Montour Spartans

NEVILLE ISLAND – Peters Township is ranked # 2 in Pa Hockey Elite 8 in Western Pennsylvania in the latest poll, not counting the 6-5 overtime disaster loss against West Allegheny on Monday night. That game has encompassed Mark Cooper’s season as the Indians were impressive with a 5-2 lead after two periods and then self destructed with penalties and opportunist play by West A, who stormed back with a couple of power play goals and won it in overtime in a statement game of what we can expect in the Class AA Penguins Cup playoffs, which are less than a month away. Less than a month ago, Peters pummeled Montour 8-1 sending a message to Class AA that the Indians can turn it on at anytime, which everyone knows, but the question remains can they do it for 5 straight in March. With a full lineup, discipline and water rather than Kool Aid for some underachieving players would help, but this rematch with Montour would be different as Coach Cooper would watch from the stands, while my one-time State Championship broadcast partner Rick Tingle and Scott Simmons substituted for Coop behind the bench and only a dozen or so skaters due to suspension or injuries or reindeer game for Gerry Raymond, Rob Madore, Jake Machel, and Matt Lazzaro. Peter Twp Television was there to televised game with no announcers and one phone call could have netted myself and perennial Pa Hockey top5 fan Earl Bugaile, both in attendance. Great crowd of Montour fans for Senior Night on hand including several coaches and players from Class AA teams including Canon McMillan, who are on the verge of clinching the South Division with a Montour victory. Danny Siegel’s Montour club is ranked # 5 in Pa Hockey Elite 8 Western Pa and the Spartans have been up and down this season, but look to be one of the half dozen to a dozen AA teams in the mix, when the playoff bell rings in three weeks. So after a very nice rendition of the nation anthem by Lauren Talotta, sister of Chad Talotta….before the game and heading off to the Super Bowl, we all settled in for tonight’s game. The first period was very quick and fast paced as the Spartans missed several chances against Justin Marahamas. At 10:20 Montour went on the power play and at 9:30 Ross Polk tipped a Brian Dugan wrist shot past the Peters Township goaltender to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. At 9:25 Peter’s Eric Windemueller just missed as the puck glanced off the post. Montour looked to take control of this contest in the 2nd period and at 12:23, Paul Ciotti scored from in close on a rebound of a Jeff Peters shot to give Montour a 2-0 lead. At the 10-minute mark, Peters came back as Dustin Roux overpowered Aaron Williams with a wrist shot on the short side to cut the lead to 2-1. Lighting struck again at 8:41 with another Peters Twp power play and at 7:29, it was Roux again as he circled from behind the net and showed great patience beating Williams inside the post to tie the game at two apiece. Not to be outdone at 6:45, Roux came down the off wing and undressed the Montour defense and beat Williams through the 5-hole for a 3-2 Peters lead. The Indians went back on the power play at 5:30 as Montour showed frustration evident from the first meeting and looked to be self destructing themselves. The turning point of the hockey game came when Peters took an ill advised and undisciplined penalty, which broke the Peters momentum with a little over 5 minutes left. And at 4:45 Peters took another bad interference call, which put Montour on a 4 on 3 power play. And it happened …..just like that Brian Dugan scored a big goal with a big slapshot on the stickside to tie the game again at 3-3. At 3:05, Marahamas made a point blank save on Danny Shiwarski and stopped him again just moments later at 2:40. With 46 seconds left, a harmless shot by Adam Rizza fell right on the doorstep and Jeff Peters found a loose puck and scored on a wide open net for a 4-3 Spartan lead. On to the 3rd period and Montour killed the penalty to start the period. As many of you have been following the Game Summaries the last few weeks, it was time for Green Acres and we now have learned that Ralph [not Murovich] and Alf were given the exclusive contract to build the division championship trophies and if Montour defeated Peters, thus giving Canon McMillan their first ever division championship. Rumors surfaced at the Island Sports Center [from qualified media representatives not related to Arnold ‘Slick’ Ziffel, that the trophies would be arriving on the Cannonball after a stop in Pixley. With Floyd unavailable this evening, Montour’s Zach Perry lit the engine with a big slapshot goal from the top of the circles past Marahamas at the 10 minute mark to extend the lead to 5-3. Then it was Mario Panucci, who moved the train down the tracks at 7:31 with a great wrist shot in the upper right hand corner to make it 6-3. At the 5:32 mark Montour went on the power play and Marahamas made a great glove save on Zach Perry to keep the game within three, but could not stop him again as Perry wrapped it up with 1:29 with a rebound goal to make it 7-3. Dustin Roux scored on a great effort with his 4th goal beating Williams on the short side shorthanded to make it 7-4 with 45 ticks left, but Montour scored a huge 7-4 win at RMU Island Sports Center.

MT LEBANON – A lot of people have caught the fancy about the ‘Green Acres’ characters used in the ‘Game Summaries’ and with that said another perfect opportunity presented itself as I headed back to Mt Lebanon for one of the biggest games of the season. Enter Arnold ‘Slick’ Ziffel, the famous pig who knew one thing and that is how to change the channel on the Ziffel family television and since tonight’s game was being televised to somewhere, how appropriate to for Arnold ‘Slick’ to make his debut on Pa Hockey. Anyway young Arnold had a favorite TV show if you might remember and that show was ‘Cowboys and Indians’ and the modern day version of late in PA Hockeyland, not to be confused with TV Land, is the Bethel Park – Mt Lebanon rivalry, which I am sure Arnold would have just loved. Take us back to last March, when Bethel Park met Mt Lebanon in the Penguins Cup Elite 8, only to lose 2-0, which the Blue Devils used as a springboard to win the 2004 Penguins Cup. This season, it was undefeated Bethel Park, who pasted Mt Lebanon early in the season 6-2. So a great rivalry in one of the best places to watch a game in Western Pennsylvania at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center with the # 2 ranked Hawks and the # 3 ranked Blue Devils before a packed house with people around the glass, as parking was at a premium. No Who’s Who night and No Clipboard Rule in effect, this would be a pure hockey game and with great atmosphere which I am sure even Arnold ‘Slick’ Ziffel would mutter ‘shame on you for six weeks for missing this one. The first period was a chess match of line matching between Paul Taibi and Jim ‘Mort’ McVay as Bethel trapped Mt Lebanon only yielding two shots. Mt Lebanon had the best chances of the opening period at 12:26 as Bryce Merriam stopped Tony Valerino and Michael Diethorn made an all-world play to break up a possible 2 on 0 with Tony ‘Tom’ Valerino and Tyler Murovich at 9:56. Bethel Park pummeled Evan Baehr with nine shots. But the game remained scoreless after one. On to the second and the Blue Devils had another decent opportunity as Craig Anderson was stopped by Merriam at 12:02. Back came Bethel Park who worked the puck into the Mt Lebanon zone and but could not beat Baehr after they controlled the play for well over two minutes. Mt Lebanon overextended their shift and finally worked the puck out of the zone and Bethel Park maybe got a little overzealous as a defenseman pinched creating an odd man break for the Blue Devils. Shane Ferguson chased down the loose puck in the Bethel zone and got just enough on the chip pass to find freshman Tyler Murovich in front at 9:10. Murovich quickly gathered the puck and made more moves than ‘Mae West’ beating Merriam to give Mt Lebanon the games first goal and a 1-0 lead. Murovich got loose again on the very next shift and was hauled down giving the Blue Devils a power play and a chance to go up two. Bethel Park had the best chance as Tim O’Brien nearly scored on a backhand shorthanded at 6:12 and then was stopped by Evan Baehr at 4:03. The third period was all Bethel Park as they applied good pressure early on outshooting Mt Lebanon 10-4. The best chance came as O’Brien was stoned on a backhand attempt at 7:51. The Blue Devils took a page out of Bethel’s book during the last five minutes blocking several shots and limiting the Hawks scoring chances. Conner McLean nearly tied the game on a tip with :26 seconds left which was gloved by Baehr. Bethel pulled the goalie for the extra attacker and nearly tied the game as Michael Diethorn’s backhand beat Evan Baehr cleanly just seconds after the games final buzzer giving the Blue Devils a heartstopping 1-0 victory over previously undefeated Bethel Park.

MEADVILLE - Special Report to PA Hockey provided by McDowell McDowell's Kaylan Rhoades had two goals and one assist to lead the Trojans to a hard fought 5 - 3 victory at Meadville. McDowell never trailed in the game, but never enjoyed more than a one goal lead in the high energy contest. Tony Michylak and Mark Skirzynski each chipped in with a goal and an assist for McDowell while Adam Haas rounded out the Trojan scoring. Meadville's Pat Leone struck twice while teammate Tyler Learn scored once. Trojan netminder John Cleary stopped 27 of 30 Bulldog shots while Meadville's rookie goaltender stopped 20 of 24 shots with an empty netter closing out the scoring for McDowell. Goals By Period: McDowell / 2 - 2 - 1 = 5 Meadville / 1 - 2 - 0 = 3

Bethel Park Martin Luther King Invitational January 14-17 2005 Friday Bethel Park 6 Hudson 0 Predators 4 North Allegheny 0 Sycamore 4 Lancaster 2 Orchard Park 9 Carmel 1 Saturday Bethel Park 5 Lancaster 0 Hudson 5 Sycamore 1 Carmel 5 North Allegheny 2 Predators 3 Orchard Park 1 Bethel Park 6 Sycamore 0 Lancaster 6 Hudson 5 Orchard Park 4 North Allegheny 1 - Shootout Predators 4 Carmel 3 Sunday Semi-Finals Bethel Park 1 Orchard Park 0 Predators 7 Hudson 1 Championship Predators 2 Bethel Park 0 Congratulations Predators AA ~ 2005 Bethel Park MLK Champions

Every February 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 bolted onto the scene as well as our Top 5 coaching performances[ Eastern and Western Pa]. Finally, if you are going to battle or want to build a company the question is who would you want to be on the Board of Directors of that entity....well our Top 10 Scholars are a start and I have a sneaking suspicion some of these kids are Ivy League material and the top 10 'Green Acres Moments in Pa Hockey ! Enjoy it ! Comments are welcome ! And if you don't like it go cry about it on PIHLWeb Discussion Forum ..... 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 available !