Seneca Valley Raiders

NEVILLE ISLAND ~ North Hills coach Dave Ciotti has witnessed a lot in his first year as coach of North Hills and his team has had its shares of ups and downs. The steady force of Casey Dudt-Mulzet has kept the Indians in games, where their lack of offense has really hindered NH at times. North Hills looked to make up some ground on Shaler after dropping a heartbreaker to Erie Cathedral Prep on Tuesday night. Long time Shaler skipper Ron Steedle has seen just about everything in 20+ years of Interscholastic Hockey including his team posting 16 goals against Woodland Hills Monday, which was a welcome break for the Titans, who have played in five one-goal games in their first eight which will but some mileage on any coach including this one. So Steedle and his band of merry men, including Shaler teacher Dennis ‘the Drillmaster’ Iwanchuk, who hails from Alberta [that’s in Canada], Mike Butler [former Shaler star], Doug Hastings [who was an outstanding goaltender for the Titans in the 90’s] and yours truly, were in the hallway of Neville Island Sports Center singing ‘All I want for Christmas is a rebound goal, a rebound goal, a rebound goal and hopefully in the third period….if that’s not asking for much Santa ? The game began with North Hills dominating play and outshooting Shaler 9-2 in the opening period. Ben Burns was sharp stopping all nine shots in a quick and penalty free first. On to the second and the Titans picked up their game and pelted Casey Dudt-Mulzet with nine shots but to no avail, the best chance coming as Tommy Carter just missed from in front. The game would be a 0-0 stalemate entering the third period with only three penalties including a phantom even up call at the end of the second on Carter, who was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for getting hauled down….was that # 9 or # 59….well Carter is # 8 and the kid never opens his mouth or questions anything…so Shaler was robbed of a chance to start the third period with a power play. The final period saw Shaler really pick up the pace outshooting North Hills 11-4, but as it seems to happen the Indians capitalize on a Shaler mistake in its own end. A fail clearing attempt by the Titans found its way on to the stick of Chris Oppenlander, who fired a shot through traffic and over the shoulder of Ben Burns with 5:33 to play and give North Hills a 1-0, which had to give coach Ciotti a pretty good feeling. Shaler kept on coming and finally Matt Yost found the net as he took a great feed from Josh Bauer and buried a wrist shot high over the glove hand of Dudt-Mulzet to tie the game with just 2:01 remaining at one apiece. The Titans had several chances in regulation and into the overtime with a 5-1 shot advantage but Dudt-Mulzet stopped or forced bad shots on chances for Graham Papciak, Tommy Carter, Matt Yost and P.J. Domski to earned a hard fought well played 1-1 tie at Island Sports Center.