Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

INDIANA – Over the river and through the woods to ‘the house of King Samuel’ we go…..you know the theme….up route 286 and into Indiana ….a great little town all decked out for the holidays…..the Indiana Ice Center for a pre-Thanksgiving feast between home town Indiana and their route 422 nemesis the Penguin Cup Finalist Kittanning Wildcats before a packed house over 750 strong at the Indiana Ice Center. Now Dom Glavech had to be feeling pretty good about things, but in the back of his mind a memory of a 3-2 playoff loss has a fresh wound for the Indians played at the Belmont in March. So coach Glavech figured that Mike Mentch may have similar feelings as Indiana outshot Kittanning handily but lost sending the ‘Cats’ off to Rostraver for the Penguin Cup Semi-Finals. So Indiana would start Mike Kennedy between the pipes for the # 4 ranked Indians. Jeff Smouse, on the other hand, is always the worrier and his Wildcats are ranked # 2 with a perfect 4-0-0 record with two impressive routs of decent opponents, 10-1 over West Allegheny and an 8-2 shellacking of a good Canevin team on the road. The head coach of Kittanning was on guard that his team may be a little overconfident, but hey why not Adam Toy is between the pipes and this guy has Indiana’s number over the past few years and why would Smouse have any other expectations than another strong performance before a hostial environment in Indiana with ‘the Hockey Hooligans’. The worst thing that can happen in a big game is two officials who over call the game, which destroys the opportunity to let the players decide the outcome, so the two officials assigned to this one did their best to muck it up early with penalty to Indiana at 14:31, penalty to Indiana at 12:28 and another penalty to Kittanning at 12:00 ……and with 10:00 remaining in the opening period the fans got to finally see a little 5 on 5. Through a very evenly played first period, the teams exchanged shots 5-4 in favor of the Indians, but Kittanning struck first as Pat Schneider took a big blast from the left point over the glove side of Mike Kennedy at 4:47 and a 1-0 Wildcat lead. Adam Toy made a great save to thwart a 2 on 1 between Corey Mills and Alan Halapin, Hard work towards the end of the opening period forced an Indiana penalty putting Kittanning on the power play early in the 2nd and the Wildcats capitalized as Schnieder threw a wrister to the net which eluded Kennedy and before the Indiana goaltender could find it Duston Kellner chipped it home at 14:03 and Kittanning opened up a 2-0 advantage. Indiana stuck back quickly as Zach Diamond found a loose puck from an Alan Rusiewicz shot from the left point and in one motion slid the puck underneath Toy to cut the lead to 2-1 at 13:47. Indiana turned up the heat firing 11 shots at Toy, who made a nice save on Zach D’Amico at 8:15. The Indians would not be denied as Michael Jack provided excellent work in the corner and worked the puck to the net where Corey Mills and Alan Halapin did the rest as Halapin got the last stick on it and Indiana tied the game at 2-2 with 7:38 remaining, which carried over into the final period. The Indians came out flying in the 3rd and applied a ton of pressure on the Kittanning defense, but how many times do we see a team get a lot of pressure at one end and the other team respond by scoring a huge goal to deflate the effort. So while Adam Toy was stopping everything but the kitchen sink and the kitchen sink, the Wildcats were patient for that opportunity. Not even Jeff Smouse could have predicted his young guns [Sophomore-Freshman-Sophomore] line would pull through in a big way, but they did ….so with 5:29 left Lee Heilman won the faceoff, Joey Ford moved the puck to the net and Justin Kovatch found that loose puck and banged it behind Kennedy sending the throng of Kittanning faithful into a tizzy and a 3-2 lead. The Wildcats pride themselves in forechecks and great defense, but that blow to Indiana was all they needed as the Indians took a frustration penalty with 4:37 left putting one more nail in the coffin. Indiana would have one last flurry which would end up in the hands of Adam Toy, who absolutely robbed Michael Jack from point blank range with 1:17 remaining, giving the Wildcats a huge road victory 3-2 and a perfect 5-0-0 record heading for showdowns with Thomas Jefferson 12/11 and Pine Richland 12/18.