Seneca Valley Raiders

Canevin 4 Peters Twp 3 SOUTHPOINTE – When we last saw Peters Twp it was in the form of Peters 66, who were dropping an 8-4 decision to Kittanning. Coach Rick Tingle’s squad would have five more players present this evening for a tilt with Canevin tied with the Crusaders with 13-5-0 and 12-4-2 records coming into tonight’s game. Canevin had a great opportunity to pull ahead of Peters in the standings last Friday night, but dropped a 4-1 decision to Moon. At stake tonight is an opportunity to keep pace with Montour and capture the inside edge on the third seed in the upcoming playoffs, since both teams hold the tiebreaker over the Spartans by virtue of winning contests earlier in the season. Goaltending set the early tone as Canevin’s Josh Daley was stopped by Mike Mastracci at 12:34 and Peter’s Dustin Roux was stopped by Joey Ziemanski at 10:09. The Indians struck first as Jeff Hannan backhanded a backdoor pass from Gerry Raymond past the Canevin goaltender at 6:47. Less than a minute later, Brandon Tingle cashed in on a quick shot at 5:52 off a cross ice pass from Dustin Roux. Mastracci made a diving save on Josh Daley with 2:18 left in the opening period and Peters displayed great penalty killing on a 5 on 3 late in the first. On to the second period and both teams played an even period through the opening ten minutes. The Crusaders cut the lead with 2:47 left as Jason Rogerio scored on a slapshot that snuck by the stick side of Mike Mastracci to make it 2-1. Peters came right back 30 seconds later as Eric Windmueller converted a Dustin Roux pass to extend the lead to 3-1. Canevin’s Michael Darnely would not be denied as he was caught on the backcheck and fought it off by turning and wrsiting a shot past Mastracci to cut the lead to 3-2 heading to the ice cut. The Crusaders had several opportunities to tie the game at the 9 ½ minute mark but Mastracci was equal to the task. Canevin tied the game as Josh Daley scored on a rebound at 8:32 to make it a new hockey game at 3-3. With 6:14 to play Jason Rogerio got the puck at center ice and was in on the breakaway and beat Mastracci on the forehand to give the Crusaders a 4-3 lead. Canevin played hard in the final 6 minutes and Peters pulled the goalie but could not score and the Crusaders held on for a huge 4-3 win over Peters Twp.