Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

-MT LEBANON The greatest part about doing ‘Game Summaries’ is attending the games and visiting with some of the great personalities of the Pa Hockey community. Its always great to see ‘Canevin’ and they are Canevin…so whatever the school says or WPIAL says doesn’t matter because you can but a Bishop or Monsignor in front of it or Catholic behind it ….but in my mind and many others it is just plain Canevin. It was great to see long time and former great player from Canevin Greg Timmons in attendance and it started the memories swirling of the teams he played on in 1983 and 1984, which captured State Titles and coached to State Title 1989 and Penguins Cup 1994. The Crusaders have a great tradition and a hockey family if you will, with a burning desire for excellence. They talk about the trip to Erie the most in March of 2000, when Canevin played one of its best games in the Penguins Cup finals against Thomas Jefferson and fell short 2-1 in one of the better Penguins Cup finals in recent memory, where the Jaguars made one more play by two Division 1 players John Zeiler [now at St Lawrence] beat Crusader goaltender Marshall Scott to a loose puck behind the net and swept it in front to Brian Hartman [now at Niagra University and former captain of the Pittsburgh Forge] who found a wide open net for the game winner. Canevin president Kenny Vance, one of my favorite HOCKEY people of all-time, is the fire for Crusader Hockey and is building the ranks along with some other folks to bring Canevin Hockey back to prominence and the greatest part about Mr. Vance is he doesn’t sugar coat anything and always lets you know where he stands! If you read ‘Game Summaries’, you will understand my admiration for that philosophy. Indiana is building quite a tradition themselves and the Indians and head coach Dom Glavech can relate to falling short as three trips to the Penguins Cup have netted the Indians one goal losses at the hands of Greensburg CC [1996] and Peters Twp [2002 & 2004]. Team Indiana has had a decent season this year, but has fallen to some teams they should have beaten like Somerset 5-4 and ChartiersValley 3-2 [in the PA Hockey Scholastic Showcase] and is a prime candidate for a Penguins Cup upset, if they don’t pay attention and work hard every game. In a very evenly played first period with 10 shots apiece, Indiana scored the periods only goal as Nick Onuschek beat Joey Ziemanski at 11:36 for a 1-0 Indian lead. Onuschek was opportunist in the 2nd period as well as he picked up a rebound from in front and slid the puck past Ziemanski at 8:59 for a 2-0 Indiana lead. Canevin answered as Dennis Zeh unleashed a wicked slap shot from the left point, which beat Mike Kennedy and the lead was cut to 2-1. Ziemanski made a nice stop on Cory Mills with 2:08 left in the middle frame and it looked like the Crusaders could seize this game with a tying goal. Sloppy play in the Canevin zone resulted in Indiana capitalizing as Cory Mills found Zach D’Amico, who beat Ziemanski cleanly on the stick side with just 29 seconds left before the ice cut and a huge insurance goal for the Indians. On to the third period and Mike Kennedy made several nice stops to keep the two goal advantage including two on Jason Ruggerio at 11:48 and again at 6:47. Canevin finally broke through on Kennedy with just 1:26 remaining as Frank Cimino scored on a rebound to cut the deficit to 3-2 for the Crusaders. Coach Brian Henderson of Canevin pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker but Indiana killed the clock for a 3-2 win at the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center.