Seneca Valley Raiders

HARMARVILLE – Central Catholic coach Kevin Zielmanski has been preaching to his defensemen to play a little more conservatively over the past month of the regular season. The ability of the Vikings to play simple hockey and let their talented group of forwards decide their fate is a pretty good strategy, but those talented forwards would have to move the puck to their teammates to be effective and score goals. In the opening round victory over McDowell, CC did just that scoring 6 goals on route to a 6-2 win. North Allegheny, on the other hand, is still working on moving to the next level with their program. If you ask Tom Pandolfo what that means, he will probably cite the environment which is now acceptable to be a North Allegheny hockey player, which he has done a marvelous job with across the board and secondly, and more importantly, understanding the process of the five game grind necessary to win the ultimate goal, a Class AAA Pennsylvania State Championship. The intangible in all of this is that close games are won and lost sometimes by a good or bad bounce, a show of discipline or undiscipline or the balance of momentum in a game. NA and Central split their two meetings, with the Tigers defeating the Vikings in the Central Catholic Invitational 4-2 and Central returning the favor a week or so later in the regular season 4-1. North Allegheny was the aggressor in the opening minutes, but was whistled for an undisciplined retaliation penalty at 12:41. With the Vikings on the power play, Chris Urso had a golden opportunity to give CC the lead, but Jeff Kristan made a diving save at 12:27. Joe Smarto had a shorthanded opportunity at 11:28, as Russ Hefner wandered out of his crease, leaving a wide open net for Smarto, but the usually sure handed NA forward watched as his shot fluttered wide and the game remained scoreless. As it always seem to happen, the Vikings stuck shortly thereafter, as Matt Grabowski found a streaking Eddie Martin behind the Tiger defense And Martin buried a wrist shot low to the glove side at 11:08 for a 1-0 Central lead. The game remained a slim one goal advantage for the Vikings and stay that way as Jeff Kristan made a nice glove save on Martin at 10:27 of the 2nd period. Then it was NA’s chance as Billy Weiler walked the puck through the slot and chipped over Russ Hefner and looked like a tie game, but it had a little too much English on it and made a wild right bounce just wide of the open net… welcome to the school of playoff bad bounces 101. Weiler would get a second chance at 5:56 as he gathered a rebound of a Matt Zrebiec shot and beat Russ Hefner and tie the game at one apiece. Central tried to regained the lead as Chris Urso made a nifty move after a great pas by Bill Freyvogal, but the shot sailed just wide at 4:43. The playoffs are sometimes about players seizing the opportunity to change the momentum of the game. Matt Urso found a loose puck along the far boards courtesy of Billy Connelly and walked it to the net and beat Kristan on the forehand with just 6 seconds left in the second period to give Central a big goal and the lead 2-1 at the end of two. North Allegheny had several chances in the third period but Russ Hefner came up big with a glove save on Bryan Maloney at 6:30 and a stop on Joe Smarto in traffic with 4:52 left in regulation. Central would hold on and for the 6th time in seven years the Vikings will face Meadville, where their season started in November and hopes to continue next Wednesday at the Mellon Arena.