Butler Toronadoes

2006 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships – Class A Mt Lebanon 5 Cardinal O’Hara 2 NEVILLE ISLAND – Mt Lebanon coach Paul Taibi knows the story and he has heard it more than enough times about the Blue Devils quest for a State Championship. The Blue Devils are 25-0-0 and attempting to join 1977 Churchill, 1986 Conestoga, 1987 Upper St Clair, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 Meadville and 2001 Bethel Park as teams who went through the regular season and Penguins Cup playoffs with perfect records and capture the Pennsylvania Cup AAA Championship. Lebo has not been as sharp as they want to be in the playoffs, but considering the yielded only 9 shots in the Penguins Cup final to North Allegheny winning their 4th Penguins Cup title and 2nd in 3 years, things are not too bad to be a Blue Devils fan. Mt Lebanon is looking to capture their first title since 1976 and the Blue Devils only meeting against Cardinal O’Hara was a 4-2 victory on their way to that title exactly 30 years ago. Cardinal O’Hara has been a bridesmaid to Malvern Prep in the Flyers Cup for the past half dozen years under long time coach Bill Swahl. The Lions captured their first Flyers Cup by defeating Germantown Academy 6-3 and are also unbeaten at 19-0-4 in the very tough Flyers Cup AAA division. O’Hara features a rugged team that is in uncharted waters with 2006 Eastern Pa player of the year Ryan Klingensmith. The Lions did play in the Inaugural State Championship in Class A in 1989, losing to Plum 10-4 and rather than being a Flyers Cup champion, where a filler team invited because Western Pa needed a team and the Lions were available according to lore. This game will feature two team with contrasting styles and excellent goaltending, as Cardinal O’Hara and Mt Lebanon lined up before an overflow crowd at RMU Island Sports Center. The Blue Devils penned O’Hara in their own end early on with quick line changes. Sean McDermott had a partial break at 11:41 as Ryan Klingensmith stepped out to stop him. Cardinal O’Hara played a real nice opening six minutes and went on the power play at 8:11 and they cashed in as Mike Cenisio wound his way through the Mt Lebanon defense and lofted a chip shot past the stick side of Mat Vaughn to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. This is significant since the Blue Devils have trailed only 3 times all season. Lebo came back at 6:22, but Ryan Klingensmith made the save on Shane Ferguson from in close. Then an inadvertent play as an O’Hara player bumped Matt Vaughn and put the Blue Devils on the power play at 4:54, which is a nice break at this point as the Lions have could not have scripted the first period any better. Mt Lebanon would get to tie on the power play with 45 seconds. Klingensmith continued to look solid in between the pipes for O’Hara and keeping Lebo off the board. Mt Lebanon could not capitalize in the opening minute, but a real nice effort by Lebo 66’s finest Rick Beuke drew another penalty at 12:40 and a chance for the Blue Devils to tie the game and then Mt Lebanon came in a flurry as first it was Mandic, then McDermott and finally Shane Ferguson scoring on a rebound at 11:52 to tie the game at one apiece. Shane Ferguson is a sparkplug for the Blue Devils and at 10:12, the Blue Devils forward scored a magical goal redirecting a Tyler Murovich pass from out of the corner to quickly give the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead. The Blue Devils had O’Hara running around and Bill Swahl was wise to call a timeout and settle the troops down after two quick goals. At 9:10 of the period, Shane Ferguson continued to be a thorn in the side of the Lions as he stole the puck and forced the defenseman to pull him down. At 7:44, the Blue Devils power play set up Brandon Dornish on the back door, but Ryan Klingensmith made a nice sliding save to keep the score 2-1. Then the goal came from Sean McDermott and this is a legacy Blue Devil, whose grandfather coached Mt Lebanon to its only State Championship and his dad and uncles were stalwarts in Blue and Gold in the early days. McDermott walked out of the corner and ripped a backhand high over the glove hand side of Klingensmith at 4:58 and Mt Lebanon now had a 3-1 lead. If Cardinal O’Hara was going to get back in this game a break came at 3:48 in the form of a mental mistake as Mt Lebanon took a too many men on the ice penalty. The Lions almost scored but Brandon Dornish dove a poked the puck out of danger with 2:21 to play with two Cardinal O’Hara players within striking distance and the score remained 3-1. Mt Lebanon dominated the second period of play with a staggering 22-3 shot advantage and 33-7 through two periods. So 15 minutes is all that remained between Mt Lebanon and history and Cardinal O’Hara would have to solve the 7 shot O-Fence-Sive performance through two periods and Bill Swahl must have had some encouraging words with a little fire because the Lions looked a little desperate in the opening minutes of the 3rd period. Kilngensmith kept his team within two goals stopping Tyler ‘Terminator’ Murovich from in tight with 9:04 to play in regulation. With 6:19 remaining in the 3rd period, Mt Lebanon went on the power play and the termination letter to Chief O’Hara was written as Brandon Dornish fed a streaking Tyler Murovich, who buried a snapshot up under the crossbar with 4:43 remaining to give Lebo 100 a 4-1 lead and a little over 4 ½ minutes to kill to capture the Pennsylvania Class AAA State Championship. Mt Lebanon took two ill-advised penalties putting O’Hara on the 5 on 3 power play with 2:42 remaining and 6 on 3 with the goalie pulled for the extra attacker. The Lions found the net as Tom Newman blasted a slapshot from the left point at 2:16 high over the glove hand of Matt Vaughn to make it 4-2. The Lions still had a minute left on the 2nd power play, but Lebo killed it. And when Josh Mandic out raced the O’Hara player to the puck and deposited it into the empty net it was a time for celebration for Mt Lebanon Hockey as 30 years of frustration was now history with a 5-2 victory and a perfect 26-0-0 season for the Blue Devils to capture the Pennsylvania Class AAA championship for the 2nd time.