Archbishop Ryan Raiders

DELMONT - Plum Hockey won the Class A State Championship in 1989 and the program has flourished over the past 26 years with many special moments. The Mustangs have an alumnist R.J.Umberger, who is starring for the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL and soon to be headed to the big club the Flyers, if the NHL ever plays again. Plum has had many special moments, but this season has been special because coach Rulnick has used 13 players to capture the # 4 seed. In one breath, the Mustangs have gotten more out of this season than they ever expected, but would love to knock off Upper St Clair and move on to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals for the first time since 1997, an undefeated team which lost to Fox Chapel at Rostraver. Upper St Clair is the team who everyone identified at the beginning of the season as the most dangerous team to run the table and win the Penguins Cup. The problem occurs when the national anthem is played and the roster is different every game and the players are running back and forth fulfilling commitments for everyone else than St Clair. Coach John Harford is the right guy to handle this situation, but at some point the Panthers will have to have ALL of the 18 kids concentrate solely on the task at hand, which should be a State Championship. The mentality needs to be that way or the Panthers will be the best team on paper and be out of the playoffs. And if they can do it and players 13-18 can focus, the Panthers can find themselves auditioning for the next ‘Reeses Cup’ commercial for some of us who remember ‘your peanut butter is in my chocolate and your chocolate is in my peanut butter’….folks what USC needs is the chemistry so that the Blazeks, Klanchers, Joyces of the world will excel and join the others mentally and pave the road for the bus to Hershey. Before a packed house at Center Ice Arena, Plum and Upper St Clair would square off in a rematch of a thrilling first round game in the 2004 Penguins Cup playoffs which the Panthers won 6-5 in overtime at Ralph’s Castle. After David Dincau missed Plum’s first good scoring opportunity, USC caught Plum on an odd man break as Davey Crockett made the right choice feeding Mike Penkrot, who beat Brandon King through the 5-hole for a 1-0 Panther lead with 3:49 left in the 1st. With 51 seconds left in the opening period, Plum’s Matt Giunta unleashed a long slapshot, which fooled Kevin Gorder to tie the game at one. After a St Clair defenseman fell down, Jonathon Smith used great speed went straight to the net and buried an overpowering backhand at 14:43 to give the Mustangs the lead 2-1. The Stangs dominated play and almost went up by two as Ben Colosmo just missed moments later. The Panthers would answer at 12:08 as Ian Joyce walked down the middle of the ice to tie the game at 2-2. USC poured the shots on Brandon King in the middle of the period, but Brandon King made several nice saves to keep the game tied as the shots were 16-8. Joyce got loose again and forced Plum to take a penalty and put the Panthers on the power play with 5:55 left in the 2nd. King made a nice glove save on Penkrot at the 5 minute mark and the Mustangs gain some momentum by killing off the penalty. With cell phones ringing at an amazing clip and the Mt Lebanon and Bethel Park wins in the books at 8:45, these two teams would go to the final period of regulation tied with the winner getting a date with # 1 North Allegheny next Wednesday at Harmarville in the Penguins Cup semi-finals. On to the third we go and the anticipation of a great period or more and who would march on to meet North Allegheny. At 14:28 Plum was whistled and the Panthers went on the power play, but the Mustangs did a great job killing off the disadvantage. You could sense a bit of tension and nervousness on both sides after a series of icings. The Panthers lost their composure a little resulting in a Plum power play with 9:54 remaining in regulation and while the Mustangs moved the puck well, they could not generate a real great scoring chance and the game remained tied with the Panthers holding a 26-13 shot advantage. With 4:28 remaining Jonathon Smith was cross checked from behind and David Humphrey’s retaliated evening the penalties in a bad display of discipline and cost the Mustangs a power play which could be a costly penalty for Plum. And the regulation periods ended 2-2 and we moved on to overtime. Mike Renna just missed in the opening minute as USC repeatedly iced the puck. St Clair’s Jake Klancher shot high and the 2nd minute of OT. With 7:18 left Crockett had a bankhander ticketed and Brandon King gloved it. Then came sophomore Andrew Blazek took a long lead pass from Anthony ‘the Senator’ Sirabella and just inside the zone from the top of the circle ripped a slapshot into the upper right hand corner to win it at 5:18 sending the Panthers back to the Semis to face a North Allegheny team that USC handed its only loss of this season in the first game on November 1st to start the season. And for the Mustangs a disappointing end to a great season, which they left everything the had on the ice and a promise of one more trip to the Pizza Pub for the post game with coach Rulnick and coach Harford, to reminisce about their days as teammates at Carrick with Mike Sargo, Jerry ‘Dr Evil’ Bass, Mark Madden, Phil Shaffalo, stripes Chet Steen and coach Pandolfo of NA and the stories continue next week in Harmarville. And the last one's to leave were the two old teammates !