Archbishop Ryan Raiders

    I want everyone to read this game summary carefully. The funny part about it is that for years, I have been reporting the corruption that exists in this sport and really this shouldn’t be news to anyone reading. What is at stake here is the integrity of the sport, which is continued to be violated by officials in a league who want CERTAIN outcomes for people who are in positions of power politically and grant favors to teams, schools and people with favored status against people who the powers to be do not want to win…..and folks this is the definition of cheating in the dictionary and it’s ruining Interscholastic Hockey in Western Pennsylvania. So before you start writing e-mails and burning the phone lines or writing on forums, the Canevin and Franklin Regional clubs had nothing to do with it and are really both victims of it. And as I discuss this with one of the Canevin people for roughly an hour after the game, he saw it very similarly to what I witnessed and the other 100 people in the stands did as well. It’s a shame, that people pay a lot of money to watch their kids play hockey and put a lot of years in to at least have a chance to compete for something only to watch officials, both administrative and on-ice, take it all away. If you don’t believe me, use your free cell phones and call Woodland Hills and Ford City, who are playing tonight and still trying to figure out why thy played and paid for a whole season of hockey and do not have a clear champion of their division title. What we all came to see was two teams ranked # 1 and # 2 in Class AA play a hockey game and may as well have just been cancelled, but now Franklin will have to play their first playoff game without their top scorer, one of Pa Hockey’s top 25, do you think the referees for this game knew that?

 Canevin 4 Franklin Regional 0 

Mt Lebanon –    

  Canevin (17-2-2) has had an interesting inaugural year under first year head coach Kevin Zielmanski and finds itself at the top of the Post Gazette Class AA rankings with a Division title under its belt. The Crusaders have run the table in the 2^nd half of the season and have not lost since early December after falling to Montour without their top line in the lineup. This team is an interesting mix of a young group of up and coming players and some veteran leadership with a goaltender Zach Bogden who has filled his role nicely in providing some solid play in between the pipes to lead the way for Canevin.  

      Franklin Regional (17-2-1) has enjoyed a pretty good season under Jim Daugherty with the memory of a Penguin Cup semi-final loss to Thomas Jefferson a year ago ringing in the ears of all of the players who returned from last years team. The Panthers have been able to beat all of the teams behind them, but have yet to beat a team in front of them in the standings, which is cause for concern for the FR faithful, who feel this could be the year they erase 27 years of a Penguin Cup and State Championship drought. A win over Canevin would put the Panthers in the driver’s seat to secure the # 1 seed in the upcoming Penguins Cup playoffs. 

   So before a little more than an intimate gathering at the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center, the Crusaders controlled the opening minute of play. Building on the momentum of the good start, the Crusaders cashed in at 10:56 as Josh Daley beat the first defenseman and then threaded a beautiful cross ice pass to Vince Nicolella, who buried it to give Canevin a 1-0 lead. At 7:37 of the first period, the games first power play went to Franklin Regional and then a 5 on 3 at 6:14 for 38 seconds for FR. A nice penalty kill by Canevin of first penalty and poor shot selection for Panthers lead to the kill and at  5:02 Zach Bogden made a nice save on Ryan Crossey from right on the doorstep to preserve the 1-0 lead for Canevin. Anthony Talamo hit post with 11 seconds to go and Chad White had good shot at buzzer, but the score remained 1-0 in favor of Canvein with  Franklin holding the edge in shots 11-8.  

  On to the 2nd period, Franklin Regional had a lot of long shots from the perimeter and no rebound chances including zone time with no results. After the Panthers got another power play at 11:19, they took a bad penalty behind the play to even it up 4 on 4. Then a very good 1-0 hockey game turned into a circus of bad calls giving Canevin more than five minutes of 5 on 3 power play time from an officiating crew that really should be ashamed of their performance in a very important game for both teams. A real weak call at 9:19 and then another one behind the play gave Canevin a 5 on 3 and then another penalty at 8:47 and then another marginal call behind the play at 7:31, would result in over 5 minutes of 5 on 3 power play time in a 1-0 hockey game. A disgraceful display of officiating and even the Canevin folks agreed afterwards that it was horrible officiating and THEY WON THE GAME [So I wasn’t the only one disgusted]. Canevin scored at 6:53 as referee Josh Deliman was in the right position as Frankie Vance’s shot wound up in the air and bounded past James Orr and crossed the line goal to give Canevin a 2-0 lead. After it was all said an done, Franklin Regional was able to survive a situation that was very similar to their game against Thomas Jefferson in the Semi-Finals a year ago. Would this team be able to rebound and show some character or go into a funk, much like they did against TJ.    With 1:55 to go in the 2^nd period, Shane Crossey had a wide open chance and the puck fluttered off his stick wide of the net. Shots in the 2^nd period were Canevin 8 and Franklin  5, with 15 minutes to play in the hockey game and plenty of time for anything to happen.         

   Games sometimes can turn on momentum or missed chances and early in the period At 14:44 Josh Daley missed a golden chance, from point blank range. Franklin Regional was just plain sloppy in their own end as three Panthers had an opportunity to clear the puck and the Canevin defense was able to find a wide open Josh Daley with 14:01 to go in regulation behind the FR defense and he made the most of that second chance and beat Orr on stick side to make it 3-0 and drive a stake through the Panthers and any chance of a comeback. Then with the outcome in hand, Franklin got a 5 on 3 on another bad call at 12:51, and turned right around and took an undisciplined penalty at 10:52, which was coupled with another penalty at 10:24 on Canevin and Franklin Regional took another penalty at 9:37. And I thought I was driving to Mt Lebanon to watch a hockey game between the # 1 and # 2 teams in Class AA and not a circus. With 7:03 to go, Josh Daley banked an attempted cross-ice pass shot off an FR defenseman and behind Orr to make it 4-0. With Canevin well in control of this hockey game at 4-0, the casual observer may be looking to see the resolve of Franklin Regional and see their ability to maintain composure and with 2:52 to go the lost their cool. And the result another 5 on 3 for Canevin and this time there wasn’t a bad call, just a stupid undisciplined hockey for a team looking very disinterested and will ultimately cost them one of their better players for the first round of the playoffs. And people wonder why kids travel out of Pittsburgh to play hockey elsewhere? Poor officiating! To put the icing on the cake, with :03 to go another undisciplined penalty and a pretty dangerous play by for a very frustrated Franklin Regional and the outcome would be Canevin 4 Franklin 0. Shots were Canevin 10 – 6 in the 3^rd period for those of us interested in watching hockey. For Canevin a very big win and a shutout for Zach Bogden to keep the # 1 ranking heading into the playoffs, with a possibility of these two teams maybe meeting again down the road, that is if Franklin Regional is interested in playing hockey any more.     

       $ 1019 = Cost of tonight’s game at Mt Lebanon    

       $ 140 = Cost of pathetic refereeing display tonight    

       $ 100 = Cost per hour at South Park skating rink site of Thursday’s outdoor game         between Mt Lebanon and Bethel Park   

         $  75 = Cost of the post game meal for the ‘King f the Crusaders’ at Quaker Steak and         Lube    

     $ 15 = Cost of Gasoline to get from Murrysville to Mt Lebanon Rec Complex in your favorite          Minivan or SUV     $

…..the Power of the Pen, a Rusty Screwdriver Set needed to write tonight’s ‘totally

    irresponsible’ Game Summary!……………Priceless!