Shaler Titans

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.

HARMARVILLE - Coach Brian Hershberger's North Allegheny squad waltzed through the last years Fall Face-Off and won the championship and frankly made it look easy and the question was could they do it again. With tight one goal victories over Plum and Shaler, the Tigers were looking for one more win to repeat. Franklin Regional, on the other hand was looking to exercise some demons of past St Margarets and North Allegheny. The Panthers reached the finals in 1996 and 1997 only to lose to Fox Chapel both times....well that wasn't happening this time because FR extinguished the Foxes 7-3 in Tuesday's semi finals. OK ....captain Mike Roth and his linemate Jimmie Daugherty had another reason and it was the double overtime loss to NA in the second round of last years playoffs which they had vowed to not let happen again. Add on the Panther Head Coach Jim Damp was a former Tiger coach, well then there was some real motivation ! .....And it didn't take long to see that motivation as just 3:45 into the opening frame, Daugherty took the puck in the NA zone turned and ripped a slapper past Bobby Daly to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. At the other end Brandon Stallard was stoning any and all Tiger threats. Late in the period Daugherty beat the NA defense to the puck and slid a beautiful pass to Mike Roth, who made no mistake deking Daly to make it 2-0. On to the second and Franklin showed its depth as David Hopper snapped one by Daly 3-0. Luke Baughman added another tally midway through the period as Stallard looked like Ken Dryden at the other end in shutting out NA. In the third, Franklin was looking for some salt to NA's wound and Joe Ferrierro provided it to put Franklin on top 5-0. The Panthers continued pressing and the Tigers were realing. Then NA's Brandon Lied finally got his team on the board at 11:14 to make it 5-1. The Tigers scored two more goals in the games final minute by Matt Zrebiac and Bill Waldschmidt to attempt a furious rally, but Roth added an empty netter and Franklin won its first St Margarets Championship 6-3.

HARMARVILLE - North Allegheny 6 Shaler 5 - A battle of two long time AAA rivals took place in the St Margarets Semi-Finals as Shaler and NA locked horns in a battle of the last two champions of the Fall FaceOff, as the Tigers [defending 2001 champs] and Titans [2000 champs]. The upstart Titans came out smokin in the first period and took advantage of their opportunities with two power play goals from Justin Thomas. NA killed off the third power play and caught Shaler napping as Brian Maloney scored a huge goal with just 23 seconds left to cut the Shaler lead to 2-1. On to the 2nd period and Thomas completed the hat trick to give the Titans a 3-1 lead. But Shaler got a little sloppy in their own end and Maloney scored two goals in ten seconds to tie the game at 3-3 ten minutes into the middle period. Shaler answered a minute later as Chris Szczpinski drill home a shot from the right circle to give the Titans the lead 4-3. After the teams traded goals, NA's Tim Ward found Brandon Lied in the slot to tie the game at the 6:28 mark of the third period. Matt Zrebiac put the Tigers on top for the first time on the evening and NA held on for a hard fought 6-5 victory. Franklin Regional 7 Fox Chapel 3 As rivalries go, another big St Margarets tradition involve Franklin and Fox Chapel, who met in the 1997 and 1998 Fall Face Off finals, with the Foxes coming with the championship both times. In a back and forth affair, the Panthers and the Foxes battled to a 3-3 tie wehn Pat King scored seven seconds into the third period. Franklin Regional regain the lead as Mike Roth tallied a minute and a half later to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead. Then a bounce of good fortune off Roths skate at the half way point of the final period found its way past Todd Hendry and FR was now up 5-3. Jimmy Daugherty added a big insurance goal just 24 seconds later as Franklin added an empty netter to march on to the St Margarets final. The win sets up a final between NA and Franklin Regional, which will be a rematch of the memorable first round double overtime thriller of the 2002 playoffs in March, when the Tigers beat the Panthers. It should be a great matchup.

First Round Franklin Regional 5 North Hills 3 The Indians broke out to a 3-0 lead in the first period as Mark Keyser scored the natural hat trick a little over ten minutes into the game. Franklin recieved a huge goal late in th opening period as Scott Dakan poked a puck past Casey Dudt-Mulzet to get the Panthers on the board at 3-1. FR then scored four unanswered tallies from Mike Roth, Joe Ferriero, Dakan again and Luke Baughman to breeze to a 5-3 win. The Panthers outshot North Hills 42-20 on the evening. North Allegheny 2 Plum 1 "What is North Allegheny going to do this year ?" is one of the big questions many are asking after the Tigers graduated a dozen solid players from last years squad. Well if you ask the NA faithful, the answer is keep winning ! Plum's Robbie Tunon broke a scoreless tight checking game at 4:42 of the second period to put the Mustangs on top 1-0. NA's Bill Waldschmidt tied it at 10:41 of the middle frame. In the third period, Tim Ward scored on a wrist shot past B J Schreib to give North Allegheny a 2-1 lead it would never relinquish. Fox Chapel 8 Hampton 4 The Foxes broke open a tight 4-3 contest in the third period with four goal outburst to win 8-4. Eight different players scored for Fox Chapel as Todd Hendry turned away 18 Talbot shots including 9 in the third period. Fox Chapel got three point nights from Jason Kreps, Kyle Misour, Paul Puskarich and Matt Quigley leading a balanced attack which could surprise alot of AAA schools this season. Shaler 6 Pine Richland 3 If the first three minutes were any indication of how this contest would turn out Pine Richland would have been looking for a running clock in the second period. Shaler's Ed Stotts turned away 11 of 12 Ram shots to keep Coach Spike's Titans in the game at 1-1 after the opening frame. Enter Chris Szczypinski, the Shaler captain, who scored three unanswered goals to thwart Shaler to a 4-1 lead. The teams exchanged goals in the third period as the Titans rolled to a 6-3 victory before a wild Shaler home crowd at Harmarville.