Montour Spartans

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.

Western Pennsylvania ALL-STAR Games Saturday January 28th 2006 Valley Sports Complex - New Kensington Class A - Southwest Conference A 9 Northeast Conference A 2 HIGHLIGHTS: Freeport's Patrick Spangler scores the hat trick and Sewickley's Scott Limbach adds 4 assists in a rout. Freeport's Beau Zack with two goals and Serra's Steven Gruhalla, Quaker Valley's Breton McNamara and Mars Mike Kenitz also score for the SW. Forest Hills Andrew Judy and Conemaugh Valley's Craig Yingling score for the NE. Class AA - Southwest Conference AA 6 Northeast Conference AA 5 HIGHLIGHTS: Moon's Chris Simoni scores a pair and Montour's Zach Perry, South Park's Matt Nichol and Matt Miley and Peters Township's Dustin Roux score for the SW. Kittanning's Justin Kovatch, GCC's Alfosno Arevalo, Latrobe's Miles Ritenour and Pine Richland's JOsh Fodor and Jordan Yoklic score for the NE Class AAA - Northeast Conference AAA 1 Southwest Conference AAA 1 (OT) HIGHLIGHTS: Penn Trafford's Joel Sterniak, FC's Eric Thiessen and Shaler's Nick Bennardo combine to stop 47 of 48 shots in a 1-1 tie game. Mt Lebanon's Tyler 'the Terminator' Murovich and Norwin's Mike Ulicny trade goals in the opening period. Class Open - 6:30 PM - Northeast Conference Open 4 Southwest Conference Open 1 HIGHLIGHTS: Penn Hills Anthony Battista, State College's Kurt Collins, Kiski's Adam Bowman and Bishop Guilfoyle's Steffan Langguth score as the NE defeats the SW. This is an opportunity to see the Top 25 Players as selected by PA Hockey strut their stuff with 160 of the top players in Western Pennsylvania. The unfortunate part of these All-Star games is the the Penguins Hornets WILL NOT BE PARTICIPATING and again robbing these players an opportunity to represent their school for this High School event. While that continues to happen, a great story came out of these All-Star Games thanks to John 'Just call me Chief O'Hara' Eddy of Somerset and Mary Sullivan of Woodland Hills after numerous attempts with the Villans to work out a time change with the Joker Commissioner [who has changed over 100 games in the Regular Season Schedule] would not budge on the times of the All-Star Games to accomodate several Junior B and Junior C players who were selected and ARE NOW PARTICIPATING. The Amateur Penguins Organization, who I'll call 'Luke Warm' High School Friendly changed the times of their games at Harmarville to Saturday Night to make this a reality. When are people in Western Pennsylvania going to learn that there once was co-operation bewteen High School and Amateur......back when R.J. Umberger of Plum [Philadelphia Flyers], Ryan Malone of Upper St Clair [Pittsburgh Penguins], Martin Wilde of Forest Hills [Hershey Bears], J.B. Bittner of Seton LaSalle [Johnstown Chiefs], John Zeiler of Thomas Jefferson [St Lawrence], Kris Mayotte of Central Catholic [Union College], Bernie Chmiel of Central Catholic [Sacred Heaart], Mike Handza of Shaler [Denver University] And Louie Garritan of Seton LaSalle [Bemidji State] among many others, all played High School including All-Star Games and for the Midget AAA or Junior B teams. The result is that these players were able to use this competition and environment to excel and move on to play Division 1 hockey. Today's dilemma is a death struggle over kids cause by people, who frankly care more about lining their pockets rather than helping student athletes advance to the next level and reach higher educational and leadership roles. I know I sound like a broken record people, It's time for change......................the promises in April have just gotten worse and programs are dying ! UP NEXT: MY SOLUTION TO SAVE HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA INCLUDING THE WOEFUL CLASS A AND OPEN DIVISION.......STAY TUNED.........SAME BAT TIME ....SAME BAT CHANNEL

Meadville's 8-1 victory over Upper St Clair marked the 700TH career win of head coach Jamie Plunkett. Since taking the helm in 1986-87 Plunkett's record now to date is 700-211-54 with a playoff record of 51-11. Reached the Penguin Cup Finals 14 out of 19 seasons with 9 Penguins Cup titles and 8 State Titles. It was Plunkett's 965th game on the bench....how about that? Congratulations to Jamie Plunkett and the Meadville Bulldog Hockey Program for this great accomplishment and make sure to check out the documentary on the Bulldog Hockey program on the Meadville Website !

2006 Meadville Bulldog Invitational Championship MEADVILLE - Mt Lebanon 1 LaSalle 0 Mt Lebanon and LaSalle squared off in a rematch of the 2005 Final and more recently a preliminary round game played to a scoreless tie a day ago. The Blue Devils defeated Meadville 3-1 and LaSalle turned back Sylvania Northview 2-1 to set an all Pennsylvania title game. The work ethic displayed by the Explorers in the tournament has been the key to their road the title game, while the Blue Devils have continued to get solid play from the dozen players who have dressed during the tournament, now known as LEBO 66. The teams battled to an even strength scoreless opening period until Mt Lebanon went on the power play at 5:37 of the opening period, which LaSalle was able to kill off. As evenly played a first period as the previous three periods in the preliminary round and even last year’s final the opening period shots were 6-6. The Blue Devils had a good opportunity on the initial shift of the 2nd, but Rick Beuke was turned aside by Dan Pyne, who has been stellar thus far in the tournament. With 5:54, Mt Lebanon was guilty of covering the puck in their own crease and John Williams was awarded a penalty shot and he tried to high to the glove side of Matt Vaughn, who snatch the puck out of the air and kept the Explorers off the board, much to the delight of King Tut’s ‘Concerned Citizen’s of Mt Lebanon’ and the Lebo 66 contingent on the bench. The Blue Devil’s would get another opportunity on the man advantage with 1:20 remaining in the 2nd period. With 1:05 left in the 2nd, some beautiful passing precipitated Rick Bueke finding Jon Wilen on the back door, who slammed home a shot past Pyne breaking nearly 1 hour and 5 minutes of scoreless hockey played between Lebo 66 and LaSalle. The Explorer’s continued to work and press for the equalizer and missed a couple of golden chances with a little over six minutes remaining as Matt Vaughn and the Lebo 66 defense dove scratched and clawed to keep the puck out and a 1-0 lead. With 1:41 remaining, the Explorers took a frustration penalty as the reality that the Lebo 66 was in control of this one playing a very good LaSalle team to nearly 90 minutes of scoreless hockey and capped it off with a 1-0 victory and the first championship of the Meadville Bulldog Invitational for Mt Lebanon.

Every year Pa Hockey goes through the process of picking the top 25 players in Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. Soooo....... after much anguish and paring down a list of about 100 players the Top 25 in Western Pa is here and its sister Top 25 in Eastern Pa is here as well. And if that isn't enough our annual list of the top 5 Fans is here and Top 5 Freshman who have come on the scene as well as our Top 5 coaching performances [Eastern and Western Pa]. Finally, if you are going to start a championship organization and need a place to start .... our Top 10 Scholars are a great place to start and I would guess that these kids are top notch in many people's lists. Enjoy it + Comments are welcome..... And if you don't like it you can always discuss in on the Roundtable ..... The Pa Hockey Top 25 is one reason why it the # 1 Interscholastic Hockey Website in the State of Pennsylvania ! The Pa Hockey Top 25 is now posted on Pa Hockey !