Butler Toronadoes

Championship Final Conestoga 2 Downingtown West 1 [OT] The Ice Line complex is located near West Chester in suburban Philadelphia and is the home ice for Conestoga and Downingtown West ice hockey programs. The Pioneers play in the illustrious Central Division of the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League and own a couple of State Championships dating back to 1985 and 1986, including a perfect season in 86 coached by former Fox Chapel and Upper St Clair head Taylor Railton. Mike Graves now leads a Conestoga program looking to make their mark in the Flyers Cup AA division. Interestingly enough Conestoga and Downingtown West, both AA Flyers Cup participants do not participate in the same division in the ICSHL. After the Downingtown East Cougars won the 2004 Kittanning Invitational, they decided not to return to defend their title. So by osmosis or by invitation, the Downingtown West Whippets made the trek to Kittanning to play in this year’s event. Coach Brad Wentzel took over the West program after the split of the Downingtown School District, which apparently is ready to split again. The amazing part to me is that West and East have been able to field very good hockey teams in consecutive years and come West and play their way to the Kittanning Invitational final. The Whippets defeated perennial Class A power Serra Catholic 5-3 and win the tiebreaker to gain a spot in the final. Downingtown West and Conestoga traded power play goals in the first period as Conestoga’s Billy Dunn scored at 9:11 assisted by Kyle Izett and Brian Wanner. The Whippets tied the game at 2:14 as Bobby Blanken scored on an assist from Evan Miller. After a scoreless 2nd period, a 1-1 battle turned into end-to-end action with tight checking and limited chances for both teams. With 4:41 remaining Downingtown West netminder Greg Graham made a spectacular save on the Pioneer’s Billy Conlin to keep the game tied at 1-1. And then with around a minute and a half remaining, Pioneer’s goaltender Jason Burriss made two terrific stops on Downingtown’s Brendan Smith and Evan Miller to send it to overtime. At 4:34 of overtime Conesotga’s Kyle Izett poked home a rebound past Brendan Smith after a scramble in front for the Invitational winning goal to capture the 2005 Kittanning Invitational. Kyle Izett was named tournament MVP for his outstanding performance for Conestoga. Conestoga outshot Downingtown West 27-22. 2005 Kittanning Invitational McDowell 7 Conestoga 3 Conestoga wrapped up a berth in the final of the 2005 Kittanning Invitational after defeating Latrobe 5-2 and Kittanning knocked off McDowell 4-3 with a comeback win last evening. The Trojans may have been playing Conestoga for a spot had it been able to hold onto a third period lead against the hosting Wildcats. McDowell defeated Conestoga 7-3 on the strength of four second period and two third period goals. Brandon Oathout led the way with a pair of goals for the Trojans, while Ryan Presnar, Matt Stahon, Nick DiSanti, Andy Kohler and Trevor Shaw added singles. Michael Dunn, Bill Dunn and Brian Wanner scored for the Pioneers. McDowell’s John Cleary stopped 33 of 36 shots to pick up the win in goal. Downingtown West 5 Serra Catholic 3 Downingtown West and Serra Catholic matched up in a game which would decide who would face Conestoga in the 2005 Kittanning Invitational final. The Eagles defeated AAA schools Baldwin 7-4 and Butler 8-1 an only needed a tie or a win to secure a spot in the Championship. The Whippets would need to defeat Serra and then face a flurry of possible tiebreaker scenarios after a win over Butler 10-2 and a loss to Baldwin 5-3. Downingtown West pulled off the victory on the strength of a pair of goals Bobby Blanken and single scores from Steve Blanken, Joe Tillman and Zach Bohm. The eventual game winner came with 10:33 remaining from Bohn and Bobby Blanken added an insurance tally late in the third period. Serra took a 2-2 tie to the final period and the Eagles goals were scored by Aaron Nolte, Jared Matthews and Steven Gruhalla as Serra outshot West 33-26. Greg Graham continued his fine play between the pipes for the Whippets with 30 saves and his team advanced on the tiebreaker of penalty minutes.