After slow start, Pine-Richland hockey team rights ship, roars into playoffs

By: Jerin Steele
Sunday, February 12, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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Every year there are teams that surge late in the season and are dubbed a team nobody wants to meet in the playoffs.

The Pine-Richland hockey team certainly fits into that category.

The Rams started 2-7-1 in the basement of the Class 3A standings but have won eight straight to clinch a playoff berth.

“I’m excited for them knowing where we started and how difficult and challenging the start of the year was,” Rams coach Jordan Yoklic said. “We got healthy, and our players cleaned up a lot of the off-ice things and bought into what the coaches were preaching and the standards the players set for each other.”

Even though there were a handful of seniors on the team, the Rams were a fairly young group in terms of varsity experience and it showed early on.

They lost five straight out of the gate. Yoklic credited team captains Josh Folmer, Jordan Spear and Jack Breisinger with holding the team accountable and bringing them together and the rest of the players for buying-in.

Eventually they started to right the ship.

“Our captains have done a great job with the preparation and a lot of the locker room stuff,” Yoklic said. “That’s front of mind for me. A lot of the distractions that are probably common growing pains are things you want to clean up as quickly as possible knowing you have a fairly new team that has different personalities. Our captains have done a great job from an off-ice perspective to get everyone to come to the rink and play for each other. The rest of it has taken care of itself from there.”

The winning streak started with a 7-5 win over Cathedral Prep on Dec. 5.

What followed was a three-game stretch against defending champ Peters Township, North Allegheny and Seneca Valley, all of which were in the top four in the standings at the time.

The Rams lost to each of them the first time around but earned a 6-3 win over Peters Township. Cullen Campbell had a pair of goals in the win. They followed that up with a 5-4 win in overtime against North Allegheny and a 3-2 win over Seneca Valley.

The Peters Township win proved to be a turning point.

“We understood where we were as a team and the challenge of facing the defending state champions at their barn,” Yoklic said. “Earning a win out there was a big confidence builder for our team. Then we we’re able to get results against North Allegheny and Seneca Valley. Facing those teams back to back to back was going to be a challenge. Coming out of there with three wins, we knew we could play with the higher-ranked teams.”

During the eight-game winning streak, Pine-Richland has outscored its opponents 50-21.

Shawn Peacock leads the team with 16 points. Zach Howard (15), Folmer (14), Ryan Peacock (12) and Jordan Spear (10) have also cracked double digits. Folmer has a team-high eight goals.

Pine-Richland has two more games remaining before the playoffs.

“We’re just looking to continue to get better each game and hopefully be clicking on all cylinders going into the playoffs,” Yoklic said.

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Pine-Richland