Archbishop Ryan Raiders

MT LEBANON – McDowell has had a long tradition of Interscholastic hockey dating back to 1974 and was the host of the 1st Pennsylvania High School Hockey championships in April of 1975. Three consecutive trips to the Class AAA State finals in 1977, 1979 and 1980 resulted in losses and the Trojans have not really threatened since then. So a 2-0 start under new head coach Paul Mancini maybe brought a little optimism to Erie, but without leading scorers Mark Skirczyski [injured] and Brian Hammel [Italy], McDowell would face the defending Penguins Cup AAA champions Mt Lebanon Blue Devils, who are also off to a 2-0 start. Mt Lebanon lost a very good senior class last season and fell about five minutes short of a Pennsylvania State championship against Malvern Prep. Head coach Paul Taibi received a fresh new crop of Blue Devils to compliment a very nice returning group and early on look to be the favorites to repeat as Penguins Cup champions. The Blue Devils had breaded their success under Taibi with strictly home grown talent, who have excelled at the amateur level and now look to hone their success on the Interscholastic level with Lebo. Included in the crop this season is the ongoing saga of Josh Mandic, who ironically is from Erie and has played at the amateur level with many of the McDowell players. While Mt Lebanon does not recruit and never has, a stork dropped this player in their lap at their high school via amateur hockey and he attended school in Mt Lebanon last season and he is interested in playing for the Blue Devils. Out of 48 players ruled on for eligibility, transfers and foreign exchange status, Mandic was the only one ruled ineligible [which was made by a person with affiliation to one of Mt Lebanon’s # 1 division opponent and ‘integrity’ and maybe a ‘conflict of interest’ should have had this person dismiss themselves from the proceedings]. From my understanding of the ruling [and I helped draft the rule], the player must have court appointed guardianship, if they do not live with their natural family. Now there is a process of appeal and that is to appeal it to the President’s Commission and after that the American Arbitration Association and if Mt Lebanon wants to exhaust this, they should and there is language in the PLAYING RULES that the league is to advise and must be responsible for helping Mt Lebanon be aware of their options, but ultimately the Mt Lebanon Hockey Club must take the initiative to do so. So like Geraldo Rivera into the ‘eye of the hurricane’ I went to cover the story and THE game between Mt Lebanon and McDowell. The Mt Lebanon line of Tony Valerino, Shane Ferguson and super freshman Tyler Murovich caught McDowell sleeping on the first shift and never let them get the puck out of their zone as Valerino unleashed a wicked snap shot pasted John Cleary via a very nice feed from Shane Ferguson to the slot at 14:22. The dreaded bus legs could have been a nice excuse, but the Blue Devils were not buying it as Brandon Dornish scored on a slap shot through traffic at 11:57, which found its way through Cleary and resulted in a 2-0 Lebo lead. The Blue Devils just kept coming and kept the Trojans on their heels for much of the opening period. Mt Lebanon struck again early in the 2nd period as Tony Valerino scored on a rebound to give his team a 3-0 lead at 14:17. The Blue Devils continued to have the advantage in the score and the shots as they outshot McDowell 18-10 thru two periods and 30-14 on the evening. Valerino would put the icing on the cake in this one as the senior captain handcuffed John Cleary with an off speed wrist shot on the short side with 5:57 remaining to make the final 4-0 Mt Lebanon. Matt Vaughn posted another shutout for the Blue Devils, who have yet to yield a goal in three games this season.

SOUTHPOINTE - Behind a stellar, 45-save performance by senior goaltender Drew Stanton, the Canon-McMillan Big Macs won their home opener over the Kittanning Wildcats, 4-1. The win marked the first time in team history that the Big Macs have opened a season with three straight victories. Canon Mac got on the board early when defenseman Josh Tohey found the upper corner on a wrist shot from the point just 35 seconds in to the game. But it would be the Wildcats who would generate most of the offense in the first period. Fortunately for the Big Macs, Stanton was prepared for the early onslaught, turning away all 20 shots he faced in the opening frame. Canon-McMillan would slowly begin to control the tempo during the second period, and Stanton kept the momentum going for his team by turning away some second and third opportunities from his goal mouth. The CM fortitude paid off when Nate Bohn buried a cross ice pass from Tohey on a power play 8:23 in to the period. Both teams would tighten up defensively through the remainder of the period, leaving Kittanning with a 2-0 deficit after 2 periods of play. CM lead would increase to 3-0 2:40 in to the final period when Jesse Patnesky took a pass from Eric Lang and fired a low wrist shot past Pete Tolman. Kyle Harnen was credited with the second assist, giving both Harnen and Patnesky 3-game scoring streaks on the play. After over 42 minutes of shutout hockey, Kittanning finally was able to get one past Stanton when Nick Troup snapped off a shot from the slot with 2:08 left to play to pull his team within 2. Justin Kovatch and Joe Ford assisted on the goal. The goal put a breath of life in the Wildcats, who once again hounded the opposing net in an effort to close within one. Stanton was once again prepared for the challenge, using a series of glove saves to prevent any rebound chances. Patnesky put the game out of reach when he found the back of the unguarded Kittanning net from the far blue line to make the score 4-1. The goal continued another streak for Patnesky -- 3 consecutive 2-goal games. It also secured a 3-game win streak for Stanton, who has been tougher to beat in each successive game. An impressive 31-save performance by Tolman was not enough to keep his team from falling to 0-2 on the season. The Wildcats will seek their first victory of the year when they host Blackhawk on Thursday night. Canon-McMillan has a full week to rest before playing new division foe Elizabeth Forward at Southpointe next Monday. **Game Summary provided exclusively to PA Hockey by Canon-McMillan Hockey

CRANBERRY ~ Special Report provided by the Ambridge Hockey Club Phil Trombetta and Tom DiDonato scored the Pine Richland goals in the first period to take the lead. Then the 2nd and 3rd periods were dominated by Ambridge scoring 5 goals--each by different players. Chas Cvitkovic led all with a goal and 3 assists. Chas's empty net goal with 1:36 remaining on the clock put the finishing touches on any chances Pine Richland had to come back. Pine did manage to score another goal with 1:22 remaining, but then Bryan Johnston scored another empty net goal with 21 seconds on the clock to end the game for the Bridgers. Jason Morgan, Ambridge goalie, faced 23 shots on goal. Tom Zajac faced 25 shots for Pine Richland.

As we have done the past seven years, Pa Hockey will be providing the Post Gazette Rankings every Monday beginning in late November. In addition, you can get a sneak preview of those rankings, the complete Western Pa Hockey standings and PA Hockey Elite 8 rankings every Saturday Morning. Only on Pa Hockey ! FINAL STANDINGS ~ Class AAA,AA,A and Open FINAL "If the Penguins Cup Playoffs Started Today" FINAL Pittsburgh Post Gazette Top 5 Rankings FINAL PA Hockey Elite 8 Rankings

HARMARVILLE – While a lot of things change in Interscholastic Hockey, some things remain the same over the years. Back CC Head Coach Kevin Zielmanski’s first year in 1998, Central Catholic and Plum met in the WPIHL Class AAA Championship best of 3 series before the best high school hockey crowd ever to witness a game I can remember [with the 1996 Bethel Park-Meadville game at Bethel BladeRunners a close second]. Plum won the championship on a storybook goal by R.J. Umberger in the overtime of the mini-game after three consecutive 2-2 ties between the teams. For former Plum Mustang Sean Keller, now and assistant to Stu Rulnick, the CC-Plum rivalry and that series in particular are pretty memorable. For the current Mustangs and Vikings players and fans, fresh in their minds is last year’s 3-2 CC victory in the games final minute, which sent the Vikings on a great 2nd half run to the Penguins Cup semi-finals and sent Plum into a 2nd half of the season tailspin. So Plum and Central Catholic…a fitting way to start the 2004 –2005 season at the BladeRunners Harmarville USA rink before a very nice crowd for both teams of well over 600. The first period of this contest was pretty close checking and the Vikings would hold a slim shot advantage at 8-6, with their best chance coming as Andy Hanno set up Glenn Sherwin with a nice pass, but the Mustangs Brandon King was equal to the task to make the save. Plum went on the power play at 2:46, which was quickly erased by a call against Plum at 2:23 and the opening period remained scoreless. On to the second and Plum cashed in on an odd man break as Jonathon Smith set up David Dincau with a give and go and the speedy Plum forward scored on a tap-in past Brian Adamczak for a 1-0 lead at 11:26. The Mustangs went on the power play at 8:57 and this time it would be defenseman Phil Mains, who took a Mike Renna pass, drove to the net and scored on his own rebound to make it 2-0 at 7:27 and gave the Mustang fans a little ‘frisk me in you can’ celebration on the far boards. The Vikings would strike back and cut the lead to 2-1 as C.J. Stellabotte scored on the backhand from just in front of Brandon King at 2:43 of the 2nd. Plum’s Jonathon Smith beat the CC defense at 13:55 and buried a wrist shot up under the crossbar past Adamczak to give the Mustangs a big insurance goal. Speedy Matt Giunta added another Plum tally at 9:11 and Brandon King shut the door the rest of the way, stopping the only shot of the third period for Central Catholic at 4:47 on a nice leg save of a shot from Doug Dietrich and the Mustangs opened up with an impressive 4-1 victory on the road.