Butler Toronadoes

BEAVER ~ Deer Lakes and Blackhawk met twice this season and both affairs were high scoring as the Lancers won the 1st meeting 6-5 in December and the Cougars came back to win an 11-8 scoring festival in February. So what came so close a year ago to be a first round tiebreaker game [as Blackhawk and Deer Lakes were a point apart in 2001-2002 in the final standings], has renewed into a rivalry of sorts as the teams would open the playoffs as an 8th and 9th seeds. Blackhawk [11-7-3] has been Class A’s hottest team in February with wins over Quaker Valley and Mars under their belt and a near win against Westmont Hilltop in Johnstown. Head Coach Dave Stepanian’s group is a sleeper in this year’s Penguin Cup Playoffs, but would need to get by Deer Lakes to make some real noise in the playoffs. The return of goaltender John Fitzgerald has sparked the Cougars on their late season run as they are making their first playoff appearance since 1998. Deer Lakes [13-9-0] on the other hand has played well late in the season with a big win over Somerset and a tight game against rival Mars losing 5-3. Coach Al Palowski has been preaching defense and it seems the team is starting to listen. Goaltender Roman Drienovsky has improved to a point where the Lancers may be a upstart team should it get by Blackhawk. As we settled into our assigned and numbered seat in the beautifully remodeled Beaver Arena at Brady’s Run Park we were greeted by a vocal student section of Blackhawk fans as a big crowd was on hand for this playoff game. Palowski and Stepanian opened the game in a chess match of line matching in the first period. Fitzgerald made a nice stop on DiSanti at 14:04 and McIntyre at 5:00 on a shorthanded situation to keep Deer Lakes off the board. At 3:53 of the 1st, Sam Kristian spotted freshman Jake Polas alone, who beat Drienovsky to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead in a very uncharacteristic defensive first period. In the second period, the Cougars tried to extend the lead, but Travis Stoll was stopped point blank and the score remained 1-0. Then the Lancers got their offense rolling as Andrea Backstrom buried a wrist shot upstairs past Fitzgerald high to the glove side to tie the game at 12:02. Matt DiSanti and Sean McIntyre got into the act as they just missed on a 2 on 1 at 11:19. The same two combined on the next shift as DiSanti found McIntyre behind the Blackhawk defense and McIntyre beat Fitzgerald on the backhand at 8:58 to give the Lancers a 2-1 lead. The game opened up at this point as Deer Lakes scored again as Jonas Eliasson went high to the glove side at 4:30 and all the sudden the Lancers had a 3-1 lead. Deer Lakes went on a 5 on 3 power play late in the second and McIntyre scored with just 47 seconds left to give DL a 4-1 into the locker room. Blackhawk came out flying in the third period and Jake Polas scored a very important goal at 14:10 as he found the five hole. Drienovsky made great save on Matt Stepanian from right in front at 13:41 as Blackhawk continued to apply the pressure. When you pressure, sometimes you create odd man breaks at the other end and Backstrom and Eliasson combined on a great passing play to give Deer Lakes a huge insurance goal at 9:06. Blackhawk was not done yet as Mike Wylie scored on a sneaky wrister at 7:08 and Polas completed the hat trick on a power play goal at 4:51 to pull the Cougars back within one at 4:51. Deer Lakes played a little too conservative late and Polas almost beat three Lancer defenders at 1:48, but his attempt just went wide. Blackhwk went on the power play with under a minute to play creating a 6 on 4 with the goalie pulled and McIntyre found that empty net with 41 ticks left from 165 feet and the score now read 6-4. Travis Stoll came right back just 8 seconds after the faceoff with a PPG upstairs past Drienovsky and the Cougars were back within one 6-5. This would be Deer Lakes night as Andreas Backstrom score an empty netter and the Lancer would move on 7-5 to round two in a wild finish.