Seneca Valley Raiders

Montour 5 West Allegheny 1 CORAOPOLIS – Montour has involved in a lot of close one goal games over the past month including narrow losses to Canevin and Peters Twp. Head Coach Dan Siegel knows the rigors of the playoffs and will admit I am sure that the Spartans must overcome this to become a contender for this year’s Penguins Cup. With a 13-3-0 record, Team Montour sits in 3rd position in the seedings in a battle with the aforementioned Peters Twp and Canevin for a very important bye and home playoff berth. Having said all of this there will be a fundamental decision, which will have to be made for the playoffs about the goaltending rotation or lack thereof as I believe that starting freshman Matt Skoff, who I consider the ‘Next One’ for every playoff game will give the Spartans a chance for a long playoff run and combined with the better play of the team, they can avoid the situation that presented itself a year ago when Char Valley bounced the also third seeded Spartans from the Class AA playoffs. West Allegheny knows all about getting bounced from the playoffs a year ago as an Elizabeth Forward team that lost to them 8-1 came back and upset the Indians in round one. Coach Norm Cook’s club is 17-0-0 entering this game and talk about Penguins Cups and playoff runs is dancing through many people’s heads in West Allegheny. The Indians have balance on offense and possess a mixture of veteran players and youth that will make opposing coaches heads spin. Kyle Mortimer has been outstanding in between the pipes and will be a key to any playoff run. The Indians are working on capturing the # 1 seed and any losses or two heading into the schedule ahead which includes Montour, Peters Township and Pine Richland, could vault WA out of the top spot. Before a packed house at the Airport Ice Arena the teams took the ice with an air of electricity as students, fans, parent and bystanders of the ‘Concerned Citizens of West Allegheny’ and the always ‘Concerned Citizens of Montour’ less Frankie Vallie and the four Spartans, who anxiously awaited Limo Service, but not from Canevin’s Kenny Vance, who was at Mt Lebanon. The opening period started with a torrid pace from the outset and the Spartans struck first at 13:56 as Josh York took a cross ice pass from Zach Perry and buried it high over the glove hand side of Mortimer for a 1-0 lead for Team Montour. At 7:26, Ryne Savisky stripped the puck from the Spartan defense and was stopped on a great save by Matt Skoff. The freshman goaltender continued to keep the Indians off the board and made an unreal save on Tony Lutz, who had a wide open net but Skoff was able to extend and glove a potential tying goal and keep Montour on top 1-0 after one period. The Spartans started period two on the power play, but West Allegheny had a great chance to tie it as Tony Lutz was in on the breakaway at the 14 minute mark but Skoff challenged him and Lutz just missed. As things would go the Spartans way less than a minute later, Keith Kurelis intercepted a bad clearing attempt and found the open net past Mortimer at 13:04 high to the glove side and all the sudden Team Montour was up 2-0. The Spartans sensed a wounded animal and Zach Perry went for the jugular at 12:19, when Mortimer made a real nice save and the puck glanced off the post keeping the WA deficit at two and this could have been a key turning point as Montour took an undisciplined penalty after the whistle. The Spartans killed off that West A power play and the third time was a charm for Perry, as at 8:09 he walked out of the corner and fired a slap shot past the Indian goaltender erupting the Montour faithful and chasing Mortimer in favor of freshman Phil Sweet. The Indians stepped up their game late in the second period at finally was able to get on the board on the power play as Steve Sarachene would not be denied getting his own rebound and beating Skoff with 3:32 left to cut the Montour to 3-1. West Allegheny had plenty of time to go in this game and the firepower to come back in the third period, but Zach Perry sucked the wind out of any comeback aspirations as he took the opening faceoff and from just inside the blue line blasted a slapshot high to the stick side past Phil Sweet to make it 4-1 with 14:43 left in regulation. The Indians freshman goaltender foiled Perry’s hat trick bid on a breakaway at 12:42. Montour was able to play solid defense the rest of the way and Paul Ciotti capped it off with an empty netter with 23 seconds remaining to earn a thrilling 5-1 victory and knock West Allegheny from the ranks of the undefeated.