Montour Spartans

Thomas Jefferson 7 Moon 5 CORAOPOLIS – Moon is 8-3-1, ranked # 4 and sits atop the West Division of Class AA and arguably off to the best start in their 25 years, but maybe the most impressive stat for the Tigers is only 28 goals against in 12 games. The Tigers are blessed with a solid lineup and a hard working club. If you want to point to why Moon is doing so well, you may want to go back to this time a year ago when Craig Bioni took over the Tigers and their improvement increased significantly through hard work and discipline. Thomas Jefferson is off to a 6-4-2 start under the Dean of AA Don Powell, whose club is also in first place in the South Division. The Jaguars, by their standards, are not having a terrific season, but given the parity in Class AA, TJ is in the thick of the playoff picture, amongst a pack of teams from Moon with three losses to teams fighting to stay above the .500 mark such as West Allegheny, Kittanning, and Greensburg CC, who over the past few seasons, like the Jaguars, were fighting for top positions in the seeding. The whole makeup of Class AA is very intriguing and will make for a very interesting final month and a half of the season. The matchup with Moon & TJ could have home ice implications come March. The Tigers struck first as Peter Lyle buried a rebound at 12:55 on the power play to give Moon a 1-0 lead. Thomas Jefferson came back to tie the game at 7:38, as Joe Sabol scored on the power play to the glove side of Matt Wynn. The Tigers regained the lead at 2:56 of the 1st as Pete Lyle’s centering pass to the front of the net deflected off Spencer Neel and behind him to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Coach Powell called his team over to bench to give them some words of wisdom and Neel stopped Lyle moments later on a partial break with 48 seconds to go in the opening period. The Jaguars tied the game in the opening minute of the second period on a pretty re-group and passing play as Dan Nath buried a snap shot low to the stick side of Matt Wynn to deadlock the score at two apiece. The game was close checking through the 2nd period as the Jaguars and Tigers settled into a close checking affair. On a delayed penalty with 2:02 to go in the period Joe Sabol found Brock Heinauer high in the slot, who one-timed a bullet past Wynn to give TJ their first lead 3-2. The referees still gave the Jaguars the power play and with 1:10 to go Dan Nath trickled a wrist shot past Wynn and all of the sudden Thomas Jefferson had a 4-2 lead. TJ added to the lead early in the third period as Brock Heinauer unloaded a slapshot from the top of the right face-off circle at 12:32 that beat Wynn to the stick side to make it 5-2 and Danny Joseph added another goal on a rebound with 12:02 remaining to make it a 6-2 count in favor of Thomas Jefferson. Brock Heinauer made it 7-2 with 10:16 to go and gave the Jaguars a commanding lead. Brandon Pompeo scored for Moon with 9:51 remaining to bring the Tigers to within 7-3. With 8:29 remaining, Matt Reese scored on a blistering slapshot from the right point on the power play and all of the sudden it was now 7-4. The Tigers went back on the power play with 8:18 to go and a chance to cut into the TJ advantage even more, but the Jaguars held strong. Spencer Neel robbed Joe DeNardo with 5:34 to go with two sprawling saves on the doorstep. Matt Reese would be denied with 2:53 to go as he pounced on a rebound for another power play goal and the Jaguar lead was now 7-5. Moments Later, Brandon Pompeo had an opportunity on a partial breakaway, but Neel made a very good save to keep his team in front by two. TJ got defensive and was holding down the fort over the final three minutes b moving the puck into the Moon end and forcing faceoffs. A big win for the Jaguars and for Moon a loss to start a very important stretch against some stiff Class AA team upcoming on their schedule.

Westmont Hilltop's Art McQuillan is nearing his 40oth overall victory and can capture it this Thursday Night against Center. Effectionately known as 'King Arthur' will now be know as 'King Arthur McArthur of the Mighty Hilltoppers' McQuillan, who took over the Hilltop program early in the 1987-88 season and has guided the Hilltoppers to 16 appearances in the Penguins Cup playoffs and 17 winning campaigns. On behalf of Pa Hockey, we would like to congrulate Art McQuillan on his years of service to the Westmont Hilltop Hockey Program and hockey in Western Pennsylvania ! Read the article of Mike Mastovich of the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat UPDATE 1/11/07 - Westmont Hilltop 8 Center 3 and coach Art McQuillan captures his 400th All-Time victory

Where are they now ? Onward and Upward 2006-2007 Once again...we at Pa Hockey have looked far and wide over the rosters of Major Junior A and NCAA Division 1 Colleges across the United States and in Canada and came up with the players from the State of Pennsylvania playing at that level. Keep in mind that this list does not include ACHA Division 1 or NCAA Division 3 [Does include Division 3 for Eastern Pa]. Now we know that when this list gets combed over that we may have omitted a player or two......so if you know of someone playing at that level, please let us know ! Here is the unoffical count: Players playing in Division 1 Hockey Total = 52 (Western Pa = 24 Eastern Pa = 28) Players playing in Junior A Hockey in USHL+NAHL+EJHL Total = 55 (Western Pa = 32 Eastern Pa = 23) That puts Pa Hockey over 100............Congratulations to all of the players and families for their continued dedication to making Pa Hockey # 1. And continued success for all of those players who strive to further their hockey careers and seek higher education ! Thank you to Matt Sacks of Breakaway Magazine for his contribution to this report

Bethel Park 2 Mt Lebanon 0 Bethel Park – A Who’s Who night with Bobby Montana, Bob ‘Dr Denton’ Behling, King Tut Bob Sebastian, John McKelvey, Lebo legendary coach Mickey McDermott, members of the Championship Blue Devils Matt Vaughn & Josh Mandic, Jack Bleik, Dave ‘the Milk Man’ Dorsey, Jamie Cummings among the notables of the always entertaining Mt Lebanon – Bethel Park rivalry, that is slated as a doubleheader for tonight and next Monday at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center, which is a great way to showcase two of the areas top programs, who both admittedly would rather have the dates spread out with two months in between, so the league with their wit and quick thinking moved the game up from 8:20 PM to 7:00 PM to extend the distance between games. Bethel Park is off to a terrific start this season at 10-0-0 on the regular season and is ranked # 1 in Class AAA in the Western Pa Hockey Elite 8. Head Coach Jim McVay’s club has yielded just nine goals in their opening ten games and appears to be a cut above the Class AAA competition for this year’s Penguins Cup. The Hawks have wins over Meadville, North Allegheny and Central Catholic during the regular season and have defending State Champions Mt Lebanon in between them and an undefeated campaign. Mt Lebanon surely misses their departed class from a year ago and maybe what coach Paul Taibi really would like to happen is for his team to pick up the scoring pace because the Blue Devils have played solid defense in front of very consistent goaltending through the first half of the season only yielding 14 goals. Lebo still struggles in the big games scoring as evidenced by the Central Catholic and McDowell losses and a narrow win over North Allegheny. The Blue Devils are a team that could mature into a playoff contender by season’s end and remain one of the top 5 Class AAA schools going into the season’s second half. A typical Lebo – Bethel game took a familiar tone in the opening period with Defense being the theme early on. At 8:39, Kenny Lehman picked up a third rebound attempt and deposited it to the stick side of Robbie Behling to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. At 5:03, Bethel went on the power play with an opportunity to up their lead to two but the Blue Devils stiffened. The shots in the opening period were 12-8 in favor of BP. Bethel went back on the power play with 7:28 to go in the second period and although they did not score continued to press the attack and forechecking on Mt Lebanon. The Hawks continued to frustrate Lebo efforts to clear their own zone and get pressure in the Bethel zone. When Bethel’s apparent 2nd goal was waived off at 2:49 of the second period, many wondered if that just wasn’t the break Lebo would need to change the momentum of the hockey games. On to the third period we went and while Mt Lebanon did get the puck in the Bethel zone, the scoring chances were few and far between. Bethel continued to press the attack on Mt Lebanon, almost daring the Blue Devils to mount some sort of attack. The dagger in the Mt Lebanon faithful’s heart came with 6:06 remaining in regulation time as Tyler Trocano’s shot from a weird angle bounced off Robbie Behling’s shoulder and somehow snuck into the net giving Bethel a huge insurance tally and more importantly a 2-0 lead. BP was able to keep the threat of Mt Lebanon scoring to a minimum and shut them down the rest of the way for a 2-0 victory at Bethel BladeRunners. Stay Tuned for the re-matchup less than 72 hours away at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center.

Bethel Park Hockey Association Annual Martian Luther King Tournament January 12 - 14, 2007 Bethel Park Bladerunners FRIDAY January 12th Thomas Jefferson 3 Upper St Clair 3 Bethel Park 5 Central Catholic 2 Shaftsbury 11 Shaler 2 SATURDAY January 13th Bethel Park 6 Thomas Jefferson 2 Upper St Clair 5 Shaftsbury 3 Shaler 0 Central Catholic 5 Shaftsbury 3 Bethel Park 3 Thomas Jefferson 9 Shaler4 Central Catholic 7 Upper St Clair 4 SUNDAY January 14th Semi-Finals Bethel Park 4 Upper St Clair 1 Central Catholic 3 Shaftsbury 2 Finals 2006 Bethel Park MLK Invitational Championship Bethel Park 7 Central Catholic 0 Congratulations to Bethel Park Blackhawks - 2006 MLK Champions Check out the link to the Bethel Park Website !