Montour Spartans

Bishop McCort 3 Mars 0 JOHNSTOWN – Bishop McCort [18-3-1], the defending Penguins Cup champions and Mars 13-9-0, represent two of six teams in the 12 team Class A with a winning record. This is a far cry from the last time that the Crimson Crushers, were Penguins Cup champions in 1999, when it was prestigious just to make the Penguins Cup playoffs, let alone the Elite 8. In today’s Western Pa Hockey, the playoff committee is looking for warm bodies just to suit up for games as evidenced by Conemaugh Valley, with just four wins entering the playoffs against # 1 seed Quaker Valley. This opening round game between the Crimson Crushers and the Planets is an opportunity for an upset in round one for several reasons including goaltending, which is decidedly in favor of Mars with four-year starter Bryan Ross. Bishop McCort head coach John Bradley is well aware that his team will more than likely face Serra Catholic if they defeat the Planets, which is why this game is intruiging, since the Crushers and Eagles have been battling for the Penguins Cup supremacy for each of the past seven seasons. The Crushers owned the first period territorial play and the shots 15-6, but Bryan Ross was particularly sharp as he stopped several McCort opportunities. The first came as Matt Cooper got behind the Planets defense at 9:11 of the opening period but the Mars goaltender stopped him. Chad James had the next chance at the eight-minute mark, but Ross gloved it. At 5:54, the Planet’s keeper stopped # 9 with a sliding save. Maybe the best opportunity came on a give and go in front of Ross, but the Planet’s netminder kept the game scoreless. Mars had a chance to open up the scoring on a bang bang play as both Bryan Reel and Mike Kenitz could not beat Crusher netminder Brent Troyan On to the second period in a scoreless game and Domonkos walked out of the corner to the net and Ross held his ground at 12:06. At 7:11 of the second, McCort’s Christian Ternchanik had multiple chances, but Bryan Ross made a sprawling save. Now the Mars goaltender was looking almost unbeatable as he stopped Mike Kiely from point blank as the ice tilted to McCort. Mars snuck Bryan Reel behind the Crusher defense at 3:27 and Troyan made the initial stop and again on the rebound on Mike Riefner. The Crushers finally found the net with 1:52 remaining in the 2nd as Steven Polonkey’s bullet from the left point beat Ross high over the glove hand side to give McCort a 1-0 lead. Zac Seidel found Shawn James alone behind the defense, but Bryan Ross made his best save yet at the buzzer and the teams headed to the ice cut with Bishop McCort holding a slim 1-0 advantage, despite the Crushers holding a 29-13 shot edge. The Crushers started the 3rd on the power play and converted as Zac Seidel found a loose puck and an empty net on the doorstep with 14:16 left in regulation from a puck that Shawn James shot from the right face-off circle. The Crusher’s just kept on coming and piling up the shots and with 8:00 to go Marc Domonkos jammed home his won rebound to make the count 3-0. Mars went on the power play with 5:54 to play but Brent Troyan made a nice stop on Bryan Reel to maintain the shutout. The Crimson Crushers held on for a hard fought 3-0 victory. So for the 14th time in 15 years, Bishop McCort advances on to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals with an opportunity to advance to their 12th trip to the Penguins Cup.

Penn Trafford 5 Kiski 3 - DELMONT Kiski [20-1-0] entered the first round of the Penguins Cup playoffs after defeating Baldwin 7-6 on Tuesday night. The Cavaliers play in the Open Division and will continue in the Open Playoffs regardless of the outcome of tonight’s contest. Penn Trafford [16-6-0] has captured three straight division titles and has also been bounced from the playoffs for three consecutive years by Bethel Park, who interestingly enough could match up for a 4th consecutive year in the playoffs as the Hawks are the # 4 seed and the Warriors are the # 5 seed in the Class AAA playoffs Penn Trafford didn’t take long to get on the board as B.J. Zagorac pounced on a Chris Cerutti rebound at 13:06 to give PT a 1-0 lead. Kiski got their first opportunity on the power play and Cerutti strip the puck from the defenseman and raced 120 feet and buried a backhand past Luke Mohamed with 7:49 remaining for a 2-0 Warrior lead. Kiski could not score on a 5 on 3 power play. On to the second period and with the Cavaliers on the power play, PT struck again as Garrett Sodrosky appeared to score another shorthanded goal for the Warriors although Chris Cerutti was announced as the goal scorer at 14:52. Then this contest took a wild turn as Jeremy Zvonkovich scored on the power play which appeared to be re-directed into the goal with a skate, but the referee awarded the goal making it 3-1 in favor of PT with 14:28 to go in the 2nd. Chris Cerutti argued the call and was given a ten minute misconduct penalty. Kiski found momentum and new life in this game and the Warriors were now backpeddling and Josh Horvath made them pay for it just 23 seconds after the misconduct by beating Joel Sterniak on a rebound high over the stick side to cut the lead to 3-2 with 14:05 remaining in the 2nd. Just 28 seconds later, the Cavaliers struck again as Adam Bowman scored on a wrist shot and at 13:37 making it 3 goals in less than a minute and a 3-3 hockey game. With 11:07 remaining in the middle period, Kiski went on a 5 on 3 power play and the Warriors penalty killers Nick Whaley and Erik Likar did a tremendous job killing off the disadvantage. With 4:33 remaining in the period, Jeremy Zvonkovich had a great opportunity to give his team the lead by Joel Sterniak got a glove on it keeping the puck out. Luke Mohamed made two nice saves on Sidle at 4:01 and Chris Cerutti at 2:47 to keep the game tied. Cerutti would strike on the power play with just 37 seconds left in the period as he beat Mohamed on a backhand to give Penn Trafford a 4-3 lead. After PT’s Dan Sidle and Kiski’s Dustin Schrecongost engaged in a quarrel on the ice and were given 10 minute misconducts, they continued the fights near the locker room area and Sidle and Cerutti headed off to the Penguin’s Hornet Reindeer practice and potentially watched their high school careers end if Kiski could mount a comeback. But its would be the other Penn Trafford players who would step up and win this hockey game as Joel Sterniak stopped the Cavaliers chances in the third period. Erik Likar and freshman Robbie Maier provided a solid defensive effort and Nick Whaley played both ends of the ice including a huge insurance goal with 5:53 remaining on a great individual effort as he got his own rebound and beat Luke Mohamed and made the final count 5-3. For Kiski, a valiant effort and now they can go back to playing in the Open Division, but they should have played AAA all season and maybe they could be moving on, but it will be Penn Trafford moving forward to play in the Elite 8 for the 3rd straight year.

Greensburg CC 2 Indiana 1 (OT) GREENSBURG - Greensburg CC (12-7-2) and Indiana (11-8-2) entered the opening round of the 2006 Penguins Cup playoffs going in different directions. Indiana is fresh off of a 4-2 win over defending State Champions Peters Twp, while the Centurians had to beat the clock in the final minute to defeat a relatively weak Beaver team. GCC has been playing the stretch drive with just 12 skaters and while that means a lot to some, head coach Bill Bucholtz is hoping his club can find the playoff magic. Indiana, on the other hand, after a slow start to the season has played well at times and beaten some good teams including Canevin, Peters and Thomas Jefferson. For head coach Dom Glavech, he is hoping for the Indians to return to the Penguins Cup semis for the 3rd consecutive year. Indiana opened the scoring at 11:03 of the opening period as Jay Pettina walked between the circles and beat Ryan Homanics on a backhand to make it 1-0. Greensburg CC outshot the Indians 12-9 in the opening period but Mike Kennedy made several nice saves to keep the Centurians off the board. Ryan Homanics made a terrific stop on a 3 on 1 at 14:21 as Indiana looked to take a two goal lead. Indiana went on the power play at 2:04 of the second and appeared to score but the goal was waved off due to directing the puck in with the skate. In the third period, the game turned into a goaltending dual between Mike Kennedy of Indiana and Ryan Homanics of GCC. After Kennedy stone the Centurians on the power play early in the third, Homanics made a great save on Joe Appolonia on a breakaway at 10:42. With 9:10 remaining in regulation, Nick Vukmaravich scored on a rebound beating Mike Kennedy to tie the game at one apiece. The Centurians had the better of the play with a little over 6 minutes to go playing desperate hockey, but Kennedy made several nice saves. So this game entered the final three minutes deadlocked and heading for overtime. One mistake, one chance is all it would take to end it. Ryan Homanics stopped Lance Lewandowski and Steven Geisel on the rebound in the final seconds. On to overtime we went in a classic game with terrific goaltending,which continued in the extra period as Kennedy made three point blank save on Todd Kacin rom between the circles and twice on Evan George from in close. With 5:43 remaining in OT, Steven Geisel’s wrist shot slithered just wide of the post. Then it was Marc Perez who found a loose puck on a rebound and lofted a backhand over a fallen Mike Kennedy into the net to give the Centurians a heartstopping 2-1 overtime victory on GCC’s 36th shot to 30 for Indiana.

2006 Penguins Cup AA Qualifier Moon 7 Greensburg Salem 4 CORAOPOLIS – Greensburg Salem enters this evening’s play-in game with a 16-4-0 record out of the Open Division after a narrow 3-2 victory over Penn Hills. Tonight’s game has a little more significance than any Open Division game as the winner of this evening’s contest will get to experience a tremendous playoff atmosphere of the Belmont Ice Complex against the # 5 seed Kittanning Wildcats. Welcome to the Class AA playoffs for the Golden Lions, who are back in the PIHL after a two-year hiatus in the Laurel Highlands Hockey League and after a league championship and undefeated season a year ago Head Coach Anthony DeFazio’s squad is looking for more in the Penguins Cup playoffs. Moon enters this playoff game with a 9-12-0 record which is good enough for the 12th and final playoff spot for Class AA, but what is what a lot of Tiger faithful like to point to is the happenings in the season’s second half as this team has scored victories over Canon McMillan, Canevin, Kitanning and a near upset of Pine Richland, losing 3-2. Moon is looking for its first ever playoff victory in its history. Greensburg Salem stuck first at 13:39 of the opening period as Shane Davis scored from between the circles to make it 1-0. Moon came right back at 13:10 as Cederic Brazeau picked up a rebound and beat Shane Talarico into the empty net to knot the score at 1-1. Talarico made the games first big saves stopping Alex Hilliker on a rebound at 10:32. Then at 8:34 of the opening period, Shane Davis gathered and intercepted pass and beat Chris DeLorenzo on a backhand. Moon came back at 7:28 as Alex Hilliker scored from right in front to tie the score again at two apiece. Moon took its first lead at 4:56 as Cederic Brazeau got a step on the GS defenseman and beat Talarico on the backhand slipping the puck through the 5-hole for a 3-2 lead. With 28 seconds to go in the opening period Henry Fontana stepped around the Moon defenseman and buried a wrist shot high over the glove hand side of DeLorenzo to tie the score again at 3-3. On to the second period and Moon would get a golden opportunity on a 5 on 3 power play with 9:19 remaining and capitalized as Bryan Ros scored on a bad angle through Shane Talarico for a power play goal to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead. With 7:16 remaining Chris Simoni walked out of the corner and jambed the puck past Talarico and the Tigers now led 5-3. With 6:28 left in the period, Henry Fontana made a nifty move and beat the Moon defense and then DeLorenzo on the stick side to cut the lead to 5-4. With 1:44 remaining in the period, the Golden Lions went on a 5 on 3 power play and Moon used inspired penalty killing to create two breakaway chances for John Davis, but Talarico was equal to the task keeping his team down by one going to the third period. Moon killed off a GS power play opportunity with a little over ten minutes to go in regulation as John Davis ragged the puck for almost 40 seconds. With 2:02 remaining, Chris Simoni found a loose puck in the slot and danced in between the circles and lofted a backhand high over Shane Talarico’s shoulder to give the Tigers a 6-4 lead. Simoni added and empty netter with 1:38 left for a 7-4 advantage and give Moon their first ever playoff victory in their history and a trip to Kittanning Thursday night. For the Golden Lions a trip back to the Open Division playoffs to face Holidaysburg Thursday Night and hopefully next season back to Class AA, where they belong.