Montour Spartans

War Memorial - Johnstown, PA. - Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by Quigley Hockey Club Quigley came out flying in the first period tonight, out shooting the Hilltoppers 15 to 4. The Spartan's Nate Dobson started off the scoring with a wrist shot past Pat Krumenacker, the Hilltopper net minder, off a nifty feed from Michael Conti from behind the net. Conti then broke in alone on Krumenacker, after receiving a great pass from Sean Wormald to score on a backhander making the score 2-0. Dobson closed out the scoring in the first period with a goal that caromed off a Westmont defender, 3-0 Spartans after one period. Westmont would answer midway through the second period with Westmont's Kevin Gleason setting up team mate Anthony Demarco for a beautiful one timer from just below the right face-off circle. The third period started right where the Hilltoppers left off in the second with unrelenting pressure. Quigley, with only eight skaters, was just hanging on. Kyle Harnish scored late in the period with an assist from Gleason to close the gap to one. Westmont out shot Quigley over the final two periods 29 - 17, but were denied by Quigley's goalie Kyle Milbert, making terrific saves from point blank range. Dobson recorded a hat trick by scoring the final goal of the game, an empty netter, with one second remaining.

INDIANA - Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by Indiana & Latrobe Hockey Club Indiana defeated Latrobe 5-1 Wednesday night at the Indiana Ice & Expo Center. Zach Damico led the scoring drive with a powerplay goal in the second period, and a short-handed goal in the third. Cory Mills, Michael Jack and John Ogden each added one goal while Jack and Mills also each had two assists for the night. Matt Mesaros gave Latrobe a 1-0 lead on a power play goal in the 1st period but Kevin Dougherty stopped the rest, stopping 13 of 14 shots, while Indiana out shot their opponent 34-14.

Hampton traveled to the Kirk S. Nevin Ice Arena in Greensburg on Monday, December 13, 2004 to take on Greater Latrobe in AA Varsity Ice Hockey action. Although the final 9 - 5 score would appear to be a lopsided Latrobe victory, both teams deserve credit for a hard played game. Hampton's Brian Goncar contributed a hat trick to help his team keep pace with Latrobe through the second period. However, Latrobe's Mike Kimmel and Matt Mesaros scored two goals each to stay a step ahead of Hampton. Additional Latrobe goals were scored by David Farah, Eric Gondosh, Brad Roth, Paul Simkovich and RJ Williams. Also, Roth, Matt Walker and Aaron Stitt respectively contributed four, three and two assists toward Latrobe's winning effort. Single Latrobe assists were recorded by Brendan Berkley, Farah, Kimmel and Williams. In addition to Goncar's hat trick, Pat Duffy and Dan Relihan tallied single goals for Hampton. Also, Duffy provided three assists while teammates Goncar, Brian Relihan, Adam Haller, Sean Mahaffey and Dan Relihan contributed one assist each. The oppossing Goalies virtually saw an equal number of shots. Hampton's Tim Papper stopped 26 of 35 shots and Latrobe's Justin Fontaine turned away the puck on 26 of 31 scoring attempts.

*****Game Summary provided exclusively to PA Hockey by Canon-McMillan Hockey***** BETHEL PARK - Canon-McMillan has traditionally been a mediocre team that ran in the middle of the AA pack. The most wins they had ever posted in a single season was 12, and 6 of their previous 10 seasons finished in records below .500. On the other hand, Peters Township is a perennial title contender, posting more than 12 wins in 7 of their past 8 seasons alone. They know what its like to play in big games. They know how it feels to be called #1. They know how to win against the top teams in the state. But now, so does Canon-McMillan. With a hard-fought 7-4 over Peters Township on Monday night, the Big Macs loudly stated their case for the #1 AA ranking in Pennsylvania. Peters Township was in that position coming in to the contest and weren't about to relinquish it without a fight. But when the dust settled, it was Canon Mac, behind a 6-goal explosion by forward Doug Stanton, that remained the only unbeaten AA team in the PIHL. Peters Township got on the board first with a power play goal from Dustin Roux less than 4 minutes in to the game. Jeff Hannan and Bryan Papciak got assists on the play, and it appeared that the Indians' mastery over the Big Macs might be continuing. An evenly played first period ended with the score evened at 1-1 when Stanton took a pass from Josh Tohey and got CM on the board with a goal from in tight with 2:06 to play. The second period belonged to Canon-McMillan right from the start. They began the period on a power play, and just 28 seconds in, Kyle Harnen took a lead pass from Nate Bohn and converted a 2-on-1 opportunity to put CM ahead, 2-1. Just 2:01 later, Stanton was sprung loose by Justin Cormack on another 2-on-1 down the left wing, and he buried a wrist shot to stretch the lead to 3-1. The hat trick was completed by Stanton 4:50 in to the second when yet another 2-on-1 break resulted in a slap shot to the lower right hand corner from the left wing. Canon-McMillan was suddenly ahead 4-1 in a game that everyone expected to be a nail-biter. Peters Township still had aspirations of keeping it close, however. A CM power play with 6:04 to play in the period turned out to be an opportunity for the Indians. A tenacious forecheck by Hannan led to a short-handed goal by Roux, his second of the night. With 5:02 left in the middle frame and the lead cut to 4-2, PT dug deep in an effort to pull within one. Peters was able to kill off the remainder of the power play, but a few seconds later, Eric Lang fed Stanton in the slot, and he fired a wrist shot past Justin Mahramas for his 4th goal of the game and a 5-3 lead for the Big Macs at the end of two. The Indians regrouped during the intermission and had the benefit of 1:20 of power play time to start the third. A slashing call against CM 50 seconds in to the period gave Peters 30 seconds of 5-on-3 play. With just 1 second of that left, Papciak fired a wrist shot in to the upper corner to cut the deficit back to 2. Hannan got the only assist on the goal, his 3rd helper of the game. Canon Mac was able to kill off the rest of the power play, but they couldn't end PT's momentum. Aaron Croft hit Chris Papciak streaking down the left side, who made a nifty move to the slot before feeding a backhand pass across the crease to George Hecht, who slammed the puck in to the open net. Peters Township now trailed by a single goal and the clock still showed 10:42. Stanton wasn't about to let his stellar performance end with a loss and responded by tucking home his 5th marker of the night just over a minute later. Cormack and Nick Cusolito had assists on the play, putting CM ahead by two again, 6-4. Stanton wasn't finished, though, and got behind the PT defense with a lead pass from Erik McKown. A few quick moves to the forehand pulled Mahramas to the left, then Stanton went to the backhand to slide home his whopping 6th goal of the game. With 4:14 left in the game, CM tightened up defensively to preserve the 7-4 victory, and goaltender Drew Stanton removed any hopes of another Peters comeback with a solid finish in net. Drew Stanton made 30 saves to earn his 7th win on the season, while Mahramas stopped 17 shots for Peters Township. The Big Macs now sit alone atop the AA South Division with a record of 9-0, but Peters is just 1.5 games back with a record of 7-1. Canon-McMillan looks to make their bid at the #1 ranking official by completing the week with a road game against South Park on Friday night. Peters Township plays the same South Park team in their next game, which doesn't come until next Monday.

DELMONT - The Plum Mustangs have been one of the surprise teams of Class AAA during the early part of the 2004-2005 campaign with a 5-1-1 record, good for first place in the North Division. Coach Stu Rulnick’s squad is coming off a hard fought 3-3 tie with McDowell in Erie and looking to continue their strong defensive play that has yielded just 14 goals in 7 games, which is among the best in Class AAA. Penn Trafford is also in first place in the East Division and has also only yielded 14 goals and to consider that half were given up in one game against Mt Lebanon, coach Todd Purvis has to be please with the defensive effort of his team. The Warriors were impressive in a battle for first place defeating rival Franklin Regional 6-1 in their last outing, but the victory proved costly as a couple of key players drew suspensions during a late game scuffle with their divisional rivals. While Plum was missing one of its leading scorers Jon Smith, the Warriors suspensions from their previous game against Franklin Regional made absent Chris Cerutti and Joe Meehan, along with Nick Whaley who was just plain absent. Plum carried the play in the 1st Period outshooting PT 10-5 and missed a golden opportunity on their first power play at 12:12 when Mike Renna had a wide open net and hit the post. The Mustangs would strike first at 10:56 as Phil Mains blazing wrist shot found the upper corner past Joel Sterniak for a power play goal and a 1-0 lead. At 7:43 with Plum shorthanded, Mains stood up a PT forward at blueline and sent Giunta in on breakaway SH and stopped by Sterniak with a leg save. On to the 2nd Period and Penn Trafford would tie the game when at 14:32 Kyle Sidle burst down the off wing and roofed a wrist shot high over the glove side of Brandon King to tie the game at one apiece. Plum picked up their game at this point, but could not beat Sterniak with several good chances, the best coming as Matt Giunta was stopped on another breakaway stopped by Sterniak at 13:20. The action late in the period would have a huge impact in the outcome of this contest as with :35 left, Kyle Sidle intercepted pass in neutral zone and burst into zone on breakaway and Brandon King made nice stop. Plum would answer as with just :12 on the clock Phil Mains scored on his own rebound after great save by Sterniak after feed by Giunta to slot and Plum took a 2-1 to the locker room for the ice cut. The Mustangs would continue their strong play in the third period as Joel Sterniak made a sprawling save on Ginuta point blank at 8:30 to keep it a one goal game. Plum continued to apply the pressure on PT and with 2:21 left & 1:31 in PP for Plum, the Mustangs would just need to kill the clock. The icing on the cake came at 1:41 when Ben Colusmo found a loose puck in front and chipped it past Sterniak after nice play by David Dincau to move puck in front through traffic to make the final score 3-1 in favor of the Mustangs in a battle of division leaders.