PIHL Penguins Cup Hockey Playoff Recaps for Thursday, March 7th

By: Bruce Markey
Friday, March 8, 2013 | 12:04 AM

Two games in each classification made for another busy night as the high school playoffs wrapped up the second round. A couple of mild surprises will crack the Final Four party as #5 State College in AAA and #6 Kittanning were winners on Thursday to move on to the PIHL Semifinals. Here are recaps from the six games played on Quarterfinals Thursday in the Penguins Cup Playoffs.

A special thanks to Lou Rood, Alex Richert, Matt Vandriak, Don Rebel, Greg Kuntz and Brandon Showers for their help on these recaps.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS AAA QUARTERFINALS:

Peters Township Indians 7 – Pittsburgh Central Catholic Vikings 3
The #1 Seed Peters Twp. Indians handled the #9 Seed Pittsburgh Central Catholic Vikings 7-3 Thursday night in PIHL Quarterfinal action at Southpointe.  Peters Township coming off a first round bye, showed no effect of a layoff as they scored first in this matchup.  Their leading scorer, Trevor Recktenwald (28 G, 39 A, 67 Pts), beat Central Catholic goalie Kevin Dziubek at the 15:48 mark of the first period putting the Indians up 1-0.  Assisting on the play was Carter Eckberg. Brady Cochrane put Peters on top 2-0 at the 4:29 mark on a Power Play goal just 3 seconds after Central Catholic’s Jessie Yeckel went to the box for tripping.  Giovanni Carbonara was awarded an assist on the goal.  Thirty two seconds later Matt Amelio made it 3-0 Peters Twp. as Jacob Dachille and Evan Opeka added the assists.  That would end the scoring for the first period.  Central Catholic scored its first goal of the game at the 13:25 mark of the 2^nd period when Nick Tabata beat Brian Baker to make it 3-1.  Anthony Parrucci and Alex Houser added assists on the play.  Forty one seconds later Central Catholic cut the Peters Twp. lead to 3-2 on a Jesse Yeckel goal assisted by Dylan Junker and Neil Carleton.  Just when it looked like the Vikings were going to make it a nail biter, Trevor Rectenwald took matters in hand and scored just 20 seconds later to put Peters back in front by 2 at 4-2.  Carter Eckberg picked up his second assist along with Alex Debolt on the play.  The final score of the 2^nd Period came out of nowhere as the teams were struggling for the puck at center ice as time was running out in the period.  Giovanni Carbonara kicked the puck free and sent it to Trevor Recktenwald, who found an open Brady Cochrane to the left of the slot.  Cochrane buried the puck on the short side just beating the buzzer to make it 5-2 at the end of two.  Carbonara and Recktenwald picked up the late assists.  The 3^rd Period started out with Central Catholic on the attack looking to close the gap.  Anthony Parucci knocked home a shot at the 15:37 mark of the 3^rd to cut the deficit to 5-3.  Justin Yeckel was credited with the assist.  It wasn’t until the 9:22 mark of the 3^rd that Peters opened some more breathing room as Brady Cochrane recorded his third goal of the game for the hat trick and a 6-3 Indian lead.  Sam Barnes and Alex Debolt picked up the assists.  The final goal of the game came on a short-handed goal by Adam Alavi on a beautiful pass from Trevor Recktenwald.  Alavi split the defense and beat Brian Burger, who replaced Dziudek at the start of the period, to make it 7-3 Peters Twp.  Peters outshot Central Catholic 42-28.  The Indians will move on to the semi-finals and Central Catholic will end its season finishing 1-1 in the playoffs.

State College Little Lions 4 – Seneca Valley Raiders 3 in Overtime
Following a first round victory over Mt. Lebanon 6-1, Seneca Valley loomed in the Quarterfinals. The Little Lions got on the board first with Sey Yeaple dumped the puck in from the Raider blue line at the end of a shift, and it slipped by goaltender Tanner Pfeffer. Seneca Valley responded in the second period with Brendan MacFarland finding the back of the net twice. Third period started with the score board reading 3-2 in favor of the Raiders. Adam Warfield tied the game for the Little Lions early in the third. The Raiders scored the only special teams goal of the night on Andrew Gagnon’s power play goal. Three minutes later Sey Yeaple tied the game at three with his second goal of the game. Yeaple’s third period tally would be the last thru regulation and the first overtime period. Yeaple completed the hat trick with only 3:21 on the clock in the second overtime period, sending the Little Lions to the Semi Finals. First seeded Peters Township awaits State College at Robert Morris Island Sports Center on Neville Island. Stay with MSASports.net the entire way to Consol Energy Center with continueing coverage of the 2013 PIHL Penguins Cup.
 

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS AA QUARTERFINALS:

Latrobe Wildcats 2 – Hampton Talbots 0
For the third time this season, a game between Latrobe and Hampton was decided by 2 goals.  And for the third time this season, it was the Wildcats who scored the victory. Led by the stellar play of goalie Shane Brudnok, #2 seed Latrobe scored the "hat-trick" of wins over the #3 seeded Talbots in this Quarterfinal matchup from the Kirk Nevin arena in Greensburg.  Latrobe posted 3-1 and 5-3 wins over Hampton during the regular season, and it didn't take the Wildcats long to score the game winning goal in this playoff meeting.  Just :14 seconds into the game, Dalton Hunter scored on Latrobe's first shot of the game.  Christopher Johnson and Joshua Singley got the assists and it was 1-0 Wildcats early on.  Johnson would find the net at 13:06 of the opening period, set up off of a great feed from Brendan Johns.  Singley got the 2nd assist and the Wildcats led 2-0 after the period. In the 2nd and 3rd periods, it was the goaltenders who stole the show.  Despite the early goal, Hampton's Cameron Raidna stopped 30 shots on the night, and  made several huge saves in the final two periods, giving the Talbots a chance to come back.  But every opportunity that Hampton got, Brudnak was there to stop, as he turned aside all 27 shot he faced on the night, earning him the MSA #1 star of the game. Hampton's first season in AA ends with a final record of 11-8-2, while Latrobe(17-3-0) moves on to the Semi-Finals to face #3 seed Pine-Richland on tuesday night from the RMU Island Sports Complex on Neville Island. 
Scoring Re-Cap
1st Period
Lat–Dalton Hunter(20) from Christopher Johnson and Joshua Singley :14.
Lat–Johnson(11) from Johns and Singley 13:06.
Goalies
Ham–Cameron Raidna (32-30)
Lat–Shane Brudnok (27-27)
PP
Ham 0-2
Lat  0-1
MSA Three Stars
1)  Shane Brudnok (27 shots, 27 saves)
2)  Christopher Johnson (1G, 1A, 2pts)
3)  Cameron Raidna (32 shots, 30 saves)

Chartiers Valley Colts 4 – Moon Tigers 1
Cullen McMahon scored a natural hat trick in leading 3^rd-seed Chartiers Valley past #6 Moon 4-1 Thursday night in a PIHL Class AA Quarterfinals contest at the Mount Lebanon Ice Arena. McMahon score dhis first goal unassisted at 9:44 of the opening period. McMahon scored again three and a half minutes later to make it 2-0 Colts after one. McMahon finished off the HT three and a half minutes into period number two when he scored off helpers from Kevin Kocak and Sean Brkovich to make it 3-0. Trevor Handlovitch finally got the Tigers on the board midway through the third period. But any hopes of a Moon comeback ended when McMahon set up Anthony Franks who scored with only one second left in the second period. Moon’s season ends with a final record of 10-7-3 while Chartiers Valley improves to 15-4-1 and will face #2-seed Latrobe on Tuesday in the PIHL Penguins Cup Semifinals at the RMU island Sports Complex on Neville Island.
 

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS A QUARTERFINALS:

Quaker Valley Quakers 6 – Deer Lakes Lancers 0
Deer Lakes' reward for their 8-1 1st-Round playoff win over South Fayette was a matchup with the top-seeded Quaker Valley Quakers.  This was a tall order considering that the Quakers had run the table over every opponent they faced during the regular season.  QV went into this game with 5 of the top 10 scorers in Class A during the regular season, and though they had blown out the Lancers in their two regular season meetings by a combined score of 17-2, DL played the Quakers tough in the early going, keeping the Quakers off the scoreboard.  QV's persistent attack would pay off, however, at the 11:42 mark of the 1st period as Clayton Bouchard was able to break into the slot and backhand a shot past DL netminder Jonathan Lang, which turned out to be the game-winner, for a 1-0 lead.  That score remained until late in the 2nd period when Ryan Dickson, who earlier had a goal disallowed, blistered a shot past Lang to make it 2-0 at 12:28.  55 seconds later, Jimmy Perkins wristed a goal to extend QV's lead to 3-0.  The Quakers would get a man advantage late in the 2nd which carried over to the 3rd, and they would take just 19 seconds into the 3rd to cash in with their first of 2 power play goals as Dickson would take a feed from Perkins in the slot and bury a shot past Lang to make it 4-0.  Dickson would get the hat trick on the power play at 7:19 of the 3rd off helpers from Bouchard and Perkins for a 5-0 lead.  Adam Pilewicz would conclude the scoring for QV with a goal at the 12:06 mark to make the final 6-0.  The Quakers move on to the semis with a perfect 23-0 record and will face Kittanning, a team the Quakers had beaten , 5-2, at the end of the regular season on February 28.  The Lancers' season ends at 8-14-1.

Kittanning Wildcats 5 – Freeport Yellowjackets 2
A game the made out to be quite the goaltender match up on paper did not disappoint.  On paper the two goaltenders averaged giving up just a little over two goals a game.  Kittanning’s Cameron Langham did not disappoint making 31 saves on 33 shots faced.  One of them was the Mount Lebanon Ice Arena Play of the game when he dove across the crease and batted a puck out of mid-air with his stick to prevent a goal.  The scoring started in the first when Elijah Johns scored on the power-play goal for the Wildcats after they were able to kill off a Yellowjackets power-play.  Johns’ goal came at the 7:43 mark with assists by Cody Toy and Hunter Grafton.  At the 8:56 mark then Kittanning was able to get another puck past Freeport’s Matt Huston when Christian Miller scored on the assist from Hunter Grafton. Freeport was able to answer when Cole Haberstroh scored at the 0:56 mark of the 2^nd on the assist from Justin Drzemiecki making it 2-1 Kittanning.  Freeport would get no closer than one being down by one when Kittanning’s Miller scored his second of the game at the 6:24 mark of the 3^rd the assist from Grafton again.  Freeport’s leading scorer after the regular season Cole Hepler answered on a pretty goal with the assists to Michael Frazetta and Greg Newman.  Miller not to be outdone scored his hat trick goal 28 seconds later at the 14:18 mark of the 3^rd assists going to Cody Toy and Michael Kelly.  Miller would score his fourth goal on an empty netter at the 16:56 mark to ice the game.  Freeport finished with 33 shots on goal Kittanning had 28.  Specialties were a major factor Freeport finished 0-3 on the power play and Kittanning finished 1-3. 
The MSA three Stars of the game were:
Christian Miller (Kittanning) – 4 goals
Cameron Lanham (Kittanning) – 31 Saves
Cody Toy (Kittanning) – 4 assists