Penguins Cup Playoffs Recaps From Tuesday 3/1

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 | 12:16 AM

Day one of the PIHL Penguins Cup Playoffs roared in like a lion as three of the seven visiting teams pull off victories for the lower seeds. Day two on Tuesday was like the start of march, coming in like a lamb as the home teams and higher seeds were a perfect five for five. Here are recaps from the two AAA Quarterfinals games, one Division II Quarterfinals matchup and a pair of Class A First Round contests.

A special thanks to Rob Longo, Randy Gore, Josh Rowntree, Matt Vandriak and Kevin Zielmanski for their help on these recaps.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS AAA Quarterfinals:

North Allegheny Tigers 3 – Bethel Park Black Hawks 2 in Overtime
Senior Dawson Richard’s goal 4:12 into overtime lifted top-seeded North Allegheny to an exciting 3-2 win over the eighth-seeded Bethel Park Black Hawks in the PIHL quarterfinals. The last two playoff meetings between these two schools had been decided by just one goal, including a triple overtime win by Bethel Park over NA in the 2012 quarterfinals, and Tuesday night’s contest at the Baierl Ice Complex fit the mold.  The upstart Black Hawks scored the game’s first goal when Jason Bauer got free for a breakaway and beat NA goalie Joe Hubert at the 3:18 mark of the first period. Bethel Park maintained its one-goal lead throughout the period despite a barrage of shots on net by the Tigers forwards. Black Hawks goalie Tre Lowe stopped 39 pucks in a terrific performance.  Hubert made 21 saves for North Allegheny, including a key stop in the early stages of overtime.  North Allegheny finally got to Lowe in the second period when Richard caromed a shot off of the BP net minder from a tough angle and across the goal line to tie the game at 1-1 at the 4:08 mark of the period. Richard had another opportunity to score two minutes later when the Tigers were awarded a penalty shot because BP’s Jack Wagner was called for an equipment violation. Lowe denied Richard, however, and the game remained tied 1-1.  Bethel Park seemed to pick up the intensity following the penalty shot save by Lowe, but North Allegheny still managed to take a 2-1 lead on a goal by Nathan Taylor with 7:20 to play in the second. The Tigers’ lead was short-lived as Bethel Park’s Logan Chorney blistered a slap shot from inside the blue line to knot the score at 2-2 with 5:29 to go in the second period.  The game remained deadlocked until overtime when Richard’s heroics vaulted North Allegheny to the PIHL semifinals for the second straight season. Freshman Tyler Duderstadt played the puck from the top left point and sent it in front of the net where Richard fought through traffic to deflect the game winning shot past Lowe for a 3-2 triumph.  North Allegheny advances to play the Peters Township Indians in the PIHL semifinals on Wednesday, March 9 at the RMU Island Sports Center at 6:45 pm.

Peters Township Indians 5 – Butler Golden Tornado 0 
Caden Shell stopped all 36 shots he faced, Steve Rex scored a hat trick and Matt Amelio scored a goal and assisted three more as No. 4 Peters Township (11-5-5) pounded No. 5 Butler, 5-0, on Tuesday night at Southpointe’s Ice-o-Plex. With the win, the Indians will advance to the PIHL Penguins Cup Class AAA Semifinals and will meet top seed North Allegheny next Wednesday. In a physical contest that featured 22 penalties, including 20 in the final two periods, Rex would shine. Despite only scoring six goals in the regular season, Rex would explode for just his third multi-point game this year. Rex would open the scoring just 4:25 into the contest, finding the back of the net on a terrific pass from Amelio. The game remained 1-0 for over seven minutes until the game’s momentum would swing for good. Rex would take a pass from Will Barnes and shoot towards the net. It appeared that Butler goalie Zach Schnur gloved the puck, but no official blew the play dead. Amelio would loosen the puck from Schnur and tuck it into the net, extending the Indians’ lead to 2-0. Less than three minutes later, Rex would score his second goal on a tic-tac-toe passing play with Amelio and Jake Shopes. Early in the second period, Rex would drive home the dagger on a shorthanded goal set up by Matt Michalowski, pushing the Indians’s lead to 4-0. After that, physicality, fighting and dirty play would escalate, as 14 straight penalties would be called. Included in the 22 penalties were two 10-minute misconducts and a game misconduct. Late in the game, Zach Gielarowski would cap the scoring with Peters Township’s second power play goal of the evening. Schnur stopped 28 of 33 shots for Butler, which defeated Peters Township in last year’s Class AAA Semifinals. Peters Township’s matchup against North Allegheny will be on Wednesday at 6:45pm at RMU’s Island Sports Complex.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS A First Round:

South Park Eagles 2 – Serra Catholic Eagles 1 
Proving that low-scoring goaltender battles can be entertaining hockey, East #5 South Park beat West #4 Serra Catholic 2-1 in a Class A first round cross-over game at the Alpha Ice Arena on Tuesday night. The two teams combined for 73 shots on goal in a scintillating game that contained physical play, timely blocked shots, great offensive opportunities, and even better, amazing saves. Serra beat South Park 7-0 in late November so South Park entered this playoff game with a different plan. Part of that plan included not allowing much space for the Class A leading scorer Roman Kraemer. The game remained scoreless for the entire first period and into the second before South Park capitalized on an offensive zone face-off. The draw was pulled back to Freshman defenseman Justin Hickey who accurately hit the net with a good shot from the point, the rebound was loose in front of the net and that’s where Senior forward Montijo Goob found the puck and beat Serra goalie Ty Barkley for the first goal of the game at 5:51 of the second period. Serra got their first power play midway through the second period and that’s when they tied the game. Roman Kraemer controlled the puck patiently behind the South Park net, looking for a teammate, when he finally stepped out on the backhand and banked a shot off of South Park goalie Shane Walker looking for a carom into the net. The puck did not go into the net but it was lying in the crease causing a mad scramble until Sophomore forward Joe Goldstein poked home the loose puck to tie the game at 12:02 of the second. The game remained 1-1 at intermission but did not stay that way for long. At 2:17, Jacob Hickey, who was assigned to track Kraemer all game, put South Park ahead 2-1. Sophomore forward Mike Marynchak passed to Senior Harry Goodall at the point, Goodall partially fanned on the shot but the puck flutter to the front of the net anyway where Hickey found it and beat Barkley. The rest of the period featured dueling goalies that continued to make one fabulous save after another, highlighted by a memorable save by Walker on Kraemer. With a desperate Serra pressuring in the South Park end, a loose puck landed on the stick of Kraemer near the right post with nothing but a yawning net waiting for him. On his belly, Walker reached back with a glove to make a ridiculous save to rob Kraemer. Another great scoring opportunity by Senior Justing Hummert hit the post to the stick side of Walker and Serra would never really threaten again. South Park advances to the semi-finals to face West #1 West Allegheny on Tuesday at RMU Island Sports. Walker finished with 38 saves and Barkley finished with 34. Jacob Hickey was the number one star of the game.

Thomas Jefferson Jaguars 8 – Kiski Area Cavaliers 0 
Thomas Jefferson used a scoring outburst in the first period where the Jaguars scored 4 goals in just under two minutes to blow out Kiski Area in this Class-A opening round game from the Alpha Ice Complex in Harmarville.  Thomas Jefferson, who came in as the 4th seed out of the Western Conference, dominated the Cavaliers, who were the #5 team out of the Eastern Conference.  Dominic Tamburi opened the scoring at the 4:01 mark of the opening period.  Just over six minutes later, Daniel Harrold found the net to give the Jaguars a 2-0 lead with 10:37 left in the period.   Then the outburst started.  Harrold would find the net for the second time on the night at the 14:02 mark, then would score the natural hat trick :23 seconds later to give Thomas Jefferson a 4-0 lead.  Hayden Hintemeyer would score exactly one minute after Harrold’s 3rd goal, with Matt Krieger finding the net :25 seconds later to give the Jaguars a 6-0 lead with 1:10 left in the first period.  In the second period, Harrold would find the net for fourth time, putting the Jaguars up 7-0 at the 4:15 mark.  That goal would enact the mercy rule which kept the clock running for the remainder of the game.  It was also the only goal scored in the period.  In the 3rd period, Matt Keiger would round out the scoring, finding the net with 1:32 left in regulation.  Harrold led the way for the Jaguars, earning star of the game honors with his 4 goal night.  Matt Keiger finished with a 2 goals and an assist, while Tamburi tallied a goal and 2 assists in the win.  Jordan Blosl stopped all 22 shots he faced to earn the shutout as well.  Thomas Jefferson improves to 11-11-1 with the win and will take on the top team out of the Eastern Conference, Bishop McCort, on Wednesday night at 6:30pm from Planet Ice in Johnstown.  Kiski Area, finishes their first season in Class-A with a final record  of 8-15.

PIHL DIVISION 2 Quarterfinals:

Beaver Bobcats 7 – Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Chargers 1 
With top-seeded Beaver undefeated since October, it seemed as if Tuesday’s opening round of the Division 2 playoffs between the Bobcats and No. 8 OLSH would be a pretty decisive win for a team with a 16-game winning streak. However, that was not the case, as the Bobcats still won comfortably 7-1. The Bobcats tallied one four minutes into the contest behind 14 first-period shots. Beaver then added two more goals to lead 3-0 after two periods, including one on the power play. However, the Chargers made things interesting with a goal 52 seconds into the third period to make it 3-1 despite only having seven shots on net. After a lackadaisical start to the third period, it seemed as if the Bobcats woke up, scoring a pair of goals in the span of 28 seconds to stretch the lead to 7-1. Vince Del Signore led the Bobcats with a two goal effort, while Luke Cahill and Antoni Chirgott each had a goal and an assist for Beaver. Mark Richardson scored the lone tally for the Chargers, while OLSH was outshot 47-6. The Bobcats will face the winner of Thursday’s game between No. 5 Blackhawk and No. 4 Indiana March 7 at Baierl Ice Complex in Cranberry.