Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

North Allegheny 7 Meadville 0 2006 Penguins Cup Semi-Finals CASTLE SHANNON – Meadville (20-3-0) and North Allegheny (20-3-0) have faced each before on several occasions over the past several years and the game that comes to mind was a year ago, when the Tigers thoroughly dominated the Bulldogs in round two of the Penguins Cup AAA playoffs on their way to their first ever Penguins Cup finals. In February, Meadville defeated NA 3-1 at the ‘House of Chills’ to determine the home team for this game in the scheme of positioning for playoff seedings. Both teams come in with identical records, which is trivial when you look at the history of both programs. Coach Jamie Plunkett is now in his 20th season as head coach of the Bulldogs and has captured 8 Pennsylvania State Championships including their last conquest in 2003 over Malvern Prep at Ice Line. For NA the tradition of underachievement has been of much discussion and the coveted State Title that eluded the Tigers a year ago giving up only one goal in 4 playoff games is only three games away, but the question is can they repeat the process and take it one step further. Winning the PA Hockey Director’s Cup and Bethel Park Martin Luther King tournaments are nice on the mantel, but doesn’t measure the commitment of the Pennsylvania Cup AAA crown, which is why you see Meadville, Bethel Park and more recently Mt Lebanon in the hunt year after year. Continuity in coaching is a big part of that and when Tommy Pandolfo disappeared in mid-February, one had to wonder how the Tigers could pick up the pieces. Mike Schenk and Billy Waldschmidt have done an admirable job keeping the ship on course and are looking to take the Tigers one step further than a year ago. North Allegheny looked like a very aggressive and hungry team early in this game and they struck first as Alan Halapin picked up a loose rebound and beat Bryan Danczak 10:13. Moments later NA went on the Power play at 10:08, but it was Meadville’s Morgan Nickerson who got behind the Tiger defense and was in on the breakaway at the 10:00 mark but Max Richards made the save keeping the 1-0 NA advantage. The Tigers and Bulldogs had six shots apiece in the opening period with NA clinging to a 1-0 lead. Sometimes good things happen, when you just get the puck to the net and at 11:50 of the 2nd period, Danny Gaertner took the puck on the near boards and whipped it to the net and Alan Halapin, who was out of the lineup for most of the 2nd half of the season picked up the rebound and beat Danczak through the 5-hole to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Meadville had their 3rd opportunity on the power play and North Allegheny continued their excellent aggressive penalty killing and kept the Dawgs off the board. Halapin is not Irish, but at 5:42 of the second the senior winger gathered an errant shot from the left point and whipped a backhander to the net, which went off goaltender Bryan Danczak’s knee and behind him to make it 3-0. The Bulldogs dug themselves a deep hole and it got deeper as NA went on the power play with a little over five minutes to go and the Tigers made them pay as Chris Gilson shot a rebound over a fallen Danczak to give North Allegheny a 4-0 lead. The Tigers could taste the Penguins Cup just a period away and if it wasn’t tangible, it began to take hold at 14:31 when Matt Lancaster got behind the Bulldog defense and beat Danczak to extend the Tiger lead to an improbable 5-0 lead. It was now a party for NA and Josh Herbert got another breakaway and beat the Meadville goaltender high over the glove side at 11:43 to make it 6-0. Of the jammed packed house at Ralph and Alf’s Ice Castle, this game was warming the heart of coach Pandolfo, the architect of this team, with his lucky green shirt for that Irish Luck for St Patty’s Day entrenched in the opposite corner of the rink with Concerned Citizens of NA Jimmy Pekins and a few other Tigers faithful and for the purposes of this story ‘left his heart in Meadville’. Well his team showed theirs in this game, which was part of the vision and is an intrigal part of the process. With 7:04 remaining, Nick Vaglia scored another goal as this semi-final turned into a 7-0 rout. So all of the tradition and all of those State Championships for Meadville became a rallying cry and motivation for a North Allegheny team hungry to prove their worth and will have an opportunity for redemption on March 25th at the Mellon Arena against the winner of the Bethel Park – Mt Lebanon game in the Penguins Cup final. NA outshot Meadville 29 –15 on the evening.