Butler Toronadoes

JOHNSTOWN – For people who have been to Johnstown …there is always something about stepping inside the War Memorial that brings a chill up your spine and when it’s a Bishop McCort – Westmont Hilltop hockey game and they only play once a year….well that’s worth the trip over the mountain to J-Town. An estimated crowd of around 1400 turned out on a Friday night, the final night of the regular season for all teams to prepare themselves for the upcoming playoffs. This game had added significance for both teams as the # 3 seed and avoiding Serra Catholic until the Penguins Cup was at stake. For Bishop McCort, they have been here before and head coach John Bradley’s club is looking to get back to their 10th Penguin Cup in 11 years. The Crimson Crushers have had a decent season, which is a little less than the expectations of the five-time State Champion, but three empty-handed trips to the Penguin Cup against Serra with no prize may be weighing on McCort. A recent loss to Serra for the second time this season may have been another reminder. The Mighty Hilltoppers have new life under Art McQuillan and have been the hottest team in Western Pa, the only blemish a 6-4 lost to Mars. King Arthur says their fightin to get on the bus at another shot at that trip, which many a Hilltopper before them has not completed…..to West Chester to Pennsylvania Cup Class A. The task at hand thing evening was the villan arch rival Crimson Crushers, who continue to make Westy’s life miserable in recent memory. Last years meeting saw Westmont hold a 3-1 lead in the Scholastic Showcase and watch it evaporate in the games final four minutes and then the season finale of 2002, where Westmont held a 4-0 lead after two periods, only to have a furious McCort rally extinguish the Hilltoppers 5-4. Sludgin…. Trudgin….the Mighty Hilltoppers with Bob the Bus Driver, Brace, the ‘first lady’ Queen Arthur and even little Cullen McQuillan, with battle scars from a recent scrap, likely with a Crimson Crusher, all in attendance with a cast of thousands to see if maybe this group of Hilltoppers could exorcise the Crushers. In and evenly played first period, Westmont and McCort battled to a 8-7 shot total, but the game took on a familiar tone as Anthony DeMarco scored at 7:22 to give Westmont a 1-0 lead. Bishop McCort fought hard in the second period to tie the game and outshot the Hilltoppers 12-5, but Pat Krumenacher stood tall for Westy stopping all twelve including two sliding saves on McCort’s scoring machine Joe Delic. At 5:42, DeMarco found a loose puck on a rebound and deposited it past Ron Stenger and Westmont took a 2-0 lead to the locker room. Could the Crimson Crushers come back…..well Bishop McCort dominated the play as Delic hit the post at 9:09. Justin McCloskey had a chance to put Westy up 3-0, but was stopped by Stenger at 8:28….then Scott Kenner missed for the Hilltoppers on the breakaway with 7:09 left and the score still read 2-0 Westmont. Then a break for McCort as Westmont was whistled at 6:07…a turning point ? The Crushers now where throwing everything and the kitchen sink, but Krumenacher wouldn’t let them on the board and the mighty Hilltoppers held on for a 2-0 victory, the # 3 seed and a big confidence booster going into the playoffs.

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BETHEL PARK – Shaler and Penn Trafford met on December 9, 2002 in a regular season contest in Harmarville, with the Titans skating to an easy 7-1 victory over the Warriors. Coach Rich Michalowski’s club finished with a 9-14-1 record and didn’t exactly light the world on fire the last month of the season, so he had to be a little concerned about facing a team his team had handled so easily. Penn Trafford on the other hand made the playoffs for the first time in their history last season at Class AA and did it again at Class AAA. Coach Gary Artz has a very young club with six freshman, but can relay the voice of experience to his freshman and sophomores from his playing days at Churchill, where he played in three consecutive Class AAA State Championship finals as a freshman, sophomore and junior, including the first Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in 1975. So the Warriors were looking for a little advantage to reverse their fortunes against Shaler. The Warriors got into the post-season on a technicality involving a playoff rule invoked in 1999, which states that the 16th and 17th teams in the final standings will have a playoff if they are within 1 % and since Shaler and Penn Trafford were both 9-14-1, its brought us together for the geometric ‘neutral site’ game at Bethel Park of all places and the prize is a return trip to face the Blackhawks less than 24 hours later. Shaler broke out on top in the first period as Eric Taormina banged home a rebound of a Chris Szczpinski shot at 11:43 for a 1-0 lead. Shaler must have thought this was gonna be a repeat of December, but the young Warriors started to take the play to the Titans with an 11-5 shot advantage. PT’s Bobby Lane walked downthe slot and beat Eddie Stotts on the backhand to tie the game with 1:27 left. The Warriors came right back as Devon McCusker scored on a rebound of a Kyle Sidle shot with just 57 seconds remaining during a delayed penalty call for a 2-1 lead. Penn Trafford extended its lead in the second period as Bobby Lane scored at 10:57 for a 3-1 advantage. Lane scored again at 8:17 of the third and the Warriors now had a comfortable 4-1 lead. Freshman goaltender Joel Sterniak shut the door the rest of the way stopping 18 of 19 Shaler shots on the evening as Penn Trafford captured its first ever playoff victory 4-1 earning a return trip to Bethel Park Monday night.

HARMARVILLE – A standing room only crowd at Harmarville turned out Thursday night as one of Western Pa’s best rivalries commenced for the second time this season as a rematch of a 4-2 Fox Chapel victory in November. A lot has changed since November as both teams have matured into playoff contenders, so this would be a big test for both teams. A moment of silence for Mr. Rogers, a Pittsburgh icon, who did his best work next door to the Central campus at WQED for many years, was held with class as the well mannered Fox Chapel and Central Catholic student sections respectfully waited for the national anthem on the state of the art BladeRunners sound system. Head coaches Kevin Zielmanski [CC] and Keith Kearney [FC] were looking forward to this meeting as both teams are preparing for the upcoming playoffs. A playoff atmosphere led to a quiet first period as both teams played very defensive. With 2:31 remaining, Conner Hickton chipped a puck behind the Foxes, like a downhill chip on Oakmont CC’s fast greens, which speedy linemate Joe Coulter was able to corral and backhand past Todd Hendry to the far side and give the Vikings a 1-0 lead. Central held an 8-6 shot advantage in a evenly played first period. In the second period the game opened up as both teams failed to capitalize on power play opportunities. At 9:31, Chris Niznik stopped a Fox Chapel scoring chance with a great backcheck and caught the Foxes in a line change and in one motion spotted Eddie Martin in alone and Martin buried a shot past Hendry to give Central a 2-0 lead. Hendry kept the game close as he stopped Matt Urso at 5:57 from in close. Fox Chapel got on the board as Matt King won the faceoff to Jake Werner who’s hot to the net created a rebound, which was buried by Jason Lorenz to cut the CC lead to 2-1 at 4:21. The Foxes began to pressure, which resulted in a 5 on 3 power play late in the second and early in the third. Impatience by the FC PP unit and excellent penalty killing by CC, led by Chris Niznik and Eddie Martin killed off a huge opportunity for Fox Chapel. This set the tone for the third period as the Foxes had several opportunities, but did not get great scoring chances and the chances they had were easy pickins for Bryan Adamczak, who returned to the lineup after a layoff of almost a month. Central Catholic Held on for a 2-1 victory setting up a rematch in the first round against Upper St Clair, who beat the Vikings last Monday. Fox Chapel will move on to travel to either Mt Lebanon or McDowell next week to open the playoffs.

BETHEL PARK – Cathedral Prep is on day two of a very taxing trip all over Western Pa which takes them from Erie – Game 1 a 4-4 come from behind tie with Mt Lebanon to Bethel Park, back to Erie and off to Greensburg tomorrow for a game with Latrobe..in three days and at stake is the # 1 seed in Class AAA in the upcoming playoffs ! Coach Nels White could not make the trip Wednesday due to work responsibilities, but the Ramblers were hopped up to face Bethel. Hawk coach Jim McVay can understand the plight of ECP, because his team has a killer marathon schedule the last week of their season. After losing to # 5 ranked Franklin Regional last Friday, BP traveled to # 1 ranked Meadville Monday night, was back home for # 2 ranked Prep Wednesday and has to face a desperate Penn Trafford team on Thursday. So there is really no sympathy on either end as both of these teams have logged almost as much mileage this week as the Blue Jeep, which is getting used to the travel as we have gone Wheeling to Monroeville to Meadville to Monroeville to Bethel to Harmar and off to Johnstown Friday night in a weeks time….it must be playoff time in Pa Hockeyland. Wednesday night was a who’s who of Western Pa Hockey personalities as Pa Hockey Top 5 fans Earl Bugaile and Dave Scott were in the house along with Pitt coaches Jimmy Black and Tom Reick, Shadyside’s Bob Kennedy [who led BP to State Championship # 1 in 1997 and was the winner of the 50/50, which was under $ 50], long-time Shaler skipper Ron ‘Flame’ Steedle, the venerable W & J’s Chuck Kelly, former Prep stars Greg Rogers and Pete McCormick, a way long time ago McDowell star and current referee evaluator Butch Halko, Mt Lebanon coach Paul Taibi, Chris Longnecker on the camera and last but not least the infamous Bob Montana [who at last count still has five penalties ?]. Wow this is almost like the ‘Seen’ column...either that or Romper Room with Miss Jane…….anyway there was fun for the entire family including a Bethel Park ‘smokeout’ in the parking lot before and after the game….so shame on you for six weeks if you missed Prep vs Bethel. So much fun was to be had that referees ‘Chet’ Steen and Tim ‘No Regrets’ Morgeret contemplated having the whole section removed by Ben Clinkston ‘Mall Guard’ Security service. And oh yeah ‘Mort’ was there too ! Bethel Park wasted no time jumping on Prep in the first period as Conner McLean scored at 13:12 to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. BP went on the power play at 10:13 and Danny Zabkar drilled home a slapshot from the right point at 10:13 and all the sudden it was 2-0. The Blackhawks dominated play in the opening period with an 11-5 shot advantage as our ‘expert’ panel decided the Ramblers may have the dreaded bus legs! On to the second and Bethel Park had an opportunity to open up the game with another power play opportunity at 12:39, but Prep was able to kill it off and gain some momentum. Kyle Rogers rammed home a rebound at 7:14 and the Ramblers were on the board with a big goal. ECP was not done yet as Andrew Lamberton walked down the slot and buried a shot past Brian Bakowski to tie the game at two apiece. Prep was was on a roll now outshooting BP 18-5, but Bakowski came up big as he stopped Mike Boling with a great glove save at 4:10 and foiled Jeff Dionosio with a diving stick save with just 47 ticks remaining in the middle frame. This was anyone’s hockey game with the # 1 seed and the Class AAA West division at stake and Bethel went on the power play at 12:11 on a less than obvious penalty at 12:11. Kyle Rogers put Bethel Park on their heels as he scored to put the Ramblers on top with a shorthanded goal and gave the Ramblers a 3-2 lead with 10:49 remaining. Prep was now trying to put the dagger to BP and was looking for that big insurance goal. Bakowski made an unreal diving shoulder save on Pat Figurski with 5:29 left in regulation and stoned Rogers and Jeff Dionosio on a two on one with 3:53 left. Bethel’s Brandon Hanley made a huge play with a little over three minutes to go as he tipped the puck on an icing attempt into the Prep zone and BP now started to pressure the less than confident Prep defensive unit. A clearing attempt around the Bethel Park BladeRunner boards took a ‘Golden Mile’ bounce right into the center of the ice and onto the stick of a wide open Brandon Hanley with 1:26 remaining and Hanley buried a big shot past Rob Allison and sent the Bethel faithful into a frenzy. Both teams reverted to a defensive battle and the game ended in a well played hard fought 3-3 tie. The tie for Bethel Park puts them a win over Penn Trafford away from clinching the all important # 1 seed in Class AAA. The loss was costly for Prep, who was eliminated from a chance to win the West Division due to their 0-1-1 head to head record against Meadville this season even if it should defeat Latrobe and tie the Bulldogs in points. Both Bethel and Cathedral Prep have established themselves as frontrunners in what should be a tremendous Class AAA playoffs starting next Monday.