Montour Spartans

VALENCIA - *****Game Summary provided exclusively to PA Hockey by Canon-McMillan Hockey***** The Canon-McMillan Big Macs got an unexpected test from the Hampton Talbots on Sunday night but remained steady to come away with a 7-5 win. The victory kept the 2nd-ranked Big Macs' unblemished record in tact at 6-0, but the 2-goal margin was their closest of the season. The Talbots fell to 1-7 on the year despite a 32-save effort by goaltender Tim Pappert. The Talbots struck first just 1:53 in to the opening period when Dan Relihan found a loose puck at the side of the crease and tucked it in to the CM net. Pat Duffy and Brian Goncar created the scramble in front and were credited with assists on the play. Canon Mac would even the score just over 2 minutes later when Doug Stanton tallied his first of the night with an assist from Eric Lang. The tied score only lasted 29 seconds, however, as Talbot winger Dan Flory beat CM goaltender John McFalls for a 2-1 lead. McFalls, who was playing in his first Varsity game, boarded up the nets from that point, making 14 saves in the first period alone. That gave the Big Macs an opportunity to build some momentum. Stanton slammed home a loose puck in front of the Hampton net at 8:23 after chances by Jesse Patnesky and Jake Borish to tie the game at 2. Back-to-back penalties by Hampton late in the period put all the momentum in Canon-McMillan's favor, and they would seize the opportunity. Nate Bohn took a feed from Stanton and blasted a slap shot by Pappert to notch a 5-on-3 power play tally at 2:45. Bohn then returned the favor and assisted on a power play goal by Stanton 38 seconds later. Lang also got an assist on the play, and the Big Macs claimed a 4-2 lead after one period of play. The scoreboard would remain active in the second period, but it was the penalty clock doing a majority of the work. Six penalties were handed out in the period, and it wasn't until Duffy scored on a low wrister with 1:40 left that the score would change. Pappert was the star of the period, though, turning away all 13 shots he faced to keep the Talbots within a goal. The 1-goal deficit was erased when Goncar beat McFalls to the glove-hand corner on a power play breakaway at 11:45. Canon Mac restored their lead when sophomore forward Corey Griffith put his own shot in to the top shelf for a 5-4 lead for the visitors. It was Crazy Eights when #8 Goncar responded to #8 Griffith's goal with a shot from the slot that beat McFalls at 8:49. Talbot forward Matt Celin fired the puck in to the Canon-McMillan zone, and the puck caromed off the end boards and straight out to a streaking Goncar for the goal. With the score deadlocked, Hampton was driving hard to the Canon Mac net to accomplish the upset, but it was a drive from the point by Lang that put the Big Macs ahead for good at 4:27. Nick Cusolito and Erik McKown got assists on the goal. Stanton sealed the deal by taking the puck end-to-end for an empty net goal with 14 seconds left. The goal was Stanton's 4th of the night and team-leading 11th of the season. He would finish the game with 5 points, while Lang had 3 assists to go with this game-winning goal. Relihan also had a goal and 3 assists for Hampton, while Celin finished the game with 3 assists to his credit. McFalls got his first career win by making 27 saves. After a 12-day lay off prior to this game, Canon-McMillan doesn't get much rest afterwards since they return home to face Bishop Canevin on Monday night. The Big Macs also play at 3rd-ranked West Allegheny in a battle of current unbeatens on Thursday night. Hampton gets the rest of the week off before traveling to face Greater Latrobe next Monday night.

DELMONT – Gateway had high aspirations coming into the 2004-2005 season, but coach Lou Biancanello was cautiously optimistic, knowing some of the personalities on his squad. The Gator coach and assistant Ray ‘the Cornerman’ Leith, along with Cody Moy and Michael DiLorenzo, would be on the sidelines for their game against Bethel Park after a less than stellar effort in a 2-0 win over Hempfield, in which Gateway took a mountain of penalties resulting in the shorthanded team to face an undefeated Bethel Park team. Dave Scott would be behind the Gator bench and the team would face a true test of character against the Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranked team. Bethel Park is back and if there is anyone who could write a book on character it probably would be Jim McVay, who spent the entire season last year defending his job and finally seems to have a little peace behind the bench. The Blackhawks have been putting their effort on the ice and are undefeated through the seasons first quarter and look to be a Penguins Cup contender. As usual under McVay, BP has a disciplined squad with smothering defense and relentless forechecking to force teams into mistakes and Blackhawk goals. So the first period as one might expect was all Bethel Park as they outshot Gateway 25-0 and Blackhawk goaltender was coming out to play every icing like a defenseman to keep the pressure and the momentum against Gateway. What was tremendous in the opening period was Gator goaltender John Michael Dominick, who stopped everything but the kitchen sink until with just 49 seconds left in the opening period, Conner McLean broke the ice for a 1-0 BP lead. On to the second period and Gateway started to wake up offensively mounting 8 shots on BP, while the Hawks had 11. At 5:05 of the 2nd, Bethel Park’s goaltender Bryce Merriam took a penalty prompting coach McVay to pull him and replace him with Rick McLuckie and then took a bench minor to put Gateway on a 5 on 3 power play. The Gators would capitalize as Craig Leith buried a slapshot over the stick side of McLuckie to tie the score at one apiece at 4:22. Just seven seconds later, Gateway’s Mark Wroblewski got a rare breakaway behind the Hawk defense, but could not beat McLuckie. Bethel Park found the magic again late in the period as McLean scored high to the stick side past Dominick to help BP ragin the lead at 2-1 with 45 seconds remaining in the middle period. Bethel Park used the break to regroup and came out and dominated the third period with a 19-3 shot advantage and 55-11 for the night. The Hawks added two more goals at 9:59 by Tim O’Brien and 3:09 by Brian McGinty to secure a 4-1 victory at the Center Ice Arena.

CONNELLSVILLE - Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by Carrick Hockey Carrick got a first period goal by Chris Larkin while limiting C'ville to just 6 first period shots on Carrick goaltender, Jon Rethage. The second period saw soph. Larkin net his second goal while jr. forward Justin Deery and Nick Kelly added a goal each. At the ice cut it was 4-0 in favor of the Cougars. Sr. Pat Morgan notched his only goal of the contest at the 9:07 mark while Kelly added Carrick's final goal. Rethage comleted his second shut out in a row with a 20 save performance. The defense, seniors Walter Meuhlbauer, George Demko, and Tim Tagmeyer, were joined by Gary Delehenty (jr) and Ryan Koch (jr) in limited the Falcons to just a handful of solid scoring opportunities. Carrick is now 6-1 on the season and faces the undefeated Penn Hills Indians next Thursday at Rostraver. Penn Hills defeated Carrick 5-4 in the first game of the season. Carrick got a first period goal by Chris Larkin while limiting C'ville to just 6 first period shots on Carrick goaltender, Jon Rethage. The second period saw soph. Larkin net his second goal while jr. forward Justin Deery and Nick Kelly added a goal each. At the ice cut it was 4-0 in favor of the Cougars. Sr. Pat Morgan notched his only goal of the contest at the 9:07 mark while Kelly added Carrick's final goal. Rethage comleted his second shut out in a row with a 20 save performance. The defense, seniors Walter Meuhlbauer, George Demko, and Tim Tagmeyer, were joined by Gary Delehenty (jr) and Ryan Koch (jr) in limited the Falcons to just a handful of solid scoring opportunities. Carrick is now 6-1 on the season and faces the undefeated Penn Hills Indians next Thursday at Rostraver. Penn Hills defeated Carrick 5-4 in the first game of the season.

The Indiana High School Varsity Ice Hockey team pulled off a victory over Greensburg Central Catholic Thursday night defeating them 3-2 at the Kirk Nevin Ice Arena. Troy Gaydosh led off the scoring with a goal in the first period, with Steven Geisel in the second, and Joe Appolonia in the third. Michael Jack, Cory Mills, Lance Lewandowski, Geisel, and Gaydosh provided assists. Mike Kennedy provided goatending duties stopping 18 of 20 shots. Indiana now 5-1-1 returns home next facing against Kittanning at the Indiana Ice & Expo Center. Scoring Indiana 1-1-1 = 3 Greensburg CC 1-1-0 = 2 Greensburg CC Goaltender: Evan Humanics Shots on goal 4/6/6=16 Saves=13 Scoring/Assists Evan George/John Kennedy, David Ulishney 1ST 12:34 Evan George/John Kennedy 2ND 3:42 Visiting: Indiana Goaltender: Mike Kennedy Shots on goal 6/7/7=20 Saves=18 Scoring/Assists Troy Gaydosh/Mike Jack, Steven Geisel 1ST 3:43 Geisel/Lance Lewandowski, Gaydosh 2ND 11:35 Joe Appolonia/Cory Mills 3RD 3:39

HARMARVILLE – Central Catholic coach Kevin Zielmanski has made it no secret that this years team is very young and in a rebuilding mode, but some people’s definition of re-building is different than other and the young Vikings have looked very proficient early in the season with so many new faces. Another big test for CC would come in the form of Upper St Clair, who has balanced scoring and efficient defense and goaltending. Upper St Clair has had some good points and bad in the season’s first quarter under new coach John Harford and is looking to work toward consistency heading into December to make a run at the Penguins Cup. The Panthers are the only team to defeat North Allegheny, but also lost two close contests to McDowell [3-2] and Mt Lebanon [3-1 earlier this week]. CC came out storming on the opening shift and capitalized as C.J. Burke banged home a bouncing puck past Kevin Gorder for a 1-0 lead at 14:50. After Central registered the games first 8 shots, USC’s first opportunity apparently tied the game at 6:48, but the goal was pushed in with a glove and the Vikings maintain a one-goal advantage. The Panthers would get the equalizer as Zack Crockett picked up a loose puck in the slot and fired a snapshot high over the glove side of Bryan Adamczak to tie the game at 1:29. On to the second period and Central regained the lead as Ryan Gebler scored on a rebound low on the ice at 13:38. USC tied it as Brian Gorder scored through the 5-hole after some nice work by linemates Jake Klancher and Ian Joyce, who cycled with great control and passing to set up the goal at 11:45. Back came the Vikings to regain the lead as Ricky Monti picked up the garbage in front and deposited behind Kevin Gorder at 7:52 for a 3-2 CC lead. Gorder robbed CC’s Andy Hanno from point blank range at 3:32 and kept the lead at one goal. As we sat and watched USC dismantle the Central defense in the third period, we joked that maybe longtime Panther coach R.T. Ford gave a Knute Rocke speech during the intermission, but as it turns out the usually mild mannered coach Harford delivered an effective message to the troops it worked ! The Panthers scored at 14:15 as Brian Gorder blistered a quick shot past Adamczak to tie the game at three apiece. Then after killing a Central Catholic power play, USC went to work as Jake Klancher parted the CC defense and scored on the backhand for the Panthers first lead at 10:46. Just 14 seconds later, it was Mike Penkrot who took advantage of a quick opening off the face-off and made it 5-3 at 10:32. Penkrot was not finished as he beat the CC goaltender low on the stick side at 10:04 to give USC a 6-3 lead with three goals in under a minute. Ian Joyce closed out the scoring with 1:19 remaining and USC captured an impressive 7-3 win at the Harmarville USA rink.