PIHL Penguins Cup Hockey Playoff Recaps for Wednesday, March 6th

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, March 6, 2013 | 10:59 PM

Two games in each classification made for a busy night as the high school playoffs turned into the second round. As has been the case this entire postseason, the higher seeds prevailed in all six contest. Here are recaps from the six games played on Quarterfinals Wednesday in the PIHL Penguins Cup Playoffs.

A special thanks to Sam Hall, Randy Gore, Steve Nagler, Bob Orkwis, Mike Azadian and Don Rebel for their help on these recaps.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS AAA QUARTERFINALS:

Bethel Park Black Hawks 5 – Upper St. Clair Panthers 1
The Bethel Park Black Hawks defeated the Upper Saint Clair Panthers 5-1 in a PIHL quarterfinal Wednesday night. The win over the Panthers was the third time this season that Bethel Park has knocked off their cross-town rivals. Bethel got started with an Austin Jameyson goal 8:36 into the first period and had an early 1-0 lead. USC would answer less than three minutes later as Austin Cassidy tied the game at the 11:16 mark of the first with an assist from Pat Lydon. Bethel though would rebound to score the next four goals of the game, three of them on the power play to come away with the win. Ryan Kusmira made it 2-1 with his ninth of the season late in the first. Then in the remaining two periods the Hawks power play unit went to work in a big way. Jameyson got his second of the night and fourth of the year unassisted to start the second period scoring and Brody Taylor added a power play goal to round out the period. Going to the third Bethel clung to a 4-1 advantage that they would eventually push to 5-1 as Chris Wandel scored his 2nd goal of the year to round out the scoring. Austim McGinty made 20 saves to get the win for Bethel Park improving the Hawks record on the season to 17-5-0 and get them to the semi-finals against a foe that will be determined Thursday night. Mike Ambrose takes the loss between the pipes for the Panthers stopping 26 of 31 shots as the Panthers season comes to an end at 14-7-2.

Score by periods 
Bethel Park     2     –     2     –     1     –     5
USC               1     –     0     –     0     –     1

Shots on Goal by period
Bethel Park     12     –     12    –    7     –    31
USC                7      –      7     –    7     –     21   

North Allegheny Tigers 2 – Canon-McMillan Big Macs 1 in Overtime
In a game that featured two penalty shots and three 5-on-3 power plays, the North Allegheny Tigers outlasted the Canon-McMillan Big Macs for a 2-1 overtime win in the Class AAA PIHL Quarterfinals on Wednesday night. After Tigers goalie Bradford Thornburgh stopped J.D. Oddi on a penalty shot in overtime, senior Cody Black scored the game winner just moments later to send NA on to the semifinals. NA’s Shawn Baird opened the scoring with a power play tally in the first period and Canon-McMillan’s Austin Tonkovich netted the game tying goal in the second period, bringing the score to 1-1. The game was a tenuous affair that saw scoring chances abound for both teams, especially in the third period, but neither squad was able to take advantage as the deadlock moved to overtime. That set the stage for Black’s game winning marker with 5:00 to go in overtime. Thornburgh stopped 37 of 38 shots for the Tigers while Canon-McMillan’s Ryan Christian was outstanding between the pipes as well, blocking 26 of 28 shots he faced. With the win, the Tigers advance to the PIHL semifinals for the first time since 2007. 

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS AA QUARTERFINALS:

Bishop Canevin Crusaders 5 – Plum Mustangs 2
Austin Large had two goals and assisted on the other three Bishop Canevin goals as the Crusaders cruised to a quarterfinal win in the Class AA PIHL playoffs.  It wasn’t easy as the 8^th seeded Mustangs hung tough against the top-seeded Crusaders for the first two periods of play.  Patrick Large got Bishop Canevin on the board first with a power play goal nearly nine minutes into the first period.  The Crusaders would finish the night scoring three power play goals in 5 chances.  Plum’s David Stonebraker would knot the score at one with a wicked slap shot from 15 feet to beat Crusader’s goaltender Nikita Meskin at the 13:26 mark of the first period.  Garrett Godlewski would score his first of two power play tallies 7:17 into the 2^nd period to give Bishop Canevin the 2-1 lead.  But, back would come the Mustangs as Joe Randazzo scored just 31 seconds later to tie the score at 2-2.  Canevin would eventually score the last three goals of the game to put an end to Plum’s season.  The Mustangs finish their 2012-13 season with a record of 9-11-1.  With the win, Bishop Canevin (17-1-2) heads to the semi-final round to be played next Tuesday at the RMU Neville Island Sports Complex.

Pine-Richland Rams 6 – Erie Cathedral Prep Ramblers 2
Six different Rams found the net in this quarterfinal matchup at the Ice Connection in Valencia. Drew Berkhoudt started the scoring for the Rams just (4:38) into the game. But Brandon Gotkin answered for Prep with an unassisted tally at (10:36) and the game was tied 1-1 after one period. The Ramblers took their only lead of the contest at (5:19) of the second period when Jimmy Bufalino beat Rams net minder Brendan Bagnato to the far side converting a Gotkin pass from behind the net. The goal came after a Ramblers power play ended and finished off a nice cycling sequence for Erie Cathedral Prep. Pine-Richland had the answer less than a minute later when Dillon Kessy tapped a rebound past Trent Faulkner for his 30^th goal of the season. Faulkner made a tremendous glove save on a Zach Richey wrist shot but could quite secure the puck which led to the Kessy tally. The goal would be the first of five unanswered scores for the Rams. Pine-Richland scored the eventual game winner on a 5-on-3 power play at the (13:06) mark of the second period. Tyler Mikita won the faceoff back to Kessy and Mikita would end up deflecting Kessy’s slap shot from the right point into the net to give the Rams a 3-2. The backbreaking goal in this contest cam with: 02 left in the second period and it was also a special teams tally. Ryan Cole forced a turnover in the Prep zone and his shot deflected past Faulkner for a short-handed goal and a 2 goal Pine-Richland lead heading into the third period. The Rams would register the first 12 shots of the period and Pine-Richland would net the only two goals of the frame as well. Defenseman Nicholas Jenkins would convert a Kessy pass into a goal, beating a screened Faulkner with a wrist shot from the right point to make it 5-2. Matt Cole would cap the scoring with a power play goal at the (15:04) mark to make the final score 6-2. The Rams were 2-for-10 on the power play in the game and Pine-Richland killed off all five man advantage opportunities for the Ramblers. Faulkner was busy in net for Prep finishing with 40 saves. Bagnato picked up his 14^th win of the year by stopping 15 Ramblers shots. Fifth seeded Erie Cathedral Prep, last year’s Class AA runner-up, finishes the season with a record of (13-7). The fourth seeded Rams are now (15-4-1) on the year and move into the PIHL Class AA semifinals for the second straight year.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS A QUARTERFINALS:

Mars Fighting Planets 8 – Serra Catholic Eagles 2
At the Bladerunners in Warrendale  the Mars Planets take care of business and dispatch the Serra Catholic Eagles in the PIHL quarterfinals by a score of 8-2. Mars would score a goal early in period one on a goal by Kyle Thomas to make it 1-0. The Eagles had a rough second period giving up three goals and trailed 4-0 after two periods. Nick Berteotti had two second period goals and Nick Makozy added one to pace the Planets to the four goal lead. These two teams played twice early in the season with Mars winning both games so the Eagle fans wanted the rematch and thought they had improved and would challenge Mars. But the Planets were playing with a full contingent of players for the first time all season and were ready for the Serra challenge. Like the first two games which saw 18 and 16 penalties respectively this contest would get ugly. After only one penalty in the first, and seven in the second the third period got out of hand with 14 total penalties.  After Serra's Jonathan Henschel scored at the start of period three to make it 4-1, the Planets would score four straight power play goals to run the lead to 8-1. Berteotti scored his third of the game, Makozy his second, and Trevor Tisdale and Craig Mazotta each tallied one to give Mars the insurmountable lead. In fact Henschel after scoring his goal took the first of four 3rd period penalties and when added to his penalty in the second period gave him five for the night, an automatic game misconduct. Tyler Speis would end the scoring for Serra getting a goal late in period three to make the final 8-2.With the loss Serra ends their season at 12-12 and it will be the final game for Eagle head coach Brian Boehm who is moving out of state. Mars improves to 18-3-1 and will move on to the semi finals where they will face either Deer Lakes, Freeport, Kittanning, or Westmont Hilltop.

Westmont-Hilltop Hilltoppers 4 – Thomas Jefferson Jaguars 3 in Overtime
Brian Yost scored with four and a half minutes left in regulation to tie the games at 3-3, then Ian Campbell scored an unassisted goal nearly five minutes into overtime as the Hilltoppers came back to beat the Thomas Jefferson Jaguars 4-3 in a PIHL Penguins Cup Class A Quarterfinals game at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown. Nicholas Tamburi scored an unassisted goal for the lone tally in the opening period as the visiting Jaguars grabbed a 1-0 lead. Stephen DeMarco and Timothy Smith scored 90 second apart midway through the second period to give the Hilltoppers a 2-1 lead. However 27 seconds after Smith gave Westmont-Hilltop the lead, TJ's matt Bowers scored to tie the game at 2-2. Tommy Kimmick scored a minute later as the Jaguars grabbed a 3-2 lead after two periods, setting the stage for the Hilltoppers late heroics. Thomas Jefferson ends their season with a 14-9-0 record while Westmont-Hilltop improves to 15-7-1 and will face a team to be determined on Monday in the Semifinals at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Complex on Neville Island.