Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

JOHNSTOWN – Forest Hills coach Bobby Salata has to be happy with his team’s performance this season as the Rangers have posted a 9-5-1 record and clinched a playoff spot. The next step for his team is to defeat a team above them in the standings, something the Rangers have failed to do this season in falling to Bishop McCort [twice] and Serra in games that were not even close. A bright spot may have occurred last week as FH took Somerset into the games final minute down one goal only to fall 5-3 with an empty netter. Oh the rigors of coaching can be so rewarding and Westmont Hilltop’s Art ‘King Arthur’ McMillan can attest to over the past 15 + seasons. You see the Mighty Hilltopper has a streak at stake this season with 13 straight winning seasons and a 193-54-15 record over that time, the longest in Western Pennsylvania and ten straight playoff appearances, second only to Thomas Jefferson, who has secured their 14th straight playoff berth. After their first ever Penguins Cup championship last season, only to fall in a heart-wrenching 2-1 loss to Radnor in the State Finals, it has been a different story for Westmont-Hilltop with a 7-8-1 record this season. This may be one of McQuillan’s finest coaching performances as the Hilltopper lineup has just 4 returning starters from last years team and is dominated by freshman and sophomores, which will be a great accomplishment if the make the playoffs and even bigger if the finish at .500 or above. That accomplishment got tougher Wednesday as Forest Hills came out smoking in the first period and scorched Westmont’s Patrick Krumenacher for five goals en route to an 8-0 pasting of Westmont. Leo Lunetto, Dave Duncan and Bryan Parkinson each scored two goals and Kyle Single had a pretty non eventful night at the office with the shutout.

JOHNSTOWN ~ Many of teams have come to the Cambria County War Memorial over the years and many have been sent home by 5-time State Champion Bishop McCort over the past 15 years. Somerset coach Cliff Zeigler has witnessed it first hand and brought his Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranked and undefeated 16-0-0 Somerset team probably thinking this could be the year that the Eagles may be able to handle the ghosts of War Memorials past. Somerset has pounded Class A competition this season and has defeated Elite 8 ranked teams # 7 Sewickley Academy [5-0] # 6 Richland Cambria [4-2] and # 5 Quaker Valley [4-3] while outscoring their opponents 151-24. The big line of Bret Zeigler, Matt Rouch and freshman sensation Cullen Eddy leads all Western Pennsylvania in scoring and has posted ridiculous numbers. So a game that has been rescheduled a few times would finally take place as the War Memorial re-opened to a throng of what seemed like half of Somerset and the usual suspects of Bishop McCort with a crowd of somewhere around 1500 at the historic building. Bishop McCort knew one maybe two important factors about this much anticipated game. Head Coach John Bradley knew that this was a big game and also knew that his club has played in big games before this stage before and maybe this was Somerset’s first opportunity. Secondly, Bradley knows that hockey is a team game which requires defense, backchecking and a 20 man effort, which can play a major factor. The Crimson Crushers have put up some real impressive numbers with a 15-1-0 record and their lone blemish is to their nemesis of the past five years Serra Catholic, a 4-1 defeat earlier in the season. Maybe the most impressive factor in this Crimson Crusher team is that no one in Class [except Serra] has come close to beating them as they have won every game by at least four goals. Bishop McCort features the usual array of balanced scoring across their lineup which has been a trademark of the Crimson Crushers and their successes over the past 15 years in winning 5 Pennsylvania State Championships and 5 recent trips to the Penguins Cup final 4 only to be sent home by Serra Catholic the past four years. The first period was a close checking affair with a limited number of shots being yielded by both teams. Bishop McCort struck first as Corey Mock scored at 11:46 of the opening period. The Crimson Crushers extended their lead to 2-0 as David Champe found the net at 8:26. If there was a turning point of the first period and possibly the game it was in the middle of the first period as Cullen Eddy went down with an injury and left the game. Somerset cut the lead to 2-1 with just :40 left in the 1st period on a goal by Matt Rouch. On to the second period and the Crimson Crushers took control of this hockey game by putting Somerset goaltender Wesley Cramer under siege with 15 shots. The result was four goals for Bishop McCort as Chris Grady scored two goals, one just 8 seconds in to the period and his 2nd with 4:07 left, as the Crimson Crushers added tallies from Joe Delic [11:49] and Marc Domonkos [9:55] to open up a commanding 6-2 lead in the middle period. Bret Zeigler score for Somerset at the ten minute mark for the Eagles lone score. The third period was vintage Bishop McCort as they just worked the puck deep into the Somerset zone and killed the clock with excellent defense and disciplined play. Chris Mendillo added a goal for McCort at 11:06 to extend the lead to a 7-2 game and Zeigler closed out the scoring with just 2:46 left as the Crimson Crushers coasted to an impressive 7-3 victory over Somerset.

DELMONT ~ Special Report provided by Fox Chapel Hockey The atmosphere was intense coming into the Center Ice Arena in Delmont on Monday night as a divisional rival rematch was in the making. Talk of playoffs and division titles were in the air as Plum and Fox Chapel took the ice to go head to head for the second time this season. Back on December 8th of 2003 Fox Chapel handed Plum their first loss of the season and took over the lead of the division and have had it ever since. Plum looked to stay alive in the division race in this late matchup at 9:20pm. The Foxes came out of the gates flying with a power play goal by Sam Stack to put FC up 1-0. It would take two more goals by FC to wake up the Mustang squad, who after going down 3-0, came out hitting hard and frustrated a relaxes Foxes squad, who started taking penalties. Thats when Plum captain Phil Mains capitalized on the PP on a wrap-around to cut the lead to 2 before the period ended. The start of the second period saw more domination by Plum, while FC captian Jason Kreps put Plum back on the powerplay. Plum's Mains then brought the Mustangs within a goal, 3-2, on another powerplay goal on a giveaway in front of FC goalie Todd Hendry. Fox Chapel would not give in though as FC's sophomore sensation Matt Quigley added his second goal of the evening along with another FC tally to go ahead by three again. Plum bounced back with another goal by Mains for the hat trick on a walk in by himself into the FC cage to make the score 5-3. Shots were all even after 2, 20-20. The third period was all Plum...but no goals. Plum poured on the pressure in the third outshooting the Foxes 12-2. But excellent defense helped protect the delicate 2 goal lead by clearing rebounds away from danger and protecting Hendry. Plum would pull netminder JP Balson with a minute to go but to no avail. FC shut down the Mustang offensive to clinch their first division title since 1996, and their first ever division title in class AAA. Matt Quigley had 3 points on the night (2G, 1A), Phil Mains ended with 3 goals, 2 point nights included Dan Thiessen and Joe Budz. Plum outshot Fox Chapel 30-20. Fox Chapel improves to 17-2-1, Plum is now 12-7-1.

Every February Pa Hockey goes through the process of picking the top 25 players in Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. So before all of you tell me how political it is............or how its one man's opinion [actually two now that Matt Sacks has chimed in from Philly].....or that I have my favorites....let me ask this question ? Besides Tom Pandolfo....who has seen every team in Western Pa play ? OK after much anguish and paring down a list of about 100 players the Top 25 in Western Pa is here and its sister Top 25 in Eastern Pa is here as well. And if that isn't enough our annual list of the top 5 Fans is here and Top 5 Freshman who have bolted onto the scene as well as our Top 5 coaching performances. Finally, if you are going to battle or want to build a company the question is who would you want to be on the Board of Directors of that entity....well our Top 10 Scholars are a start and I have a sneaking suspicion some of these kids are Ivy League material ! Enjoy it ! Comments are welcome ! And if you don't like it go cry about it on PIHLWeb because I love reading uninformed nonsense and they need the 5 million [The ICSHL Website actually gets more hits than PIHLWeb for those counting over 10-15 million because they have better search engines] more hits for all that unreported income they're taking in.....The Pa Hockey Top 25 is one reason why it the # 1 Interscholastic Hockey Website in the State of Pennsylvania ! CORRECTION: Fabulous Freshman 5 should be Wes Waldschmidt whose brother Garrett is a Junior for the North Allegheny Tigers

BETHEL PARK – Nothing like a 9:00 game on a Monday night and surprise because no Junior B practice or no Hornets practice or no Midget AAA Junior Select JV Travel practice either. So everybody who is anybody was present for a big Class AA matchup between red-hot Pine Richland, fresh off a 5-1 pasting of Kittanning and Peters Twp, who shut down Indiana 3-0 in their last big game. You see there is quite a debate about Class AA between people from Kittanning, Indiana, Peters Twp, Pine Richland and of course Thomas Jefferson. So with his Jaguars playing doormat Carrick, TJ coach Don ‘the Dean’ Powell was attempting to become the first coach to scout his upcoming opponents and coach a game on the cell phone. Although BP BladeRunners has no heat, it does have pretty good cell phone reception, so coach Powell and yours truly could do their business. So with us two being the only so-called experts in the house, I will give you my take on what happened because Bulldog and Hockey North and all the other guys with big opinions, must not have any money for gas to show up for what would prove to be a classic matchup. Pine Richland and Peters Twp, in a rematch of an 11-0 game from last season, which I am sure many of the Pine Richland players remembered and would like to forget frankly. The Rams came out flying in the first period and Brian Kreit found a loose puck on the doorstep from a Ryan Tessmer shot and slammed it home for a 1-0 PR lead at 14:21. Pine Richland went on the power play at 12:41, but PT got had the best chance as Bryan Papciak raced in on the breakaway only to be turned aside by Brandon Gazzo at 11:14. Pine Richland extended its lead to 2-0 as Ryan Tessmer scored a highlight reel goal when he weaved through the Peters Twp defense and beat Rob Madore at 2:11. Pine Richland had a golden opportunity to go up 3-0 on the power play early in the second, but Peters Twp stood tall and killed it. The Indians used that momentum to cut the lead to 2-1 at 12:20 as Dan Crogan fired a wrist shot from the top of the circle to beat Gazzo on the short side. Peters Twp turned it up a notch and caught Pine Richland running around in their own end to create several chances. The Indians would tie the game at 11:05, on a terrific passing play by Chris Clackson and Si Bishop to set up Kevin Kustron, who chipped a shot past Gazzo and the game was tied at two apiece. Rams coach Jimmy Black had seen enough and called a very wise timeout to settle his troops immediately after the goal and this would pay off as Ryan Tessmer would give PR the lead again at 3:11 on a Mario Lemieux type goal as he caught Rob Madore off the post and banked it off his back at 3:11, which trickled behind the young PT goaltender to give the Rams a 3-2 advantage. Peters Twp thought they had tied the game at 12:12 but Gazzo stoned Gerry Raymond, but the Indians would not be denied as Raymond, on the back door, tipped a great pass from Bryan Papciak up under the crossbar just ten seconds later and the game was tied again at 3-3 with 12:02 remaining. The game was in the balance and both teams had chances to take the lead it through the third period with some great end to end action. Ryan Tessmer wanted to decide this game and he would be the difference. After being robbed on a great skate save by Rob Madore moments earlier, Tessmer dipsy-doodled through a host of Indians into the slot and buried a shot low on the stick side with 3:50 remaining to give the Rams a 4-3 lead. Peters would pull the goalie in the games final minute but could not tie the game and Pine Richland would prevail with an exciting 4-3 victory before an intimate gathering at BP BR.