Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

2005 Chicago Showcase Bensenville, Illinois 4/17/05 Pittsburgh snatches victory from the jaws of defeat over defending champ California ! Quarter-Finals Pittsburgh vs California It is a long time from Wednesday morning when Team Pittsburgh began their voyage of the unknown in the 2005 Chicago Showcase. A narrow 5-4 loss to semi-finalist North Dakota in a game where the team will admit that they didn’t play three periods of hockey, but a superb third period almost yielded a tie game. The complete game victory of another semi-finalist Wisconsin 3-1, which was easily one of the biggest upsets of the tournament. A thrilling 1-1 tie in the final game of the preliminary round featuring a goaltending dual between Northern New England’s Raymond Quattrucci and Team Pittsburgh’s Ryan Zapolski [who was the winner of the Peggy Fikis award for the outstanding goaltender of the 2005 Chicago Showcase, joining Brent Klimow of Erie McDowell in 2001 and Martin Wilde of Forest Hills H.S. in 1995 as Team Pittsburgh’s recipients of Chicago Showcase award winners]. So now Team Pittsburgh sets up to face a Team Cailfornia team, who are the defending champions of the Chicago Showcase, for the privilege to meet Team Minnesota, who has dominated the Chicago Showcase tournament since its inception in 1984. California, like Team Pittsburgh, has enjoyed a tempermental Showcase with a 3-2 loss to Minnesota in a tight contest, defeated Michigan 4-2 and then lost to Illinois 4-3 to complete the round robin at 1-2-0. California is a very good team with a core group of players from a strong AAA midget program out of Los Angeles. The decision to start the line of Billy Repass, Alan Halapin and Lee Heilman paid off as they penned up California in the opening minute. Then it was Mark Polidor, who made a great individual effort and slipped a backhand past Bryan Roden at 15:52 to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. Then a great breakout pass by Kyle Sidle to brother Dan Sidle netted a wrist shot which fooled goaltender Roden low on the stick side at 13:26 for a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead. At 11:29, Mario Panucci almost made it 3-0, but goaltender Roden made a great stop sliding to the opposite post. At 10:45, California went on the power play with a chance to cut into the early lead and Pittsburgh killed it impressively. California struck at 5:23 of the first as Alan Aiken buried a wrist shot on the short side past Drew Stanton to make it 2-1. With 1:35 left in the opening period, Team Pittsburgh committed another penalty as a result of running around and another killing the penalty with 48 seconds left giving California a golden opportunity to tie the game. And with 24 seconds left the LA Kings Midget AAA line struck fast as Richard Leitner took a back door pass from Ramin Taheri and deposited it past Drew Stanton to erase a 2-0 lead of Pittsburgh. On to the second we went and Pittsburgh still had to kill a minute on the 2nd power play and the didn’t as the forward Richard Lietner sped through the middle of the ice and blistered a wrist whot low to the stick side for a 3-2 California lead and another power play goal. Pittsburgh went on the power play at 15:42, but could not capitalize. At 12:19, Pittsburgh got caught pinching and Drew Stanton made a great stop on Lietner. At 8:36, California went on another power play and Pittsburgh killed it off. Great effort by Ryne Savisky drew a penalty on California at 6:07, giving Pittsburgh a chance on the power play to no avail and another power play with 2:37 left and a 5 on 3 with 1:27 left and another 5 on 3 with 1:10 to work with 36 seconds left, which was nullified by an undisciplined penalty by Pittsburgh with 2 seconds left. At 16:17 of the 3rd Period, Drew Stanton made a great save on Cal’s John Stoddard sprawling out and keeping the puck out and the game 3-2. Bryan Roden returned the favor on Mario Panucci at 14:50 from point blank range. Then the arena was silenced as Anton Volkov, via the Ukraine Penisula of California, who blistered a wrist shot high over the shoulder of Drew Stanton on the short side at 12:50 to give California a huge insurance tally and a 4-2 lead. Pittsburgh went on the power play with 10:50 left and a chance to get back in the game and then again at 8:05, but was nullified by another undisciplined penalty by Pittsburgh. Another power play # 5 at 6:51 and not a chance. Steven Adams scored on his first opportunity on the power play with a wrist shot high over the glove side to cut the lead to 4-3. Another power play # 6 with 4:50 left and the chance again to tie it and no goal. With 2:13 left, another power play # 7 and only one goal to show for it. The chances and time were running out on Team Pittsburgh and then a miracle goal with 1:27 left as Mark Polidor threw the puck to the front of the net and it bounded past the California goaltender to tie it at 4 apiece. Then with 24 seconds left, Dan Sidle threw it to the net and Mike Penkrot rammed it home to give Pittsburgh a miracle 5-4 lead. And they held on to win and play another day against Team Minnesota in the semi-finals of the 2005 Chicago Showcase with a heartstopping 5-4 win.