Seneca Valley Raiders

Greensburg CC 2 Indiana 1 (OT) GREENSBURG - Greensburg CC (12-7-2) and Indiana (11-8-2) entered the opening round of the 2006 Penguins Cup playoffs going in different directions. Indiana is fresh off of a 4-2 win over defending State Champions Peters Twp, while the Centurians had to beat the clock in the final minute to defeat a relatively weak Beaver team. GCC has been playing the stretch drive with just 12 skaters and while that means a lot to some, head coach Bill Bucholtz is hoping his club can find the playoff magic. Indiana, on the other hand, after a slow start to the season has played well at times and beaten some good teams including Canevin, Peters and Thomas Jefferson. For head coach Dom Glavech, he is hoping for the Indians to return to the Penguins Cup semis for the 3rd consecutive year. Indiana opened the scoring at 11:03 of the opening period as Jay Pettina walked between the circles and beat Ryan Homanics on a backhand to make it 1-0. Greensburg CC outshot the Indians 12-9 in the opening period but Mike Kennedy made several nice saves to keep the Centurians off the board. Ryan Homanics made a terrific stop on a 3 on 1 at 14:21 as Indiana looked to take a two goal lead. Indiana went on the power play at 2:04 of the second and appeared to score but the goal was waved off due to directing the puck in with the skate. In the third period, the game turned into a goaltending dual between Mike Kennedy of Indiana and Ryan Homanics of GCC. After Kennedy stone the Centurians on the power play early in the third, Homanics made a great save on Joe Appolonia on a breakaway at 10:42. With 9:10 remaining in regulation, Nick Vukmaravich scored on a rebound beating Mike Kennedy to tie the game at one apiece. The Centurians had the better of the play with a little over 6 minutes to go playing desperate hockey, but Kennedy made several nice saves. So this game entered the final three minutes deadlocked and heading for overtime. One mistake, one chance is all it would take to end it. Ryan Homanics stopped Lance Lewandowski and Steven Geisel on the rebound in the final seconds. On to overtime we went in a classic game with terrific goaltending,which continued in the extra period as Kennedy made three point blank save on Todd Kacin rom between the circles and twice on Evan George from in close. With 5:43 remaining in OT, Steven Geisel’s wrist shot slithered just wide of the post. Then it was Marc Perez who found a loose puck on a rebound and lofted a backhand over a fallen Mike Kennedy into the net to give the Centurians a heartstopping 2-1 overtime victory on GCC’s 36th shot to 30 for Indiana.