Freeport Yellow Jackets

2004 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships PITTSBURGH – Archbishop Carroll 4 Peters Twp 2 ‘Peters Township is the champion until someone eliminates them from the playoffs’ has been mentioned quite a few times in the 2003-2004 season. After head coach Mark Cooper’s team defeated both South Park and Kittanning with impressive 4-1 and 8-1 margins and watched top seed Thomas Jefferson lose to Indiana in overtime, they looked to be a sure thing to win it all. Many Peters Twp fans started making arrangements for a three peat for a third consecutive Pennsylvania State Championship, but Indiana had other ideas in the 2004 Penguins Cup and held a 4-2 lead late into the 3rd period, but PT came back and tied the game with 6 seconds remaining in regulation on a goal by Kevin Kustron and then won it in overtime to move on to the Pennsylvania Cup Class AA championship. In the state finals over past two years defeating Archbishop Carroll at Rostraver in 2002 10-3 and then almost duplicating that feat in 2003, beating Holy Ghost Prep 9-3 at IceLine to capture their second State crown in as many years. In fact, Western Pennsylvania has not lost a Class AA State Championship since 1995, when Conwell Egan defeated North Catholic 4-1. So Peters Township was looking to join Erie Fairview [1977,1981&1982], Canevin [1983,1984 & 1989] and Thomas Jefferson [1998, 1999 & 2000] as 3-time Class AA State Champions. In mid-October, as I began to search for information on the internet for the upcoming season, I came upon the Peters Township schedule and interestingly there was a game scheduled with Archbishop Carroll on a Thursday night prior to the Kittanning Invitational, which the Patriots annually attend to face some of the better Class AA teams in the State of Pennsylvania. The game never happened and Head coach Bill Hammonds team looked anything like a State Final contender in that Invitational. The reason was that a handful of the Patriots were not in attendance and when Kittanning defeated them 7-1, I am sure a lot of people wrote off Archbishop Carroll, which is a mistake if you understand that Hammonds annually builds his teams for playoff runs and not for pre-season exhibitions in October. Carroll has won the Class AA Flyers Cup for four out of the past five years defeating Eastern Regional in 2000 by the score of 5-4, Archbishop Ryan 3-1 in 2001, Central Bucks West 8-1 in 2001 and Archbishop Wood 6-3 for its 4th in late March. The Patriots picked the wrong years to win the Flyers Cup because they faced a great Thomas Jefferson team in the 2000 finals at the Mellon Arena and lost 6-1, then met a high powered Beaver team in 2001 at Haverford and lost 8-4 and then received an aforementioned 10-3 pounding from a loaded Peters Twp team at Rostraver in 2002. By far the 2004 opponent in Peters Township would be the best chance for the Patriots to capture their first State Championship since 1981. Peters Township coach Mark Cooper took a gamble to start the game in starting Shane Frey in net as opposed to red-hot freshman Rob Madore. Peters Township came out in the first minute and was all over Archbishop Carroll and took the lead 1-0 when Gerry Raymond buried a wrist shot on the stick side past Mike Silver at 13:20. Bill Hammonds had to be scratching his head, but the whole hockey game would turn on the next faceoff as Shane Aldinger found a streaking John Piotrowicz, who just unleashed a long slapshot from just over the blueline through a screen, which handcuffed Shane Frey and trickled past him in to the net at 13:15 and Carroll was now tied at one apiece. This seemed to pick up the Carroll bench and instead of playing like scared rabbits, this team began to play with the confidence that carried them to the 2004 Flyers Cup. The next few minutes of the game would prove that as Peters Twp went on the power play at 13:00. Patriot goaltender Mike Silver began a magical goaltending performance at this point… as he made several key saves and built momentum for his team in front of him. After Silver robbed Gerry Raymond at 4:33, Carroll took the lead as Eric Tangradi banged home a Eric Chamness rebound [and yes folks, Chamness is related to Scott ‘the shot’ Chamness who lead AC to the 1981 crown] at 4:16 and the score read Archbishop Carroll 2 Peters Township 1. In came Rob Madore off the Peters Twp bench, but I am afraid that the damage had been done at this point and Carroll was not going to let this opportunity slip by. Mike Silver made the save of the hockey game at 3:14 of the first period with a sliding glove save on a sure goal by Si Bishop. Peters Township regained their composure and tied the game early in the second period as Mike Bucci threw the puck to the net and Dustin Roux pounced on the rebound and tied the game at 2-2 with 13:21 left in the period. Peters Township took two bad penalties in a span of 17 seconds, which would swing the momentum of this game back to Carroll. Harry Ireland showed great patience and left his teammates get set up on the two man advantage and found a wide open John Piotrowicz in the slot, who fired a bullet high over the glove side of Rob Madore to give Archbishop Carroll a 3-2 lead at the 12:11 mark. Piotrowicz made an excellent play to keep the puck in just a minute and a half later And Justin Rumsey found Shane Aldinger who beat Madore on the stick side for a 4-2 lead at 10:35 and the Patriot faithful were starting to believe this was their year. Carroll outshot Peters in the 2nd period 15-11 and kept the pressure on the Indians as Matt Lisowski had a great chance for the 5th goal with 2 opportunities at 6:22, which were turned away by Madore, who was keeping Peters chances alive at this point. The Indians had a great chance with 1:02 remaining on a Kevin Kustron breakaway, but Mike Silver rose to the challenge and Archbishop Carroll took a 4-2 lead to the locker room. The Patriot defense and forwards were the difference in the third period as Carroll outshot Peters in the third period 13-4 and limited the Indians to very little zone time. Justin Rumsey, Harry Ireland, Frank Viola, Josh Friedland and the rest of the Carroll defense and particularly the forward line of Matt Lisowski, Eric Tangradi and James Chamness silenced the Peters Township guns with simple solid defense, excellent coverage in the neutral zone and NO penalties to give Peters Township any momentum. Redemption for coach Bill Hammonds, who was a focused different man, who saw an opportunity for his club to capture a State Championship, which had eluded Archbishop Carroll in four trips and whatever he told his team Friday night at their meeting at the hotel, it worked because the easiest way to win a State Championship is to be one of the participants and the way to win it is a team effort and over the past ten plus years, this was one of the best ones I have seen in that period. As I said in my preview, Mike Silver would have to play the game of his life, which he did, but the credit goes to the 19 other guys and coaching of Hammonds, who made believers out of everyone in attendance that Archbishop Carroll deserves to be Pennsylvania High School Hockey Class AA Champions in 2004.