PIHL Penguins Cup Semifinals Monday Recaps

By: Bruce Markey
Monday, March 19, 2012 | 11:40 PM

The PIHL Penguins Cup Semifinals began Monday night with Class A taking center stage. Mars needed double overtime to advance while Quaker Valley cruises to victory at the Island Sports Complex. Here are recaps from both games.

Quaker Valley Quakers 7 – Kittanning Wildcats 1
By Lee Mohn

Quaker Valley had an easy time Monday night in the semi finals defeating Kittanning 7-1.  It was all Quaker Valley all the time.  The Quakers scored the first 5 goals and out shot Kittanning 40-15.  The Quakers also scored 4 power play goals which was the difference in the game.  Jayson Lottes led the way for the Quakers with 3 goals.  Ryan Dickson chipped in with 2 goals.  Heinz Koster scored his 49th of the season for lone Kittanning goal.  Quaker Valley will now go the championship game on Saturday at the Consol.

1st period
7:41   QV   Jayson Lottes  ( Ryan Lottus)
9:34   QV   Jayson Lottes  ( Ryan Lottes)

2nd period
8:51   QV   Ryan Dickson ( Kevin Kenney)

3rd period
2:02   QV   Ryan Dickson ( Clayton Bouchard, Jimmy Perkins)
2:25   QV   Otto Schaefer (  Cameron Peterkin)
4:04   Kit    Heinz Koster  (Elijah Jones)
7:19  QV    Jayson Lottes (John Pilewicz)
13:39 QV   Clayton Bouchard ( Adam Stanley)

        1   2   3   F
Kit    0   0   1   1
QV   2   1   4   7

Shots on goal
        1    2     3    Tot
KIT   4    3     8    15
QV   6   25    9    40

Mars Fighting Planets 4 – Hampton Talbots 3 in Double Overtime
By Ken Laird

The Mars Planets will play for a fourth consecutive PIHL Penguins Cup Championship in Class A on Saturday thanks to a Master.

Junior forward Max Master scored off a faceoff 3:09 into overtime at RMU’s Island Sports Center on Monday evening to defeat the Hampton Talbots by a final score of 4-3.

Master, who was on the ice for a number of key late-game faceoffs, won the draw in OT forward to himself on a play Mars Head Coach Steve Myers called a “set play.”  Master’s shot then found a hole somewhere on the short side of Talbots’ netminder Cam Raidna, sending the Planets into celebration mode.

Mars built a 3-1 lead through two periods on two power-play goals, one on a point shot by Austin Heakins and one by Ian Houk-Graves on a wrister from the top of the left circle.  In between, Heakins made a pretty play to set up Robert Foley in front of the net as the Planets went from down 1-0 early to in control heading into Period 3.

However, Hampton would outshoot Mars in the third period 14-5, getting goals from Joe Vita at the 4:32 mark on a slap shot and then at 6:57 from Luke Leya late on a man-advantage to tie the game at 3-3.

The teams played evenly and fairly conservatively in the first three minutes of the extra session before Master ended the night’s play, giving Mars a chance to play for gold medals once again.  Mars will take on Quaker Valley at Consol Energy Center on Saturday for the Class A Penguins Cup Title.

First Niagara Bank Three Stars:
3 – Hampton defenseman Andy Coyle
2 – Mars defenseman Ian Houk-Graves
1 – Mars forward Austin Heakins

Mt. Lebanon Ice Arena Play of the Game:
The Max Masters game-winning goal 3:09 into OT

Period 1
5:10 – Zack Kosic (Luke Leya, Joe Vita) – 1-0 Hampton
6:12 – Austin Heakins [PP] (unassisted) – 1-1

Period 2
4:35 – Robert Foley (Heakins, Reed Salada) – 2-1 Mars
9:49 – Ian Houk-Graves [PP] (Heakins) – 3-1 Mars

Period 3
4:32 – Joe Vita (unassisted) – 3-2 Mars
6:57 – Luke Leya [PP] (Vita, Brian Swain) – 3-3

Overtime
3:09 – Max Masters (unassisted) – 4-3 Mars

Tags: Hampton, Kittanning