Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

DELMONT ~ North Hills has been an enigma ever since its Penguin Cup Semi-Final appearance in 2001 and coach Dave Ciotti has been called upon to right the ship. The Indians have left of 2003-2004 where they ended 2002-2003, losing a couple close games against Bethel Park, and then winning an overtime contest against a much improved Connellsville club, what I am sure the coach scratching his head are the wipe outs against Fox Chapel 7-0 and Plum 4-0, which have put NH in the middle of the pack, striving for some consistency. Gateway, on the other hand, has a very young team with a sprinkling of veterans from a team who has a very bright future and may happen in the middle to late in this season. Coach Lou Biancanello has a hard working club, which is still adjusting to the Varsity level, but when they do, this could be a team that will pull off some upsets and sneak into the playoff picture. North Hills dominated the first period outshooting the Gators 7-2 as Jeremy Kubit opened the scoring to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Gateway just kept on coming and Corey ‘Rudy’ Tucek banged home a rebound at 11:01 to tie the score. It didn’t take long for the Gators and Tucek to gain the lead as the Gateway forward found the net again just 46 seconds later for a 2-1 lead at 10:15. This would be the Gators night as Brendan Miles fired a slap shot from the right point that caromed off Matt ‘Little Scotty’ Scottbehind Casey Dudt-Mulzet, for Scotty’s first ever Varsity goal and a 3-1 Gateway lead. The Gators held a 13-8 shot advantage in the second period and would move onto the third with a 3-1 lead. On to the third period, and when Gateway failed to score on a 5 on 3 power play, North Hills had new life and capitalized as Dave Hansell’s shot from a weird again found its way past J.D. Domenick and cut the lead to 3-2 at 9:57. North Hills called on Casey Dudt-Mulzet to keep it a one goal game as he stoned Scott Lyons and Craig Leith at 8:45. North Hills took a bad penalty with 3:22 to play, but killed it and stormed the Gateway zone with under a minute to play and the goalie pulled. Domenick made a couple of great saves and Leith found a loose puck and sent it 150 into an empty net giving the Gators a hard fought 4-2 victory at Center Ice.