Freeport Yellow Jackets

Fox Chapel 5 Upper St Clair 2 HARMARVILLE – When you enter mid-February, it’s all about playoff positioning and for Upper St Clair (11-5-0) and Fox Chapel (12-5-2), the most important part of preparing for this post season [since both teams have clinched playoff spots] can be spelled out in one word, avoidance. If you are a Class AAA school and you capture spots 8 through 12 in the upcoming playoffs, the prospects of advancing to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals are slim to none. Why? Because your team will be staring the Mt Lebanon steamroller, with twelve shutouts in 19 games to their credit, and it WILL be a short postseason. Upper St Clair has six games remaining entering the tilt with Fox Chapel and has taken a Blue Devil beating twice this season, so coach John Harford knows all about what needs to take place over the season’s final two weeks. The Panthers will also have to make a choice of goaltenders for the playoffs in either freshman Max Daurora or veteran senior Kevin Gorder and that choice will likely fuel any playoff run for USC. Fox Chapel on the other hand has a no-brainer in between the pipes as Eric Thiessen has been one of the best goaltenders in Class AAA and along with fellow top 25 selection Meadville’s Bryan Danczak, have been a major reason why the Foxes and Bulldogs are up near the top of the heap. If you think Head Coach Jim Damp’s team starts and ends with goaltending, that would be a mistake as FC has found leadership in Kyle Misour, Joey Budz and more recently Justin Kreps, who along with a nice support cast make the Foxes an interesting and equally dangerous playoff team come March to knock off a couple of teams and waltz into the Semi’s, where as we know anything can happen. The game involved very tight checking early on as FC and USC kept the scoring chances to a minimum until Panther scoring machine Mike Penkrot got loose behind the Foxes defense, but Eric Thiessen made a terrific save to keep the contest scoreless. Fox Chapel built momentum off their goaltender and struck first as Zack ‘not Eddie’ Crowe found a loose puck on the doorstep and buried it to give FC a 1-0 lead with 5:31 remaining in the opening period. On to the second period and the Foxes Kyle Misour weighed in to the game burying a wrist shot past Daurora at 14:12 to extend the lead to 2-0. Fox Chapel put the Panthers on the power play and paid for it as Mike Penkrot walked off the near boards and rifled a snap shot up under the crossbar beating Thiessen, who appeared to have the angle, but could not score a major league shot at 12:06 of the 2nd. This game appeared to be headed for a key turning point in the next few minutes, with the next team who scored being able to take a stranglehold of this game. Fox Chapel capitalized on an odd man situation as Joey Budz converted a great pass by Kyle Misour to give the Foxes a 3-1 lead at 9:59. USC had a chance to cut the lead back to one as David Crockett was in on the breakaway, but Thiessen came up big at 8:38. Fox Chapel smelled a wounded Panther and started to press and dominated the later part of the second period scoring chances and converted twice as Dan Uminski beat Daurora low to the glove side for a power play goal at 4:45 and then Chris Hughes scored a big insurance goal at 4:04 to open up this game to a 5-1 Fox Chapel runaway at the end of two periods. Fox Chapel and Thiessen beared down in the third period and limited Upper St Clair’s chances and any momentum. David Crockett scored for the Panthers with 13 seconds left to make the final count 5-2 and give the Foxes a big win in their quest to capture the 7th seed or better with upcoming games against McDowell and the aforementioned Blue Devils.

Pa Hockey Developmental Clinics & Franklin Regional Street Hockey League [Fall] The Municipality of Murrysville Parks and Recreation and the Franklin Regional Hockey Club in coordination with the Pa Hockey Foundation is offering a Street Hockey program beginning on September 23rd and 24th, 2006. Information will be posted soon Attached are Flyer, Advertisement and Registration Form for the PA Hockey Developmental Clinics and the Franklin Regional Street Hockey League for Fall 2006. Over 2000 copies of the Flyer will be copied and distributed in the Franklin Regional School District to children in grades Kindergarten through 5th Grade. In addition, we will forward these for publishing in the Penn Franklin News and Murrysville Star. Our hope is to build a developmental hockey program to introduce players to the sport of hockey and our goal is to help enrich the participation of the sport through the great resources we have here in the East Suburbs and expand to places outside of Murrysville, such as Gateway, Plum, Penn Trafford, Norwin, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Penn Hills, Valley, Woodland Hills, Kiski and other Eastern through our affiliation with the Municipality of Murrysville, who is interested in helping us bring participation to the FR Street Hockey League from outside Murrysville, with the long term goal of building programs in other municipalities throughout the East. I would like to thank Allegheny Hockey Association and the Bob Mock Skating Academy out of the Center Ice Arena in Delmont and the North Hills Amateur Hockey Association and Carrie Smilowitz, Skating Instuctor out of the Valley Sports Complex in New Kensington for becoming the olive branch to begin players eager to participate in Ice Hockey for their support of this program. In addition, the Penn Hills Dek Hockey Center and the YMCA's of Eastern Suburbs for their participation to greater elevate the opportunity to begin playing the sport and sustain participation for elementary aged children. Both the Learn to Play Hockey programs from North Hills Amateur and Allegheny Hockey Association will be invited to participate in the 11th Annual Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase Skills Competition on Friday December 29th at the Center Ice Arena in Delmont. Additional information regarding the Showcase is available at www.pahockey.net

By MIKE MASTOVICH The Tribune-Democrat Bishop McCort High School hockey coach John Bradley earned his 200th win on Wednesday against city rival Westmont Hilltop. But the 10th-year Crushers coach preferred to highlight a number that didn’t change during McCort’s 3-0 victory at Cambria County War Memorial Arena. Thirty-one. That’s how many times the Crushers have lost during the past decade. “Somebody told me we only have 31 losses during those 10 years,” said Bradley, whose record is 200-31-6, including a 15-2 mark this season. “I’m more proud of the fact that we only lost 31 times. “We have a good program. We have some good kids who’ve put a lot of work into this program. We owe a lot to the dedication of the parents and the kids. We’ve been fortunate the last 10 years to have good players and good coaches.” A former Johnstown Chiefs goaltender, Bradley took the reins of the Crushers program in 1996-97 after serving as an assistant to coach Galen Head. Head had 144 wins and three straight state championships when he stepped down. Bradley’s Crushers made it a four-peat with the 1997 Pennsylvania Cup and won gold again in 1999. Last season McCort was 22-4 and finished as the state runner-up. “His teams play hard, they have a lot of depth, they compete and they play their positions well,” said veteran Westmont coach Art McQuillan, whose team is 8-11-1. “They’re a quality program. Both programs respect each other.” Neither team scored in the first period, though McCort outshot Hilltop 14-1. The Crushers led 1-0 on Shawn James’ rebound goal 35 seconds into the second. Steve Polonkey made it a two-goal advantage by converting a power play from the left point with 2:08 showing. McCort outshot Westmont 25-2 in the second. Only several acrobatic saves by Hilltop goalie Ian O’Brien kept the game close. “Ian played outstanding,” McQuillan said. “He’s a freshman in goal. They had 11 seniors on the ice. We had one senior. We have a pretty young team, but we worked hard.” The Crushers’ Paul Reilly scored with 2:20 left in the game. “The second and third ones probably weren’t our best scoring chances and we were fortunate to put them into the net,” Bradley said. “He (O’Brien) made three or four spectacular saves. He’s a good goalie and he’s going to be a very good goalie.” McCort outshot Hilltop 50-4. “Our first priority always is coming in and taking care of our own zone,” Bradley said. Bradley credited Head with giving him the opportunity to coach. “Galen had a great program,” Bradley said. “He’s one of my heroes. He’s a great guy. He was a great player and a great coach. He taught me a lot. I’m just trying to carry on the tradition that he brought into this program.” Brent Troyan and Alan Cassler combined for the Bishop McCort shutout.

This Game Summary is courtesy of Meadville Hockey ERIE - Meadville outshot the Ramblers 50-20 and give credit where credit is due,the Prep goaltender kept the game from being 10-1. Prep came out with the oddest of stragegies, a 1-2-2 trap but every time they had control of the puck the would dump it in without forechecking and simply set up to defend. It looked more like a controlled scrimmage than a real hockey game. Nonetheless the Bulldogs Mike Noonan took a nice feed from a hard working Morgan Nickerson and pooped in the Dogs 1st goal at the 9:52 mark. Chris Learn started the play out of the Dogs end and was credited with an assist. Prep returned the favor on a fluke goal that 2 Meadville players tipped...the Dogs earned the assist and the 2nd assist on the lone Prep tally. Erie dumped and trapped and the game was about as exciting as watching paint dry. The Dogs were loose though and took advantage of the prep strategy by blistering 31 shots on net in the second period alone. Luke Killmeyer got the game winner on the power play when he jammed home a rebound in close. Mike Noonan and Chris Learn had a whack at it and assisted on the play. Not to be outdone, Tyler Learn won his own face off beat his man to the puck behind the net and made a perfect centering pass to Nickerson for his 39th on the year...3-1 Meadville. The team played conservatively in the third and ended up outshooting Prep 50-20 in the contest. The Dogs showed great discipline refusing to get involved in the "extracirricular" and Prep found themselves shorhanded a couple of times as a result. The good news: 2 more points and another win...off to Delmont Friday for the Norwin matchup.

As many of you have stopped me in the rink this season and have been anxiously anticipating my annual address of the ‘State of Interscholastic Hockey in Western Pennsylvania’, I decided to pick the timing of my choosing to address the continuing sad state of affairs which plague this side of the state. Before I start and unveil my solution to the dwindling Class A Division and the Glorified JV Open Division, which contains many schools who could not compete at AAA or AA, who sandbagged this season in the name of winning games after miserable 04-05 campaigns, I want to address the Villans of Gotham City, who continue to raise the price of hockey, including their OWN salaries and keep raising FEES. The greatest part about the recent All-Star Event is that each of the Villans exited the Valley Sports Center shortly after the beginning of the Open Division All-Star game, which just proves my point that the Open Division is just a way to collect FEES and a political tool to keep the Villans in power. Mr Freeze, who did not even attend the All-Star Event, can keep busy writing 16-Page Manifestos about me to get re-elected, but has not been seen at one game this season nor did he attend the Joker’s big rally at Mellon Arena last weekend to support the Penguins, which turned out 500 people and not the 8000 predicted by the Ma Parker e-mail. Mr Freeze is worthless as a President of the misguided PIHL and all of the promises made in April were baseless and none have come to fruition. In fact, his beloved Quigley is down to 8 players and supposedly has phantom players on the roster just to field a team. Oh ‘Concerned Citizens of Gotham City’ Class A Hockey is dying as Quigley, along with some other Class A programs are near death and the flourishing Open Division is just as bad. The Class A All-Star game was such a mismatch that I considered not even attending the game because I knew the Southwest would trounce the Northeast and I was right 9-2. In Mr Freeze’s 16-page manifesto, his partner in crime False Face, who commands the Open Division made a public statement challenging me to come forward with my ideas about the PIHL. The first thought I have, which is a continuation of last springs JV-Freshman Philosiphy developed by several schools who were going to pull out of the PIHL prior to the Mafia Villans cashing in their chips and making millions of promises to the General Membership is to HELP REDUCE THE COST OF HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY as follows: 1 – Each School would be responsible for providing 16 Ice Slots for Varsity [2 Hour] and 12 for Junior Varsity and Freshman [1 ½ Hours] and negotiate their own ice costs, EMT’s, Security and League Reps. Therefore you can eliminate the $ 83 per game Admin Costs charged by the PIHL. Essentially, this would eliminate the League Scheduler, Egghead, who has created an absolute fiasco with Schedule Changes in 05-06 and has changed over 100 Varsity Games and don’t blame it on the Weather because we have had a mild winter. Any leftover ice could be used for make-up games or practice time. 2 - Eliminate the Commissioner’s Office and SAVE $ 150,000 in administrative costs and pay Stipends to a Statistician, Registrar, Bookkeeping [for Administrative Costs Only], Referee Liasion and Operations Director. You would not need anyone to schedule Games, EMT’s, Security or League Reps, because this would be the responsibility of the school. 3 – Get a real website that promotes hockey Period ! 4 – Attached is my Re-Alignment Proposal that will create a SOLID Class A, AA and AAA Division for years to come and it will be very competitive and in addition align Western Pennsylvania with Eastern Pennsylvania: CLASS A - <560 Enrollment 1 A EAST WAR MEMORIAL BISHOP MCCORT 211 2 A EAST WAR MEMORIAL CONEMAUGH VALLEY 215 3 A EAST WAR MEMORIAL FERNDALE 101 4 A EAST GALLACTIC ICE JOHNSTOWN 443 5 A EAST WAR MEMORIAL WESTMONT-HILLTOP 234 6 A F EAST GALLACTIC ICE BISHOP GUILFOYLE 153 7 A F EAST PLANET ICE FOREST HILLS 313 8 A F EAST GALLACTIC ICE HOLIDAYSBURG 558 9 A F EAST PLANET ICE RICHLAND-CAMBRIA 194 10 A F EAST PLANET ICE SOMERSET 345 11 A SOUTH ICE GARDEN ELIZABETH FORWARD 405 12 A SOUTH ICE GARDEN SERRA CATHOLIC 110 13 A SOUTH ICEOPLEX TRINITY 546 14 A SOUTH ICE CASTLE WEST MIFFLIN 465 15 A SOUTH BELMONT FREEPORT 251 16 A WEST CRANBERRY AMBRIDGE 432 17 A WEST BEAVER BEAVER 267 18 A WEST AIRPORT QUAKER VALLEY 226 19 A WEST AIRPORT QUIGLEY 97 20 A WEST ISLAND SPORTS SEWICKLEY ACADEMY 120 CLASS AA - >560 Enrollment 1 AA EAST KIRK NEVIN GREENSBURG C C 235 2 AA EAST KIRK NEVIN GREENSBURG SALEM 440 3 AA EAST CENTER ICE KISKI AREA 590 4 AA EAST VALLEY PENN HILLS 668 5 AA EAST CENTER ICE WOODLAND HILLS 754 6 AA EAST KIRK NEVIN HEMPFIELD 834 7 AA F EAST KIRK NEVIN LATROBE 541 8 AA F EAST BELMONT BUTLER 1052 9 AA F EAST BELMONT KITTANNING 313 10 AA F EAST INDIANA INDIANA 429 11 AA F EAST GALLACTIC ICE ALTOONA 970 12 AA F EAST PSU STATE COLLEGE 1053 A SOUTH BETHEL PARK SOUTH PARK 309 11 AA SOUTH ICE GARDEN THOMAS JEFFERSON 369 12 AA SOUTH AIRPORT CHARTIERS VALLEY 473 13 AA SOUTH ICE GARDEN CONNELLSVILLE 822 14 AA SOUTH ICEOPLEX CANON MCMILLAN 533 15 AA SOUTH ICE CASTLE CARRICK 581 16 AA WEST ICE CONNECTION HAMPTON 438 17 AA WEST MT. LEBANON CANEVIN 137 18 AA WEST CRANBERRY MARS 317 19 AA WEST AIRPORT MOON 363 20 AA WEST ISLAND SPORTS MONTOUR 435 21 AA WEST AIRPORT WEST ALLEGHENY 449 CLASS AAA – Open Enrollment 1 AAA SOUTH BETHEL PARK BETHEL PARK 735 2 AAA SOUTH BETHEL PARK UPPER ST. CLAIR 583 3 AAA SOUTH ICE CASTLE BALDWIN 696 4 AAA SOUTH MT LEBANON MT LEBANON 730 5 AAA SOUTH ICEOPLEX PETERS TOWNSHIP 483 1 AAA EAST CENTER ICE FRANKLIN REGIONAL 521 2 AAA EAST CENTER ICE GATEWAY 586 3 AAA EAST CENTER ICE PENN-TRAFFORD 615 4 AAA EAST CENTER ICE PLUM 568 5 AA EAST CENTER ICE NORWIN 668 1 AAA SOUTH HARMARVILLE CENTRAL CATHOLIC 657 2 AAA NORTH HARMARVILLE FOX CHAPEL 609 3 AAA NORTH HARMARVILLE SHALER 798 4 AAA NORTH ICE CONNECTION PINE-RICHLAND 458 5 AAA NORTH ISLAND SPORTS NORTH HILLS 689 1 AAA WEST ECC CATHEDRAL PREP 388 2 AAA WEST JMC ARENA MCDOWELL 977 3 AAA WEST MEADVILLE MEADVILLE 394 4 AAA NORTH CRANBERRY NORTH ALLEGHENY 1057 5 AAA NORTH CRANBERRY SENECA VALLEY 887 Please E-Mail me your comments or post them on the Roundtable under 06-07 Re-Alignment