Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Central Catholic 6 Meadville 3 Harmarville – Central Catholic is coming off a couple of non CC type seasons in 2005 and 2006, which saw the Vikings slip and not make the Penguins Cup Semi-finals after 3 consecutive trips in previous years. If you are going to jumpstart your program and make a change, hiring Tom Pandolfo is a pretty good choice and being able to get Stu Rulnick as his assistant is a cherry on top. The Vikings have had talent through their program, but amazingly have only made it to the Pennsylvania State Finals twice in the 35-year history of the program in 1982, losing to Erie Fairview in the finals and in 1998 losing to LaSalle in a heartbreaker at the Rostraver Ice Garden. It may be unfair to many to measure the success in those terms, but Bethel Park, Mt Lebanon and Meadville have gotten the job done using that criteria and Central Catholic and North Allegheny haven’t, so when it comes to the end of the day the word ‘great’ used with program or coach doesn’t go together until the aforementioned happens. The Vikings are looking to change all of that and a good place to start is 8-time Pennsylvania champions from ‘the House of Chills’. Meadville has won those championships and the end of a season that does not result in a win leads a disappointing summer and begins the drive in another chapter to be written. After the Bulldogs won it in 2003, I can distinctly remember a reflection with head coach Jamie Plunkett [who celebrates year # 20 and is nearing 1000 games in his coaching career] at the Ice Line after their comeback victory over a very strong Malvern Prep team. Coach Plunkett mentioned to me that he never stopped believing in his players and had faith that he would get back and win it SOMEDAY, but wasn’t sure he’d ever see it again and folks this was after a 7 year drought dating back to 1996. Championships are won in a fickle way and if you don’t believe that hang around Bethel Park, who grasped victory from the jaws of defeat in 2005 over coach Pandolfo’s NA Tigers 1-0 at the Mellon Arena in the Penguins Cup in a game no one could have predicted in a million years, but the point is belief and confidence in your players is where it all starts. I sense that in several camps this season including Meadville and Central and Bethel and NA and Mt Lebanon and those five teams will vie for who travels to Philly…Delphia in late March or early April, so remember this game is on October 30th and not March 30th. Central came out on the opening period with the fire I would expect from a Tom Pandolfo team and dominated Meadville all over the ice. The Vikings opened the scoring at 9:57 as Chris Urso took a nice feed from C.J. Burke for a quick 1-0 lead. Just 8 seconds later, Burke lit the lamp again with a wicked wrist shot to make the score 2-0. CC was not done as they took advantage of a 4 on 4 situation and Andy Hanno walked off the near boards and beat Mike Licinski through the 5-hole for a three to nill count. Mike Licinski made several nice stops during Bulldog penalty kills and to give his team an opportunity to get back into the game. The backbreaker came with :07 left on the first period clock as Chris Urso took advantage of a turnover and buried a wrist shot high over the glove hand side for his 2nd goal of the game and give the Vikings a 4-0 lead and a 12-2 shot advantage. The Bulldogs finally broke through on the power play at 14:19 as Pat Leone gathered a loose puck in the slot and deposited high over the glove side of John Scalo to cut the Central lead to 4-1. Then at 9:06, the Bulldogs were a little overzealous on an effort to hit C.J. Burke in a shorthanded situation and it cost them as Andy Hanno picked up the loose puck and deposited behind Licinski to reclaim the four-goal advantage. Licinski was able to stop Burke on a breakaway at 8:28, but gave up a very weak shorthanded goal to Josh Martin, whose shot from the goal line banked off something in front to make it 6-1. Meadville finally settled down and after Aaron Nye’s open ice hit as his own blue line. Pat Leone picked up the puck in the neutral zone and carried it into the CC zone beat a defenseman and fed a streaking Nick Fedorka who scored into an empty net to make it 6-2 as the Vikings carried a 25-7 shot advantage to the final period. On to the third period and the Bulldogs finally started to get some offensive pressure in the Central zone, but could not score until at 5:44 when freshman Bill Espy scored to cut the lead to 6-3. Extracurricular activity began to re-institute the Meadville – Central rivalry at 4:18 of the final as both teams engaged in a scrum behind the Meadville goal. The Vikings were able to limit Meadville to only one goal as the final shot total read 27-12. An impressive win for the Vikings and back to the drawing board for the Bulldogs and it would be easy to say that the Central Catholic – Meadville rivalry is now in a new chapter….the question is will this chapter continue into March for either or both squads ?.