East Region

Woodland Hills fights off Kiski and penalties to score big win

DELMONT –

       When I glanced at the schedule for Monday Night for Interscholastic Hockey, I usually will try to find a couple games in Class AAA, AA and A to watch a couple of Penguins Cup contenders on one trip killing two birds with one stone. You’d figure in early January you could find some intruiging match-ups and on this night I could not. So plan B sent me to Delmont for a game between my former team Woodland Hills and Kiski. Both schools play in the Open Division and have avoided the Class AAA for several years now because the PIHL will not allow them to play in Class AAA nor Class AA nor Class A because they do not have developmental programs, which is their stance, but the reality is that they have pigeon holed all of these so-called Developmental teams in the Open Division.

        The Open Division is made up of schools who no one else including the schools in Class AAA wants to play period. The are a unique way for the PIHL to bill for their poor service and an additional fine base for people who choose not to attend their boring but recently entertaining meetings, because some people are raising questions about their SECRET finances. Word on the street is that one of their former Treasurer’s companies is under Federal investigation, which does not surprise me and should not surprise any of you either.

        So you have 4 West Virginia schools (excluding Wheeling Park who opted for Class AAA), 9 Co-Op schools ranging from Carrick or Ringgold, who has several schools represented on its roster to Derry, who has just one or two players from another school, which tells me that they could not find ONE OR A COUPLE more kid in their district to put in uniform to become a pure High School Team from Derry Area (or maybe that one kid is pretty good ?). I am not here to pick on any one of those schools, but there is NO MOTIVATION for any other schools to build hockey programs if their players are plucked by surrounding schools, which has led to the demise of South Allegheny, West Mifflin, Steel Valley, Belle Vernon’s, Penn Hills, Blackhawk, and other schools who will never resurface as a hockey program EVER. How is this Developmental Hockey? It’s not, it’s a billing machine with bad processes.

         A quick glance at the Flyers Cup, which is a part of the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships shows that Eastern Pa has a Class AAA division with only a dozen schools and the rest of the 100 plus schools is either Class AA or Class A. To delve even further, Massachusetts has it’s Super 8 Division and the 3 A, 2 A and 1 A Classifications. Illinois has the Red Varsity and then a combined State Championship for rural Co-Op teams. The point is that every school has an opportunity to play for a State Championship and there is not this mess of teams that no one wants to play [that is according to PIHL logic and NOT MINE] in any other State in the Country, but right here in Western Pa, with the exception of New York, which has the battle between Federation Sanctioned School Teams and USA Hockey Club teams, which is a whole other story.

           During the National Invitational Scholastic Showcase, two local Co-Op teams tried to schedule games right in the middle of our event, which goes to show you that this is not an exclusive problem to Western Pennsylvania. Co-Op Teams are NOT HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY, they are SELECTED PLAYERS WHO FORM A TEAM AND PLAY UNDER A PARTICULAR HIGH SCHOOL BANNER, which I still can’t understand how a principal can sign off on to validate a roster.

         To round out the Open Division lineup are nine schools including Holidaysburg, Altoona, Connellsville, Ferndale, Allderdice, Ambridge, Trinity, and tonight’s combatants Woodland Hills and Kiski. These schools and teams are the BEST at reporting scores and results to PA Hockey as they religiously send in their highlights and Pa Hockey is the place you can find out what is happening with the Open Division as we rank them weekly.  So why is Altoona, Holidaysburg, Woodland Hills, Connellsville, Allderdice, and Ambridge who all have pretty good teams not in Class AA where they could be competing for a State Title?

           And people wonder why the Kool-Aid serving Junior B,C,D and probably next E & F and Midget AAA [glorified AA teams] programs are flourishing, well that is the next editorial. So Woodland Hills and Kiski, with nothing more to look forward to than playing the other 5 Co-Op teams in their divisions and maybe Carrick [who wasn’t allowed to participate in the Open Division playoffs last year], continued their rivalry with one another in pursuit of Ford City [a/k/a Armstrong Central – Kittanning] for first place.

           After watching the first period, I came to the quick realization that both Woodland Hills and Kiski, would be pretty good Class AA teams and the Woodland Hills team I was watching had way more talent in their lineup than I had 11 years ago (when we competed pretty well [didn’t win a lot of games but competed] in Class AAA] and what a shame they are not playing for anything except their schools, which is more than we can say for some others, who choose to take the lazy Co-Op route. Woodland Hills took a 3-1 lead in a very close opening period courtesy of goals from Billy Sullivan, Nate Simon and Zach Brown and Kiski’s Phil Cappo scored the lone Cavalier goal.

          The second period was a barrage of penalties as Kiski had numerous power plays and outshot the Wolverines 21-5, but Woody High had the only goal courtesy of defenseman Matt Frank, who found enough energy to score while helping kill off several 5 on 3’s and other penalties. Ryan Hast was superb stopping all 21 shots in the second period.

          The third period continued to be a penalty fest as Woodland Hills continued to kill them off and Darren Pellegrino scores a shorthanded goal at 13:43 to make it 5-2 Wolverines. Kiski mounted a comeback with two power play goals by Colin Mahoney, but the Wolverines Zach Brown scored his second to close it out for a 6-3 WH win. Ryan Hast continued his strong play in the third period stopping 17 of 19 Kiski shots and 47 of 50 shots on the evening as the shot clock was more like a slot machine, courtesy of 12 Kiski power plays to only 3 for Woodland Hills, which was a little lopsided. 

       Maybe next time these teams meet, it will be in Class AA next year and for a Penguin Cup playoff spot.

Mt Lebanon holds off USC for 3-2 win

CASTLE SHANNON –

       Thirty-Seven years ago, in April 1970, the Mt Lebanon and Upper St Clair High School Hockey Clubs played a hockey game at the Alpine Ice Chalet in Swissvale. Along with Allderdice, Churchill, Penn Hills and West Mifflin North, these schools began a journey for Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey. Of those programs Churchill, Mt Lebanon and Upper St Clair own two Pennsylvania State Championships in their history and only Mt Lebanon and Upper St Clair remain in the hunt for Pennsylvania’s premier championship the Class AAA title.

        Mt Lebanon was the last of those schools to reach the promised land in 2006, when they exorcised 30 years since their last Pennsylvania AAA title and as lore would have it Head Coach Paul Taibi, invited Blue Devil patriarch Mickey McDermott to offer a few kind words to the Mt Lebanon players prior to that championship victory and that is a great tradition of Mt Lebanon hockey as the present always embraces the past teams and traditions. The current Blue Devils are again competing and part of the process of channeling their efforts toward the Penguins Cup and Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in March. The Blue Devils spend their off time competing against the nations best teams as they did a week ago in Jamestown, New York at the National Invitational Scholastic Showcase and went toe to toe with the defending Illinois State Champions Glenbrook North in a 1-0 thriller and this type of competition helps Lebo to excel as they did with a 1-0 victory in Meadville Monday night and to be very comfortable in close games against the competition in front of them.

        Upper St Clair hockey picked up their 500^th win in 2007 and the program continues to dangle in the upper Escalon of Class AAA, but the roadblocks of Bethel Park and Mt Lebanon continue to stand in the way of aspirations for the Panthers. Head Coach Dave ‘the Boy Wonder’ Fryer and his staff including long-time Shaler coach Ron Steedle and former Gateway head Lou Biancanello are trying to point the USC program in that direction. After a 4-0-0 start, the Panthers have lost three straight to # 2 Bethel Park, # 4 Meadville and # 1 Pine Richland as they prepared to host # 3 Mt Lebanon in a torid stretch of the Class AAA schedule. The inconsistencies that have plagued the program over the past 15 years of lack of commitment to Upper St Clair with more focus on their  of key players needed to compete with the deep Pine Richland and capture audiences commanded by Lebo, Bethel and Meadville.

        The problem exists with the Kool Aid with an Investment Junior and Midget programs, who charge between $ 6000 and 15,000 to these families and hold them hostage through their 23 man rosters and the threat of sitting them during their weekend games if they miss practice for a High School game are the main culprit. I will have an editorial on this upcoming, but folks this is extortion. Furthermore, the PIHL in their infinite wisdom continues to schedule Friday Night games between top teams, which are reduced to less than full squads and therefore has had a direct effect on lack of attendance as their product is less than stellar because many of the top players are not participating. The last time I checked, one player from Mt Lebanon or Upper St Clair has made it to the National Hockey League in 37 years and that would be Ryan Malone, whose number was retired by the club and oh by the way, played for the Panthers and graduated from USC.    

        The opening period was dominated by Mt Lebanon, but it was USC goaltender Max Daurora who stood tall and turned aside several Lebo scoring chances including all 11 shots. The game was scoreless after one before a very nice crowd at Ralph and Alf’s Castle and a virtual Who’s Who night with many notables in attendance.

        On to the second period and the Blue Devils ramped up their attack with several power plays and USC was bending but not breaking as the Panthers were able to get a little bit of pressure of their own on Mt Lebanon’s towering goaltender Robbie Behling.

The Blue Devils finally struck after a great play by Taylor Phillips at the center point to leap in the air and keep the puck in the zone, Brandon Bianco found a loose puck at the left of Daurora and deposited it past the Panther goaltender for a 1-0 Lebo lead at 7:41 on the power play. Dan Roman extended the Blue Devil lead taking a Jame Greeno feed and whipping a wrist shot high over the glove hand over Max Daurora with 2:36 to go to make it 2-0 and Mt Lebanon head to the ice cut with a 2-0 lead and 24 –10 shot advantage.

        It was gut check time for Upper St Clair and the first five minutes of the third period was all St Clair as at 13:23 James Kline took a beautiful cross ice saucer pass from freshman Barrett Keib and slid it under Behling to cut the lead to 2-1. The Panthers came right back less than a minute later at 12:26 as this time Kline threw the puck to the net and Rocky Cersosimo pounced on the rebound and beat Behling scoring to tie the game at two apiece with plenty of time to go. Now for Upper St Clair, losers of three straight a great opportunity to make a statement and knock off Mt Lebanon and a chance to build some momentum toward turning the corner. Mt Lebanon has been here in these games and settled by solid shifts in the middle of the third period to thwart the USC upset bid. The dagger came with 6:32 to go in the third period as Upper St Clair failed to clear the zone after several attempts and the puck ended up on the stick of Lebo defense Mike Roman, who rifle a slapshot low to the glove side past Daurora to give the Blue Devils a 3-2 lead. Mt Lebanon dug in and built a wall in front of Robbie Behling, who shut the door on Upper St Clair and earned a hard fought 3-2 victory. Mt Lebanon moves to 9-1-0 and Upper St Clair falls to 4-4-0 and could be a playoff match-up down the road and unless things change dramatically on either side, a very similar result will occur.