Plum Mustangs - 1989 A

North Allegheny 5 Central Catholic 1 CRANBERRY – North Allegheny’s (13-4-0) Hockey Program has made some significant strides over the past few years and was coached by current Central Catholic Head Coach Tom Pandolfo, who was responsible for two seasons that the Tigers advanced all the way to the Penguins Cup finals. When Pandolfo left the program prior to the end of last season, there was quite a bit of controversy as to why a coach with the success would walk away and the reasons after spending a lot of time with the coach were his own and no longer need to be discussed. So the Tiger program was left as it has been for several times in its history with a coaching search, which resulted in the netting of Jimmy Black, who led Pine Richland to their first ever State Championship last year in Class AA. NA has been adjusting to a very different coaching style and although it is not my job to pick and choose who’s style is better or who is more successful as the history books and Penguins Cups and State Championships will dictate. To date North Allegheny has NONE and the goal is still the same under Jimmy Black. Central Catholic (13-2-0) went to the free agent wire to find a new coach for its program decided Tom Pandolfo was a good fit for their program. And after 15 games of his tenure, it looks to be a pretty good move as the Vikings are in the hunt for the Penguins Cup in his first year. Admittedly, coach Pandolfo will tell you that taking the Viking helm has been quite a learning experience for him and an adjustment for both he and his staff as well as the players. Central’s roadblock, as well as the other Class AAA schools is Bethel Park, who are alone at the top of the league and have meet some challenge, but look to be the unanimous favorite. The Vikings and Tigers will have some company in that chase as February starts the downhill toward the playoffs, as defending champions Mt Lebanon, Meadville and more recently Upper St Clair and McDowell have thrown their hats in the ring as challengers, which is a stretch at this point because of the Bethel dominance, who has held down the # 1 ranking since the early weeks of the season. An all important seeding match-up tonight as Central Catholic is looking to atone for an 8-4 beating at the hands of NA on December 18th at the Harmarville BladeRunners. The opening half of the opening period was pretty uneventful until at 6:42 of the first Central was whistled for a penalty. It only took NA 11 seconds to capitalize as Josh Herbert scored on a rebound into a pretty open net at 6:31 to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. NA had another power play at 5:13 and goaltender John Scalo made a nice stop on Wes Waldschmidt from the slot at 3:45 to keep the score 1-0. North Allegheny nearly had a two goal advantage as Wes Waldschmidt’s shot just missed at 14:43. At 12:53, a CC penalty was nearly disaster but John Scalo made several nice stops to keep the Vikings within one. A time out by Pandolfo to school his troops about their play at 10:23, but Central continued to be outdisciplined by North Allegheny in the second period as the Vikings were whistled again at 7:40. Central Catholic continued to kill the penalty, but the Tigers finally capitalized as Wes Waldschmidt took the game into his own hands and scored on an overpowering wrist shot with 5:31 remaining in the middle period and only :01 left on the penalty. Moments later at 4:34, Doug Dietrich had CC’s best chance of the period, but Max Richards made a key save. In the process, the Tigers took a very undisciplined penalty putting the Vikings on the power play. Central finally got on the board as C.J. Burke converted a tremendous pass from Josh Martin to cut the lead to 2-1 with 2:05 left in the 2nd period. On to the third period and Central was now in the hockey game and had a chance on the power play at 11:51, but the Tigers stiffened and killed it off impressively building momentum in the process. After the penalty kill, CC got caught on an odd man break which resulted in a 3 on 1 and Brady Waldschmidt pounced on a Josh Herbert rebound for a huge goal at 9:26 and a 3-1 lead for the Tigers. North Alleghny’s Wes Waldschmidt would close the door on Central as he made a terrific move in traffic and beat Scalo to the short side on the post with 4:34 to go to make the lead 4-1 and Brett Schindler put the icing on a North Allegheny sweep of the Vikings 5-1 and a very important seeding game which could result in home ice and a bye for the Tigers in the upcoming playoffs.