Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

DELMONT – Gateway had high aspirations coming into the 2004-2005 season, but coach Lou Biancanello was cautiously optimistic, knowing some of the personalities on his squad. The Gator coach and assistant Ray ‘the Cornerman’ Leith, along with Cody Moy and Michael DiLorenzo, would be on the sidelines for their game against Bethel Park after a less than stellar effort in a 2-0 win over Hempfield, in which Gateway took a mountain of penalties resulting in the shorthanded team to face an undefeated Bethel Park team. Dave Scott would be behind the Gator bench and the team would face a true test of character against the Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranked team. Bethel Park is back and if there is anyone who could write a book on character it probably would be Jim McVay, who spent the entire season last year defending his job and finally seems to have a little peace behind the bench. The Blackhawks have been putting their effort on the ice and are undefeated through the seasons first quarter and look to be a Penguins Cup contender. As usual under McVay, BP has a disciplined squad with smothering defense and relentless forechecking to force teams into mistakes and Blackhawk goals. So the first period as one might expect was all Bethel Park as they outshot Gateway 25-0 and Blackhawk goaltender was coming out to play every icing like a defenseman to keep the pressure and the momentum against Gateway. What was tremendous in the opening period was Gator goaltender John Michael Dominick, who stopped everything but the kitchen sink until with just 49 seconds left in the opening period, Conner McLean broke the ice for a 1-0 BP lead. On to the second period and Gateway started to wake up offensively mounting 8 shots on BP, while the Hawks had 11. At 5:05 of the 2nd, Bethel Park’s goaltender Bryce Merriam took a penalty prompting coach McVay to pull him and replace him with Rick McLuckie and then took a bench minor to put Gateway on a 5 on 3 power play. The Gators would capitalize as Craig Leith buried a slapshot over the stick side of McLuckie to tie the score at one apiece at 4:22. Just seven seconds later, Gateway’s Mark Wroblewski got a rare breakaway behind the Hawk defense, but could not beat McLuckie. Bethel Park found the magic again late in the period as McLean scored high to the stick side past Dominick to help BP ragin the lead at 2-1 with 45 seconds remaining in the middle period. Bethel Park used the break to regroup and came out and dominated the third period with a 19-3 shot advantage and 55-11 for the night. The Hawks added two more goals at 9:59 by Tim O’Brien and 3:09 by Brian McGinty to secure a 4-1 victory at the Center Ice Arena.