PIHL High School Hockey Notebook – 01/23/2012

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, January 23, 2012 | 6:00 PM

Welcome to another edition of “PIHL Notebook,” your weekly companion to “The PIHL Power Play” on the MSA Sports Network. This week, State College and Latrobe, Hampton and Wheeling Central Catholic are among the teams “Melting the Ice” while the “Scoreboard Watch” includes a number of one-goal battles and a pair of upsets in the Open Class.

PIHL CLASS AAA:

MELTING THE ICE

Canon-McMillan remains the only perfect team in the league at 14-0-0 … Bethel Park has won its last three and recorded a point in its last four contests … Upper St. Clair has managed a point in three straight … Mount Lebanon is clinging to a narrow lead in Section 2 after back-to-back victories … Pittsburgh Central Catholic has gotten to .500 with points in its last two games … Penn-Trafford has rebuilt an eight-point edge atop Section 4 with a hat trick of wins … State College is back above .500 after winning its last two and tying the game before that.

SCOREBOARD WATCH

1/19/12 – Non-section: North Allegheny 3, Peters Township 2 … The Tigers took control with two unanswered goals in the first period and never looked back … Trevor Recktenwald scored at 12:31 of the second, but Cody Black netted his second goal and the winner just 16 seconds later … Recktenwald lit the lamp one more time at 10:01 of the third, but the Indians could not get the equalizer to force overtime … Dalton Landman contributed one goal and one assist to the victory … Jesse Borne stopped 25 shots despite suffering the loss while Tyler Kuhn made 18 saves for North Allegheny.

1/20/12 – Non-section: Upper St. Clair 6, McDowell 5 (OT) … The Panthers built a 5-0 lead after 15 minutes of action, but the Trojans would not go away, ultimately tying it on Zach Poe’s second goal of the evening at 8:03 of the third … Jacob Puccetti buried the winner unassisted at 2:46 of the extra frame … Puccetti also set up the first goal of the contest … Alex Margraf and Ryan Guzek each scored once on the power play and set up two goals for McDowell … USC got three points apiece from Austin Cassidy (2 G, 1 PP, 1 A) and Mike Sweeney (PPG, 2 A) … Evan Szablewski stopped 23 out of 24 shots he faced, giving up only the winner after relieving Tyler Sutula to start the second period.

PIHL CLASS AA:

MELTING THE ICE

West Allegheny has extended its winning streak to nine games atop Section 1 … Moon is coming off back-to-back wins … Bishop Canevin has regained control of Section 2 with six consecutive victories … Latrobe now leads Section 4 thanks to a hat trick of two-point efforts.

SCOREBOARD WATCH

1/19/12 – Non-section: Latrobe 5, Erie Cathedral Prep 3 … the Wildcats snap the Ramblers’ seven-game winning streak and avenge a 6-3 loss on December 16 … Erie Prep scored late in the first for a 1-0 advantage, but Latrobe ripped off four unanswered in the second and never relinquished the lead … Brandon Harris scored twice for Latrobe, first on the power play and later to win it … Jacob Koluder (1 G, 1 A), Adam Ferguson (1 G, 1 A) and Josh Singley (2 A) each contributed two points to the victory … Jimmy Bufalino scored twice for Erie, once with the man advantage, while Peter Zaphiris picked up three assists … Credit Shane Brudnok with 24 saves to earn the win.

1/19/12 – Non-section: Bishop Canevin 8, Plum 3 … The Crusaders score six or more for the fourth time during their current winning streak and regain the lead in Section 2 … BC led 1-0 after one before the teams combined for eight goals in the second … Pete Karney recorded the special teams hat trick with one shorthanded marker and two power play tallies, the last of which proved to be the deciding goal … Karney also set up three while Matt Walsh matched his six-point effort (2 G, 4 A) and Garrett Godlewski contributed four (PPG, 3 A) … The Mustangs got a shorthanded goal from Jacob Kuhn and a man advantage strike from Joe Randazzo … Nikita Meskin only had to make 15 saves to earn the victory.

PIHL CLASS A:

MELTING THE ICE

Serra Catholic maintains control of Section 1 with three straight victories … Quaker Valley has propelled itself to first place in Section 2 with a 10-game winning streak … Freeport is tied with Westmont Hilltop for the Section 3 lead following a pair of wins … Hampton has points in eight straight including four consecutive two-pointers.

SCOREBOARD WATCH

1/19/12 – Non-section: Serra Catholic 5, Kittanning 4 … This one never saw overtime, but it stayed close the whole way … The Eagles led 1-0 after one, but saw ties of 1-1 and 2-2 before grabbing a 4-2 lead at intermission … It was 4-3 when Tyler Speis scored the winner at 9:03 of the third … Christian Miller pulled the Wildcats back within a goal at 13:34, but Serra held the fort down the stretch … Speis and Garner Kramer each put up two goals and one assist while Robert Kendi chipped in with two helpers … Miller added one assist to his night while Hunter Anthony scored twice … Hunter Grafton, Cody Toy and Jacob Snyder all registered two assists for Kittanning … Travis Marzina made 30 saves to earn the victory.

1/20/12 – Non-section: Westmont Hilltop 3, Mars 2 … The Hilltoppers recover nicely from back-to-back losses and hand the Planets their first loss of the 2011-12 campaign, ending a nine-game winning streak … Westmont led 1-0 after one, but Mars got power play goals from Maxwell Master and Austin Heakins to take a 2-1 lead at 7:59 of the second … Stephen DeMarco tied it back up at 14:56, and Noah McQuillan netted the winner at 3:22 of the third … McQuillan also scored on the power play and set up DeMarco’s goal while DeMarco added an assist himself … Christian Knapp made 20 saves for the Planets, but Adam Ayre stopped 24 shots for the win.

PIHL OPEN CLASS:

MELTING THE ICE

John Marshall leads Section 1 thanks to recording points in seven straight, the last three of which saw overtime … Wheeling Central Catholic inches closer to .500 with four consecutive victories … Quigley has the hot hands in Section 2 with back-to-back wins … Ford City has picked up eight wins in a row to build a three-point advantage atop Section 3 … Baldwin has a lucky string of seven decisions in its favor and is within three points of first place in Section 4 … Carrick has gotten back to .500 with a pair of two-point efforts.

SCOREBOARD WATCH

1/19/12 – Section 3: Hollidaysburg 5, Indiana 4 … After beating Greensburg Salem, the week off did the Indians no favors as the Golden Tigers pull off a big upset … It was back and forth all the way, though, with Hollidaysburg grabbing the early 2-0 lead before Indiana stormed back for a 3-2 advantage midway through the second … The Tigers had it back to 4-3 at intermission before the Indians tied it back up at 4:21 of the third, setting the stage for Alex Satkunas’ winner at 10:11, his fourth goal of the night, the first two coming on the power play … Brandon Ritchey set up three goals for Hollidaysburg while Brent Heaton scored once and set up another … Michael Cochran scored a pair for Indiana, Noah Moody set up two, and it was a goal and assist each for Patrick Hunter and Logan Lazor … Charlie Lafferty made 21 saves to earn the win.

1/19/12 – Section 4: Baldwin 4 Greensburg Salem 1 … The Golden Lions suffer their second consecutive loss while the Highlanders make their case as a legitimate Chiefs Cup contender … Baldwin led 2-1 after one then got insurance goals in the second and third periods … Anthony Alaimo scored twice, including the winner, Jesse Powell put up four points (2 G, 2 A) and Zach Alaimo contributed two assists … Greensburg got its goal from Sean Beichner, still the top goal scorer in the league … Ryan Beerman made 24 saves in the winning effort.

UPCOMING MSA BROADCASTS

1/26/12 – Class AA – Non-section: Plum @ Chartiers Valley … Both teams enter this one trying to right the ship … The Mustangs have dropped two straight and lost control of first place in Section 4 while the Colts have lost four of six after a red-hot start … Andrew Walters leads the Plum attack with 19 goals and 27 points … Justin Sabilla leads CV with 28 goals, 12 assists and 40 points … The best numbers between the pipes belong to Chartiers Valley backup Alex Chabala, who has gone 3-0-0 with a 2.17 GAA and 0.892 save percentage … The puck drops at 7:10 PM with Matt Vandriak and Brandon Rebel on the call.

THEY SAID IT:

“I would rather lose these games now and get them out of the way to make everybody realize we can be beaten rather than maybe losing the last two games of the season and going into the playoffs worried. It gives us the opportunity to realize there are things we have to work on.” – Greensburg Salem forward Sean Beichner on the timing of his team’s recent losses

“It’s definitely a big win for our program. We’re in the month of January playing seven games, and that’s quite a stretch. Those are wins that you really need halfway through a seven-game stretch. We were really looking to hang our hats on a win and hopefully using that type of momentum to carry us into the postseason.” – Indiana head coach Dom Glavach on his team’s recent victory over Greensburg Salem

“After last year we had some parents say I would rather have my kid play on a lower level amateur team where they can develop their skills than play in Class AAA where they don’t even touch the puck during the game. So we came up with the idea of petitioning the league to move to the Open Class for a year or two until we get our numbers back up. The one thing I’ll say about the Open Class is it doesn’t get as much respect as it should. There are some very talented hockey players.” – Baldwin head coach Kevin Becker on his team’s decision to move down this season

That wraps up this edition of “PIHL Notebook,” but check back every Monday from now through March for the most current news from around the league. First, though, Adam Hoerner and Josh Rowntree host another episode of “The PIHL Power Play” on Wednesday night at 8:00. Joining us this week will be West Allegheny goaltender Jason Kumpfmiller to discuss the Indians’ quest for gold this spring. Plus, the voice of the PIHL himself, Bob Sebastian, will offer his perspective on the current season in his first ever appearance on our show. The exclusive home for the 2012 Penguins Cup Playoffs is the MSA Sports Network!

Tags: Baldwin, Bethel Park, Bishop Canevin, Canon-McMillan, Carrick, Chartiers Valley, Ford City, Freeport, Greensburg Salem, Hampton, Hollidaysburg, Indiana, John Marshall (WV), Latrobe, Upper St. Clair, West Allegheny, Westmont Hilltop, Wheeling Central Catholic (WV)