Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

MEADVILLE ~ It is amazing that Bethel Park and Meadville even played last evening as I-79 was a little dicey on the driving end. Maybe Wheeling Park should play their games in Meadville because the roads to Wheeling could not have been nearly that bad or is it the five games in one week or that their games are meaningless since they are ineligible for the playoffs? Anyway………..after arriving at the ‘House of Chills’ it was time to quickly focus on the game at hand………one of Western Pennsylvania’s greatest rivalries Bethel Park and Meadville before a packed house at the MARC. Meadville has struggled as of late and coach Jamie Plunkett had to be concerned since his club has gone on a scoring drought in February. The Bulldogs were still in control of their division and the number one seed if it could defeat Bethel. Bethel Park on the other hand took one on the chin Friday night against a red hot Franklin team and the vibs were starting already throughout Western Pa that this could be the year for a new champion. Head Coach Jim McVay prides his club on discipline and knows that the Hawks have a big target on their back, so dropping the game against the Panthers may have been just what the doctor ordered. The sign of a championship team is how they respond through adversity and Bethel Park has shined over the past three years when their backs were to the wall with three Class AAA Pennsylvania State Titles. In the opening minutes, Bethel Park owned the territorial advantage and the pressure resulted in an interference call in the games opening minutes. Brandon Hanley put the Hawks on top collecting a loose puck and beating Danny O’Sharuk for a 1-0 lead. Bethel Park continued a disciplined 1-2-2 forecheck with bottled up the Bulldogs and another interference call putting the Hawks on the power play at 8:13. Bethel continued its onslaught on O’Sharuk and Grady Clingan found that loose puck again and calmly deposited the rebound through the 5-hole for a 2-0 BP lead, which silenced the ‘House of Chills’. Chris Wehrle got Meadville on the board with a big blast which just trickled past Matt Feige and the crowd was now back in the game and so were the Dawgs 2-1 with 4:49 left in the opening frame. Meadville received its first power play opportunity less than a minute later, but Bethel Park played simple hockey and cleared their crease and the puck to kill it. On to the second and Meadville was coming in waves and this would turn out to be the turning point of the hockey game early on. With the Dawgs buzzing at 11:05, the puck was centered to the front of the net and Feige lost his balance…with a puck in front and a wide open net in front of him D.J. Craven’s looked to be in a prime position to tie the game, but out of no where came Johnathon Glock, who knocked the puck out of the way to safety and preserved the Bethel Park 2-1 lead. The Hawks seemed to feed off of the momentum created by that play as Conner McLean chance was thwarted by O’Sharuk at 10:41, but the Hawks would not be denied as Mike Diethorn simply outworked Meadville in front of their own net with tenacious effort and banged home a second chance and gave Bethel Park a 3-1 lead at 10:21. Meadville almost pulled within one as Brian Bahurinsky’s tip just went wide at 8:09. With a 3-1 lead, Bethel Park now settled into a simple game of getting the puck out of their zone and forcing the Bulldogs to bring it 180 feet to the Blackhawk net. O’Sharuk tried to move the play along but Diethorn intercepted a clearing attempt at 4:56 and deposited it past the sliding goaltender with 4:56 remaining in the second for a 4-1 Bethel Park lead and you could hear a pin drop in Meadville except for the contingent of Hawk faithful who brave the roads on their trip to Meadville. In the third period, Bethel Park shut down Meadville killing off Bulldog power plays and holding the Dawgs to 13 shots on the night and only a handful in the final frame. Matt Feige rebounded from a sub-par performance against Franklin to shut out Meadville the rest of the way for a huge 4-1 Blackhawk victory, which puts BP in control of their own destiny for the # 1 seed in the upcoming Penguins Cup playoffs.

DELMONT ~ Penn Trafford has had a very good season after being forced to move from Class AA to Class AAA by the PIHL. Gary Artz’s club is very close to clinching the 16th and final playoff spot and may have had its best opportunity slip away in a tie to Butler, because the Warriors will have to beat Gateway or Bethel Park to capture that spot. Gateway had new life after defeating Franklin and pulling to within a half game after defeating the Panthers on Tuesday. Dan Serakowski had to turn his attantion to the task at hand as his team watched the Panthers upset Bethel, which all but eliminated the Gators from the division championship race. So Gateway is now locked in battle to secure a home playoff berth. The Gators sprinted to a 5-0 lead midway through the second period as Zach Flora and Rob McCoy each scored a pair and Jonas Rubiano took advantage of a PT giveaway. Chris Cerutti and Matt Haught scored second period goals for Penn Trafford, but Gateway clamped down defensively in the third period for a 5-2 victory at Center Ice.

DELMONT ~ Bethel Park headed into a critical stretch of games this week against three ranked opponents, which was supposed to start on Monday at home against Cathedral Prep. Coach Jim McVay’s Hawks will now play the Ramblers next Wednesday in the last of a trio including Meadville, ECP and the new kid on the block Franklin Regional. BP hopes to nail down the # 1 seed in the upcoming playoffs and surviving this stretch would be critical to that goal. Franklin Regional got caught counting their chickens Tuesday night as the Panthers may have been a little too relaxed in a big division battle with Gateway and it came back to bite them in a 5-2 loss to the arch-rival Gators. Jim Damp’s club had double motivation as the East Division crown and the # 1 Blackhawks were in front of Franklin if they could pull of an upset. Should the Panthers capture the East Division crown, it would be their first since 1996, when FR won the WPIHL AA Championship. Franklin came out gunning on the first shift and Joe Ferriero slammed home a rebound just 16 seconds in to give the home team a 1-0 lead. If you make mistakes against Bethel they’ll make you pay and goaltender Brandon Stallard mishandled a clearing attempt and it ended up on BP’s Johnathon Glock’s stick and he buried a wrist shot to tie the game at 1-1 at 13:06. At 11:28, Luke DeLorenzo took advantage of a broken play in the Bethel end and beat Matt Feige through the 5-hole and the Panthers regained the lead 2-1. With 8:12 remaining, Brandon Hanley’s breakaway was stopped by Stallard, but the big Bethel forward came back to tie the game at 4:59 with a wicked wrist shot to make the score 2-2. DeLorenzo picked up his second goal of the game beating Feige on a soft goal with 4:04 remaining in the opening period and FR was back on top 3-2. Brian Bakowski replaced Feige between the pipes and made a huge save on DeLorenzo with 1:38 left in the 1st. On to the second and Bethel Park started to fuel on the goaltending of Bakowski, who stoned Michael Roth on a breakaway at 9:52. The Hawks Michael Diethorn got the equalizer with a little over 7 ½ minutes left in period number two on a rebound. Franklin’s Dakota Drew put his team back on top 4-3 with :21 left on a feed from DeLorenzo as the Panthers capitalized on aggressive play against BP. Bakowski continue to shine for Bethel, stopping Roth and DeLorenzo early in the period. This brought hope to Gateway, whose players were rooting on the Blackhawks to defeat Franklin and keep their division title hopes alive. With 6:30 remaining, Sean Buckley delivered an insurance tally through traffic which trickled past the BP goalie and a 5-3 lead for the Panthers. Bethel Park pulled the goalie on the power play as Stallard made several big saves and DeLorenzo completed the hat trick with a 155 foot shot into the open net with :23 seconds remaining which sent the Franklin faithful into a tizzy at a packed house in Delmont for a 6-3 upset victory for Franklin and one step away from a division title.

WHEELING ~ Linsley Academy has doe well in its inaugural season in Western Pa Hockey and celebrated its first Senior afternoon festivities before a nice matinee crowd at the Wheeling Civic Center. Head Coach Daryl Crews is looking forward to having the 2002-2003 campaign being a stepping stone for the Cadets. Richland Cambria on the other hand has playoff fever and Geroge Gvozdich’s club has three games to pull out of a five-team mess for the final playoff spot in Class A. The Rams have had an up and down season, but were hoping that a win over Linsley would propel them closer to the upcoming playoffs. Richland survived the two hour early Saturday bus ride and got first period goals from Derek Schawley and Chris Gvozdich for a 2-0 lead. The Rams extended their lead in the second as Matt Truscello score early on for a 3-0 advantage. Linsley got on the scoreboard as Matt Wade scored at 7:40 to make it 3-1, but RC goaltender John Kamzik shut the door the rest of the way stopping 19 of 20 Cadet shots for a huge victory for the Rams.

WHEELING - Wheeling Park has built a nice hockey program after coming into existence in 1995 and coach Steve Kerr had his # 6 ranked Patriots gearing to finish the season strong with an 11-4-0 record into the seasons final week. A high powered offense which has scored 96 goals in just 15 games. Conemaugh Valley is a little different animal as they have tried to build a more defensive club around all-start netminder Corey Stahl. The Blue Jays have had some great moments this season including a 3-2 OT upset victory over Bishop McCort, but nothing would be sweeter for Matt Yingling’s club than nailing down their first ever playoff berth. Wheeling Park had all of the momentum early in this game but Stahl came up with some real nice stops to keep the Patriots off the board including saves on Andrew Dague in a 13-4 shot onslaught in the opening period. Conemaugh Valley struck first as Zach Szwast scored on a wrist shot at 11:05 for a 1-0 lead. At 9:07, Ryan Reynolds shot from the point sailed high over the glove hand of Justin UpDegraff for a 2-0 Blue Jay lead. Conemaugh Valley struck early and often in the second period as Rick Price scored after a WP turnover in the slot at 14:31 and Dan Pollino scored on a weak shot from the point which trickled past the Wheeling goaltender for a 4-0 lead. Wheeling showed its frustration taking a 4 penalties at 13:10, which resulted in a couple of CV 5 on 3 power plays and the Blue Jays buried their chances as Brad Vogel [12:40], Szwast [11:57], Mark Muir [11:57] and [7:02] and Matt Tilson [3:03] scored made it a 7 goal CV second period and a 9-0 lead over a stunned Wheeling Park team. WP’s Mark Maguire finally broke through on Stahl with just :14 remaining in the 2nd and the teams went to the locker room as Conemaugh Valley held a 9-1 lead. Wheeling Park rallied with five goals in the third period as Andrew Dague and MaGuire scored a pair apiece and Steve Mercer cut the Conemaugh lead to 9-6 with 2:50 remaining. The Blue Jays Brad Vogel scored at a 1:25 and Joe Heltzel sandwiched a Wheeling goal by Kurt Schenkel in the final minute and a half to pace Conemaugh Valley to an 11-7 scoring fest and clinch the Blue Jays first playoff spot in their six year history with a 9-11-0 record.