Butler Toronadoes

NA edges Plum in a thriller in 4 OT ! Championship North Allegheny 2 Plum 1 [4 OT] Plum enters the 2003-2004 season with lots of hope after an excellent 2002-2003 season under fourth year coach Stu Relnick. The Mustangs have an excellent balance of horses and role players. What has plagued the team in the past to getting to the promised land is the same that many other teams with promises of Penguins Cup dancing in their heads have, not enough horses. Plum will need Sergio Somma and Ian Beitler, who both attend Plum and are not playing for the team right now, if it wishes to entertain an opportunity to join the mix of Meadville, Mt Lebanon and Central Catholic as Penguins Cup contenders [somebody needs to fundraise some money to help this situation]. The Mustangs defeated Shaler 5-1 and a very good Fox Chapel squad 4-2 to reach the Fall-Face Off Finals for the first time to face a very deep and balanced North Allegheny team. North Allegheny, on the other hand, is a veteran of four Fall Face Off Finals in the past five years, defeating Hampton in 2001, while falling to Franklin Regional in 2002 and Seneca Valley in 1999. The Tigers have never had a problem starting well at the beginning of the season, their challenge is to be there in the end. New head coach Tom Pandolfo know this and has committed NA to being in great physical condition….thus far knock on wood, they look in excellent shape and displayed that in opening victories over North Hills 5-0 and defending Penguins Cup finalist Franklin Regional 6-1. The prime example is captain Bryan Maloney, who looks more like a Greyhound than a Bulldog as the Tigers captain, who has shed some pounds and picked up some quickness under coach Pandolfo’s early season regime. The first period was pretty even with North Allegheny having an advantage of shots 10-8, but J.P Balson made several nice stops to keep the Tigers off the board. NA was whistled for a penalty with a little over 6 ½ minutes left in the opening period to put the Mustangs on the power play. Enter Travis Senchur, who took a Ryan Griffin and Phil Mains exchange and ripped it upstairs past NA Goaltender Jeff Kristan with 4:08 left in the 1st for a 1-0 Plum advantage. On to the 2nd and the Tigers turned up the heat on Plum outshooting them 13-6. NA could not beat Balson, who made some real nice stops and kept the Tigers off the board. Referee Dave Kosick, was doing an outstanding job as he always does on his own which makes him one of the premier officials in Western Pa and finally through exhaustive efforts of Tournament Organizers, a second official entered the game. Plum was whistled for an obvious trip late in the period to put NA on the power play. The venerable ‘turkey was on the table’ and the Tigers knew this was a critical time in the hockey game. With just 59 ticks left in the period, Matt Pekins slammed home a loose puck past Balson and the game was tied at one apiece. The teams battled through the third period scoreless and entered overtime which displayed several nice chances but excellent goaltending by Kristan and Balson. Another OT and then another making it the longest game in St Margaret’s Fall Face Off history. Great hockey games always end one of two ways....either a bad goal from a mental mistake or break or a great individual effort. This one would have a little of both as Phil Mains clearing attempt took a fortunate or unfortunate bounce off the linesman and found its way onto the stick of Joe Smarto, who walked to the net and put Balson on Route 62 ripping a backhander upstairs under the crossbar and sending the Tiger bench into bedlum with a hardfought well-earned 2-1 victory over a very disciplined Mustang team. Consolation Game Fox Chapel 6 Franklin Regional 2 Matt Quigley and Joe Budz each had a pair of goals to lead the Foxes to a 6-2 victory over Franklin Regional. Fox Chapel netminder Todd Hendry stopped 29 of 31 Panther shots to earn the victory.