Montour Spartans

When Evgeni Malkin fled his Russian team Magnitagorsk earlier this year, there was celebration in Pittsburgh in anticipation of the new season. Malkin, who reportedly signed a contract under duress at 3 AM, dreamed of playing in the National Hockey League. Communism supposedly fell with the Berlin wall more than a decade ago, but the fact that this kid, who is only a year or so older than some of our High School Hockey players, was unable to freely do what he wanted to is a sign that the Iron Curtain still exists. Read the plight of Evgeni and you will start to see where I am headed with this editorial. http://www.russianprospects.com/public/article.php?article_id=472&PHPSESSID=eb584c3cb756e1a33a9688fb0ba55a7e When Communism supposedly fell, many of those politicians in Russia, may have made their way the United States and are now working in the ranks of youth Hockey in the United States. I am not Joseph McCarthy or the Red Scare, but I can tell you the the resemblance of what Malkin went through is pretty similar to what goes on around the rinks of Western Pennsylvania. Evgeni had NO CHOICE but to leave Russia and pursue his dream and many kids in this area are doing the same because of the political landscape of the PIHL and the ridiculous nature of how it’s run and where it is headed. The administrative nightmare and red tape of paperwork to run a hockey game is way out of hand as it is now over $ 1000 to play a HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY game at Mt Lebanon Recreation Center and there are MANY OTHER RINKS WITH SIMILAR COSTS SO I AM NOT PICKING ON MT LEBANON. The ice is $ 240 an hour, which I can stomach and about average so $ 480 is the norm. $ 50 for the EMT, which from what I understand from one local rink is not what the EMT personnel receives, which is $ 5 less than the league charges, which is why the PIHL needs to be Audited and never has been. $ 150 for referees is $ 75 per game for Varsity and up from $ 45 in 2000-2001 [I wish we all got raises they are enjoying]. League Reps get $ 25 and for the mound of paperwork they fill out they should, but it used to be $ 10. A $ 211.52 charge for two Mt Lebanon police officers to provide security and the stands are less than half full unless its Bethel Park – Mt Lebanon? and then ……………..there’s the $ 90 per game PIHL Administrative fee….for what ? So the Joker can sit at his website and update the scores? Or so all of the schedule changes can go into a black hole of e-mails? The total is $ 1006.52 for one High School Hockey Game, which can be curfewed , if it is 30 seconds past the second hand on the sun dial. Folks, this is extortion and it’s priceless! So what you have is a league that is overcharging and what does the product look like. My favorite subject is the Open Division, but before I start on that subject, let’s talk about the idle threats of fines and such that Mr. Freeze and the Villans tried to impose prior to the season if any organization even attempted to FIELD A JV OR FRESHMAN TEAM OUTSIDE OF THE LEAGUE to god forbid SAVE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I have news for all of the stupid and yes I said stupid people who are buffaloed by this tactic. There are no less than a dozen to two dozen clubs playing JV and Freshman and Developmental games outside of the League, in fact it is my understanding that the Board of Governors voted it down and its still being threatened. Two years ago when we tried to start an independent JV / Freshman League, people were all for it as as many as 20 clubs joined the discussion until the Villans started spreading threats and calling in the chips like the mafia. Teams in the Lake Shore are playing in an independent league and the Laurel Highlands League is still alive and there are independent JV teams playing hockey in Western Pennsylvania, so not everyone is stupid. And you thought that Evgeni had it tough? Varsity Hockey is now to the point, where the Pittsburgh Post Gazette will not even publish the standings and hasn’t to date for this season. Why? Because nobody cares about the product and if the Penguins do not stay in Pittsburgh, which will be decided soon because of the politicians letting this thing being decided politically with the Isle of Capri debacle. So here we are on a Thursday night in December, which used to be the BIGGEST night of High School Hockey and 12 out of the 18 games on the schedule are the Open Division. 26 out of the 76 schools represented by name are in the Open Division, including 5 West Virginia schools, who will eventually form their own division and at least a half dozen IMPURE NON-HIGH SCHOOL TEAMS with players from an array of schools representing one school. How can a school principal from Quigley or Valley or Ringgold sign off on a roster with for a school team with players who don’t even attend the school? Forest Hills and Ferndale, left the safe haven of Class A to take even bigger beatings in the Open Division against a bunch of sandbagging Class AAA schools, who are playing down to play for what?……….NOTHING! Because there is NO State Championship for the OPEN Classification and more importantly NO CRITERIA to establish one and when I speak to people in the Eastern Pa hockey circles, they shutter and say well maybe we can have our second Varsities play them! And people think the PIAA is interested………..not in our lifetime? And we wonder why Kool-Aid is the beverage of choice. Players at the Bantam and even Pee Wee level are now forgoing playing High School Hockey to travel and play outside of this area. I not saying that they should, they are just making a choice because although they are not being forced to sign contracts at 3 AM by Magnitagorsk, their decisions are becoming pretty clear cut. All of you people who turn a deaf ear and close your eyes when this is discussed in the rinks or provide a stupid blank look when you are enlightened to what is going on here, will be long gone when the next group comes along in five years. For the people who care, THERE IS AN ELECTION IN APRIL and the Hockey Community needs to ‘Stand as One’ a rid themselves of a BIG problem and elect some new people and CLEAN HOUSE. The Joker, the Riddler, Mr Freeze, Cat Woman, Bookworm, Egghead, and all of the Villans need to be sent to Gotham State Prison with Warden Crichton. And hockey needs to be restructured toward Split Seasons, Cooperation and not in Competition with PAHL and with a GOAL to be cost effective. There are lots of rinks that Mario Built and Sidney and Evgeni can build and keep open, the hockey community just needs to have the politicians and people looking to pad their own pockets out of the picture to make it happen!

Quaker Valley 5 Mars 1 CORAOPOLIS – Mars is ranked # 2 with a 4-0-1 record and off to its best start in recent memory under Eric Glover. The last time the Planets had a good start was 2003 and they advanced to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals before being knocked off by Westmont Hilltop. This year’s rendition is a club with speed, balance and size, who can score goals, which has been a missing ingredient over the past couple of seasons. Goaltender Greg Lewis has been solid throughout the early season and looks to be able to lead the Planets on a playoff run. History tells us that Mars will have to overcome Serra and Bishop McCort, who are perennial Class A powers and now Quaker Valley can be counted on as the Quakers have been sniffing the Pennsylvania Cup for a few years and captured their first in 2006. Quaker Valley is ranked # 1 and at 5-0-1 as won five straight after an opening tie against Serra Catholic. Head coach Kevin Quinn is looking forward to defending the title they earned a year ago and now understands the process of winning it all, which is something that his team is poised to do in 2007. The Quakers have all of the ingredients including two game breakers in Colin South and Mikail Lemieux, that no other team in Class A can match up with. The opening period was pretty uneventful except for some solid goaltending from QV’s Zac Zinger and Mars Greg Lewis. The scoreless period featured an equal number of chances at both ends. Mars went on the power play at 12:32 and failed to get many opportunities thanks to some good penalty killing by the Quakers. The Planets went back on the man advantage at 8:16 and at 6:54 of the period Greg Dyer picked off a pass in the neutral zone and fed Mikail Lemieux who buried a wrist shot high over the glove side of Greg Lewis to give QV a 1-0 lead. Mars lost their composure a little and took two bad penalties putting Quaker on the power play in cluding a 5 on 3 for over a minute, which could be a key point in the hockey game. Another penalty at 5:03 put the Planets further in the hole and with just 14 seconds left in the first penalty, Breton McNamara picked up a loose rebound and deposited it into an empty net to make it 2-0. With a 5 on 3 for over 40 seconds, QV went to work again, but Mars defense stiffened and the score remained 2-0. With 1:52 remaining, The Planets would have an opportunity on the man advantage top cut the lead with 1:52 to go and although they picked the physical play, maybe got a little overzealous and took another bad penalty with 42 seconds left negating the power play and a chance to gain some momentum heading to the third period. On to the third period and QV would go on the power play eight seconds in and Mars killed it off. Moments later at 13:27, Colin South found a loose puck and banked it off a Mars defenseman in front and past Lewis to make it three zip. The Planets turned up their game a notch and they finally got a bounce as Sam Mashuda’s shot bounded in the air and behind Zac Zinger to make it 3-1 with 8:40 to go in regulation. Mars started to press and was trying to beat Zinger and the mometum got sidetracked with a penalty with 6:10 to go and the Quakers capitalized as Mikail Lemieux fed a streaking Colin South in the slot who made no mistake with 4:38 to go and QV had some breathing room at 4-1. Moments later at 3:59 Rob Balotsky added a breakaway backhand goal to increase the lead to 5-1. So Quaker Valley maintains their stranglehold on the top spot in Class A,with a rematch awaiting on Janusry 30th at Cranberry BladeRunners, with an impressive 5-1 victory over upstart Mars.

December 10, 2006 -- PLUNKETT COACHES GAME 1000, MONDAY DECEMBER 11TH VS NORWIN IN MEADVILLE ...GAME TIME 7:15PM Reprinted feature and excerpts by Matt Martin, Erie Times News. Jamie Plunkett has left his indelible stamp on the Meadville hockey program. After 20 seasons of shaping the Bulldogs into one of the state’s elite programs, Plunkett has proved he owns a blueprint for coaching success.The most significant figure on Jamie Plunkett’s coaching resume isn’t the most obvious. It’s not the eight state championships his Meadville Bulldog hockey program has won, or the record five straight from 1992 to 1996. It’s not the 730 career victories, thought to be the second-most coaching wins in U.S. high school hockey history. No, 20 is the number that should stand out. Twenty years as coach of a program that unfailingly is among the state’s elite. Plunkett hired on in May 1986, surely one of the most serendipitous coaching moves in northwestern Pennsylvania sports history. He’d been coaching a Midget house league team at DeArment Arena after a short stint with the club team at Allegheny College, where he was and remains head athletic trainer. The Bulldogs went 19-3-2 and won a state title that first season. They’ve lost exactly 11 playoff games since. With few exceptions, coaches don’t coach with any one high school for 20 years. Especially not a coach whose team wins state titles in seven of his first 10 seasons, who never has had a losing record, and who appears to be the winningest high school coach, in any sport, in state history. Monday night, Plunkett will make history again as he coaches his 1000th game for the Bulldogs vs Norwin at the "House of Chills". What others see in his two decades in Meadville: · Plunkett locked down ice time at DeArment Arena, making practice a priority. The team’s players, parents and supporters raised money for several years for construction of a pro-style dressing room in whose stalls the youngest players now dream of one day hanging their sweaters. Most of Meadville’s opponents had no such ice-time or home-ice advantage, and many remain nomadic today. The sense of ownership that’s developed in players and fans has made the House of Chills one of the toughest road venues in the state, in any sport. · He brought pro, junior and college sensibilities to a high school club program that feasted on the dedication those sensibilities instilled and required. The Bulldogs traveled to face the best competition; they played 50, even 60 games some seasons; they made dry-land training in August as important as skating drills in December. Plunkett’s best teams haven’t been just good, but feared. From 1986 to 1995, the Bulldogs never lost more than eight games, and averaged just six losses per season. · Every move speaks to Plunkett’s lead role in a cultural shift in western Pennsylvania hockey. Pittsburgh-area teams, whose officials dominated the sport’s governing body, all but refused to acknowledge the arrival of Meadville’s program despite evidence it was in place to stay as early as the late 1980s. By thetime Meadville was grudgingly accepted as an equal, the Bulldogs were anything but; the southwestern quarter of the state spent the mid-90s playing catch-up -largely following Plunkett’s blueprint - as the Bulldogs hoisted the Pennsylvania Cup five straight years. If Plunkett were just concerned with wins, he’d be a success. But his success isn’t found only in wins, titles and records. His players have grown up under his watch, the sons of his friends and neighbors. He’s worked their skate blades dull, and they have the gold medals and golden memories to show for it.Some have gone on to play in college, or tried their luck in the minors. Others have returned to Plunkett in new guises - as assistant coaches, as assistant trainer at Allegheny,with families of their own. And Meadville’s sports fans, whose winters have been given to basketball and wrestling for so long, have gladly learned how to make DeArment Arena warm for the home team, icy for the visitors. None of that happens in just a few whirlwind seasons. For the very fortunate communities, it’ll take at least 20. MATT MARTIN, managing editor/sports, can be reached at (814) 870-1704 or by e-mail at matt.martin@timesnews.com. Congratulations Coach on your 1000th game behind the bench.

Pine Richland 7 Latrobe 3 VALENCIA – Pine Richland is off to a pretty strong start at 6-0 and ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 statewide poll. Head coach Bob Kennedy’s club has been virtually unchallenged through the early part of the season with the veteran leadership of top line Senior Phil Trombetta and sophomores George Saad and Dylan Trombetta, who have combined with a nucleus of up and coming younger players to lead the Rams to a perfect start. The question is when talking Class AA hockey, who will challenge Pine Richland and furthermore is there anyone who can knock them off. A decent victims list of perennial AA powers Peters Twp, Thomas Jefferson, West Allegheny and Canevin have been the whipping boys for the Rams as no one has come within three goals of them during the regular season. The rebirth of Latrobe hockey is still a work in progress under Ron Makoski as this team has started off 7-1 with strong performances over West Allegheny, Greensburg Salem, two narrow wins over Franklin Regional and a road victory at the Belmont over Kittanning, with the only blemish coming in a rematch with Salem. The Wildcats have speed, discipline and goaltending, which is a pre-requisite of competing with the Rams that would be put to the test as the current # 2 team in Class AA traveled to the Infection Ice Connection. The key to Wildcat success would be their ability to expose the Ram defense and goaltending, which is easier said than done and contain Saad, Trombetta and Trombetta, which has not been done by anyone. The Rams dominated the territorial play in the early going as the top line of Phil and Dylan Trombetta and George Saad led the assault. PR opened the scoring with 8:00 left in the opening period. Latrobe came on in the middle of the period but was forced to kill off a penalty and capitalized as Isaac Pritchard got behind the Ram defense and beat Stoney Hildreth low to the glove side to tie the score at one apiece with 5:01 remaining. The Wildcats seized the lead in the hockey game as Ryan LaDuke found Michael McCrady on a cross ice pass, who beat Hildreth cleanly on the ice to give Latrobe a 2-1 lead with 2:20 left. On to the second, which has been Richland’s best period all season and this game would be no different as Phil Trombetta got things started just 30 seconds in beating Nick Loyacona with a wicked snapshot high under the crossbar to tie the score at two apiece. The game went back and forth with both teams skating hard and having chances at both ends, but Pine Richland show their lethal hand in the middle period in the final three minutes as Phil Trombetta found George Saad on a noe-timer with 3:01 to go to give the Rams the lead 3-2. The real backbreaker came with just :13 left as Dylan Trombetta skated over the blue line and used the defenseman as a screen and buried a wrist whot over the glove hand of Loyacona to give PR a 4-2 lead. Shots were 26 – 15 thru two periods in favor of Richland. The Wildcats started the third with the power play and then had a 5 on 3 just ten seconds into the period and Latrobe failed to mount an attack not to mention a quality scoring chance and the Rams killed it. Juat as the penalties ended the Wildcats had a costly turnover as freshman Brian Watt raced 120 feet and beat Loyacona on a nice move to extend the Pine Richland lead to 5-2. Just 41 seconds later the freshman Brian Watt scored at 12:01 on another breakaway as Latrobe fell apart and the Rams seized a 6-2 lead. A little over a minute later, Phil Trombetta turned this one in to a rout at 10:49 7-2. Latrobe scored at 8:49 as JeffJoe Regula made it a 7-3 count. Pine Richland cemented their claim to the number one spot in Class AA and is looking for that next challenger to see if anyone will challenge them come March.

Franklin Regional 7 Elizabeth Forward 1 DELMONT – Franklin Regional hockey is a program that has struggled in recent years to keep the numbers that flourished in the program from the early 90’s up through the present. What boggles the mind for many is that Center Ice Arena sits in the back yard of the school district that can be called affluent with the move east by many people who have migrated from other east suburb districts. Head Coach Jim Daugherty, who entered the program during the mid 90’s has seen the program go from 4 teams including two freshman teams to the state it is now with barely enough players to field two teams at Junior Varsity and Varsity. The fact is the cost structure of the PIHL is so out of line that many people have moved away from High School Hockey to play just amateur or just high school, which has left the Panthers in a dilemma. In fact, it is over $ 1000.00 to play a Varsity game at the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center, which is unreal. This season the Panthers started off 1-4 with losses to Latrobe twice, Greensburg Salem and Thomas Jefferson, but have rebound to win two and have an opportunity to get the bus moving in the opposite direction and into the thick of the Class AA seeding frenzy, which is sure to be very interesting come February. Elizabeth Forward, their opponent for this evenings tilt came into existence in 1988 and had a string of losing seasons its first six seasons, then took a hiatus for a year and then had two more losing campaigns in 1997 and 1998 before disappearing into the developmental Junior Varsity and Freshman teams for three years until 2002 when the Warriors made in all the way to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals before losing to Bishop McCort. The Warriors had two more winning seasons in 03 and 04 and then have been heading in the other direction again the past two seasons. The challenge for the coaching tandum of Larry ‘Briggs and Stratton’ Briggs and Tom Mooney [who lead Serra Catholic to their last Penguins Cups] is to keep enough healthy bodies to compete in a very rigorous Class AA schedule and a 1-4-1 start. According to club officials, the Warriors will lose 7 seniors that will be replaced by eight 8th graders currently playing on the EF Freshman team. Elizabeth Forward and Franklin Regional are two programs that appear to have similar qualities and both will need to attract players through development over the next three to five years to avoid the ‘Teams that aren’t here any more’ portion of the Pa Hockey Website. The Panthers looked to take advantage of their momentum from their modest two game winning streak and the very noticeable short bench of the Warriors. EF goaltender Michael Cole made several nice saves in the opening minutes to keep FR off the board and the game scoreless. FR opened the scoring when Ryan Kramer buried a snapshot past Cole after a pretty passing play and setup with Carl Richter and Eugene Mack with 5:44 to go in the opening period. Elizabeth Forward tied it on the power play less than a minute later as Cruise Lizik’s wrist shot from the right point glanced off something and bounded past James ‘Bobby’ Orr at 4:45. The Panthers scored a huge momentum goal late in the first as Jared Yesko pounced on a loose puck on the doorstep of a John Cecere rebound to give FR a 2-1 advantage. The Panthers held a 15-6 shot advantage after one. On to the second period and the Panthers seized control of this hockey game as Stephen Shirk found the 5-hole through Cole after a nice cross ice pass from Eugene Mack to make it 3-1 with 11:18 to go in the 2nd. The Panthers kept bringing the offensive pressure as Ryan Kramer picked up his second goal at 9:26 on the power play. FR took a 5-1 lead with 1:37 as Jared Yesko scored his second goal of the game. The Panthers iced the game in the third period as Stephen Shirk scored his 2nd goal on a shorthanded breakaway and Brian Buckley closed out the scoring converting a Shane Crossey feed with 1:31 to go to give Franklin a convincing 7-1 victory, outshooting the Warriors 43-18 on the night