Butler Toronadoes

2004 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships PITTSBURGH – Malvern Prep 4 Mt Lebanon 3 Mt Lebanon came into the 2004 Pennsylvania Cup Class AAA game on a roll in defeating defending Pennsylvania Class AAA champions Meadville 3-0 at the Mellon Arena on March 28th. The Blue Devils have had their greatest season since they opened the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center way back in 1977 and were looking to capture their first State Championship since 1976 and just for a little good luck the head coach of that team Mickey McDermott and his star goaltender Rich Cunningham, paid a little visit to the Robert Morris Neville Island Sports Center and sat way up in the top row of the end zone to root on the Blue Devils along with the entire borough of Mt Lebanon including Alumni, students in a jam packed arena. Mt Lebanon’s team has been built by head coach Paul Taibi with one goal in mind and believe me, Taibi is a coach who understands the process of what it takes to win a State Championship after serving many years with Bethel Park. Every amount of energy in scouting and working with an excellent group of kids and parents has been expended to this point and Mt Lebanon now faced a monumental challenge against a hungry team, who has lost three consecutive State Championships by just one goal and was looking to make it four, Malvern Prep has been to the State Finals each of the past four years and has been the dominant teams in the Eastern half of the State for a half dozen or so. The Friars have only one State Championship to show for their efforts in 1990, which may frustrate some teams but not Malvern Prep. Head coach John Graves had a little prediction he wanted to share with me and a great gathering of conversation with myself, the Radnor coaching staff and parents, a super group of Archbishop Carroll folks, Philly Inquirer writer Joe Santoloquito and of course Father Ed Casey [who is a staple of the Friar program], who on Friday night and I made a promise to myself that I would tell no one about that prediction. Since 1990, the Eastern Pennsylvania teams have not swept the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships and that was the year Malvern Prep won it and When coach Graves visited me prior to this years Championship game not more than a half hour before the game, I told him that it was his turn to hold up what he said Friday night which was ‘we are going to win ALL three tomorrow’. So after Radnor and Archbishop Carroll won the Class A and Class AA Pennsylvania Cups, Malvern Prep seemed destined and especially after they were almost extinguished by Holy Ghost Prep in the Flyers Cup semis and down 4-1 in the middle of the second. Chris Campanale became the official spokesperson for the Friars with a hat trick followed and a big 6-4 comeback victory with five teammates including star forward Warren Byrne, goaltender Mark Cetola and Campanale’s four year teammate defenseman Will Averona in the stands. Complete faith is what I call it of a coach in his players to reach a goal set and Graves calmly decided to name Mark Cetola starting goaltender in favor of Flyers Cup MVP freshman Bryan Mountain. The first period was a clean hard hitting period as Malvern Prep showed why they are the most talented offensive team in the State outshooting Mt Lebanon 12-6, but Matt Vaughn continued his outstanding goaltending that has only yielded one goal in his first four playoff games. An interesting contrast in defensive hockey by Mt Lebanon and pressing offense by Malvern Prep of attacking and countering took place as the score remained 0-0 at the end of one period. On to the second and the Malvern pressure yielded a rare turnover by the Mt Lebanon defense and Justin Martin buried a wrist shot high over the glove side of Matt Vaughn at 13:41 for a 1-0 Friar advantage. Mt Lebanon went on the power play at 13:08 and Dan Wilen made a great play to strip the puck of a Malvern forward and then finished off some nice work by Eric Sloan and Tony Valerino, to pounce on a rebound and tie the game at one apiece at 11:25. The teams exchanged power plays in the middle of the period as Mt Lebanon carried the play with an 11-8 shot advantage for the 2nd period and the Blue Devils would take the lead on a turnover by the Malvern Prep defense as Bryan Colligan deposited a wrist shot through the 5-hole of Mark Cetola at 1:17 after a nice effort by James Cichra and Mt Lebanon was fifteen minutes away from erasing 28 years since its last state title. Malvern’s goaltender Mark Cetola kept his team within one goal early in the third period robbing Cichra from in close at 14:33. Warren Byrne, who had been very quiet in the 2004 playoffs, delivered a huge goal less than a minute later as his shot took a weird deflection which fooled Matt Vaughn and sailed high over the glove hand of the Mt Lebanon goaltender to tie the game with 13:48 left in regulation at 2-2. Mt Lebanon looked to regain the lead as Malvern took two undisciplined penalties in a row at 13:20 and 10:41, but Malvern had the best scoring chance as Byrne was in on the breakaway, but Matt Vaughn stopped him at 10:30. The Blue Devils would counter as Eric Sloan took a pass just inside the blue line and split the Malvern Prep defense and like lightning chipped the puck on the backhand high over the glove side of Mark Cetola for a 3-2 lead with 8:51 left in regulation. Malvern Prep did not panick and Byrne took the puck from his own end and skated it into the Mt Lebanon zone and cut across the ice and fired a low wrist shot to the far stick side beating Matt Vaughn to tie the score with 5:34 to play in the third period. Less than a minute later, Mt Lebo’s Billy Leckenby had a great opportunity to give the Blue Devils the lead again but Mark Cetola came up with a big pad save at 4:29 to keep the score 3-3. Less than a minute later Nick Averona beat the Mt Lebanon defense to the puck and pushed it to the corner where Keith Ennis found it who fed Tim Horn who buried a wrist shot to give Malvern Prep a 4-3 lead with 3:59 remaining in regulation. Mt Lebanon pressed for the equalizer but could not beat Cetola, who stopped 26 of 29 shots and Malvern Prep claimed its first Pennsylvania Cup Class AAA State Championship in 14 years with a thrilling 4-3 victory over an excellent Mt Lebanon team. For Malvern Prep a little redemption for three empty prior trips to the State Finals for John Graves and the last player off the ice for Malvern Prep was Will Averona, who now can put behind him the infamous ‘stick measurement’ at Rostraver in 2002 and finally after four years can lay claim along with his teammates to the best team in the State of Pennsylvania as 2004 Pennsylvania High School Hockey champions and the prediction of his coach who predicted a sweep and his team delivered the final piece to the puzzle.