Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

CANONSBURG – Special Report by Pa Hockey When we last left Montour and Canon McMillan, each team was smouldering over narrow playoff losses. The Spartans fell in overtime to Chartiers Valley, which was easily the upset of the 2005 AA playoffs. Coach Dan Siegel’s club won a Division Championship, but the loss meant the graduation of several key players, which would mean a new group of Spartans led by Zach Perry will have to pick up the slack. Canon McMillan’s Penguins Cup semi-final appearance and loss to ultimate State Champions Peters Twp left a bad taste in many of the Big Macs mouths and did not satisfy head coach Dave Fryer, who felt his team was destined for a State Championship. CM returns some very solid offensive performers in Justin Cormack and Jesse Patnesky, but goaltending will have to there should this team has playoff aspirations While everyone was focused on the final result of the 2004-2005 season, I would like to recall some unfinished business in the form of a late season game between the two clubs at Neville Island Sports Center, where the teams battled to a 4-4 tie in a game that was curfewed leaving both teams flabbergasted as to why they couldn’t finish it. That was the last time these two teams met and frankly was the last great game either team played in the 2004-2005 season. What could have been a momentum builder in to the playoffs, became an asterisk on the scoresheet for a league, which compiled plenty of them throughout the season and during the playoffs and floods Gotham City with plenty of crime. After finding one of the final parking spaces in Canonsburg, not to be confused with the ‘Canonball’ [may it rest in piece], we set off into the Iceoplex to find a seat in the jammed packed arena with the ‘Concerned Citizens of Montour’ and Robin the Boy Wonder’s ‘Concerned Citizens of Canon McMillan’. With Music, pre-game Division Banners ceremonies, tailgate parties and the inability to find a plug to turn on the Bat Computer, we would have to rely on battery power from the Utility Belt to bring you all of the action. At 13:04 of the first period, Montour netminder freshman Matt Skoff stopped CM’s Justin Cormack, who broke around the Montour defense for the game’s first chance. Montour would strike first as at the 10:00 mark, Paul Ciotti played bumper pool to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead, on a shot that fooled goaltender Mike O’Neill and trickled past him. Montour continued the pressure on CM with a flurry of shots at around the 7minute mark, but O’Neill was equal to the task. The Big Macs struggled in their own end in the first period, but held off the Spartans keeping the 1-0 score in tact. With just :58 seconds remaining in the opening period, Canon McMillan was buzzing as Nick Cusilito and Justin Cormack dug the puck free and Jesse Patnesky was there for a tap-in to tie the score at one apiece. On to the second and at 13:39 of the period on the power play, the Spartans displayed some real nice puck movement and Zach Perry blasted a snapshot on a one-timer off an Aaron Siegel cross-ice feed to give Montour a 2-1 lead. Canon Mac had an early season mental mistake as they were caught with too many men on the ice at 6:31, giving the Black and Gold a chance to go up by two. CM’s Kyle Harnen had a great chance on a partial break at 5:19, but Matt Skoff cut down the angle and made a big save. Then the Spartans made them pay at 4:46 as Zach Perry went upstairs over the shoulder of O’Neill to make it a 3-1 hockey game, which Montour took to the ice cut. At 11:39 of the third period, Adam Rizza was parked out in front and took a pass from Josh Spano and burieda a snapshot past O’Neill for a hug insurance tally and a 4-1 lead for the Spartans. With 7:45 remaining, Justin Cormack broke down the off wing and Matt Skoff said no. Canon Mac went on the power play with 5:03 remaining to try a last ditch effort to get back in the game and with 4:03 left Justin Cormack finally solved Skoff skating around the zone and then down the middle of the ice blasting a slapshot high over the glove side to cut the lead to 4-2. With 2:20 remaining, the Big Macs went back on the power play, but the Spartans would shut the door for a 4-2 opening night victory.

HARMARVILLE - Thank you to the North Allegheny Hockey Club for this report NA vs Fox Chapel Game Summary courtesy of Don Vandergrift TIGERS WIN PIHL OPENER, 2-0, WITH TWO GOALS IN FINAL PERIOD After being held to a scoreless tie through the first two periods, seniors Paul Dittrich and Chris Gilson were able to tally third-period goals to give the Tigers a 2-0 victory over Fox Chapel at Bladerunners in Harmarville in the PIHL opener on Monday night. The win earned a little revenge for a loss to the Foxes in the final of the St. Margaret's Fall Face-off Tournament earlier in the year. The Tigers outshot Fox Chapel in both the first and second periods but could not beat Fox Chapel goalie Eric Thiessen. NA had nine shots to three for the Foxes in the first period, and added 10 more in the second to just three for Fox Chapel. For most of the third period, it looked like the game would go to overtime with neither team able to get the all-important first goal. Finally, with just 3:33 left, Dittrich beat Thiessen with a hard slap shot from just inside the blue line to give the Tigers a 1-0 advantage. Gilson picked up an insurance goal with 37 seconds left when he poked in a rebound from in front of the net. The Tigers came away with a hard fought 1-0 decision as the PIHL regular season got under way. For the game, the Tigers outshot the Foxes, 36-11, and only the outstanding play of Thiessen in the net kept the game close. Sophomore Max Richards was in goal for NA and posted the shutout. Fox Chapel had six penalties for a total of 12 penalty minutes while NA was called for three penalties totaling six minutes. The Tigers will host Bethel Park on Friday night in the home opener. The game is a rematch of last year's PIHL championship game with game time scheduled for 6:00 pm at Bladerunners in Warrendale. Students are requested to wear black for an NA Student Blackout. Sunglasses are acceptable indoors for this game. Student admission will be $2.00. GAME SUMMARY NORTH ALLEGHENY - 2 FOX CHAPEL - 0 SCORE BY PERIODS 1 2 3 FINAL NORTH ALLEGHENY 0 0 2 2 Fox Chapel 0 0 0 0 INDIVIDUAL SCORING FIRST PERIOD No Scoring SECOND PERIOD No Scoring THIRD PERIOD NORTH ALLEGHENY Paul Dittrich (unassisted) 3:33 NORTH ALLEGHENY Chris Gilson (Dittrich) 0:37 SHOTS ON GOAL TEAM 1 2 3 TOTAL NORTH ALLEGHENY 9 10 17 36 Fox Chapel 3 3 5 11

NEW KENSINGTON - This report is courtesy of Central Catholic Hockey The PIHL season began last night and the Mount Lebanon Blue Devils arrived at Valley Sports Complex dressed as contenders for the state championship this season. The Blue Devils started dishing out tricks and not treats thirteen seconds into the game when Shane Ferguson pushed home a rebound of a Josh Mandic shot to give the Devils the early lead. The tricks continued as the first line of Shane Ferguson, Tyler Murovich, and Josh Mandic dominated the game for the Blue Devils. Not long after, they increased their lead with a goal by Tyler Murovich. The first period ended with the score 2 - 0. Central started to bounce back and finally tallied a goal of their own when senior Joe Kerr deflected a shot by Josh Martin passed Lebo goalie Matt Vaughn to make it a 2 - 1 game. The lead didn't last too long as the Devils scored a third goal on the power play when a shot to the left of Viking goalie Bob Magyarics was whiffed but the puck trickled to an open Jesse Root who redirected the puck into an open net for a 3 – 1 lead. That was the score at the end of the second period. Any thoughts of a comeback by the Vikings were quickly throttled by the first line of the Devils again. It only took them twelve seconds this time as Ferguson skated freely down the right wing boards an unleashed a wicked wrist shot that appeared to strike just under the cross-bar but was called a goal by the officials working the game. That made the score 4 - 1 and seemed to deflate the Vikings. C.J. Stellabotte scored the second goal for Central on the power play. The final score was 6 - 2 in favor of Mount Lebanon; a team that clearly demonstrated that they are worthy of being ranked number one in the preseason.

Prelimary Round Latrobe 1 McDowell 1 Nick DiSanti scored for the Trojans 12:38 of the first period to give his team a 1-0 lead. David Farah tied the score for Latrobe with 2:43 remaining in the 2nd period as the Wildcats and McDowell battled to a 1-1 tie. Latrobe goalie Jason Hendrick stopped 27 of 28 shots, while the Trojan combo of John Cleary and Tim Shea, stopped 20 of 21 shots. Baldwin 5 Downingtown West 3 Baldwin spotted Downingtown West a 2-0 lead as Eric Marino and Bobby Blanken scored for the Whippets early in the 1st at 14:08 and again early in the 2nd at 14:19. The Highlanders rattled off four straight goals in the second as Mike Kirk notched a pair and teammates Chad Revak and Brad Haas also lit the lamp to give Bladwin a 4-2 lead going to the third. Blanken’s power play goal with 2:10 remaining cut the lead to 4-3, but Mike Kirk added an empty netter for the hat trick to give the Highlanders a 5-3 victory and an outside shot at getting to the title game pending the out come of Serra Catholic’s final two games. Baldwin netminder Ryan Smith made several key saves in the third period stopping 19 of 22 shots in the game. Serra 8 Butler 1 Serra won its second game of the Invitational and set up an opportunity to go to the finals with a win or tie against Downingtown West with a convincing 8-1 victory over Butler. Josh Werner and Jared Matthews each scored a pair of goals as Steven Gruhala, Matthew Radovic, Michael Puskar and Aaron Nolte added goals for the Eagles. Serra outshot Butler 38-11, with Nick Koroly yielding only one goal to Zach Pennington. Conestoga 5 Latrobe 2 Conestoga won their opening game over Kittanning 4-1 in the opener of the Kittanning Invitational. A young Latrobe team had other ideas after a loss to the Kittanning Wildcats and a tie earlier in the day against McDowell. Mike Kimmel opened the scoring for Latrobe early in the first at 13:12 and Matt Mesaros made it 2-0 with6:06 left in the opening period. Conestoga went to work in the second period as Kyle Izett scored a natural hat trick with three goals in 2 minutes and 2 seconds as the Pioneers jolted to a 3-2 lead and took that lead to the ice cut. Insurance came in the form of linemate Billy Conlin, who had two assists on the Izett goals in the second period and added a huge goal with 10:27 left in the third. Kyle Izett capped of a four goal performance with 5:42 remaining as Conestoga outshot Latrobe 33-18 putting head coach Mike Grave’s Pioneers in the driver’s seat for a spot in the finals. Kittanning 5 McDowell 4 McDowell opened up the 2005 Kittanning Invitational with a 1-1 tie against Latrobe and the win would prove costly as starting goaltender John Cleary would be ejected and have to sit out this afternoon’s contest. Kittanning owned a victory over Latrobe and a loss to Conestoga and both teams would need help to get an opportunity to play for the championship. The Trojan’s Nick DiSanti opened the scoring at 11:33 of the opening period. Ethan Zimmerman knotted the score for the Wildcats at 4:33 of the 1st. After a scoreless second period Kittanning struck first as Joey Ford combined with Zach Avi to give the Cat’s a 2-1 lead. Ed Maras and Steve Murray scored at 9:02 and 4:53 and it looked like the Trojans would win this taking a 3-2 advantage. Back came the Wildcats as Evan Blodgett scored with 3:08 remaining to tie it and Nick Troup converted with just 1:11 remaining to give hometown Kittanning a heartstopping 4-3 win, despite being outshot 44-18. Joey Mecurio was stellar between the pipes stopping 41 McDowell shots.

Championship Final Conestoga 2 Downingtown West 1 [OT] The Ice Line complex is located near West Chester in suburban Philadelphia and is the home ice for Conestoga and Downingtown West ice hockey programs. The Pioneers play in the illustrious Central Division of the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League and own a couple of State Championships dating back to 1985 and 1986, including a perfect season in 86 coached by former Fox Chapel and Upper St Clair head Taylor Railton. Mike Graves now leads a Conestoga program looking to make their mark in the Flyers Cup AA division. Interestingly enough Conestoga and Downingtown West, both AA Flyers Cup participants do not participate in the same division in the ICSHL. After the Downingtown East Cougars won the 2004 Kittanning Invitational, they decided not to return to defend their title. So by osmosis or by invitation, the Downingtown West Whippets made the trek to Kittanning to play in this year’s event. Coach Brad Wentzel took over the West program after the split of the Downingtown School District, which apparently is ready to split again. The amazing part to me is that West and East have been able to field very good hockey teams in consecutive years and come West and play their way to the Kittanning Invitational final. The Whippets defeated perennial Class A power Serra Catholic 5-3 and win the tiebreaker to gain a spot in the final. Downingtown West and Conestoga traded power play goals in the first period as Conestoga’s Billy Dunn scored at 9:11 assisted by Kyle Izett and Brian Wanner. The Whippets tied the game at 2:14 as Bobby Blanken scored on an assist from Evan Miller. After a scoreless 2nd period, a 1-1 battle turned into end-to-end action with tight checking and limited chances for both teams. With 4:41 remaining Downingtown West netminder Greg Graham made a spectacular save on the Pioneer’s Billy Conlin to keep the game tied at 1-1. And then with around a minute and a half remaining, Pioneer’s goaltender Jason Burriss made two terrific stops on Downingtown’s Brendan Smith and Evan Miller to send it to overtime. At 4:34 of overtime Conesotga’s Kyle Izett poked home a rebound past Brendan Smith after a scramble in front for the Invitational winning goal to capture the 2005 Kittanning Invitational. Kyle Izett was named tournament MVP for his outstanding performance for Conestoga. Conestoga outshot Downingtown West 27-22. 2005 Kittanning Invitational McDowell 7 Conestoga 3 Conestoga wrapped up a berth in the final of the 2005 Kittanning Invitational after defeating Latrobe 5-2 and Kittanning knocked off McDowell 4-3 with a comeback win last evening. The Trojans may have been playing Conestoga for a spot had it been able to hold onto a third period lead against the hosting Wildcats. McDowell defeated Conestoga 7-3 on the strength of four second period and two third period goals. Brandon Oathout led the way with a pair of goals for the Trojans, while Ryan Presnar, Matt Stahon, Nick DiSanti, Andy Kohler and Trevor Shaw added singles. Michael Dunn, Bill Dunn and Brian Wanner scored for the Pioneers. McDowell’s John Cleary stopped 33 of 36 shots to pick up the win in goal. Downingtown West 5 Serra Catholic 3 Downingtown West and Serra Catholic matched up in a game which would decide who would face Conestoga in the 2005 Kittanning Invitational final. The Eagles defeated AAA schools Baldwin 7-4 and Butler 8-1 an only needed a tie or a win to secure a spot in the Championship. The Whippets would need to defeat Serra and then face a flurry of possible tiebreaker scenarios after a win over Butler 10-2 and a loss to Baldwin 5-3. Downingtown West pulled off the victory on the strength of a pair of goals Bobby Blanken and single scores from Steve Blanken, Joe Tillman and Zach Bohm. The eventual game winner came with 10:33 remaining from Bohn and Bobby Blanken added an insurance tally late in the third period. Serra took a 2-2 tie to the final period and the Eagles goals were scored by Aaron Nolte, Jared Matthews and Steven Gruhalla as Serra outshot West 33-26. Greg Graham continued his fine play between the pipes for the Whippets with 30 saves and his team advanced on the tiebreaker of penalty minutes.