Upper St. Clair Panthers - 1980 - 1987 - 2011 AAA

DELMONT ~ Special Report provided by Fox Chapel Hockey The atmosphere was intense coming into the Center Ice Arena in Delmont on Monday night as a divisional rival rematch was in the making. Talk of playoffs and division titles were in the air as Plum and Fox Chapel took the ice to go head to head for the second time this season. Back on December 8th of 2003 Fox Chapel handed Plum their first loss of the season and took over the lead of the division and have had it ever since. Plum looked to stay alive in the division race in this late matchup at 9:20pm. The Foxes came out of the gates flying with a power play goal by Sam Stack to put FC up 1-0. It would take two more goals by FC to wake up the Mustang squad, who after going down 3-0, came out hitting hard and frustrated a relaxes Foxes squad, who started taking penalties. Thats when Plum captain Phil Mains capitalized on the PP on a wrap-around to cut the lead to 2 before the period ended. The start of the second period saw more domination by Plum, while FC captian Jason Kreps put Plum back on the powerplay. Plum's Mains then brought the Mustangs within a goal, 3-2, on another powerplay goal on a giveaway in front of FC goalie Todd Hendry. Fox Chapel would not give in though as FC's sophomore sensation Matt Quigley added his second goal of the evening along with another FC tally to go ahead by three again. Plum bounced back with another goal by Mains for the hat trick on a walk in by himself into the FC cage to make the score 5-3. Shots were all even after 2, 20-20. The third period was all Plum...but no goals. Plum poured on the pressure in the third outshooting the Foxes 12-2. But excellent defense helped protect the delicate 2 goal lead by clearing rebounds away from danger and protecting Hendry. Plum would pull netminder JP Balson with a minute to go but to no avail. FC shut down the Mustang offensive to clinch their first division title since 1996, and their first ever division title in class AAA. Matt Quigley had 3 points on the night (2G, 1A), Phil Mains ended with 3 goals, 2 point nights included Dan Thiessen and Joe Budz. Plum outshot Fox Chapel 30-20. Fox Chapel improves to 17-2-1, Plum is now 12-7-1.

DELMONT ~ Special Report provided by Fox Chapel Hockey The atmosphere was intense coming into the Center Ice Arena in Delmont on Monday night as a divisional rival rematch was in the making. Talk of playoffs and division titles were in the air as Plum and Fox Chapel took the ice to go head to head for the second time this season. Back on December 8th of 2003 Fox Chapel handed Plum their first loss of the season and took over the lead of the division and have had it ever since. Plum looked to stay alive in the division race in this late matchup at 9:20pm. The Foxes came out of the gates flying with a power play goal by Sam Stack to put FC up 1-0. It would take two more goals by FC to wake up the Mustang squad, who after going down 3-0, came out hitting hard and frustrated a relaxes Foxes squad, who started taking penalties. Thats when Plum captain Phil Mains capitalized on the PP on a wrap-around to cut the lead to 2 before the period ended. The start of the second period saw more domination by Plum, while FC captian Jason Kreps put Plum back on the powerplay. Plum's Mains then brought the Mustangs within a goal, 3-2, on another powerplay goal on a giveaway in front of FC goalie Todd Hendry. Fox Chapel would not give in though as FC's sophomore sensation Matt Quigley added his second goal of the evening along with another FC tally to go ahead by three again. Plum bounced back with another goal by Mains for the hat trick on a walk in by himself into the FC cage to make the score 5-3. Shots were all even after 2, 20-20. The third period was all Plum...but no goals. Plum poured on the pressure in the third outshooting the Foxes 12-2. But excellent defense helped protect the delicate 2 goal lead by clearing rebounds away from danger and protecting Hendry. Plum would pull netminder JP Balson with a minute to go but to no avail. FC shut down the Mustang offensive to clinch their first division title since 1996, and their first ever division title in class AAA. Matt Quigley had 3 points on the night (2G, 1A), Phil Mains ended with 3 goals, 2 point nights included Dan Thiessen and Joe Budz. Plum outshot Fox Chapel 30-20. Fox Chapel improves to 17-2-1, Plum is now 12-7-1.

Every February Pa Hockey goes through the process of picking the top 25 players in Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. So before all of you tell me how political it is............or how its one man's opinion [actually two now that Matt Sacks has chimed in from Philly].....or that I have my favorites....let me ask this question ? Besides Tom Pandolfo....who has seen every team in Western Pa play ? OK after much anguish and paring down a list of about 100 players the Top 25 in Western Pa is here and its sister Top 25 in Eastern Pa is here as well. And if that isn't enough our annual list of the top 5 Fans is here and Top 5 Freshman who have bolted onto the scene as well as our Top 5 coaching performances. Finally, if you are going to battle or want to build a company the question is who would you want to be on the Board of Directors of that entity....well our Top 10 Scholars are a start and I have a sneaking suspicion some of these kids are Ivy League material ! Enjoy it ! Comments are welcome ! And if you don't like it go cry about it on PIHLWeb because I love reading uninformed nonsense and they need the 5 million [The ICSHL Website actually gets more hits than PIHLWeb for those counting over 10-15 million because they have better search engines] more hits for all that unreported income they're taking in.....The Pa Hockey Top 25 is one reason why it the # 1 Interscholastic Hockey Website in the State of Pennsylvania ! CORRECTION: Fabulous Freshman 5 should be Wes Waldschmidt whose brother Garrett is a Junior for the North Allegheny Tigers

Every February Pa Hockey goes through the process of picking the top 25 players in Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. So before all of you tell me how political it is............or how its one man's opinion [actually two now that Matt Sacks has chimed in from Philly].....or that I have my favorites....let me ask this question ? Besides Tom Pandolfo....who has seen every team in Western Pa play ? OK after much anguish and paring down a list of about 100 players the Top 25 in Western Pa is here and its sister Top 25 in Eastern Pa is here as well. And if that isn't enough our annual list of the top 5 Fans is here and Top 5 Freshman who have bolted onto the scene as well as our Top 5 coaching performances. Finally, if you are going to battle or want to build a company the question is who would you want to be on the Board of Directors of that entity....well our Top 10 Scholars are a start and I have a sneaking suspicion some of these kids are Ivy League material ! Enjoy it ! Comments are welcome ! And if you don't like it go cry about it on PIHLWeb because I love reading uninformed nonsense and they need the 5 million [The ICSHL Website actually gets more hits than PIHLWeb for those counting over 10-15 million because they have better search engines] more hits for all that unreported income they're taking in.....The Pa Hockey Top 25 is one reason why it the # 1 Interscholastic Hockey Website in the State of Pennsylvania ! CORRECTION: Fabulous Freshman 5 should be Wes Waldschmidt whose brother Garrett is a Junior for the North Allegheny Tigers

BETHEL PARK – Nothing like a 9:00 game on a Monday night and surprise because no Junior B practice or no Hornets practice or no Midget AAA Junior Select JV Travel practice either. So everybody who is anybody was present for a big Class AA matchup between red-hot Pine Richland, fresh off a 5-1 pasting of Kittanning and Peters Twp, who shut down Indiana 3-0 in their last big game. You see there is quite a debate about Class AA between people from Kittanning, Indiana, Peters Twp, Pine Richland and of course Thomas Jefferson. So with his Jaguars playing doormat Carrick, TJ coach Don ‘the Dean’ Powell was attempting to become the first coach to scout his upcoming opponents and coach a game on the cell phone. Although BP BladeRunners has no heat, it does have pretty good cell phone reception, so coach Powell and yours truly could do their business. So with us two being the only so-called experts in the house, I will give you my take on what happened because Bulldog and Hockey North and all the other guys with big opinions, must not have any money for gas to show up for what would prove to be a classic matchup. Pine Richland and Peters Twp, in a rematch of an 11-0 game from last season, which I am sure many of the Pine Richland players remembered and would like to forget frankly. The Rams came out flying in the first period and Brian Kreit found a loose puck on the doorstep from a Ryan Tessmer shot and slammed it home for a 1-0 PR lead at 14:21. Pine Richland went on the power play at 12:41, but PT got had the best chance as Bryan Papciak raced in on the breakaway only to be turned aside by Brandon Gazzo at 11:14. Pine Richland extended its lead to 2-0 as Ryan Tessmer scored a highlight reel goal when he weaved through the Peters Twp defense and beat Rob Madore at 2:11. Pine Richland had a golden opportunity to go up 3-0 on the power play early in the second, but Peters Twp stood tall and killed it. The Indians used that momentum to cut the lead to 2-1 at 12:20 as Dan Crogan fired a wrist shot from the top of the circle to beat Gazzo on the short side. Peters Twp turned it up a notch and caught Pine Richland running around in their own end to create several chances. The Indians would tie the game at 11:05, on a terrific passing play by Chris Clackson and Si Bishop to set up Kevin Kustron, who chipped a shot past Gazzo and the game was tied at two apiece. Rams coach Jimmy Black had seen enough and called a very wise timeout to settle his troops immediately after the goal and this would pay off as Ryan Tessmer would give PR the lead again at 3:11 on a Mario Lemieux type goal as he caught Rob Madore off the post and banked it off his back at 3:11, which trickled behind the young PT goaltender to give the Rams a 3-2 advantage. Peters Twp thought they had tied the game at 12:12 but Gazzo stoned Gerry Raymond, but the Indians would not be denied as Raymond, on the back door, tipped a great pass from Bryan Papciak up under the crossbar just ten seconds later and the game was tied again at 3-3 with 12:02 remaining. The game was in the balance and both teams had chances to take the lead it through the third period with some great end to end action. Ryan Tessmer wanted to decide this game and he would be the difference. After being robbed on a great skate save by Rob Madore moments earlier, Tessmer dipsy-doodled through a host of Indians into the slot and buried a shot low on the stick side with 3:50 remaining to give the Rams a 4-3 lead. Peters would pull the goalie in the games final minute but could not tie the game and Pine Richland would prevail with an exciting 4-3 victory before an intimate gathering at BP BR.