Butler Toronadoes

Semi-Finals 11/23/03 - Meadville overcomes TJ in classic 4-3 in 2 OT ! Thomas Jefferson coach Don Powell love putting his Jaguars to the test and has taken the philosophy of trying to get his team ready for the stretch run by playing the best competition available. TJ made it to the 2002 CC Invitational finals and was looking to do it again with victories over Lancaster, Fox Chapel and Bethel Park…..which is a nice resume heading into the semi-finals. Coach Powell would love to add another big notch in the form of defending Class AAA State Champions Meadville to go with their # 1 ranking in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 State Poll. Meadville coach Jamie Plunkett returned behind the bench for the semi-finals benefiting from some nice work by long-time assistant Dick Holabaugh, who guided the Dawgs to a hard fought tie against Lancaster and victories over South Park and Holy Ghost. Those victories came with a price as starting goaltender Danny O’Sharuk, Phil Siverd and Anthony Scarpino were forced to the sidelines with injuries. What we may have seen is trouble, but this is Meadville and a preview of the future was taking hold as freshman Michael Licinski stepped between the pipes, looking like a veteran of 3 seasons. The Bulldogs also had a new look in the red, black and white of the Chicago Black Hawks and Ricky Thomas gave TJ a little same old Dawgs routine as he deposited a David Moyer rebound past Danny Hartman one the power play at 9:17 for a 1-0 lead. Christian Nickerson intercepted and errant clearing attempt by the Jaguars and fed a streaking Thomas, who redirected a shot past Hartman and all the sudden it was 2-0 Meadville with 7:00 remaining in the first. Thomas Jefferson showed a ton of character by digging down and taking the play to Meadville as almost scored as Brandon School’s shot bounced over Licinski into the crease, but big brother Nate Licinski cleared it from danger at 6:28. Eric Holzer went to the net hard and the Meadville faithful held their collective breath after Saturday’s injury to O’Sharuk at 5:30. TJ finally got on the board as Holzer’s shot beat Licinski inside the post after a great second effort by Derek Kelly to poke the puck past [soon to be PIHL All-Star defenseman and should have been for three years] David Moyer. The Jaguars almost tied the game as Licinski just got a skate on a Billy Barrett shot with 3:44 left in the opening period. On to the second and hard working forward Shawn Harbaugh scored on the power play at 11:37 to extend the Meadville lead to 3-1. Danny Hartman kept his team in the game stopping 10 Bulldog shots with excellent saves on D.J. Durkee and Harbaugh in the waning moments of the middle frame. Thomas Jefferson took advantage of a 5 on 3 power play Luke Wawrzeniak scored on assist from Brandon School at 14:40 and those same two combined to tie the game a short time later as School scored less than a minute later to tie the game at 3-3. The Jaguars had the better of the play and sent the game to overtime. In overtime, Ricky Thomas appeared to have a shorthanded breakaway which was whistled down on the offside play five minutes in. David Moyer hit a streaking Christian Nickerson who fought his way behind the TJ defense and slipped a shot underneath Hartman at 11:58 to send the Bulldogs to the CC Invitational final.

Meadville 7 Pine Richland 1 11/23/03 ~ Bulldogs capture 5th CC Invitational crown ! Pine Richland advanced into the finals of the CC Invitational for the first time ever and coach Jimmy Black had to be satisfied with his teams effort in knocking off the Class AAA Elite. Next up would be PA State AAA Champ Meadville in a first ever meeting to my recollection of the two schools. Meadville was looking for a record 5th CC Invitational Title including a 4 year run from 1991 through 1994 and coach Jamie Plunkett would like to start another run for the Bulldogs. A glimpse of the future would be in order as injuries forced the Dawgs to insert some freshman and sophomores into the lineup in the Central Catholic final. Pine Richland struck first as super looking forward Josh Fodor beat Michael Licinski to give the Rams a 1-0 lead with two minutes gone in the hockey game. The Bulldogs would counter shelling Dan Gazzo with 11 shots in the first period to PR’s 4. Meadville just kept coming in waves in the second and D.J Durkee scored just :24 in from in front on a nice feed from Christian Nickerson. Pine Richland looked to be tiring a little and made a mental mistake with a too many men on the ice penalty and a 5 on 3 Bulldog power play. David Moyer looked like Bobby Orr as he made a great play to keep the puck in the zone and then went for a nice skate around the zone twice as the players on both teams watched in amazement, then the big Meadville defenseman buried a slap shot down on the ice in the stick side with 11:00 left in the 2nd and the Dawgs were off and running 3-1. The Rams had a great chance to cut the lead as Josh Phillips had a shorthanded breakaway but hit the post at 9:56. Championship teams have a redeeming quality in their relentless pursuit to put away teams and put and exclamation point on it and Meadville may have created the PA Hockey version in the early 1990’s. What was most impressive about the game between Pine Richland and Meadville was the young players in Red, Black and White stepping to the forefront in this championship game as Pat Leone scored 11:46 of the third to make it 4-1 and Shawn Harbaugh put the game out of reach 5-1 just 58 seconds later. The Bulldogs continued their onslaught as Tournament MVP and Bill Downey award recipient Christian Nickerson tied the all-time CC Invitational scoring mark with a goal at 6:09 left in the third to make it 6-1 and Chris Leone closed it out on a nice feed from Tyler Learn with just 1:01 remaining for an impressive 7-1 stomping of Pine Richland and the 2003 Central Catholic Invitational Championship for Meadville.

DELMONT ~ Mt Lebanon coach Paul Taibi learned a lesson this week after his team defeated Central Catholic last Friday night 5-2. The Blue Devils traveled to Meadville to face the defending Pa AAA State Champion Bulldogs and came up on the short end of a 2-1 score to knock Lebo from the ranks of the unbeaten. So ‘the quiet’ Mr Taibi learned that all 3 of his talented lines of forwards will need to produce come playoff time for the Blue Devils to advance deep into the Penguins Cup playoffs. Gateway on the other hand, would love to have such a problem and head coach Lou Biancanello inherited a squad, which lost almost a dozen seniors and is made up of a sprinkling of players with Varsity experience and the majority of players, who have made up a very successful Junior Varsity team in prior years. The Gators would love to take a page out of Mt Lebanon’s 2002-2003 campaign, which saw the Blue Devils rebuild in a hurry after losing ….hmm a dozen or so seniors. This game was all Mt Lebanon as the Gators tried to skate with Mt Lebanon’s three lines toe to toe and did well in the 1st period only yielding an Eric Sloan goal at 9:55. The second period was all Blue Devils as Jack Millhouse scored a pair at 12:34 and 11:36 to extend the lead to 3-0. Michael Jordan converted on the power play on some nice work by Tony Valerino and Sloan at 6:53 to extend the lead and Valerino scored at 3:50 to turn a close opening period game into a 5-0 ice cut advantage. Mt Lebanon preserved the shut out for Matt Vaughn in the 3rd only surrendering 7 shots on the evening, while pummeling John Michael Domenick with 35 shots en routé to a three goal final period as Valerino [13:18], Craig Naderson and Dan Wilen added goals for an 8-0 pasting of Gateway.

DELMONT ~ McDowell coach Marlin Coon loves to challenge his team to do better and he is always looking for opportunities to take the Trojans to another level, so when Nels White, his long-time rival coach at Cathedral Prep, was sent packing by the Ramblers, Coon added a Nels to the Trojan coaching staff. The Trojans opening schedule for league competition looks like the Post Gazette Top 5 as they have faced defending Class AAA State champ Meadville [L 3-2 in overtime], Cathedral Prep [a satisfying 2-0 win] and Central Catholic [a close 2-1 loss] for a 1-2 record. A breather in the schedule would come next in the form of undefeated Plum and soon to be number # 1 ranked North Allegheny, next Tuesday in Warrendale. So with Coach Coon looking for a Woodland Hills – Allderdice doubleheader at the end of the tunnel, McDowell figured it would be a great time to schedule some more fun and committed to the 2003 Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase in their spare time on the bus on the way to Delmont…..and thank god they voted BEFORE they got a taste of Route 22 traffic in Murrysville on a Friday afternoon. Whew…………now I need a breather [I went the back way through Export] with my trusty assistant 4 year old Jamie. Now Plum head coach Stu Relnick is a man of empathy, as he and his assistant Jerry Bass, along with Phil Mains and Ryan Griffin figured they would take a little road trip to Erie Wednesday night for McDowell-Central Catholic, just to make coach Coon fell better. The Mustangs are off to a 4-0 start and looking to be a challenger in Class AAA and knew McDowell would be a real tough game on the slate. Plum took advantage of the dreaded ‘Bus Legs’ in the first period as David Dincau opened up the scoring for a 1-0 Plum lead and Jimmy Stauffer converted a Matt Giunta feed for a 2-0 first period lead as the Mustangs outshot McDowell 16-7. Aaron Arnold hit the post at 13:14 of the second period, which marked a turning point for the Trojans. McDowell carried the play through the middle period and outshot the Mustangs 12-8 in the 2nd. The Trojans cut the lead in half as Gary Peterson fired home a nice play by Ed Maras, who kicked the puck to his teammate as his stick was tied up by a Plum defender at 5:07. McDowell was storming the Mustangs late in the second and nearly tied the game as J.P. Balson came up big stopped a Brian Hammel wraparound at 4:58. The Trojans may have been a little too aggressive in the closing seconds as Tony Michalak’s shot rang off the post and the Mustang’s counter attacked and made McDowell pay as John Kalichuck buried a David Dincau pass with just .2 seconds left to give Plum a huge insurance goal and a 3-1 lead. On to the 3rd and McDowell carried the play to Plum outshooting the Mustangs 12-7 in the final period and 31 – 30 on the evening. Gary Peterson pulled the Trojans back within one on a shorthanded goal, but Plum would prevail as Kalichuck beat John Cleary with a nicely placed wrist shot to the glove side with 2:33 remaining to give the Mustangs a hard fought 4-2 victory.

HARMARVILLE - Thomas Jefferson 2 Bethel Park 1 Thomas Jefferson and Bethel Park squared off after opening night victories in the CC Invitational. TJ, the top rated team in Class AA defeated a red hot Fox Chapel club, which is off to a 5-0-0 start 4-1, while Bethel Park was defeating Lancaster B, a replacement for St Margaret D’Yourville, who declined invitation early in the week over concerns of the Hepatitis outbreak in Beaver County. BP coach Jim McVay and TJ coach Don Powell have squared off in some classic matchups over the past five years. After a scoreless first period goaltending battle between Danny Hartman of the Jaguars and Mike Mastracci of BP, Thomas Jefferson got two quick goals from Bill Barrett at 14:50 of the 2nd and Grant Heinhauer at 14:03 of the second. Linemates Brandon School and Luke Wawrzeniak added assists on both Jaguar goals to give their team a 2-0 lead. Danny Hartman made the lead stand up stopping 32 of 33 shots with the only blemish coming with just 37 seconds remaining in the game as Dan Zabkar broke the shutout making the final a 2-1 TJ victory paving the Jaguars road to Sunday’s Semi-Finals.