PIHL releases divisions for 2018-19 season

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, July 18, 2018 | 8:27 AM

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League released its alignment for the 2018-19 season, with the biggest change coming from a shift in division and scheduling format in Class A.

The 21 Class A teams competed last season in one division, playing each opponent once. Montour and North Hills dropped from Class AA to A and Greensburg Central Catholic will not field a team, giving Class A 22 teams and three divisions: the North, South/West and South/East.

The 10 North teams will play their division opponents twice, the six South/West teams will play their division opponents twice and the South/East teams once, plus two more games within the South/West. The six South/East teams will play their division opponents twice, the South/West teams once and two more games within the South/West. Each team will play 18 games.

In Class AAA, the nine teams were separated into three pods: Teams will play the other two pod opponents three times, and all other teams twice for a total of 18 games. In Class AA, which has 14 teams and two divisions, teams will play division opponents twice and non-division teams once, for 19 games. In Division 2, with 11 teams and one division, teams will play each other twice.

The divisions for 2018-19 season are as follows:

Class AAA

Pod 1: Cathedral Prep, North Allegheny, Seneca Valley

Pod 2: Bethel Park, Canon-McMillan, Peters Township

Pod 3: Butler, Central Catholic, Mt. Lebanon

Class AA

North/West: Armstrong, Hampton, Mars, Moon, Pine-Richland, Quaker Valley, Shaler

South/East: Baldwin, Franklin Regional, Hempfield, Latrobe, Penn-Trafford, Plum, Upper St. Clair

Class A

North: Beaver, Blackhawk, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Meadville, Montour, North Hills, Sewickley Academy, West Allegheny

South/West: Chartiers Valley, South Fayette, South Park, Thomas Jefferson, Wheeling Catholic, Wheeling Park

South/East: Bishop McCort, Greensburg Salem, Indiana, Kiski Area, Norwin, Westmont Hilltop

Division 2

Bishop Canevin, Burrell, Carrick, Central Valley, Connellsville, Knoch, McDowell, Morgantown, Neshannock, Ringgold, Trinity

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.