Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Bethel Park - Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by Fox Chapel T'was the game before Christmas one year ago, and Fox Chapel was visiting the defending state champions Bethel Park, an old foe. With Olive Garden full in their bellies, Fox Chapel skated to a 3-0 loss to the empire of the Bethel Park Blackhawks for the second year in a row. Well...on Monday night this week the tables were turning already as Bethel Park's first week ranking was a suprising 8th, along with two other past dominant teams: Cathedral Prep, and ranked 7th was defending champs Meadville. People may have questioned the rankings, but, so be it coming into Bethel Park Bladerunners for a 7:00 face-off. Both teams had chances early, with FC's Tony Longhini missing an open net, and Todd Hendry stopping a Bethel Park breakaway with a glove save. Bethel Park's Jacobus Bleik scored with 4:34 remaining in the first period to make an early statement about their rank in question. The period would end with a Bethel 1-0 lead. Fox Chapel struck back quickly just 4 1/2 minutes into the second to tie it off the stick of Sophomore Joe Budz. FC then would add a powerplay goal from Matt Quigley and another goal from Tony Longhini to force Bethel Park coach Jim McVay to pull goaltender Delbert Joo for Mike Mastracci with 3:36 left in the second period, down 3-1. Fox Chapel seemed to have it sealed with a fourth goal in the third period by Joe Budz, his second of the evening, but Bethel Park is not known for giving up...Conner McLean scored on the power play for Bethel Park to pull within two goals. Then, suprisingly, the officials awarded Bethel Park with a two man advantage which they quickly capitalized on as Bethel's Captain Dan Zabkar scored from the point before the first penalty expired with just under 6 minutes remaining in the final period. The power play then expired and Fox Chapel Defenseman Jason Kreps sealed the game with 1:31 remaining, but a two minute penalty for excessive celebration gave Bethel Park some life. That's when senior goaltender Todd Hendry came up with 3 big saves in the final minute of the game. Final score: Fox Chapel-5, Bethel Park-3. Fox Chapel moves to 2-0 and puts Bethel Park in their first losing record since before anyone can remember, 1-2.

HARMARVILLE ~ Central Catholic opened up the regular season with a pair of victories against Meadville and Latrobe last week, which has the Vikings ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Week 1 poll. So if this CC team is thinking undefeated or State Championship after defeating the defenders, well who could blame them. Ever the concerned coach Kevin Zielmanski knows better and probably needed a ‘Hoosiers’ re-run that ‘we never talk about the next step until we handled the one in front of us!” for his team as Central faced off against former division rival Shaler. Now the professor Ron Steedle returned to Shaler after a two-year hiatus after 18 years at the helm, and the long-time coach understands that to put the Titans in the same breath as Central Catholic would take a special effort from his squad. Maybe a little motivation by the # 1 ranking or maybe the challenge of playing a top ranked team could spur Shaler to pull off the unexpected. Titan netminder sophomore Ben Burns pitched a shutout against Norwin in game one and would be called upon to do the same against CC. Shaler was the aggressor early in the first period and forced the Vikings out of their rhythm with hard work and some physical play. The result was that Shaler took the lead as Tom Carter beat Russ Hefner low on the ice at 7:03 after a nice feed from Josh Bauer. But Bauer got into a match of words with the Viking bench and was sent off for unsportsmanlike penalty putting the CC power play to work. After Shaler survived the # 1 unit of CC, it was the muckers and grinders for the Vikings who got the job done as Neal Kennihan pushed a loose puck past Burns after some hard work by line-mates Conner Hickton and Michael McGurk, who assisted on the play to tie the score at one apiece at 5:38, a PPG goal. A very even hockey game and a very interesting plot was developing as Shaler looked to keep the game close despite being outshot 8-4. With :11 left in the period, Matt Urso tied up the Shaler center on the draw and the crafty and slippery Eddie Martin chipped a seemingly harmless shot at Ben Burns through traffic, which just found its way over the shoulder for a 2-1 Central Catholic lead with just :08 left. On to the second and the Vikings had several power play opportunities but could not beat Ben Burns, who turned away 12 Viking shots. Russ Hefner had to be sharp while facing only 4 shots as the Titans almost tied the game late in the period as the teams headed to the locker room tied 1-1. In the third period, Shaler killed off a penalty and kept the game within reach. A partial break with a two on one was broken up by the Central D a near miss for Josh Bauer to tie the game in the middle of the period. Burns was holding the fort stopping all 11 Central shots and enabling his team to pull the goalie with a minute to play. All Shaler needed was a opening and had a couple of good chances but Hefner would deny the Titans and Central would hold on for a 2-1 victory before a packed house at Harmarville.

USC 4 Bethel Park 1 Thanks to Upper St Clair for providing the Special Report to Pa Hockey Panthers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on first period goals by John Markwell, off a great feed from Jono Lohman, followed by a knuckle puck slapper from the blue line by Kris McDonough that found the back of the Blackhawk net. Connor McLean got Bethel on the board with just 8 seconds remaining in the first period following a Panther turnover. Jeff Greenberg restored the Panther 2 goal edge midway through the second by ramming home a rebound of a Dana Acinapura shot from the point. Panther goalie Kevin Gorder and a strong effort by USC penalty killers worked off a 2 man disadvantage late in the second and early in the third. Jono Lohman capped the win by tallying his first varsity goal one minute later. Gorder was strong down the stretch as the Panthers defeated Bethel in league play for the first time since the '95-'96 team led by Ryan Malone. Speaking of Ryan Malone, he will be on hand on Monday as the Panthers open their home schedule versus Baldwin at Ice Castle at 7pm on Ryan Malone Night and retire his #12.

Delmont - Penn Trafford comes off two consecutive seasons of playoff appearances, the most recent providing a near upset over 3-time state defending champion Bethel Park. Todd Purvis inherited a young talented group of Warriors, which has talent, speed and looks ready to run with the big dogs. In their opener, PT outshot Cathedral Prep by a near 2-1 margin, but as we know it’s not how that counts in hockey it’s how many and the Warriors dropped the game 5-0. Needless to say Penn Trafford has the attention of many teams as a team to be reckoned with in the 2003-2004 season. Now Plum knows a little about what it takes because coach Stu Relnick has been running with the big dogs and has learned that a lot of offense is a great thing to have, but it requires solid defense and goaltending to win championships. So the Mustangs have a great formula with Mike Sargo, who scored 105 goals in Class AAA leading Gateway to a WPIHL AAA Championship in 1996, mentoring the “O” and Jerry “Dr Evil” Bass, the former minister of defense for 7 years from Penn Hills running the “D”. And yeah they have a goaltender too, because J.P. Balson is really showing signs of being the go-to goaltender, which the Mustangs need to make a Penguins Cup run. Plum came out in the first period and looked to pressure PT netminder Joel Sterniak right away and capitalized as John Kalichuk scored on a rebound at 11:34 and then Kalichuk coverted a back door pass from Jonathon Smith at 9:11. Linemate Travis Senchur got into the act at 8:54 burying a blast over Sterniak’s glove side and before the Plum faithful could settle into the Center Ice alumina bleachers, the Mustangs were off and running with a 3-0 lead. Plum was almost a little too offensive minded and was caught for a penalty late in the period and Penn Trafford got on the board as freshman Nick Whaley banked a shot off the Plum defenseman and found its way past Balson with just 0:23 seconds left in the opening period to cut the advantage to 3-1. The Warriors had an excellent chance to pull within one but Glenn Bowersox could not beat Balson from point blank range at 14:03 of the 2nd. Mike Renna extended the Mustang lead to 4-1 picking up a loose puck and scrambling to beat Sterniak low on the ice. Speedy Chris Ceruti got PT back in the game on a breakaway goal at 12:23. Plum answered as Jonathon Smith tipped in a ‘smooth glazed Krispy Kreme’ pass from Travis Senchur at 11:49 to extend the lead to 5-2. If there was hope for Penn Trafford its was that Plum had nearly blown a 4-0 lead in its opener against Franklin Regional on Monday night and if PT could convert some chances, it could get back in the hockey game. Plum was sloppy early on and Chris Ceruti picked off a clearing attempt and made no mistake as he went upstairs past Balson to make it close 5-3 at 14:01. The Warriors almost really made things real interesting, but Balson robbed Kyle Seidle on a rebound which had goal written all over it at 12:23. The game opened up in the 3rd and Sterniak stopped Kalichuk’s bid for the hat trick with 11:13 remaining to keep the score at 5-3. Penn Trafford turned up the heat on Plum a little with several scoring chances to no avail as J.P Balson shut the door. David Dincau closed it out as he found a loose puck and beat Sterniak at 11:13 to give the Mustangs a 6-3 victory before a packed house at Center Ice Arena.

Special Report to PA Hockey ~ Thanks to McDowell for this report ! MEADVILLE BULLDOGS – 3 McDOWELL TROJANS – 2 (OT) Phil Siverd scored the game winning goal just :37 seconds into the sudden death overtime on a feed from Christian Nikerson to lead Meadville to an exciting and entertaining 3 – 2 victory over division rival McDowell at the JMC Ice Arena in Erie Wednesday night. The first period was tightly played with few scoring opportunities for both teams. But with 1:10 left in the period, Mark Skirzynski picked up a loose puck and broke in on Meadville goaltender Danny O’Shurak before being hauled down from behind by the Bulldogs Nate Liscinski. The referee immediately whistled the foul as a penalty shot, and ‘Skritz’ took advantage by beating O’Shurak over the shoulder and off the cross-bar to give the Trojans a 1 – 0 lead after the opening stanza. The next two minutes of the game opened up with a spurt of 3 goals. Liscinski would atone for his 1st period penalty by getting the bulldogs even on a feed from Christian Nickerson 4:21 into the second period. Just :26 seconds later, Trojan Captain Gary Peterson was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking. It took Meadville :46 seconds to capitalize on the power play when O’Shurak started a break up ice and Nickerson rifled a shot past McDowell goaltender John Cleary to give Meadville the lead 2 – 1. But McDowell would counter just :53 seconds later on a fast break of their own as Brian Hammel broke in on goal and shot high on O’Shurak who made the initial save. But the pucked bounced into the air and Peterson was Johnny-on-the-spot to swat it out of mid-air and into the back of the net and tie up the game. McDowell came close to taking the lead at the end of the 2nd period as Skirzynski made an outstanding individual effort to out-hustle a Meadville defender and feed a perfect pass to a trailing Eric Trapp who hit the inside of the post only to see the puck stop under O’Shurak. The third period saw the game settle back down to a tightly played contest with few shots but some good scoring chances. Meadville had 2 shots rattle off goal posts while McDowell almost took advantage of an empty net with 1:30 left in the game as O’Shurak got caught out of the crease trying to play a puck up the ice. But in the ensuing scramble for the puck, the Trojans could not get enough control to get a shot on net and the period would end still tied at 2. With the defending state champion Bulldogs on the verge of going 0 – 2 to start the season, and the packed house creating an electric atmosphere, Siverd’s heroics ended the game in dramatic fashion and sent the upset-minded Trojans home on the short end of a hard fought loss. Although Meadville outshot McDowell by a 2 – 1 margin, the quality scoring chances were equal on both sides. Both goaltenders played outstanding as McDowell’s John Cleary stopped 33 of 36 shots and O’Shurak stopped 13 of 15. The game was a clean played affair with 3 penalties whistled on McDowell and only 2 on Meadville. The Bulldogs even their PIHL record at 1 – 1 (4 – 1 – 1 overall) while McDowell is 0 – 1 in the league (3 – 5 overall). Scoring By Period: Meadville / 0 – 2 – 0 – 1 = 3 McDowell / 1 – 1 – 0 – 0 = 2 Goal Scorers: Meadville / Nate Liscinski, Christian Nickerson, Phil Siverd McDowell / Mark Skirzynski, Gary Peterson Shots on Goal by Period: Meadville / 9 - 17 - 9 - 1 = 36 McDowell / 4 - 7 - 4 - 0 = 15