Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

An appetizer for all you fanatics out there is the Pa Hockey previews ............which gives a look at he Elite 8 as voted by our illustrious panel of coaches, which a couple of surprises and some new kids on the block ...........let the season begin and best of luck to all of the teams as the season starts Friday night !!

Schedule and Results of all Western Pennsylvania Teams

GREENSBURG - Plum and Greensburg CC squared off in the GCC Invitational finals in a renewal of two old WPIHL AA rivals through the mid 1990's. In fact the last time they played a key game a kid by the name of Umberger was skating for the Mustangs and GCC was coming off a AA State Championship. Anyway, Plum Head Coach Stu Relnick was looking to see how his young club would respond to a pressure game against a very well balanced Centarian squad with new skipper Joe Dytka. Plum scored first in the contest at 8:34 as Travis Senchur scored to givethe Mustangs 1-0 lead. Greensburg Central responded on the power play as Colin Ludwig took a Matt Ward feed in between the circles and fired a blast past BJ Schreib to knot the score at one apiece. In a game with good action and equal scoring opportunities Plum and GCC battled into the second period and the score remained 1-1. Then that combination showed another look as Ludwig cycled off a Ward pass and backhanded a shot upstairs past Schreib to give the Centarians their first lead at 5:04 of the middle frame at 2-1. On to the third peiod and the Mustangs were pressing for the equalizer outshooting GCC 8-3 . It was Jake Genes who snuffed Plum and held them off the board including a point blank save on John Kalichuk with 3:02 remaining. The Centarians went on to hold on and win their own Invitational and serve notice to Class AA that the will be a factor come playoff time.

Pa Hockey's Annual Poll is out ............ The 8th Annual Pre-Season Coaches Poll of Western Pennsylvania. Normally we give notoriety to the top dawg [if you will] in eachclassification the poll. Pa Hockey is displaying the school's in each classification who have made the biggest jump in the rankings according to the coaches. Click away to see the Pre-Season choices for 2002-2003 !!!

Sources close to Pa Hockey have informed us that Mercyhurst Prep will not play in the PIHL for the 2002-2003 season. Class A schools have confimred that the Mercyhurst games will not be played. Mercyhurst joins Seneca Valley, Keystone Oaks, Chartiers Valley, North Catholic, Belle Vernon, and Seton LaSalle to become the 7th school to commit to a Varsity team and not be scheduled. As reported earlier this year, due to the exorbitant fees associated charged by the league, teams with long standing histories like CV and NC and some newer programs are being forced out of business.