Butler Toronadoes

HARMARVILLE - North Allegheny 6 Shaler 5 - A battle of two long time AAA rivals took place in the St Margarets Semi-Finals as Shaler and NA locked horns in a battle of the last two champions of the Fall FaceOff, as the Tigers [defending 2001 champs] and Titans [2000 champs]. The upstart Titans came out smokin in the first period and took advantage of their opportunities with two power play goals from Justin Thomas. NA killed off the third power play and caught Shaler napping as Brian Maloney scored a huge goal with just 23 seconds left to cut the Shaler lead to 2-1. On to the 2nd period and Thomas completed the hat trick to give the Titans a 3-1 lead. But Shaler got a little sloppy in their own end and Maloney scored two goals in ten seconds to tie the game at 3-3 ten minutes into the middle period. Shaler answered a minute later as Chris Szczpinski drill home a shot from the right circle to give the Titans the lead 4-3. After the teams traded goals, NA's Tim Ward found Brandon Lied in the slot to tie the game at the 6:28 mark of the third period. Matt Zrebiac put the Tigers on top for the first time on the evening and NA held on for a hard fought 6-5 victory. Franklin Regional 7 Fox Chapel 3 As rivalries go, another big St Margarets tradition involve Franklin and Fox Chapel, who met in the 1997 and 1998 Fall Face Off finals, with the Foxes coming with the championship both times. In a back and forth affair, the Panthers and the Foxes battled to a 3-3 tie wehn Pat King scored seven seconds into the third period. Franklin Regional regain the lead as Mike Roth tallied a minute and a half later to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead. Then a bounce of good fortune off Roths skate at the half way point of the final period found its way past Todd Hendry and FR was now up 5-3. Jimmy Daugherty added a big insurance goal just 24 seconds later as Franklin added an empty netter to march on to the St Margarets final. The win sets up a final between NA and Franklin Regional, which will be a rematch of the memorable first round double overtime thriller of the 2002 playoffs in March, when the Tigers beat the Panthers. It should be a great matchup.