmiller got an early present aqnd slapped it home to make it 8-3. Peters Twp held on for the win 8-3 and moved to 3-0-0 as special guests Eddie O, Dave Hannan. Batman and the Boy Wonder watched on from Jay’s in the third period for a little Gotham City who’s who.

This report provided by the Plum Hockey Club -HARMARVILLE The Plum Mustangs earned their third consecutive victory in a span of seven days with a 6-2 win over the Shaler Titans. The Mustangs came out smoking in the opening period and scored early. At 12:41, Senior Jonathan Smith took a feed through the slot from Senior Matt Giunta and one-timed the puck into the Shaler net to put Plum on top. Junior Shawn O'Connor got the second assist on the goal. Just 1:02 later, Shaler's Jesse Grossman capitalized on a one-timer of his own in front of the Plum net and knotted the game at one. The Mustangs then took over, registering the next 13 shots on goal. At 8:11, Junior Chad Covol backhanded a rebound of a shot from Junior Ben Colosmo into the net to give Plum a lead they would not relinquish. Junior Andy Weston also assisted on Covol's goal. With 3:48 left in the first, Smith got his second of the night. O'Connor passed the puck to Giunta who fed Smith as he entered the Titan's zone. Smith broke free, waited for the Shaler goalie to go down and fired the puck into the net over the goalie's blocker, making the score 3-1. Exactly one minute later, Colosmo one-timed a perfect pass from Covol past the Shaler netminder to give Plum a three-goal lead. Weston picked up his second assist of the game on Colosmo's goal. After a scoreless second period, the Mustangs stretched their lead to 5-1 at 12:46 of the third. Giunta slid the puck to O'Connor from behind the net, and O'Connor wristed a shot past the Titan goalie's short side. The Titans answered that goal 1:16 later when Patrick Sullivan scored for Shaler on a traffic jam in front of the Plum net. At 4:02 of the third, Smith completed his second hat trick of the season, scoring his tenth goal unassisted on and end-to-end rush that he finished off by cutting across the slot and ripping a forehand shot over the sprawling Titan goalie. Plum outshot Shaler 36-11 in the game.

Semi-Finals Mt Lebanon 3 North Allegheny 1 Mt Lebanon gained the semi-finals of the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational through the conventional manner of impressive victories over perennial New York club power Orchard Park 6-1, 9-time Maryland State Champions DeMatha Catholic 2-1 in overtime and Eastern Pa AA foe Downingtown East 6-1. Coach Paul Taibi’s club has displayed the depth and balance, that has carried the Blue Devils to the Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranking in Western Pennsylvania, even tough several players were in and out of the lineup in the tournament’s first two days. North Allegheny knows the feeling that the Blue Devils carry as NA held the title of # 1 for the majority of the regular season and through the playoffs as the Tigers captured the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off, Central Catholic Invitational and the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase a year ago and steamrolled through the regular season with just one loss, which carried them all the way to the Penguins Cup final before bowing to the Hawks 1-0 at the Mellon Arena in one of the classic AAA championships in recent memory. After pummeling Monsignor Bonner in the opener of the tournament, the Tigers got a rude reminder of how fragile winning and losing is as they were upended by nemesis Upper St. Clair 3-1 yesterday morning. Coach Tom Pandolfo hates to lose more than anyone and may have exorcised a few demons as the Tigers knocked off Hamilton, Ontario’s St Jean de Brebeuf, who had crushed their first two opponents in the tournament. Mt Lebanon defeated NA 3-1 as Rick Beuke and Mike Roman scored in the first period to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. The Tigers pulled within one as Chris Simanic scored on the power play at 12:41 of the second. Max Richards kept North Allegheny in the game with 27 saves, but Matt Bartkowski iced the game with a power play goal with 8:55 left in the third to give the Blue Devils a spot in the finals. Cheektowaga 2 Bethel Park 1 (2OT) Cheektowaga has enjoyed their inaugural visit to the Central Catholic Inviational with victories and a little tour of Pa Hockey defeating host Central Catholic 5-1, 8-time Pennsylvania Cup champions Meadville 3-1 and tying defeating 2005 Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy 2-2. The Warriors goaltending tandem of Mike Grover and Adam Palumbo have been stellar in the tournament have been the difference in CC’s ride to the semi-finals. Bethel Park coach Jim McVay knows the importance of good goaltending as his club captured last year’s Pennsylvania State AAA Championship with the great goaltending of Bryce Merriam and the rise of many players such as Timmy O’Brien, Kenny Lehmann, Eddie Bendik, who played key roles and will be counted on to lead BP back to the promised land. The Blackhawk’s have witnessed a turnstile between the pipes but may be settling with former Woodland Hills goaltender Pete Cosentino, who is a legacy of former Churchill player Kevin Monaco of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s so to speak. Cheektowaga defeated Bethel Park 2-1 as the Hawks could only solve Warriors goaltender Mike Grover once with 40 shots. CC opened the scoring at 8:56 of the first period as Eric Osmanski scored on the power play. The Black Hawks tied the game at 4:01 of the second period as Logan Bannon scored to knot the score a one apiece. The Warriors would earned a spot in the finals as Matt Bessing scored at 9:30 of the overtime period to give Cheektowaga Central a spot in the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final surviving six Bethel Park power plays. 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final Mt Lebanon 5 Cheektowaga Central 1 Cheektowaga Central has battle hard in the Invitational and head coach Steve Ferrentino has to be proud of the fact that Warriors defeated Eastern Pa AA power Downingtown East perennial Pennsylvania AAA stalwarts Meadville and Bethel Park along with a tie with Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy. In a whirlwind weekend tournament anytime a team can face the competition that they did and post a 3-0-1 record and head to the finals of this great event, it’s a great accomplishment. The next step would be the much heralded Blue Devils of Mt Lebanon. Any time Mt Lebanon takes to the ice, its an event this season and with Ralph and Alf not present with his sidekick Bob ‘I don’t have a nickname yet’ Behling noticeably absent from the sidelines, I enlisted the help of King Tut to assist me in finding electricity power for the Bat Computer, since I didn’t have Ralph and Alf Construction services available. I probably should have just hooked it up to the Mt Lebanon bench or possibly just the power play because this team has been electric since the start of the season scoring like a machine and yielding shots at the clip of a Tommy Maddox completion %. Murovich, Ferguson, Bartkowski, Mandic, McDermott, and the crew is just firepower in action and has blasted its way into the final with wins over Downingtown East, DeMatha Orchard Park and North Allegheny by a 15-4 margin in 4 contests. Mt Lebanon applied the pressure early and at 9:31 of the 1st Matt Bartkowski scored on a wrist shot from the right point and through traffic past Adam Palumbo to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead. At 5:23 of the Palumbo robbed Josh Mandic from point blank range as the Blue Devils held a 9-1 shot advantage. At 3:01 of the first, the ‘Terminator’ Tyler Murovich undressed the Warrior goaltender and beat him upstairs on the backhand for the games 11th shot and a 2-0 Blue Devil lead. Lebo outshot CC 17-2 in the opening period. Mt Lebanon continued to pound away on Palumbo in the 2nd period and at 12:37 of the middle period, Shane Ferguson bang home a rebound after Josh Mandic and Tyler Murrrr-O-Vitch as PA Announcer Tim Lane would suggest provided the assists. At 10:52, Tyler Murovich scored his 2nd goal poking home a rebound after a scramble in front to make it 4-0. The Blue Devils continued their onslaught on Cheektowaga with 29 shots to only 7 on Matt Vaughn, whose only serious threat was a breakaway from Steve Noworyta shot just wide with a little over five minutes to play in the middle frame. On to the third we went and Lebo continued the onslaught and at 8:40, Sean McDermott scored on a rebound to make it 5-0. With just 4:43. the Warriors finally got on the as Eric Osmanski blistered a slapshot in the upper right hand corner to make it 5-1 and the Blue Devils would run the clock out with a 36-11 shot advantage capturing their first ever Central Catholic Invitational Championship. The Blue Devils Tyler Murovich was named recipient of the William Downey Award for the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and joined teammates Matt Vaughn and Matt Bartkowski of the All-Tournament team along with Eric Osmanski of Cheektowaga Central, Kenny Lehman of Bethel Park and Brian O’Neill of Germantown Academy. Congratulations to the Mt Lebanon Blue Devils and head coach Paul Taibi for capturing the prestigious Central Catholic Invitational !

North Allegheny 7 Monsignor Bonner 1 North Allegheny opened up defense of last years championship with an easy looking 7-1 throttling of the Friars of Monsignor Bonner. Wes Waldschmidt led the way with the hat trick and linemate Chris Gilson chipped in a goal and 4 assists for the Tigers. Coach Tom Pandolfo’s NA squad outshot Bonner 31-8 as Max Richard’s shutout was broken with just two minutes remaining by MB’s Dan Flynn. St Jean De Brebuef 8 Upper St Clair 1 Hamilton, Ontario is about an hour west of Toronto located off the QEW just a short drive north from Niagra Falls and home of St Jean de Breuef High School. In the hockey hotbed of Junior A and professional hockey, the Braves High School led by Ralph Farkas leads his squad into the Central Catholic Invitational for the first time. Upper St. Clair enters the opener of the CC Invitational off their first loss of the season on Monday to Bethel Park 4-2 sporting a 3-1-0 record. In a penalty filled affair, St Jean pasted the Panthers 8-1. Ryan Cline score a pair for the Braves and Kevin Matthews, Steve Zangrando, Cole McNeil, Joe Finelli, Peter Barvet and Michael Luongo scored singles. USC’s lone score came off the stick of David Crockett at 8:28 of the second period. Germantown Academy 4 Meadville 2 2005 CC Invitational FEATURE GAME Meadville entered the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational after a tough 5-2 loss to Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 Mt Lebanon on Monday evening in Meadville. Coach Jamie Plunkett’s teams sports a 3-2-0 in league play as the season finishes its second week. The Bulldogs are familiar with Germantown Academy as the opponent in their 1994 Pennsylvania High School Hockey AAA Championship victory 3-0. Gump Whiteside’s Patriots have not officially started their season for the 2006 AAA Flyers Cup chase, but Germantown Academy’s loss to Malvern Prep is motivation to return to Eastern Pa’s crown jewel for Interscholastic hockey. This team’s unquestionable leader is junior Brian O’Neill, who is considered one of the, if not the top player in all of Eastern Pa Hockey. It didn’t take long for the Dawgs to strike as at 14:15 Mike Noonan scored on the breakaway on a backhand beating Patriots goaltender Nick Stampone. Germantown struck back at exactly 10:00 as Brian O’Neill beat Brian Danczak to tie the score at one apiece. Back came Meadville at 7:25, as Tyler Learn scored on a rebound on the power play for a 2-1 Bulldog lead after one. On to the second and the O’Neill brothers hooked up at 11:19 as Brennan O’Neill scooped up a Brian O’Neill rebound and deposited it past Brian Danczak to knot the score at 2-2. Nick Stampone stopped Alex Drelick on a breakaway at 7:52 and covered up a rebound attempt by Nick Fedorka. The third period saw tight checking early on as both teams battled for the go ahead goal in an evenly played fast paced game. Danczak continued to shine with several nice saves, but at 9:26 of the third period, the Patriots as Andrew Sloane’s shot from the right face-off circle trickled past the Meadville goaltender give GA a 3-2 lead. Nick Stampone made a real nice save with 7:24 remaining as Pat Leone streaked around the Patriot defense to preserve the one goal advantage. Leone had two more chances on Stampone, but the Patriot netminder came up big with a little over three minutes to go as the Bulldogs poured on the pressure in the Germantown Academy end. An 120 foot icong by Brian O’Neill handcuffed Brian Danczak with 1:07 remaining to give GA a 4-2 lead and the victory in the opener of the tournament as Meadville outshot Germantown 26-25. Downingtown East 6 DeMatha 4 Downingtown East of the ICSHL AA squared off against the perennial state powers of Maryland DeMatha Catholic. The Stags and Cougars battled to a 3-3 tie through two periods as Shane Lynch of East scored with just 13 seconds remaining in the 2nd to tie it. Brendan Smith gave Downingtown the lead 1:04 into the third and Andy Thomas add insurance with 7:11 remaining to give the Cougars a 6-4 victory. Ben Souders led D-East with two goals and two assists and DeMatha got scoring from Scott Gray and Shane Findlay who scored twice for the Stags. Mt Lebanon 6 Orchard Park 1 Mt Lebanon advanced to the finals of last years Central Catholic Invitational culminating in tonights opponent semi-finalist Orchard Park, the 2005 New York Club finalist. Mt Lebanon controlled this one from the outset outshooting the Quakers 29-10 on the evening. Sopho Tyler ‘the Terminator’ Murovich notched the hat trick to lead the way for the Blue Devils. Mike Roman, Sean McDermott and Matt Bartkowski also scored for Lebo, while OP’s lone tally came off the stick of Tyler Matthews. Cheektowoga Central 5 Central Catholic 1 Cheektowoga Central opened up its inaugural Central Catholic Invitational against the tournament host Vikings. The Warriors broke open a 1-1 tie in the 2nd period as Matt Bessing scored his second goal just 22 seconds into the middle period to give Cheektowoga a lead it would never relinquish. Ron Szymkowiak, Steve Noworyta and Eric Osmanski scored for a 5-1 victory over Central Catholic. The Vikings loan goal was by Glenn Sherwin, who was the only CC player to score in 26 shots on Warrior netminder Adam Palumbo. Bethel Park 7 Thomas Jefferson 0 The Bethel Park and Thomas Jefferson programs have been staples of the Central Catholic Invitational over the past five plus years. Bethel Park is coming of a tremendous campaign and a AAA State Championship under Jim ‘Mort’ McVay. The Hawks opened up the 2005 CC Invitational with a 7-0 pasting of the Jaguars. Pete Cosentino played his first game between the pipes for BP and stopped all 15 shots he faced in a 7-0 victory over TJ. Tyler Zaremski scored twice and Nathaniel Brown, Kenny Lehman, Graham Cohen, Bob Heyl and Tim Davin chipped in goals for the win. Holy Ghost Prep 4 Calvert Hall Prep 2 Holy Ghost Prep has established itself as a AAA power out of the Lower Bucks County Scholastic Hockey League in Eastern Pennsylvania and in tonight’s opener in the 2005 CC Invitational would face Calvert Hall Prep, out of Maryland. The Firebirds picked up a 4-2 victory as John Suroka scored the hat trick for HGP and Mike Andrusko also scored. Kenny Kocsan and D.J. Comer scored for the Cardinals.