Butler Toronadoes

KITTANNING – Kittanning came into their opener with high hopes with first year coach Jon Yackmack at the helm. Before the always festive crowd that fills the balcony at the Belmont Complex, the Wildcats looked to get the season started with many new faces in the lineup with a goal of extending their current streak of 8 consecutive winning seasons started under Al Stipp and Jeff Smouse, which includes 3 straight Penguins Cup final four appearances. South Park is also under a new coaching staff led by Larry Locante and the Eagle program has had winning campaigns 13 out of the last 14 years and has been to the Penguins Cup playoffs every year but one [1998-99] since 1988-89. SP features a strong returning nucleus and could be a sleeper in the playoffs. The Eagles came out flying in the 1st period as Tim Ryan beat Wildcat goaltender Pete Tolman through the 5-hole at 13:11 for a 1-0 SP lead. Tolman stopped Matt Nichols from point blank range at 12:44 as South Park pressured to go ahead by two. Zach Avi took a great pass from Joey Ford and scored on his own rebound at 6:20 to tie the score at one apiece. Ryan would put the Eagles ahead as he walked the Kittanning defense and buried a wrist shot high to the glove side at 1:58 for a 2-1 lead for the visitors. South Park would have to kill another penalty late in the first, but they would catch the Wildcats napping as Donny Remlinger found a wide open Robbie Pacelli, who trickled a shot past Tolman for a backbreaking shorthanded goal and a 3-1 Eagle advahtage. Matt Nichol chased Tolman at 12:30 of the 2nd period with a booming slapshot over the glove side and SP now had a 4-1 lead. Joey Mecurio made a nice stop at 12:01 on a SP power play, which fueled a Wildcat shorthanded goal of their own as Justin Kovatch scored on an assist from Joey Ford at 11:37 to cut the lead to 4-2. South Park would get another great effort from Tim Ryan as he circled the Kittanning net and fed a backhand pass to a wide open Mike Sedota, who scored with just 22 ticks remaining in the middle period and gave SP a 5-2 lead at the ice cut. Tim Ryan would scored two more goals in the third period and the Eagles added an empty netter as Joel Shriver scored late for Kittanning to make the final outcome 8-3 for South Park. This was an impressive outing for the Eagles, who came in ranked # 8 in the Pa Hockey Coaches pre-season poll.