Seneca Valley Raiders

CRANBERRY ~ Special Report provided by the Ambridge Hockey Club Phil Trombetta and Tom DiDonato scored the Pine Richland goals in the first period to take the lead. Then the 2nd and 3rd periods were dominated by Ambridge scoring 5 goals--each by different players. Chas Cvitkovic led all with a goal and 3 assists. Chas's empty net goal with 1:36 remaining on the clock put the finishing touches on any chances Pine Richland had to come back. Pine did manage to score another goal with 1:22 remaining, but then Bryan Johnston scored another empty net goal with 21 seconds on the clock to end the game for the Bridgers. Jason Morgan, Ambridge goalie, faced 23 shots on goal. Tom Zajac faced 25 shots for Pine Richland.

As we have done the past seven years, Pa Hockey will be providing the Post Gazette Rankings every Monday beginning in late November. In addition, you can get a sneak preview of those rankings, the complete Western Pa Hockey standings and PA Hockey Elite 8 rankings every Saturday Morning. Only on Pa Hockey ! FINAL STANDINGS ~ Class AAA,AA,A and Open FINAL "If the Penguins Cup Playoffs Started Today" FINAL Pittsburgh Post Gazette Top 5 Rankings FINAL PA Hockey Elite 8 Rankings

HARMARVILLE – While a lot of things change in Interscholastic Hockey, some things remain the same over the years. Back CC Head Coach Kevin Zielmanski’s first year in 1998, Central Catholic and Plum met in the WPIHL Class AAA Championship best of 3 series before the best high school hockey crowd ever to witness a game I can remember [with the 1996 Bethel Park-Meadville game at Bethel BladeRunners a close second]. Plum won the championship on a storybook goal by R.J. Umberger in the overtime of the mini-game after three consecutive 2-2 ties between the teams. For former Plum Mustang Sean Keller, now and assistant to Stu Rulnick, the CC-Plum rivalry and that series in particular are pretty memorable. For the current Mustangs and Vikings players and fans, fresh in their minds is last year’s 3-2 CC victory in the games final minute, which sent the Vikings on a great 2nd half run to the Penguins Cup semi-finals and sent Plum into a 2nd half of the season tailspin. So Plum and Central Catholic…a fitting way to start the 2004 –2005 season at the BladeRunners Harmarville USA rink before a very nice crowd for both teams of well over 600. The first period of this contest was pretty close checking and the Vikings would hold a slim shot advantage at 8-6, with their best chance coming as Andy Hanno set up Glenn Sherwin with a nice pass, but the Mustangs Brandon King was equal to the task to make the save. Plum went on the power play at 2:46, which was quickly erased by a call against Plum at 2:23 and the opening period remained scoreless. On to the second and Plum cashed in on an odd man break as Jonathon Smith set up David Dincau with a give and go and the speedy Plum forward scored on a tap-in past Brian Adamczak for a 1-0 lead at 11:26. The Mustangs went on the power play at 8:57 and this time it would be defenseman Phil Mains, who took a Mike Renna pass, drove to the net and scored on his own rebound to make it 2-0 at 7:27 and gave the Mustang fans a little ‘frisk me in you can’ celebration on the far boards. The Vikings would strike back and cut the lead to 2-1 as C.J. Stellabotte scored on the backhand from just in front of Brandon King at 2:43 of the 2nd. Plum’s Jonathon Smith beat the CC defense at 13:55 and buried a wrist shot up under the crossbar past Adamczak to give the Mustangs a big insurance goal. Speedy Matt Giunta added another Plum tally at 9:11 and Brandon King shut the door the rest of the way, stopping the only shot of the third period for Central Catholic at 4:47 on a nice leg save of a shot from Doug Dietrich and the Mustangs opened up with an impressive 4-1 victory on the road.

INDIANA - Special Report provided by the Indiana Hockey Club The Indiana High School Varsity Ice Hockey team defeated Montour 5-4 in overtime tonight for their season opener at the Indiana Ice & Expo Center. The Indians led off the scoring effort with four goals by Joe Appolonia, Zach Damico, Troy Gaydosh, and Cory Mills. Nick Onuscheck had the game winning score with 1:39 on the clock in sudden death overtime. Mills, Onuscheck, Damico, Michael Jack, Lance Lewandowski, Abhi Nandi, and TJ George provided assists. Mike Kennedy recorded the save with 19 of 23 shots. Indiana outshot their opponent 25-23. The Indians look to the road next week where they will face Moon H.S. at the Airport Ice Rink on Tuesday, November 9th. Goaltender: Mike Mentch Total shots faced/saves 23/19 Scoring/Assists Joe Appolonia/Cory Mills Period: 1 Time: 2:10 Zach Damico/Nick Onuscheck, Mike Jack 2 9:15 Troy Gaydosh/Lance Lewandowski, Abhi Nandi 2 4:52 Cory Mills/TJ George 2 2:34 Nick Onuscheck/Zach Damico OT 3:21 Goaltenders: Nick Gialloreto Aaron Williams Total shots faced/saves 25/20 Scoring/Assists Brian Dugan/Mario Panucci (powerplay) Period: 3 Time: 12:56 Brian Dugan/Mario Panucci, Aaron Siegel 3 6:52 Ross Polk/Zach Perry, Aaron Siegel (powerplay) 3 3:17 Panucci/Kevin Bishop 3 2:36

KITTANNING – One long time observer has an analysis of Butler’s excellent season in 2003-2004 and it went something like this….. the Golden Toronadoes started last season like a house of fire and went undefeated through the first 5 or so games and then they woke up and said “ oh, we are Butler and we can’t be that good”. Well, folks, Butler was a very good team last year and nearly pulled off a major upset at Meadville to move onto the Penguins Cup semi-finals for the first time in their history. The unfortunate thing is that the Golden Toronadoes will need to replace goaltender Bucky Holt to try to duplicate last season’s performance. North Allegheny has been to the Penguins Cup playoffs each of the past six seasons and have been knocking on the final 4 door and waiting for it to open, which it has happened only once in 2000, which resulted in a quarterfinal loss to Cathedral Prep at Rostraver. Head coach Tom ‘Benito’ Pandolfo wants to be part of the process and the Tigers are determined to pace themselves to finish the season rather than start fast and fade. An opening night loss to Upper St Clair put NA at 0-1-0 and the Tigers were looking to rebound against Butler to get in the win column. The first period was a pretty close checking affair with a couple of power play chances for both teams. North Allegheny struck first as Garrett Waldschmidt scored on a wrist shot upstairs at 9:52 for the games first tally. On to the second and the Tigers would score early and often as newcomer Alan Halapin re-directed a Brandon Lied pass at 14:28 for a 2-0 NA lead. Butler would answer as Spencer Crouse took a clean faceoff win from Greg Rogerson and blistered a shot through traffic to cu the lead to 2-1 at 12:12. NA would come back in the middle of the period and break this one wide open as Garrett Waldschmidt [7:16], Wes Waldschmidt [7:03] and Matt Pekins [:20] scored to extend the Tiger lead to 5-1 after two periods. North Allegheny would turn this one into a rout as Chris Gilson, Ian McGlumphey, Wes Waldschmidt and Matt Zrebiec would add goals in the 3rd and Ryan Rodgers scored for Butler for a 9-2 North Allegheny pasting to even the record at 1-1-0 for the Tigers.