Butler Toronadoes

CRANBERRY – The North Allegheny hockey program started in the Ohio Valley High School Hockey League in 1973 at the old Sewickley Rink underneath the Sewickley Bridge and from the beginnings, the program had success winning the OVHSHL title and competed in the qualifiers for the Inaugural Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in 1975. The loss that year was to Baldwin, the eventual State Champions. And the program moved forward and was always afforded a sniff of the States, but has never danced past the 2nd round except 1977. The 1977 Tigers competed in the round robin State Championships after capturing the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League crown over Richland and seemed head for destiny, but fell short to Erie McDowell, who edged NA out in the tiebreaker and then went on to lose to Churchill in the finals. A series of what ifs and why nots have culminated in the emergence in the 2004-2005 season in which the Tigers have dominated Western Pennsylvania AAA hockey destroying everything in site ….the # 1 seed, the Central Catholic Invitational, the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase are all nice and all have been celebrated, but the Tom Pandolfo mentality seeks more. A great season and a good season are currently not in the vocabulary because the vision is chocolate in the form of Hershey, Pa on March 26th for the State Finals, which is a long way away from today. Gene Hackman in ‘Hoosiers’ said ‘you never think about the next step until you’ve taken the one in front of you’. And the step tonight is the 8-time Pennsylvania Cup State Champion Meadville Bulldogs, who have broken down the ‘one step at a time’ theory of Norman Vale into ‘one shift at a time’ or ‘play every shift as if its your last’ as they say in Meadville. That mentality has permeated into every Jamie Plunkett coached hockey club since he arrived on the scene in 1987 and as this young edition of the Bulldogs has seemed to have the light bulb going on in their heads lately including a 3-1 near miss loss just two weeks ago in Meadville. So the venue may have changed to BladeRunners CRANBERRY, but the fear of the Dawgs is present as a very dangerous team in the Penguins Cup AAA playoffs as Meadville has rounded into playoff form over the past month as usual. If we think about upsets, 1988 comes to mind when Shadyside Academy upset Meadville or maybe the 1999 game when then # 1 seed NA lost to # 8 seed McDowell. This is what happens in the playoffs and this is what Meadville, the underdog is gunning for and # 1 seed North Allegheny is trying to avoid and everyone in Western Pa will be holding their collective breaths and some ventured out to witness it on a cold March night as the playoffs have now begun and are underway. So the usual suspects were in the house as the Meadville Nation made the trip down I-79 and the North Allegheny faithful filed including Phil May, original coach of the NA Tigers. After a quick moving 3 ½ minutes of up and down hockey, NA showed great composure as Wes Waldschmidt kept the puck alive at Chris Simanic finished it off over a fallen Brian Danczak at 11:39 for a 1-0 lead. The Tigers kept up the pressure and Meadville was forced to take a penalty at 6:05 putting NA on the power play but Meadville survived and killed it in the games first big turning point. NA kept coming and continued to pressure and Danczak made a big save on Brandon Lied at 2:56 from just in front. But that wasn’t his best as when Matt Pekins found Wes Waldschmidt between the circles an almost sure goal was turned aside by the quick Meadville goaltender, who stopped 19 of 20 in the opening period, while Jeff Kristan faced only 2. The second period was much like the first period as NA continued to pressure and Brian Danczak continued to sparkle stopping nine more shots, while Jeff Kristen faced a pair of icings. The fact remained that the score is just 1-0 in favor of the Tigers. A far cry from the 8-3 pasting at the beginning of February and a little closer to the 3-1 game late in the season. For North Allegheny, the next goal will be huge and for Meadville, the next goal would be huge as well, which is what playoff hockey is all about. So while the ice was cut the teams headed to the locker to make adjustments, but the fact remains that in the playoffs one team moves on and one goes home as we readied ourselves for the 3rd period. The history is now what comes into play, will it be made or will it continue? The NA JV Championship banner came down and would it be enough ? At 14:36, Wes Waldschmidt with 6 x 4 in front of him but Brian Danczak’s glove said no ! Then Chris Leone with a partial break and a penalty on NA at 14:13 put the Dawgs on the power play. A shorthanded 2 on 0 with Paul Dittrich and Garrett Waldschmidt and Danczak guessed right again at 13:26 getting his leg down to make another brilliant save…still 1-0. Then at 9:54 it was Paul Dittrich, who would lug the puck out of his own end and cut down the right side and blister a slapshot over the stick side of Danczak and the Tigers could breath a little easier 2-0. But still a lot of time left and Meadville came to life a little and finally got in to the NA zone with a little over 8 to go. Meadville never quit and kept comin and went on the power play with 2:46 left. But North Allegheny would only surrender one shot and five on the night to 11 on Danczak, who was absolutely spectacular stopping 40 of 42 that the Tigers would have, but it wasn’t enough and the Tigers will move on to Harmarville in a propeller game of sorts and we’ll see if that’s true next Wednesday as the history continues to be written for the Tigers