Butler Toronadoes

Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class A – Penncrest 5 Bishop McCort 3 HERSHEY – Not a lot of people knew anything about Penncrest coming into the 2005 Pennsylvania Class A State Finals, with the exception of the folks in the Central Division of the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League, Breakaway Magazine’s Matt Sacks and the teams they steamrolled to win their first ever Flyers Cup including an undefeated Central Bucks West squad 6-2. Head coach Steve Mescanti knew as the Lions compiled a 20-1-4 record that he had something special and this may be the team in his 12 years at Penncrest that could do it. In the path of the Lions for their opportunity was Bishop McCort, who has captured 5 Class A State Championships and had never lost in a State Championship game in their previous 5 appearances in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999. In fact, the Crimsom Crushers have had laughers in 4 of those 5 State Championship games, the exception against a gritty St Pius X at the Cambria County War Memorial in 1996 in a 7-5 victory before the largest crowd ever to watch a Interscholastic Hockey game in Pennsylvania estimated at 3700 patrons. Crusher head coach John Bradley was so elated about the Serra Catholic victory after five appearances, he was very concerned about a let down in the final against Penncrest and looked to get a great start. McCort came out early on in this State Final and jumped all over Penncrest in the opening minutes, who were obviously nervous being that this was their first State Championship game and the biggest game in their program’s history. Crimson Crusher’s veteran defenseman Cory Mock finished off a 2 on 1 taking a feed from Marc Domonkos and beating Lion keeper Ryan McElhenney cleanly with a great move on the forhand at 12:24 of the opening period. Bishop McCort’s Zac Seidel caught McElhenney off the post and fired a wicked shot waist high past the Penncrest goaltender to give the Crushers a 2-0 lead with 7:23 left in the opening period. If their was a play that woke up Penncrest and got it back in the game, it was the play be defenseman Rob Rottensteiner, who anticipated a clearing attempt which got by the Bishop McCort player along the boards. Rottensteiner gathered the puck and threw an accurate shot through traffic where a dangerous Flyers Cup MVP Dave Bixler tipped through the legs of Ron Stenger to put the Lions on the board and bring their fans to life with 4:32 left. Penncrest had renewed confidence and turned the tables on this hockey game with a goal late in the period as Nick Kusturiss threaded a pass to Bixler, who was wide open in front and buried a shot past Stenger with just 11 ticks left in the first to tie the game at two apiece. The second period wage the battle as both teams opened up play and their was end to end action. Nick Kusturiss gave Penncrest the lead on a transition goal at 10:43 of the 2nd as he blistered a wrist shot high over the glove hand of Stenger to give the Lions their first lead 3-2. McCort would show their resilience at this point as Marc Domonkos scored off a faceoff on a rebound in the Penncrest end to tie the game at 3-3 with 6:18 left in the middle frame. The Lions would be the ones who became the aggressor on offense and a crafty heads up play late in the period would prove to be the game winner as Brad Ryan gathered the puck on the near boards and whipped a shot toward the net catching the Bishop McCort goaltender Ron Stenger off guard with just 11 seconds remaining in the period an gave Penncrest a 4-3 lead to take to the ice cut. Penncrest held the lead for much of the third period as Stenger made several nice saves to keep the Crushers within striking distance. The play of steady and calm Penncrest goaltender Ryan McElhenney would prove to be the difference as the junior stopped all 8 shots in the finals period of regulation including a two golden opportunities with under two minutes to play. When the Crushers pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, Kevin Vanaman found the empty net with 44 seconds left to give Penncrest a huge insurance goal and theLions captured their first ever Pennsylvania Class A title, making it three consecutive years for Eastern Pennsylvania at the Class A level. The difference in the hockey game was the personality of the Penncrest team, who had several great components for a championship team including a steady goaltender, some solid defenseman, notably the play of Rottensteiner, freshman Tim Paulson and Bryan Chacosky and a creative offense including snipers Dave Bixler and Nick Kusturiss and crafty players like Brad Ryan and John Mowry, who played a very strong game at both ends of the ice and a coach who believed and relied on the players who made it happen. Congratulations to the Penncrest Lions – Pennsylvania Class A Champions for 2005

Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AA – Peters Township 4 Haverford High 0 HERSHEY – Haverford High coach Brian Cleary was very well versed in Peters Township from a nice scouting report given to him by the only one to derail the Indians in the Class AA State Championship over the past four years in Archbishop Carroll coach Bill Hammond. The Fords won the Flyers Cup beating cinderella Council Rock South 5-1 in the finals. The Flyers Cup AA field was not the greatest of competition outscored their oppoenents 21-6 over four games and would be facing a Peters Township squad not interested in falling in the State Title game for two consecutive years. Peters Township coach Mark Cooper’s squad won the Pennsylvania Class AA State Titles in 2002 over Archbishop Carroll 10-3 and in 2003 over Holy Ghost Prep 9-3 before falling to Carroll last year. Coop’s team has battled all year to beat opponents and other unknown forces of the universe, but the Indians looked very impressive in knocking Pine Richland off 6-2 in the Penguins Cup as Rob Madore continued his stellar play between the pipes. This Peters team seems to be peaking again as all three offensive lines have contributed at the right times throughout the playoffs. The Indians dominated the first period of play outshooting Haverford 12-5, who looked overmatched at times. Fords goaltender Dave Thomas made several excellent saves as the Indians were looking to score early and often. Dustin Roux capitalized on some excellent work by Jeff Hannan, who broke up a play in the neutral zone and hit a breaking Roux, who snapped a shot which squeezed past Thomas for a 1-0 Peters lead with 3:15 left in the first. Haverford hung in there in the second period as Thomas stopped 11 more shots and Rob Madore was making it look easy at the other end stopping all 12 Haverford shots in the 1st and 2nd period. The interesting thing about this game was that although the Fords had limited offense pressure Peters was only up by one and HH could tie the contest with just one shot. The Fords did get several chances in the 3rd period as Rob Madore really never looked to be in any trouble as he kept turning the Fords aside. The big goal and backbreaker of this 2005 Class AA State Championship would be provided by the Brothers Papciak. Hard working and crafty older brother Bryan Papciak snapped a pass from freshman brother Chris up under the crossbar with 7:55 left in the final period of regulation, which was clearly a goal and confirmed by the referee who had perfect position to see it. The 2-0 lead for the Indians was huge and PT responded by just dominating the hockey game to the finish as Coop rolled out three lines which looked like sharks cycling their prey and it yielded a goal by Gerry Raymond on the slapshot with 5:27 left and a 2nd goal by Roux, who scored on a Jeff Hannan rebound. Peters won its third Pennsylvania Class AA Championship in four years in a dominating performance, which displayed the great personality of a team, which has attitude and is pretty confident about their abilities, which is a very diversified group of highly skilled players, hard working role players and a great goaltender, who play for a coach who is very underrated and doesn’t get a whole lot of credit. I am sure coach Coop will take those three championships because Peters is now in the elite of Class AA teams of all time joining Thomas Jefferson and Erie Fairview as the only Class AA schools to win three titles. Congratulations to the Peters Township Indians – Pennsylvania Cup Class AA Champions.

Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 4 Malvern Prep 3 HERSHEY – I am sure when Friar head coach John Graves coach reads this game summary, he will be thinking …..hmmmm. Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 4 Malvern Prep 3 - 1997 Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 2 Malvern Prep 1 - 2001 Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 4 Malvern Prep 3 – 2002 Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park - Malvern Prep – 2005 Three years against Bethel Park in the Pennsylvania State Final and three loses to the Hawks. Besides the fortunes have changed at Malvern Prep as they now are the owners of the Pennsylvania Cup AAA title from beating Mt Lebanon a year ago at Robert Morris Island Sports Center 5-4 in a thriller. This would be the first time these two teams have met since the 2002 final at Rostraver, where Malvern had a 3-2 lead late on the Hawks, but coach Jim ‘Mort’ McVay caught one of the Malvern player using an illegal stick resulting in a power play, a tying goal and eventually a win in overtime for a third consecutive State Championship for Bethel. Everyone in Eastern Pennsylvania thought Malvern would lose the Flyers Cup and the answer was wrong as they defied LaSalle 2-1 in the Semis and Germantown in the final 4-3 to get here and an opportunity to defend their title. For Bethel Park, the same could be said as the talk all year was that North Allegheny or perhaps Mt Lebanon would make the State Finals, but the Hawks beat Mt Lebo in the semis 4-0 and then upended North Allegheny 1-0 in a classic Penguins Cup AAA title game at the Mellon Arena before a crowd of 2700 + fans, who saw a spectacular goaltending performance by Bryce Merriam and a huge goal by Tim O’Brien to lead BP back to the State Finals. The 2005 Pennsylvania Class AAA championship got off to a roaring start for Bethel Park as Jacobus Bliek took a great feed from Tim O’Brien cutting down the slot and hammered a shot over the glove shot of Josh Firely to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead at 11:11. Bethel was flying in the first period and stunned the Friars taking a 2-0 lead as Conner McLean scored a beautiful backhander and caught Josh Firely leaning the wrong way with 6:44 left in the first. BP looked sharp and Malvern looked to be in trouble until a rarity of Hawks mistakes became lethal. First, Bryce Merriam went to play a puck which caromed of the back boards and under his stick to an opportunistic Matt Campanale, who had a tap-in even Stu Relnick couldn’t miss with only 1:17 remaining to cut the Bethel lead to 2-1. The Friars wasted no time jumping on Bethel for another one as Geoff Mucha slammed home a Sean Olejar rebound with 50 seconds left and the game was tied at 2-2. On to the 2nd period and the Friars took the lead as Campanale, on a great individual effort, made a great play to keep a BP clearing attempt in the zone and then walked down the slot, beat a Bethel defenseman and then fired a snapshot past Merriam to give Malvern Prep its first lead 3-2 with 7:32 remaining. Bethel Park adjusted defensively and stiffened and Merriam made a couple of nice saves as well to keep the one goal game. Then a critical mistake by Malvern turned out to be the turning point in this hockey game as while trying to clear the puck past Jacobus Bliek, the Friars defense panicked a little and it cost them. The sure handed Bliek simply threw the puck to the net and in a scramble Michael Diethorn got there first and wristed one past Josh Firely to tie the score with just 26 seconds left in the middle period and the game was tied up again 3-3. So here we have Malvern Prep and Bethel slugging it one for PA Hockey supremacy at Class AAA at the more than rustic Hersheypark Arena. Malvern Prep would have the golden opportunity to erase three state finals of frustration against the Hawks and it would be Bethel Park, who would make their frustration continued. The Friars would go on the power play with 12:39 remaining in regulation with a chance to take the lead. But Jim McVay would go to a combination of Kenny Lehman and Tim O’Brien to kill the penalty, who may be a little less defensive, but actually may have been the Hawks strongest defensive forward tandem in the Penguins Cup final victory over North Allegheny. Lehman stripped the puck from the Malvern back line like a jewel thief and just slid the puck ahead to a breaking Tim O’Brien and O’Brien, as he did against NA showed great speed on the breakaway and beat Josh Firely to the stick side to give Bethel Park…you guessed it a 4-3 lead. Like 1997 and 2002, this one would be no different as coach McVay’s boys shut down the Friars the rest of the way to capture their 5th State Championship in 8 years and are moving closer to Meadville, who has 8. Congratulations to the Bethel Park Blackhawks – the 2005 Pennsylvania Class AAA State Champions. The difference in this hockey game may have been the determination by the Bethel Park team, who are committed to their coaches demanding regiment and pulled through against a defending champion and played phenomenal hockey over the past two weeks to win it. And we will ALL look forward to seeing coach McVay back behind the bench in 2006 as the Hawks will defend their title.

The 2005 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships

2005 Penguins Cup AA ~ Pine Richland Rams vs Peters Twp Indians Mellon Arena - Pine Richland has advanced to the Penguins Cup twice in their history in 1997 in Class A against Bishop McCort and lost 2-1 in a nailbitter. The second appearance was in 2001 as the Rams met Beaver at the Cambria War Memorial and lost to the eventual Class AA State Champions and Richland has never been back since. Over 29 years of Pine Richland hockey has yielded 380 + wins and lots of excellent players have come out of the program including Kenny Trombetta, who found his way to Division 1 hockey for Yale and goes all the way back to the Coles of the early 1970’s, when the program started. Unfortunately, all of that is nice but hasn’t measured up to any championships outside of the 1999 WPIHL AA crown under Bobby Black. Bobby’s brother Jimmy is now coaching the Rams and he understands what it takes to win it all having been an assistant on the 1991 Beaver Class AA State Champions. Jimmy Black comes from a hockey family and his father the late Frank Black epitomized a hockey person as a rink manager at the old Sewickley rink and one of the founding fathers of USA Hockey in Western Pennsylvania with dedication to serving the hockey community for many years, as a volunteer and did what it took in the early days to promote the sport and its players. What would really bring smiles to the Black family would be a State Championship and Pine Richland may be at the beginning of a nice run with a wealth of talent in the organization. There is no time like the present for Pine Richland as they take the ice at Mellon Arena hoping the 3rd time is a charm. The Peters Township Indians and their charismatic head coach Mark Cooper enter tonight’s Penguins Cup as the 3-time defending Penguins Cup champions, with two Pennsylvania State High School Hockey Championships in 2002 with a 10-3 beating of Archbishop Carroll at the Rostraver Ice Garden and impressive 9-3 throttling of a highly Holy Ghost Prep squad at Ice Line to capture a 2nd straight title. It was all going to be pretty easy for the Indians after they came back to defeat Indiana in the 2004 Penguins Cup with a great comeback, but reality set in real quick as PT lost to Archbishop Carroll at RMU Neville Island Sports Center, leaving a void in their run. The 2004-2005 season has been memorable for the Peters Township Hockey program with moments of greatness and moments to forget. With all of the distractions of the season behind them, this team has hit stride in the playoffs with exciting wins over a very good Greensburg CC club 2-1 in round two and last weeks 6-4 comeback victory over the # 1 seed Canon McMillan in the Penguins Cup semi-finals at Harmarville. Coach ‘Coop’ has the boys playing for the names on the front of the jersey’s after a season of playing for the ones on the back for most of the season. Peter’s is poised to win it again and is far from a # 7 seed with 8 losses and everyone in Western Pennsylvania knows it and what was expected has transpired. In their way is a Pine Richland team who beat them 4-3 in February, but that was a different time and the game had a lot less riding on it as a team who has been though the process Peters meets an up and comer Pine Richland for the 2005 Penguins Cup for the right to move on to this Saturday to face the Haverford High Fords, the 2005 Flyers Cup AA Champions and # 1 seed, who defeated Cinderella Council Rock South 5-1 at the Haverford Skatium last night. The game had chances for both teams early on but the games first great scoring opportunity came at 12:25, as Jake Della Valle took a nice feed from Eric Windemueller, but stopped on a great save by Tommy Zajac. At 5:50 of the first with the Rams on the power play, Tommy DiDinato had a great chance but Rob Madore made a great stop to keep it scoreless. At 1:32 of the first the Indians struck as the forgotten player on their roster for most of the season, who has sat on the sidelines, Matt Lazzaro backhanded a rebound past Tommy Zajac after a shot from Jake Delle Valle to give Peters a 1-0 lead. Pine Richland outshot Peters in the first 12-8 in the opening period. Rob Madore continued to pitch a shutout since 8:12 of the 2nd period of the Canon McMillan semi-final win with save after save into the 2nd. And then it happened, a great play without the puck by Tommy DiDinato at 11:48 to elude the defender and take a perfect cross ice pass from Brendan Conlon and snapped on down on the ice to tie the game at 1-1 and a power play goal. With 8:26 remaining in the second period, Peters got a big break and a lucky goal which they’ll take as Matt Lazzaro played pinball with a Ram defenseman and the puck waundered past Tom Zajac for a 2-1 Peters lead. The Indians went on the power play moments later with the lead and a chance to expand, Zajac made a great stop on Gerry Raymond, but Peters scored with just five seconds left as Eric Windemueller was parked in front and chipped home a rebound for a 3-1 lead with 6:01 left in the middle period. The Indians were now sniffing a wounded animal and started to apply pressure on the Rams defense and with 5:17 left Garrett Rooney’s shot was tipped in by Eric Windemueller for a 4-1 Peters advantage. Josh Fodor had an excellent chance at 4:43, but again it was Madore, who got enough of a piece of it to keep it out. At 4:11, the Indians were whistled and the Rams went on the power play and needed to start thinking about getting back in the game. At 3:35 Rob Madore stoned Evan Goetz. At 2:38, PR’s Tommy DiDinato had a golden opportunity but could not find the handle for an open net. And Peter’s took a 4-1 lead to the locker room and 15 minutes away from a trip back to the State Finals. Yes, 15 minutes until the end for this version of Pine Richland’s season and maybe a little less individuality and a little more passing or possibly a break or some desperation from a young squad. At 13:10, Rob Madore stopped Josh Fodor from in tight. Peter’s came back with a chance with 12:50 left as Jeff Hannan hit the crossbar. Then with 11:50 left, the Rams finally solved Madore as Fodor slid a rebound into the empty goal after Madore made the initial save on Tom DiDinato to make it 4-2. Now the break…as Peters pulled down a loose Phil Trombetta with 9:16 left to give Richland a chance to pull within one. Then a mistake and Jeff Hannan made a play at 7:29, that Peter’s fans better become accustomed to as he picked off a pass and beat the PR defense and Zajac for a shorthanded goal and a comfortable 5-2 with 7:29 remaining. And now it was Rob Madore’s turn to close the deal and send his team to Hershey as the clock and Jake Delle Valle stole Madore’s thunder trickling a shot past Tom Zajac with 5:14 left in regulation to help start the reservations for a 4th trip in a row for Peters to the State finals with a 6-2 lead. So for all of Mark Cooper’s critics, who wanted to hang him for turning the jersey’s over in the final regular season game against Thomas Jefferson, I will say it. Let the people raise the money for the program and let the coach coach his team, because Coach Coop’s squad is now playing for the Indians on the front, which will make Arnold ‘Slick’Ziffel proud and his squad will be moving on to face Haverford High in the 2005 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship at the Hersheypark Arena.