Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

SOUTHPOINTE - Two of Class AA top programs met on Monday night at Southpointe with identical 5-0 records. For TJ and Peters, who have ownership of four of the last five Class AA State Championships, an intimate gathering for the big matchup of around 100 people turned out for a 9:50 PM contest which was to be the feature game of the early season. On the first shift of the game, Mike Papciak, sporting a new uniform number of 70, blasted a slap shot over the left shoulder of Danny Hartman at 14:12 to give the defending Class AA champions a 1-0 lead. Coach Don Powell's troops settled down and began to carry the play which resulted in an excellent chance for Eric Holzer at 13:46 but Kyle Kittleberger stopped him from point blank range. The Indians held on to the 1-0 lead in an evenly played first period. With Peters Township on the power play to start the second, Matt Schwartz scored on the back door as the puck fluttered off Hartman's stick at 13:53 to make it 2-0. Then at 12:13, TJ's Daryl Nath took a beautiful feed from Brandon School for a power play goal and cut the lead to 2-1. Just 13 seconds later, Jaguars Andrew Olmstead found himself in front of Kittleberger but could not beat the Indian netminder. TJ was now outworking Peters Twp and pressing for the equalizer, which resulted in a Jaguar power play at 9:43. Now for the dramatics and as we know games can turn on a dime with a fortunate bounce and for Matt Schwartz, who just returned to Peters lineup, he will tell his grandchildren or maybe his younger brother about the folklore goal and how he took it coast to coast and beat five TJ defensemen. Matt was just doing his job icing the puck, when the showdown of unbeatens took a twisted turn. At 8:25 of the 2nd, Danny Hartman came out to play the icing and tried to clear the puck around the boards ....the puck carroomed to the front of the net where Daryl Nath was covering and it bounced harmlessly off the Jaguar deenseman's stick into an open net and resulted in a 3-1 Peter Twp lead in a big turning point. This goal seemed to deflate Thomas Jefferson and Mark Cooper's Indians smelled a wounded duck and were poised to take advantage. Chris Clackson scored on the shorthanded breakaway at 5:42 to extend the lead to 4-1. Christian Minella added another at 1:12 for a 5-1 Indian advantage after two periods. Minella and Papciak closed out the scoring in the third to give Peters an impressive 7-1 victory as Kittleberger slammed the door with several great stops late in the third. The victory proved costly as Matt Clackson received a game misconduct lat in the third period, which will result in him missing the next Peters test with # 2 and undefeated Greensburg Central Catholic next Monday at Iceoplex.

MONROEVILLE - While the Woodland Hills community is get ready for a trip to Hershey for a possible 1st ever football state championship, its ice hockey team is looking for win # 1 on the 2002-2003 campaign. Thats seems a little odd for Allderdice to be saying the same thing, especially since they are two years removed from the Penguin Cup final appearance. When your leading scorer is goaltender Ben Levine, then you can understand why the Dragons are winless. Ian Jackson put the Wolverines on tp early in the first period 1-0. Steven Wedner tied the game at one apiece as the teams stood at 1-1 after the opening period. On to the second period and Wedner gave the Dragons the lead for the first time at 7:07 as his wrist shot beat Jared White through a screen. The Dice's Steve Devereaux scored with :37 left in the 2nd to extend the Dragons lead to 3-1 at the end of two. Devereaux scored his 2nd goal of the night at 12:23 of the final period to give Alldrdice a comfortable 4-1 lead. The Wolverines came back a minute later as Terry Barnhart beat Ben Levine through traffic to cut the lead to 4-2. Coach Tim Wilt pulled his goalie in favor of the extra attacker and Ryan Kocak scored with just :20 seconds left to make it 4-3. Woodland Hills pressed to tie but could not beat Levine and Allderdice hung on to win 4-3.

VALENCIA - What a difference ten days makes in a season......On 11/21...Jeff Smouse's Kittanning club scored an exciting 3-2 overtime victory over powerful South Park, which confirmed the Wildcats comeback streak of three in a row after an 0-2 start. On the same night, Hampton moved to 2-1 and into first place in the PIHL AA North with a convincing 4-1 victory over arch-rival Pine Richland. For Hampton head coach Craig Clontz, he was looking ahead at the schedule after the PR game and saw Greensburg CC and Kittanning as big tests for his young team and after the thumping the Centarians put on Hampton, he was looking for a better effort against Kittanning. The first period see-sawed as both teams jabbed in a tennis match through the first 7 1/2 minutes. Kittanning had the first opportunity on the power play and Zach Cain scored at the 6:41 mark to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. Then with 3:10 remaining, Hampton's Brian Troiano made a spectacular save on Dustin Kellner, but Joel Shriver pounced on the rebound and buried it to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead after one. Coach Clontz tried to rally his troops early in the second, but an undisciplined penalty behind the play put Kittanning on the power play and at 12:54 Brandon Beatty's shot from the point deflected off a Talbot defenseman in front and behind Troiano for a huge goal and a 3-0 lead for Kittanning. The flood gates opened late in the middle period as Lee Heilman [4:05] and Shriver [3:01] score to give the Wildcats a commanding 5-0 lead. Pat Schneidier and Luke Heller added third period goals and Adam Toy stopped everything the Talbot threw at him to coast to a 7-0 victory at the Ice Connection.

Each year the top 25 players are chosen and each year our esteemed Website chooses the top 5 "Fans of the League".....above is some of the favorite cartoon characters of Western Pa Hockey and Eastern Pa Hockey ...... After much lobbying and anguish and phone calls and games and trips to Johnstown and Erie and even Golden Mile and e-mails and phone calls to our Philly fanatics .........it is finally here....on Pa Hockey's > Top 25 Players in Eastern and Western Pa > Top 5 Coaching performances and Top 5 Freshman flashes in Western Pa > and the coveted top 5 'Fans of the League' Also included is the Top 25 from 2002 and 2001 which you can access by selecting the tabs of our spreadsheet The All Star game will be held on Febrary 9th at the Kirk Nevin Arena in Greensburg beginning at 1:00 PM........check out who made the all-stars by clicking on the logo below !

MEADVILLE - The 'House of Chills' in November was packed to the rafters for the big showdown between the # 1 ranked Ramblers of Cathedral Prep and the Dawgs of Meadville. Coaches Nels White and Jamie Plunkett were looking for signs of progress from their respective teams. The atmosphere was electric as the teams engaged in a fast paced opening minutes. With no score and Meadville killing a penalty, Brian Bahurinsky got an opportunity in front but was stopped by Rob Allison at 8:39. Cathedral Prep struck first as Jon Merriott walked off the near boards and beat Danny O'Sharuk on the glove side upstairs to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. In the second period, Prep stud Jeff Dionosio nearly made it 2-0 after a big center ice hit by Kyle Rogers at 12:35. Meadville's Jeffrey Holabaugh banked the puck off Allison from behind the goal line to tie the score at 1-1 at 10:13 of the middle frame. Prep had an opportunity to regain the lead but O'Sharuk stopped Mike Boling on the breakaway at 6:30 and the the Dawgs still had the lead. Then Dionosio scored an unbelievable goal as whle being upended in front of the net he scored in one motion on the short side and all the sudden the game was Prep 2 Meadville 1. Just a minute later it was Bahurinsky beating the Rambler defense and creating a 2 on 1 and then slipped a pass to Phil Siverd who deflected the puck past Allison at 3:29 to tie the score at 2-2. Then the Dawgs got that big goal with just one second remaining in the second period as Justin Wehrle intercepted a clearing attempt and walked down the slot and beat Allison on the stick side to make it 3-2. On to the third and the next goal would be huge and the Bulldogs got it as Bahurinsky scored on the breakaway at 13:24 to make it 4-2. Then Rick Thomas blasted a shot from the point at 6:39 to add a big insurance goal and pace the Bulldogs to a 5-2 lead. Prep kept fighting back and scored at 8:04 as Dionosio got behind the Meadville defense and scored on the rebound. O'Sharuk had to come up with a big save on Kyle Rogers at 4:10. Rogers came right back and beat O'Sharuk at 3:25 through the five hole to cut the lead to 5-4. Prep pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and Holabaugh scored on a 150 foot clearing attempt to finalize a 6-4 victory for the Bulldogs.