Butler Toronadoes

A Special Report provided to Pa Hockey by Montour RMU ISLAND SPORTS CENTER Montour and West Allegheny's highly anticipated match up lived up to the hype with the Spartans 4-3 victory. A closely played, scoreless first period, was followed by 2 periods of momentum-sustained hockey. Mario Panucci scored 2 shorthanded goals, while Chad Talotta played an excellent game and started the scoring for the Spartans. Ed Elbel had a nice slap shot from the point for the Spartans 3rd goal and helped give them some room to work with. Montour took a 1-0 lead in the second period when Chad Talotta found a loose puck and got behind the defense on a clearing attempt by West Allegheny. Talotta stole the puck and put it into an empty net for the first goal of the game. Talotta continued to create several scoring chances and made some great plays in the offensive zone. Marek Polidor would later answer for West Allegheny when he found a loose puck in front of Montour goalie Nick Gialloreto and tied the game at one apiece. Montour's Mario Panucci and West Allegheny's Ian Skacan played physically with some great hits along the boards and came out firing early. Panucci also scored on a quick snap shot from the right side that found its way over WA goalie Dan Kuzio's shoulder. The first of his two shorthanded goals gave the Spartans a spark and Ed Elbel soon scored on a slap shot from the point to give the Spartans a 3-1 cushion. Panucci would later add another shorthanded goal when he hopped on a loose puck at the blue line, beat a defenseman, and scored on his own rebound, top shelf for the 4-1 lead. Montour's Ross Polk played solid two-way hockey and grinded his way to two key assists and played excellent on the penalty kills. Joe Clarke, Brian Dugan, Ed Elbel, & Paul Ciotti all had crucial playing time and came through in crunch time with key assists in what seemed like a playoff game atmosphere. However, West Allegheny would would not waiver and nearly made a great comeback. With under 10 minutes to play, West A answered on the power play when Ryan Kumpfmiller scored on a low slap shot glove side, following a nice pass from Ian Skacan, glove side to bring the Indians within 2 goals. West Allegheny's Ryne Savisky then scored less than two minutes later off a draw deep in the Spartans zone to make the score 4-3 in favor of Montour. Montour, however, was able to weather the storm behind the great defensive efforts of Brian Dugan, Josh York, Ed Elbel, Aaron Siegel, Kevin Bishop, all of whom played spectacular games. Montour goalie Nick Gialloreto played admirably in net and made nearly every save he was asked to. With its 8th straight win, Montour improves to 8-2 and has taken sole position of first place in the West Division. Montour will next play at Blackhawk while West Allegheny faces a crucial match up against Pine Richland.