Archbishop Ryan Raiders

2005 Chicago Showcase Bensenville, Illinois 4/18/05 Team Pittsburgh vs Team Minnesota Ok so its Sunday morning and while many of us from Western Pennsylvania expected to be in our cars on our way home, instead for the dozen to two dozen of us who started this journey, we all were treated to a real thrill watching our boys from Western Pennsylvania provide a miracle finish against California with three goals in the final 4 ½ to gain a spot besides the mecca of Interscholastic Hockey Minnesota in the 2005 Chicago Showcase semi-finals. Team Pittsburgh has defied the odds with getting here and for more reasons which I will expand upon in this summary. An opportunity to visit with Minnesota Head Coach David Hendrickson yesterday was a pleasure and discovery as I found that the head man of a powerhouse from this Chicago Showcase once coached Steve Carlson, who played professional hockey and spent some time in Johnstown playing and coaching a team called Bishop McCort to some Pennsylvania State titles. As a gesture of goodwill to the coach was a Pa Hockey Yearbook and one of respect for what Minnesota Interscholastic Hockey has done as a model program for the now 43 states who compete for State Championships across the United States. And an opportunity for Team Pittsburgh to compete against the best the sport has to offer and for all you historians out there, we can point back to the 1999 finals when Pittsburgh went all the way to the finals and lost 6-2. As Paul Dittrich, who was seriously injured in last night’s game came out to take the warm up, it just was another little reminder of what this means for this group of kids and possibly an inspiration to the other 19 guys of how the belief and will to win can overcome the most trying of circumstances. What gives Pittsburgh a chance is maybe a stellar goaltending performance by Ryan Zapolski or maybe an over achieving group effort, but the best approach would be a simple hockey game of clearing the zone and playing disciplined with 51 minutes of hard work and maybe just maybe they’ll provide some more excitement. The opening minutes where in the Pittsburgh end and survival. At 13:03, Pittsburgh had their first chance as Mark Polidor broke free and just missed. Minnesota continued their possession game and Pittsburgh kept surviving early on. At 11:27, Minnesota went on the power play and Mark Polidor made as he has this whole tournament another big play forcing the Minnesota defenseman to pull him down nullifying the man advantage. Then a mental mistake as Mike Penkrot left the bench early resulting in another Minnesota power play. With 4:15 remaining in the first, Pittsburgh was whistled for a play after the whistle and then Minnesota was whistled for the same at 3:01. Then at 2:40, Minnesota struck as Jamie Ruff tipped a shot from the point past Ryan Zapolski for a 1-0 lead. A marginal tripping call on Pittsburgh at 2:05 put Team Pittsburgh in a 4 on 4 situation. Ryan Zapolski made his first terrific save with just two ticks left and Minnesota took a very rare undisciplined penalty putting Pittsburgh on the power play to start the second. At 10:46 of the 2nd Minnesota found a wide open backside and Scott Kozlak chipped it past Ryan Zapolski for a 2-0 lead. Pittsburgh went on to the power play at 7:29 which was nullified after a scrum in front of the Minnesota net. Minnesota took advantage of a 4 on 4 situation as sniper Josh Brodeen finished off a super cross ice pass over the shoulder of Zapolski to make it 3-0 with a little over six minutes left in the seconds period. Pittsburgh was overmatched physically and started to show more undisciplined taking another penalty. With 1:01 left, Minnesota’s Ryan Guentzel made a beautiful tip of a shot from the left point off the stick Pat Fogerty for another power play goal and a 4-0 lead. The third period would be a test of character for Team Pittsburgh. For the first time in this tournament they were overmatched physically and had a big hole to climb being down 4-0. An opportunity on the power play at 16:10 for Pittsburgh, which they didn’t score on but at 13:13, Bill Repass stole the puck and was in on a breakaway and converted to make it 4-1. Then at 11:39 another bad penalty killing an momentum for Pittsburgh and another opportunity for the lethal Minnesota power play and with 10:56 the dagger came as Mitch Ryan tipped a perfect feed past Zapolski. Just 32 seconds later at 10:24 Cory Johnson converted an odd man break as Shea Walters threaded a perfect pass to make it 6-1. With 7:10 left Cory Johnson served the toast for breakfast and an exclamation point for another trip to the finals for Team Minnesota turning the Pittsburgh defense inside out and lofting a dart over the glove side of Ryan Zapolski for a 7-1 lead and went on to victory and a spot in the finals. For Team Pittsburgh a great tournament and a measuring stick of where we stand nationally. We are not at Minnesota’s level, but we learned that we can compete with and beat some of the premiere programs chasing Minnesota in the United States. What it will take is to bring our best AAA midget players here to Bensenville, which is no knock on the 20 who suited up, but 7-1 doesn’t cut it at this level. It was a great effort by mostly a group of high school and midget players, who started a ride of the unknown Wednesday and then where like many other teams in this event sent back to school by the masters, who exploited the lack of discipline of Team Pittsburgh by playing hockey the way its supposed to be played Minnesota style.