Plum Mustangs - 1989 A

Latrobe 4 Montour 3 (OT) Neville Island - Montour (8-6-3) has been on a roller coaster season under Danny Siegel with a recent tie to South Park in a game the Spartans relinquished the lead in the final minutes of the contest. Currently seeded 8th, Montour can ill afford to squander points at this point of the season as the Spartans are only a couple of defeats from missing the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons and has been on the brink of smelling the Penguins Cup over the past handful of seasons only to lose some close games to Kittanning 5-4 a year ago, to Chartiers Valley 5-4 in 2005, Kittanning 5-2 in 2004 and 4-0 in 2003. Latrobe (11-4-0) has been holding down the bridesmaid 2nd seed behind defending State Class AA Champions Pine Richland for most of the season and leading the East Division as well. Head Coach Ron Makoski knows that if the Wildcats are going to secure a home ice position in round two of the playoffs, they will have to fare well against Moon, Thomas Jefferson, rival Greensburg CC and tonight’s opponent Montour to gear the Wildcats into the playoffs and hopefully a Penguins Cup Semi-Final 4 berth and maybe more. Montour struck first at 14:11 as Paul Ciotti’s passing attempt in front deflected of the stick of a Latrobe defender behind Nick Loyacona to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. Latrobe killed a couple of penalties and then gain the equalizer with 6:08 remaining as Pa Hockey top 25 selection JeffJoe Regula scored on a breakaway beating Matt Skoff cleanly to tie the score at one apiece. On to the 2nd Period and the Spartans regained the lead on another fortunate bounce as Keith Kurelis found a loose puck in the slot on a Kevin Bishop attempted pass at 12:52 and deposited it by Nick Loyacona to give Montour a 2-1 lead. The Wildcats were able to tie the game again with 3:29 to go as JeffJoe Regula took lead pass and was in on the breakaway and beat Matt Skoff on the backhand to tie the score at 2-2. Latrobe took their first lead with 13:35 to go in the third period as Michael McCurdy buried a snap shot up under the crossbar on a give and go with Jeff Rossi to make it 3-2. The game was mucked up by several marginal calls in the middle of the third period, which ended up putting Latrobe on the power play with 6 minutes remaining and a chance to extend their lead. Matt Skoff stopped McCurdy from point blank range later in the power play and the Spartans survived. Adam Rizza would get the equalizer with 4:03 to play on a real nice effort Michael Harrington to dive a shove the puck ahead where Rizza beat Nick Loyacona high to the glove side for the game tying goal. Latrobe had a great chance to win it as Regula beat the Montour defense with terrific speed, but Matt Skoff made a terrific save with just 6 seconds to go and the game went to overtime. In the overtime period, Jeff Joe Regula never left the ice and it paid off as he gathered the puck from the neutral zone and came over the blue line and unleashed a wicked wrist shot that beat Matt Skoff high to the blocker side and give Latrobe a 4-3 overtime victory before an intimate gathering at RMU Island Sports Center.