Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Plum has been one of the surprises early on in the 2003-2004 season, but lately has shown signs of not being able to overcome tough situations, with a 4-3 upset loss to Baldwin prior to the break in which the Mustangs clearly outplayed Baldwin, but ran into a hot goaltender in Matt King and lost. So Stu Relnick’s squad figured the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase would be a proving ground and the Mustangs were impressive in beating Greensburg CC and Latrobe, but came up short in losing to Holy Ghost Prep in overtime in the opener of the tournament. Plum is missing that intangible in becoming a true contender in this years Penguins Cup race and would be tested again against Central Catholic before a packed house at the Center Ice ‘Genie Garage Door Opener’ rink in a who’s who’s night in Western Pa Hockey. Central Catholic coach Kevin Zielmanski could offer Relnick a little advice because coach Z has seen just about everything this season including you guessed it an overtime loss to Holy Ghost in the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase semi-finals last Sunday night. Undoubtedly, after a few Pizza Pub sessions [the favorite stop of many at the half way point on the Route 22 maze], we all come to realize the factor of a few bounces here and there and the fact that a hot goaltender may be a block in the road or maybe just maybe just one time our players will have a little discipline and do what we all tell them time and time again is gonna occur if we maybe ‘listen’. Hey, every coach’s frustration is ultimately satisfying when the old light bulb goes on and these teams start clicking and great hockey occurs…..and that’s why many of the who’s who were in the house jostling between Center Ice rinks to watch Baldwin-Franklin Regional and Central Catholic-Plum. With my faithful assistant Jamie, with stick in hand, and even Ms Pa Hockey made the trip, the assistant of the Starship Pa Hockey Dave ‘Scotty’ Scott, Jamie’s surrogate parents Ed and Sherry Martin, former Plum stud Robbie Tunon, longtime Plum staple Fred Bruce, Penn Hills coach Jan Battista, Central diehard Billy [why is he not on the bench when there are at least 100 people I’ve seen with NO proper coaching level certification on the benches] Zuri, former Central defenseman Zach Roberts, John Fedorek [who did a random audit of the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase Wall of Champions], NA skipper Tom ‘I scouted Derry’s and Ringgold’s JV last night’ Pandolfo, Bethel Park’s Jim ‘Mort’ McVay, Mt Lebanon’s Paul ‘the Rock’ Taibi and the infamous Bob ‘five penalty’ Montana, with camera in hand in our first true ‘who’s who night amongst the filled to the rafters crowd at CI Arena. The goaltenders, Russ Hefner [CC] and J.P. Balson [Plum], dominated the landscape of the first period as the teams exchanged scoring chances. Russ Hefner robbed John Kalichuk in the middle of the first in the games best scoring opportunity. On to the second and Plum tried to confuse the Central defense by stretching the ice and it worked as Aaron Arnold found himself in on the breakaway and beat Hefner to the stick side at 11:48 to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead. The Vikings poured on the pressure in the middle period holding a 15-7 shot advantage through two periods, but J.P. Balson was the difference as he stooped consecutive chances for Matt Urso and Matt Friday at 3:01 and then made a great poke check of Chris Urso on the breakaway at 2:04. Plum used this mometum to seize a 2-0 lead as Jon Smith beat Hefner high to the glove side on a 2 on 0 with 1:03 left in the period. Balson kept Central off the board with an unconscious save on Matt Urso with just 26 seconds remaining in the 2nd. Central just kept on coming in the third period and would take 10 more shots on Balson for a 25-14 advantage for the game. Matt Urso finally got Central on the scoreboard with a wrist shot high over the glove side of Balson to cut the lead to 2-1 with 5:40 remaining. With Plum’s best player Travis Senchur in the box for a misconduct penalty, he could only watch as Balson stoned Urso at 4:57 and hope that his team could hold on. The drama built as the Vikings pulled Hefner for the extra attacker and Plum and Balson seemed to be closing in a huge win, but Central kept banging away and after Balson stopped Billy Connelly in a scramble in front it would be Eddie Martin, who would swoop out of no where and ship the puck past Balson to tie the game with just 35 seconds left in regulation. For Plum, a ‘Holy Ghost’ nightmare from exactly a week ago at the same time, in the same rink and for Central Catholic maybe redemption for ‘the Holy Ghost nightmare’ from Sunday night when they watched a 3-1 lead evaporate in the game final four minutes and lose in overtime. So now for both teams ANOTHER chance and a lesson, for if you go to overtime ‘ you always have a chance’. This would be the lesson which coach Z learns and maybe coach Relnick and his star players will learn too……no matter what happens in a game all overtime is …is a chance to steal a game that maybe you should or shouldn’t win and Central Catholic seized the moment as freshman Chris Urso delivered the big blow at 4:22 by re-directing a puck past Balson which just seemed to trickle into the net sending the Viking faithful into a frenzy and the Plum faithful back down Route 22 wondering when its team would get a bounce…..only the Father, Son and Holy Ghost MAY know and that’s why who’s who night on this night was a thriller !

2004 Penguins Cup Schedule and Results Penguins Cup Final - Mellon Arena Class A Penguins Cup - Serra Catholic 3 Somerset 1 ***GAME SUMMARY IS NOW AVAILABLE*** Class AA Penguins Cup - Peters Twp 5 Indiana 4 [OT] ***GAME SUMMARY IS NOW AVAILABLE*** Class AAA Penguins Cup - Mt Lebanon 3 Meadville 0 ***GAME SUMMARY IS NOW AVAILABLE*** MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PENGUINS CUP IN OUR GAME SUMMARIES !

CRANBERRY ~ Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by Montour Hockey Club Montour (5-4) won its fifth straight game defeating Ambridge (1-9) at Bladerunner's in Warrendale on Tuesday night. Montour stormed out to an early 5-0 lead by the beginning of the second period and held on to win by the final score of 9-3. Chad Talotta (4 pts on the night) and Kevin Smith (3 pts) both scored hat tricks for the Spartans. Defenseman Brian Dugan tallied 3 assists while winger Ross Polk added a goal and 3 assists. Tyler Kocak played great at both ends of the ice and assisted on two Spartan goals. Joey Clarke assisted on two of Talotta's goals and Steve Tauriello collected a powerplay goal. Zach Perry added a shorthandegoal on a centering pass from Mario Panucci. Ambridge's first goal was scored in the 2nd period by Chas Cvitkovic (1 goal, 1 assist) on the powerplay following a pass from Dan Meerdo. Ambridge then scored five minutes later to cut the Montour lead to 5-2 on a goal by Cory Bajik that was set up by passing from Ben Beeman and Chas Cvitkovic. However, Ambridge would only score once more when Alex Calabrese scored on a penalty shot midway through the third period.

CORAOPOLIS ~ Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by West Allegheny West Allegheny Indians (4-5) defeated the Moon Tigers (3-6-1) in OT on Friday night (12/19) at the Airport Ice Arena. West Allegheny outshoot Moon 36 to 25. Ian Skacan scored the game winner with 2:06 left in OT. Matt Abrams of West Allegheny started the scoring at 9:33 left in the first period. Dan Ros of Moon scored about 3 minutes later to tie the game at one. Moon jumped in the lead with a goal by Lee Feigert. Nine seconds later, West Allegheny's Marek Polidor tied the game at two. West Allegheny took the lead with 1:11 left in the first period with a shorthanded goal from Ryne Savisky. The first period ended with West Allegheny ahead 3-2. In the second period, Moon scored first of the period with a goal by Chris Simoni. West Allegheny's Marek Polidor scored a power play goal to give West Allegheny the go ahead goal. Ryne Savisky scored to give West Allegheny the lead, 5-3. In the third period, Moon's Jason Anderson scored to bring the Moon Tigers back within one. Moon's Lee Feigert tied the game at five with a power play goal with 10 minuets left in the game. West Allegheny's Ryne Savisky ended the game with 2 goals and 3 assists. Marek Polidor had 2 goals and 1 assist. Matt Abrams had 1 goal. Ian Skacan had 1 goal. Bobby Maliszewski had 2 assists. Moon's Lee Feigert had 2 goals and 2 assists. David Alberga had 1 goal and 2 assists. Dan Ros had 1 goal. Chris Simoni had 1 goal. Travis Greene had 1 assist. Jason Anderson had 1 assist.

NEVILLE ISLAND ~ North Hills coach Dave Ciotti has witnessed a lot in his first year as coach of North Hills and his team has had its shares of ups and downs. The steady force of Casey Dudt-Mulzet has kept the Indians in games, where their lack of offense has really hindered NH at times. North Hills looked to make up some ground on Shaler after dropping a heartbreaker to Erie Cathedral Prep on Tuesday night. Long time Shaler skipper Ron Steedle has seen just about everything in 20+ years of Interscholastic Hockey including his team posting 16 goals against Woodland Hills Monday, which was a welcome break for the Titans, who have played in five one-goal games in their first eight which will but some mileage on any coach including this one. So Steedle and his band of merry men, including Shaler teacher Dennis ‘the Drillmaster’ Iwanchuk, who hails from Alberta [that’s in Canada], Mike Butler [former Shaler star], Doug Hastings [who was an outstanding goaltender for the Titans in the 90’s] and yours truly, were in the hallway of Neville Island Sports Center singing ‘All I want for Christmas is a rebound goal, a rebound goal, a rebound goal and hopefully in the third period….if that’s not asking for much Santa ? The game began with North Hills dominating play and outshooting Shaler 9-2 in the opening period. Ben Burns was sharp stopping all nine shots in a quick and penalty free first. On to the second and the Titans picked up their game and pelted Casey Dudt-Mulzet with nine shots but to no avail, the best chance coming as Tommy Carter just missed from in front. The game would be a 0-0 stalemate entering the third period with only three penalties including a phantom even up call at the end of the second on Carter, who was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for getting hauled down….was that # 9 or # 59….well Carter is # 8 and the kid never opens his mouth or questions anything…so Shaler was robbed of a chance to start the third period with a power play. The final period saw Shaler really pick up the pace outshooting North Hills 11-4, but as it seems to happen the Indians capitalize on a Shaler mistake in its own end. A fail clearing attempt by the Titans found its way on to the stick of Chris Oppenlander, who fired a shot through traffic and over the shoulder of Ben Burns with 5:33 to play and give North Hills a 1-0, which had to give coach Ciotti a pretty good feeling. Shaler kept on coming and finally Matt Yost found the net as he took a great feed from Josh Bauer and buried a wrist shot high over the glove hand of Dudt-Mulzet to tie the game with just 2:01 remaining at one apiece. The Titans had several chances in regulation and into the overtime with a 5-1 shot advantage but Dudt-Mulzet stopped or forced bad shots on chances for Graham Papciak, Tommy Carter, Matt Yost and P.J. Domski to earned a hard fought well played 1-1 tie at Island Sports Center.