Freeport Yellow Jackets

Canevin 5 Thomas Jefferson 2 Mt Lebanon – Canevin entered this evenings contest with an 8-3-2 record and coming off an alarming 7-1 beating at the hands of Indiana last Wednesday. Brian Henderson’s squad has been a pleasant surprise in Class AA in the 05-06 season and currently is tied with Thomas Jefferson 9-4-0 for the # 5 seed in the overall standings. Don Powell’s club is currently engaged in a battle for the South Division with Peters Township and Canon McMillan, who is in striking distance of both teams. For many of these players on both squads, this is a game which has standings significance and seeding significance. For those of us, who have been around a few years, like for instance Coach Powell and maybe Canevin Prez Kenny Vance, we all can point to the mid-1990’s through early 21st century when a Crusader-Jaguar matchup would fill the Mt Lebanon Rec Center. So if you are a TJ fan, you have fond memories of the 1998 regular season finale in which the Jaguars defeated Canevin to knock the Crusaders from the final playoff spot and propel Thomas Jefferson to their first ever State Championship. Or possibly in 1999, when undefeated Thomas Jefferson lost their only game of the season in the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase Director’s Cup to Canevin 5-2 or maybe, just maybe the 2000 Penguins Cup Final in Erie, when John Zeiler and Brian Hartman combined for a goal in the game final minute to rip the hearts out of the Canevin faithful and the Jaguars went on to their 3rd straight Class AA title. Needless to say there is no love lost in this storied rivalry. Canevin came out smoking in the opening minutes of the contest, but was unable to score early on. With 6:07 remaining in the 1st, Josh Daley was in alone and beat Jeffrey Wojanovich on the forehand to give his team a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, on a weird play around the TJ net at 5:16, Zach Haluzchak’s shot handcuffed the Thomas Jefferson goaltender and founded its way into the net for a 2-0 lead. The Crusaders added to their lead on the power play with just 1:13 remaining in the opening period as Jason Rogerio picked up a rebound goal to give Canevin a 3-0 lead after one period. At 10:18 of the 2nd, Rogerio picked up his second goal of the night as he walked out of the far corner and beat Woyjanovich over the glove hand to make it 4-0. TJ got on the board at 8:04 as Ian Connelly tipped a Matt Z shot from left circle to cut the Crusader lead to 4-1. The Jaguars went on the power play with 6:10 to go with an opportunity to cut the lead further and that’s exactly what happened as Brock Heinauer lit the lamp with a little under 4 minutes to go and plenty of time for TJ in a 4-2 game. The game remained 4-2 until with 5:44 remaining in the 3rd, TJ went on the power play and Joey Zemanski and the Canevin penalty killing unit was able to kill off the penalty. With 2:04 remaining, the Jaguars would have another chance on the power play. TJ pressured and pull the goalie and Zach Haluzchak, stripped the Jaguar point man of the puck and raced 120 feet and deposited the puck into an empty net for a 5-2 Crusader victory in a very important seeding game in Class AA.