Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

DELMONT - Penn Trafford has built quite a program in a short time via the Center Ice Arena in Delmont and according to some close to the club their 60 players in the program could be closer to 80. Head coach Gary Artz's team made the playoffs at Class AA last season and went 'kickin and screamin' along with the others in the PIHL Northeast Division, which is considered the 'Norris Division' by many AAA coaches. One look at the Warriors lineup card shows youth is on their side in a bright future and has a suprising resulted in 2-0-0 start. Franklin Regional on the other hand is already locked in a battle with Gateway and Plum for the East division crown and the season is just two weeks old. Jim Damp's club has had some excitement already with three games which went down to the final minute tied or a one goal differential and the Panthers have started 2-0-1. The Warriors took no time getting started as Kyle Sidle scored just 32 seconds in to give PT a 1-0 lead. Penn Trafford goaltender Tim Roberts stopped 10 shots in an evenly played first period until Jimmie Daugherty tied the game at 1-1 with :23 left in the opening period of play. Franklin opened up the second witha shorthanded tally by Mike Roth at 14:15 to give the Panthers the lead 2-1. PT's Sidle tied the score with his second goal on the power play at 7:58 of the 2nd on an assist from Chris Cerutti and Matt Haught. Franklin regained the lead at 6:32 as Lou Levine put the Panthers ahead 3-2. In the third period, Joe Ferriero scored on a rebound at 14:10 to give the Panthers two goal cushion. Then at 8:28, Sean Buckley ripped a snapshot past Roberts to put the game on ice and a 5-2 Franklin Regional victory.

HARMARVILLE - Shaler coach Rich Michalowski decided to sit star goaltender Ed Stotts to send a message to his young team last night against Gateway at Harmarville. Gateway was looking to send another type of message to Shaler and the rest of AAA. You see the Gators have a new formula after their opening night comeback victory against a renewed Baldwin squad......they are gonna dump and chase and go hard to the net all night long and challenge you to stop them. After Gateways Matt Kopaczynski and Shalers Jimmy Duss traded goals in the first period, coach Spike had to feel pretty good about that decision. The Gators Mark Wroblewski banged home a rebound past Drew Wenheimer after 3 cracks to give his team the lead 2-1. If there was a turning point in this game, it came at 4:44 of the second as Eric Taormina had a golden opportunity and a wide open net but hit the inside of the post and it was still 2-1. Those pesky Gators continued to bang away as defenseman Chris Gyke jammed home another rebound of a Luke Pepper shot at 1:53 to mae it 3-1. Gateway broke Shaler's back when Pepper scored on a rebound of a shot from Mike DiLorenzo with just :39 seconds left in the middle frame. In the final period, Joe Bianchi kept the play in at the point and Ryan Whitfield found Justin Scott alone who scored on his own rebound at 12:20 to make it 5-1. Scott and Zach Flora added late goals to give Gateway a convincing 7-1 thrashing of the Titans outshooting them 32-20.

The Final Regular Season Elite 8 Rankings for Week 16 are Here !!!! > Pennsylvania # 1 ~ Class AAA - Malvern Prep **Ranked # 56 Nationally on USHO** # 1 ~ Class AA - Holy Ghost Prep # 1 ~ Class A - Serra > Eastern Pennsylvania # 1 ~ Class AAA - Malvern Prep # 1 ~ Class AA - Holy Ghost Prep # 1 ~ Class A - Radnor > Western Pennsylvania # 1 ~ Class AAA - Meadville # 1 ~ Class AA - Peters Twp # 1 ~ Class A - Serra Plus again this season will be the Pa Hockey ~ National Rankings from Mitch Hawkers from the Minnesota State League !!!

MOON TWP - Alright everybody lets all jump on the Moon bandwagon.....besides the Tigers were impressive in defeating Kittanning at the Belmont last week and they have been scoring in bunches, so coach Eric Boring's squad had to be a little confident. Now Peters Twp head coach Mark Cooper, he likes this kind of action. A challenge to his squad early in the season. Just what the Indians needed early in the season, was a threat to the crown as the defending Pennsylvania AA champions. Early in the first period the Tigers took a penalty after some sustained pressure from Peters Twp, which put the Indians on the power play and it didn't take long for coach Coop's squad to make Moon pay as Christian [a/k/a the squirrel] Minnella banged home a rebound to give PT a 1-0 lead. Moon took two more penalties towards the end of the period and Matt Clackson went coast to coast and scored at 3:42 to extend the lead to 2-0. Peters Twp dominated the opening period, but the Tigers got a break as Dave Alberga shot a puck from behind the net when glanced off a PT defenseman and behind Kyle Kittleberger to cut the lead to 2-1 with just 1:09 remaining. After Moon's Valente tied the score at 14:42, the Indians Brandon Rubeobeat the Tigers defense to the puck and slammed a shot through the 5 hole past Andrew Slifkin to give Peters a 3-2 lead again at 12:14. Moon took some undisciplined penalties and the result was that Peters Twp made them count as Mike Sherer and Harry McGovern tallied to give the Indians a comfortable 5-2 lead. Kittleberger made a great stop on Brad Alayon with 41 ticks remaining in the middle frame. Peters would go on to score four more goals in th final period as Minella, Mike Papaciak [2 goals]and Rubeo scored to lead the Indians to a 9-4 victory. The statement of this game was made by Papciak at 6:08, who while killing a 5 on 3 disadvantage beat the Moon player to the puck then proceeded to wind his way around five Moon defenders and backhand a shot past Slifkin with 6:08 remaining....sure it made it 8-3, but a message to Class AA that the champions are not ready to relinquish that crown yet !!

CRANBERRY - For Bethel Park things haven't changed much over the past few years.....its like same crowd and different faces as when arriving at 7:00 for the 7:50 faceoff you can still see those Hawks filing out of the locker room for the pregame run, which is a trademark of the Jim McVay tenure. It was a pretty empty building and I enjoyed watching it ! You see, this year North Allegheny and Bethel Park both lost a dozen seniors apiece from last years squads and the Tigers were coming off big wins over Mt Lebanon and Meadville. So would they have the advantage in this big early season contest ? Hey there's a reason the Hawks have three straight Pennsylvania State Championships.....and its has little to do with last games performance and who is in those uniforms and has alot to do with tradition, preparation and belief that every time they step on that ice they are gonna just do it ! Great odds for a program who has only lost in the regular season twice in three years prior to 2002-2003. A fast moving first period and up and back they went in normal NA-BP fashion with tight checking and strong goaltending at both ends by Matt Feige and Bobby Daley. Then at 7:09, Conner McLean shot the puck just wide of the post and the puck caromed off the live boards and found its way onto the stick of Mike Diethorn, who beat Daley on the far post with a shot right on the ice to give Bethel a 1-0 lead. North Allegheny came back just 14 seconds later as the Hawks got caught on a rare odd man break as Brian Maloney found a streaking Joe Smarto who fired another shot down low to tie the game at 1-1. On to the second and Bethel regained the lead at 6:23 as Dale Arnold slammed home a rebound from a Jacobus Bleik shot and the Hawks were back on top. Less than a minute later, Feige robbed Derek Rubarsky with a great save to preserve the lead. Then NA's Daley got into the act as he made a sprawling stop on Steve Miller at 4:43 to keep the Tigers within one. At the start of the third period, Dan Zabkar gave Bethel a two goal cushion as his shot from the point found its way through traffic at 13:58 and past Daley. The score remained 3-1 until Joe Smarto scored on a wrist shot through the five hole at 3:34 and cut the lead to 3-2. NA now pulled the goalie for the extra attacker and had an outstanding opportunity as Joe Rosenberg found a loose puck in the slot but could not beat Feige and the mass of bodies in front of the net and Bethel Park pulled out an exciting 3-2 win.