Peters Twp Indians - 2014 AAA 2002-2003-2005 AA

Mt Lebanon 4 Bethel Park 3 2006 Penguins Cup Semi-Finals CASTLE SHANNON – Mt Lebanon (23-0-0) and Bethel Park (18-4-1) return to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals where a year ago the Blackhawks defeated Lebo 4-0 on their way to their 5th State Championship over Malvern Prep at the Hersheypark Arena. Mt Lebanon won both meetings this season 5-1 and 2-0, which in the scheme of things attributed to their tremendous 23 win perfect regular season in which they only yielded 13 goals, but in a one game elimination playoffs adds to the drama of the defending State Champions against the # 1 seed. Ralph and Alf’s Ice Castle is filled to he brim in a circus atmosphere for as two schools who are old rivals from the South Hills engaged right in the backyards of both teams. Mt Lebanon is looking to advance to their 5th Penguins Cup [2004, 2001, 1985 and 1976] and capture their first state title since 1976 and 3rd Penguins Cup. Mt Lebanon has been the discussion of a lot of discussions for one of the greatest high school teams of all-time, but must win the State Championship to even be considered in that company and Bethel Park, the defending State Champions is a big hurdle despite any regular season records, regular season games, rankings, dialog or anything else. Many great teams have had great seasons shortened and knowing coaches Paul Taibi and Jim ‘Mort’ McVay, the only discussion is the next shift and one step, which is this hockey game between Bethel and Lebo. Bethel Park goaltender Pete Constatino made the games first great save at 12:46 diving to stop Jon Wilen in a scoreless opening minutes. The Blue Devils went on the power play at 11:53 and it didn’t take long as Josh Mandic buried a wrist shot up over the glove side at 11:37 from the off wing for a 1-0 lead. A Bethel Park power play with a little over 8 minutes to go and the Hawks capitalized as Bryan Brown scored on a Tim O’Brien rebound at 7:59 to tie the score at 1-1. The Hawks struck again less than a minute later as Jeffrey Konyk unloaded a slapshot which beat Matt Vaughn inside the far post at 7:10 for a 2-1 BP lead. The Hawks were presented with a golden opportunity at 2:32 with another power play and without star forward Mandic for 10 minutes. The Blue Devils killed the penalty and stuck fast as Matt Bartkowski took a picture perfect pass from Jesse Root and beat Constatino to the stick side with 23 seconds left to tie the game at two apiece. Shots on goal in the opening period were 8-5 in favor of Bethel Park. The game slowed from the frantic pace of the opening period, but Lebo’s Jon Wilen scored on a rebound after a great individual effort by James Cichra, who took the puck through the BP defense at 9:20 to give the Blue Devils a 3-2 lead. The Hawks went on the power play and at 8:14 as Bryan Brown deflected the puck and scored on his own rebound of a shot from David Spadacene. Lebo got the next opportunity on the man advantage at 6:06 and Mt Lebanon scored after some pin point passing as Matt Bartkowski found Shane Ferguson at 4:15 to give the Blue Devils a 4-3 lead. Shots on goal in the second period were 14-4 in favor of the Blue Devils. With 12:05 left in regulation, Bethel Park went on the power play with an opportunity to tie the game, but could not score. At 8:07, Lebo went on the man advantage and Bethel survived with great penalty killing. The Hawks took an uncharacteristic undisciplined penalty at a critical time with 5:12 remaining and Bethel Park survived against thanks to great goaltending of Pete Constatino. Mt Lebanon was able to hold on for a nailbitting 4-3 victory and advance to the Penguins Cup against NA. Mt Lebanon outshot Bethel Park 26-19 on the evening.

North Allegheny 7 Meadville 0 2006 Penguins Cup Semi-Finals CASTLE SHANNON – Meadville (20-3-0) and North Allegheny (20-3-0) have faced each before on several occasions over the past several years and the game that comes to mind was a year ago, when the Tigers thoroughly dominated the Bulldogs in round two of the Penguins Cup AAA playoffs on their way to their first ever Penguins Cup finals. In February, Meadville defeated NA 3-1 at the ‘House of Chills’ to determine the home team for this game in the scheme of positioning for playoff seedings. Both teams come in with identical records, which is trivial when you look at the history of both programs. Coach Jamie Plunkett is now in his 20th season as head coach of the Bulldogs and has captured 8 Pennsylvania State Championships including their last conquest in 2003 over Malvern Prep at Ice Line. For NA the tradition of underachievement has been of much discussion and the coveted State Title that eluded the Tigers a year ago giving up only one goal in 4 playoff games is only three games away, but the question is can they repeat the process and take it one step further. Winning the PA Hockey Director’s Cup and Bethel Park Martin Luther King tournaments are nice on the mantel, but doesn’t measure the commitment of the Pennsylvania Cup AAA crown, which is why you see Meadville, Bethel Park and more recently Mt Lebanon in the hunt year after year. Continuity in coaching is a big part of that and when Tommy Pandolfo disappeared in mid-February, one had to wonder how the Tigers could pick up the pieces. Mike Schenk and Billy Waldschmidt have done an admirable job keeping the ship on course and are looking to take the Tigers one step further than a year ago. North Allegheny looked like a very aggressive and hungry team early in this game and they struck first as Alan Halapin picked up a loose rebound and beat Bryan Danczak 10:13. Moments later NA went on the Power play at 10:08, but it was Meadville’s Morgan Nickerson who got behind the Tiger defense and was in on the breakaway at the 10:00 mark but Max Richards made the save keeping the 1-0 NA advantage. The Tigers and Bulldogs had six shots apiece in the opening period with NA clinging to a 1-0 lead. Sometimes good things happen, when you just get the puck to the net and at 11:50 of the 2nd period, Danny Gaertner took the puck on the near boards and whipped it to the net and Alan Halapin, who was out of the lineup for most of the 2nd half of the season picked up the rebound and beat Danczak through the 5-hole to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Meadville had their 3rd opportunity on the power play and North Allegheny continued their excellent aggressive penalty killing and kept the Dawgs off the board. Halapin is not Irish, but at 5:42 of the second the senior winger gathered an errant shot from the left point and whipped a backhander to the net, which went off goaltender Bryan Danczak’s knee and behind him to make it 3-0. The Bulldogs dug themselves a deep hole and it got deeper as NA went on the power play with a little over five minutes to go and the Tigers made them pay as Chris Gilson shot a rebound over a fallen Danczak to give North Allegheny a 4-0 lead. The Tigers could taste the Penguins Cup just a period away and if it wasn’t tangible, it began to take hold at 14:31 when Matt Lancaster got behind the Bulldog defense and beat Danczak to extend the Tiger lead to an improbable 5-0 lead. It was now a party for NA and Josh Herbert got another breakaway and beat the Meadville goaltender high over the glove side at 11:43 to make it 6-0. Of the jammed packed house at Ralph and Alf’s Ice Castle, this game was warming the heart of coach Pandolfo, the architect of this team, with his lucky green shirt for that Irish Luck for St Patty’s Day entrenched in the opposite corner of the rink with Concerned Citizens of NA Jimmy Pekins and a few other Tigers faithful and for the purposes of this story ‘left his heart in Meadville’. Well his team showed theirs in this game, which was part of the vision and is an intrigal part of the process. With 7:04 remaining, Nick Vaglia scored another goal as this semi-final turned into a 7-0 rout. So all of the tradition and all of those State Championships for Meadville became a rallying cry and motivation for a North Allegheny team hungry to prove their worth and will have an opportunity for redemption on March 25th at the Mellon Arena against the winner of the Bethel Park – Mt Lebanon game in the Penguins Cup final. NA outshot Meadville 29 –15 on the evening.

Mt Lebanon 4 Bethel Park 3 2006 Penguins Cup Semi-Finals CASTLE SHANNON – Mt Lebanon (23-0-0) and Bethel Park (18-4-1) return to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals where a year ago the Blackhawks defeated Lebo 4-0 on their way to their 5th State Championship over Malvern Prep at the Hersheypark Arena. Mt Lebanon won both meetings this season 5-1 and 2-0, which in the scheme of things attributed to their tremendous 23 win perfect regular season in which they only yielded 13 goals, but in a one game elimination playoffs adds to the drama of the defending State Champions against the # 1 seed. Ralph and Alf’s Ice Castle is filled to he brim in a circus atmosphere for as two schools who are old rivals from the South Hills engaged right in the backyards of both teams. Mt Lebanon is looking to advance to their 5th Penguins Cup [2004, 2001, 1985 and 1976] and capture their first state title since 1976 and 3rd Penguins Cup. Mt Lebanon has been the discussion of a lot of discussions for one of the greatest high school teams of all-time, but must win the State Championship to even be considered in that company and Bethel Park, the defending State Champions is a big hurdle despite any regular season records, regular season games, rankings, dialog or anything else. Many great teams have had great seasons shortened and knowing coaches Paul Taibi and Jim ‘Mort’ McVay, the only discussion is the next shift and one step, which is this hockey game between Bethel and Lebo. Bethel Park goaltender Pete Constatino made the games first great save at 12:46 diving to stop Jon Wilen in a scoreless opening minutes. The Blue Devils went on the power play at 11:53 and it didn’t take long as Josh Mandic buried a wrist shot up over the glove side at 11:37 from the off wing for a 1-0 lead. A Bethel Park power play with a little over 8 minutes to go and the Hawks capitalized as Bryan Brown scored on a Tim O’Brien rebound at 7:59 to tie the score at 1-1. The Hawks struck again less than a minute later as Jeffrey Konyk unloaded a slapshot which beat Matt Vaughn inside the far post at 7:10 for a 2-1 BP lead. The Hawks were presented with a golden opportunity at 2:32 with another power play and without star forward Mandic for 10 minutes. The Blue Devils killed the penalty and stuck fast as Matt Bartkowski took a picture perfect pass from Jesse Root and beat Constatino to the stick side with 23 seconds left to tie the game at two apiece. Shots on goal in the opening period were 8-5 in favor of Bethel Park. The game slowed from the frantic pace of the opening period, but Lebo’s Jon Wilen scored on a rebound after a great individual effort by James Cichra, who took the puck through the BP defense at 9:20 to give the Blue Devils a 3-2 lead. The Hawks went on the power play and at 8:14 as Bryan Brown deflected the puck and scored on his own rebound of a shot from David Spadacene. Lebo got the next opportunity on the man advantage at 6:06 and Mt Lebanon scored after some pin point passing as Matt Bartkowski found Shane Ferguson at 4:15 to give the Blue Devils a 4-3 lead. Shots on goal in the second period were 14-4 in favor of the Blue Devils. With 12:05 left in regulation, Bethel Park went on the power play with an opportunity to tie the game, but could not score. At 8:07, Lebo went on the man advantage and Bethel survived with great penalty killing. The Hawks took an uncharacteristic undisciplined penalty at a critical time with 5:12 remaining and Bethel Park survived against thanks to great goaltending of Pete Constatino. Mt Lebanon was able to hold on for a nailbitting 4-3 victory and advance to the Penguins Cup against NA. Mt Lebanon outshot Bethel Park 26-19 on the evening.

2006 Penguins Cup Semi-Finals Serra Catholic 4 Bishop McCort 0 CASTLE SHANNON - Bishop McCort (19-3-1) and Serra Catholic (20-2-1) have done battle so many times over the past six years that it’s becoming habit to see each of these teams at this venue of the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals. In fact, when Pa Hockey releases its picks for the pre-season, its simple to just try to pick the other two teams, who will battle the the Crimson Crushers and the Eagles for the Class A Penguins Cup. One close follower suggested that maybe McCort and Serra should just play 10 times a year and with the state of Class A with just 12 teams competing and less than a half dozen competitive teams in the dying classification, we may see that sooner than you think. During the Regular Season, McCort defeated Serra early in the season 6-2 at Rostraver and then the teams battled to a 0-0 deadlock in mid-February. At handfor the winner of this evening’s contest is a berth in the Penguins Cup finals on March 25th at the Mellon Arena against the winner of rivals Quaker Valley and Sewickley Academy. A bigger dilemma for the winner of this year’s Penguins Cup is a strong Flyers Cup field of 20 teams, including defending Pennsylvania Class A Champions Penncrest and a competitive field including long time Class A power Springfield, Garnet Valley and Hershey, who expect to be in the hunt for Eastern Pennsylvania supremacy. The fact that Serra was the last Western Pa Class A school to win a State title in 2002 defeating Radnor at Rostraver tells experts that Western Pa will have to come up big whether its any of the four combatants remaining. So before a packed house and atmosphere at Ralph and Alf’s Castle of Castle Shannon, the 2006 Penguins Cup semi-finals was under way. At 10:49 of the opening period, McCort would have the first opportunity of the power play but was unable to score. With 8:00 remaining in the opening period, Serra Catholic appeared to score but somehow Brent Troyan reached back and kept a trickling puck out of the net. Moments later at 7:33, the Eagles went on the power play, but it was BM’s Marc Domonkos, who stripped the Serra defense but Nick Koroly stopped him. Back and forth they went and Aaron Nolte had the next chance for the Eagles, but Brent Troyan was equal to the task. With 3:14 remaining, Serra had another great chance after a big scramble but Troyan found the puck first. With 27 seconds remaining in the opening period, Serra’s Aaron Nolte got behind the McCort defense and slipped the puck past the Crusher goaltender to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Shots in the opening period were ten apiece as two evenly matched and well balanced teams. Nick Koroly came up big at 13:51 of the second period stopping David Champe’s backhand attempt. Serra got a little overzealous after the whistle giving the Crushers a chance to tie the game on the power play at 11:43. BM’s Steven Polonkey’s booming slapshot hit the corner of the post and the crossbar at 10:27. Marc Domonkos almost tied the score at 5:42, but Nick Koroly just got his arm on the puck the preserve the 1-0 advantage. Bishop McCort took a rare undisciplined penalty behind the play at 4:30, putting the Eagles on the power play and after a nice give and go passing play Steven Gruhalla shot a puck down on the ice to the stick hand side of Brent Troyan to make it 2-0 at 3:16 of the 2nd period, for a power play goal. After some sloppy play by McCort in its own end, Steven Gruhalla found himself wide open in the left faceoff circle and beat Troyan on the glove side with 1:52 remaining as the Eagles seized control of this contest. Although the shots were 10-9 in favor of McCort and 20-19 for the game, the Serra Catholic Eagles held a 3-0 lead heading to the ice cut. On to the third we went and the Crushers would have to make something happen And with 13:51 remaining, David Champe was the recipient of a turnover, but Koroly stopped him. McCort would get an opportunity on the power play at 13:10 as time began to wind on the Crusher season and an opportunity to defend their Penguins Cup and opp # 2 came and went for McCort. At 9:57, Serra took a bad penalty putting Bishop on the power play again with chance # 3 to no avail. McCort showed its frustration and took a penalty putting the Eagles on the power play looking for a knockout punch at 7:49. Marc Domonkos had shorthanded opportunity at 7:03 forcing another Eagle penalty and a 4 on 4 situation. Serra netminder Nick Koroly made two more great stops on Christian Terchanik during the four on four from point blank range as the Serra Goaltender was stealing the show with the 11-1 shot advantage for McCort and only 5 ½ remaining in regulation, bringing back memories for Serra fans of Timmy Johnson, who was the Serra goaltender who lead the Eagles to State titles in 2001 and 2002. The Crushers pulled the goalie for an extra attacker with a little over a minute to go and Steven Gruhalla completed the hat trick with an empty netter with 4 seconds remaining to give Serra a 4-0 victory and their 7th straight trip to the Penguins Cup final and an opportunity to win their 5th Penguins Cup in those 7 years. Nick Koroly stopped al 16 shots in the final period as McCort outshot the Eagles 36-23.

Quaker Valley 6 Sewickley Academy 3 CASTLE SHANNON – Quaker Valley (22-1-0) and Sewickley Academy (16-8-0) are schools that are less than a mile apart and both schools are also looking for their first trip ever to the Penguins Cup finals. The Quakers have been more of a bridesmaid as this is their 3rd consecutive trip to the Penguins Cup semi-finals losing to Somerset in 2004 and again to Bishop McCort a year ago in 2005 in a tight 2-1 contest. Sewickley would probably like to forget last year’s trip to the semis as they were defeated soundly by Serra Catholic. This season for QV has been a dream defeating both Bishop McCort and Serra late in the season to capture the # 1 seed, but Kevin Quinn knows that this journey is one step at a time and Sewickley is quite capable of knocking off the Quakers. Probably for the first time which must seem like eternity, coach Erik Hoolihan can look down the bench and see more than 10 players as the Panthers will dress 15 skaters for this evenings game, which has to be a relief for the SA fans, who watched their team skate as little as 7 skaters late into the season. Sewickley scored a huge 3-2 win over McCort during the final week of the season. So the Academy and QV would square off before a packed house at Ralph and Alf’s House of Chills for the right to meet Serra in the 2006 Penguins Cup final at Mellon Arena on March 25th. Quaker Valley played opportunist in the games opening moments as at 13:49 George Jackson picked off a clearing attempt and roof a wrist shot over the stick side of Steven Tehovnik for a 1-0 lead for the Quakers. Then at 10:08 Tim Hall found Colin South alone in the slot, who buried a snapshot low to the stick side to give QV an early 2-0 lead. The Panthers would have the first opportunity on the power play at 8:37 and SA capitalized as Jason Limbach buried a beautiful feed by brother Scott at 7:42 to cut the lead to 2-1. QV went on the power play at 6:08, but could not convert, then with 2:41 QV took two penalties to Sewickley’s one for a Panther man advantage, which the Quakers killed. Shots in the opening period were Sewickley Academy 11 Quaker Valley 8. Action continued into the second period as Scott Limbach beat the QV defense to the puck at 13:50, but was stopped by Zac Zinger on the breakaway. The Panthers turned up the pressure in the QV zone and forced a penalty and another power play for SA at 12:42. An ill-advised penalty on QV put the Panthers on a 5 on 3 with 12:01 to go and a 1:20 man two man advantage and a golden opportunity for Sewickley. With 11:04 remaining, Furman South made a terrific play and effort to beat SA to the puck and forced an interference penalty, which was a huge turning point and broke the Sewickley Academy momentum. Then it happened, after a great play to outmaneuver the QV defender in his own zone, Scott Limbach carried the puck into the Quaker zone and waited patiently before shooting the puck sharply on Zac Zinger and Conner Blood picked up the rebound and buried it low to the stick side at 4:15 to tie the game at 2-2. Quaker Valley lost it’s composure and put Sewickley on the power play at 3:53 left in the 2nd. With 1:44 remaining in the 2nd, a errant pass ended up on the stick of Colin South, who rifled a slapshot high over the glove side of Steve Tehovnik to give the Quakers a 3-2 lead, which QV took to the ice cut. Shots on goal in the 2nd period 19-9 in favor of the Panthers. On to the third period and Quaker Valley struck quickly as Furman South found a streaking Tim Hall, who scored on a shot just inside the post with 14:21 remaining in regulation and giving the Quakers a 4-2 lead. QV went on the power play at 13:43. Zac Zinger made a nice leg save on Richard Thornburgh at 12:41 and the Quakers came right back and scored on the power play as Tim Hall fired a slapshot from the left point high over the stick side of Tehovnik to give QV a 5-2 lead. The Panthers came back as Conner Blood’s cross ice pass was deflected by Brad Watts with 9:03 up under the crossbar to cut the lead to 5-3. The Quakers answered as Furman South scored with 8:27 remaining on a pass from Tim Hall to push the lead to 6-3. The Quakers took control of the game as the clock winded down on Sewickley’s season and Quaker Valley finally found redemption after frustration to finally earn a trip to the Mellon Arena with a 6-3 victory over the Panthers.