Butler Toronadoes

Mt Lebanon 3 North Allegheny 0 MT LEBANON – A Who’s Who night at the Mt Lebanon Rec Center as Ralph of Ralph and Alf guided us into the secure Batcave Parking location deep below the Rec Center rather than the albatross parking lot up top. Bobby Montana, sporting a new long California look accompanied Head Coach Paul Taibi and Dave ‘Hershey’s Chocolate Milk’ Dorsey on the Blue Devil bench, while Tom Pandolfo, sporting a new look lime Scott Hoch golf shirt with Sport Jacket guided the Tigers. Also in attendance for our who’s who night were Bob ‘King Tut’ Sebastian, Chuck Kelly, Mr.Canevin Kenny Vance, Jack ‘I am not taking pictures for Mort but I have my camera’Bliek, Jim ‘Mort’ McVay, Jamie ‘I forgot we have a game against Butler’ Plunkett, Jamie Cummings, stripes Tim ‘No Regrets’ Morgeret and Chet Steen, W&J Coach Peter Taglianetti, Gina Colligan, Bob ‘I have no nickname’ Behling, and John ‘the Scheduler’ McKelvey. Mt Lebanon entered tonight’s contest with a perfect 16-0-0 record and has gone unchallenged in Class AAA for most of the season. The Blue Devils are on a mission which many teams would like to think about, but only a few have accomplished in the 36 years of Class AAA hockey. The history tells us that 1986 Conestoga, 1987 Upper St Clair, a couple of Meadville teams in the 1990’s and 2002 Bethel Park went the entire regular season and playoffs undefeated and captured the State Championship and the Blue Devils are well on their way to that feat. For coach Paul Taibi, it may be time to be thinking about putting the foot to the floor for the stretch drive. If there is anyone who can feel for the Blue Devils, it is North Allegheny as their run a year ago came to as close as perfect as you can get as from the second game of the season until the 2005 Penguins Cup, no one beat the Tigers and just one goal and one slip against Bethel Park cost the Tigers an opportunity to complete the magical run. Coach Tom Pandolfo has formed a new young group of Tigers, who have only lost once this season and sit adjacent to the Blue Devils in the standings. The irony is that no one is talking about the great season NA is having and no one expects them to do anything because all of the discussion has revolved around Mt Lebanon. This game tonight for the Tigers is a test and a part of the process and don’t be surprised if when the Penguins Cup come knocking that NA is sniffing again. I am sure that Bethel Park will have a say and possibly Meadville, which is why both of their head coaches were in the building tonight. In a fast paced opening minutes, Mt Lebanon showed emotion first as Matt Bartkowski maybe was a little over-zealous with an open ice check and was whistled for a penalty at 12:12, giving NA a power play chance, which the Blue Devils killed effectively. Blue Devils goaltender Matt Vaughn made the games first big save as he swatted aside a Josh Herbert shot ticketed for the far corner with a stick save. The Tigers continued to give Mt Lebanon a lot of different looks on the forecheck including Paul Dittrich at forward. Max Richards made the first big save on Sean McDermott at 3:10 and drew a penalty putting the lethal Blue Devil power play to work on their first opportunity. The teams play to a scoreless opening 5 minutes with NA holding a 7-4 advantage in shots. On to the second period and Mt Lebanon committed penalty # 2 and 14:12 giving the Tigers a chance to draw first blood. Blue Devils Shane Ferguson almost struck early in the penalty, which was saved by Max Richards and Lebo 100 killed off the rest. Mt Lebanon would have the next chance on the power play with 9:40 remaining. Max Richards made a nice stop on Shane Ferguson at 6:55. NA went on the power play with a little over 5 minutes to go but James Cichra had other plans stealing the puck and forcing a penalty with 4:05 remaining creating a 4 on 4 situation. Tyler Murovich prove his slippery ability almost banking the puck off the skate of Max Richards with 3:18 to play and the game remained scoreless. The Tigers took an undisciplined penalty at 2:54 putting the Blue Devils on a 5 0n 3 and they capitalized as Tyler Murovich found the net after some great puck movement with 2:36 to play to give Mt Lebanon a 1-0 lead. 15-10 In the third period, Mt Lebanon turned up the heat early on and Max Richards made a super save on Jesse Root at the 12 minute mark. With 9:59 remaining, the Blue Devils had NA on the run and Brandon Dornish found a loose puck in the slot and scored just inside the post to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. The Tigers went on the power play with 9:29 left. Then the closer as Sean McDermott was the recipient of a tap in at 5:13 after tic tac toe by Jesse Root and Jon Wilen to make it 3-0. The final shots were 25 in favor of Lebo 100 and 12 for North Allegheny, which is amazing considering NA held a 7-4 advantage in the first. So the Blue Devils are now 17-0-0 and heading for a date with the defending State AAA Champions Bethel Park next Monday.