Announcement
|
||
| view full size | ||
 |
|
||
|
||
| view full size |
Championship
Fox Chapel 4 North Allegheny 1
Fox Chapel has not been to the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off final since they won the championship in 1997 and 1996, defeating Franklin Regional both years, so lets just say its been a while for the Foxes. Coach Jim Damp’s club defeated Shaler 6-0 and North Hills 5-3 to gain a spot in the final. This version of the Fox Chapel Hockey team has a few familiar faces in Kyle Misour and Joey Budz and maybe an emerging one in goaltender Eric Thiessen, who will give the Foxes an opportunity to win quite a few games this season. Fox Chapel will get an opportunity to face new divisional rival North Allegheny, as Gotham City AAA again shuffles the deck and NA finds itself in a division with FC, North Hills, Shaler and Seneca Valley.
North Allegheny knows all about the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off and the finals making it seven out of nine years since Fox Chapel won it in 97. Head Coach Tom Pandolfo will be looking for a three-peat in the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off as he prepares his squad to try to mirror last season’s magical run. The Tigers return some high powered offense in returnees Garrett Waldschmidt, Chris Gilson and Chris Simanic, who have been in on the wins over Pine Richland and Plum, but what has been more impressive is some of the young new Tiger players, who bring fresh air to a lineup which will be hungry to fight back to the top of the heap in Class AAA.
So before an intimate gathering at the big rink at Harmarville, the 2005 Fall Face-Off finals would bring this tournament its 13th champion with North Allegheny capturing four [1998, 2001,2003 & 2004] and Fox Chapel owning the aforementioned two titles [1996&1997]. End to end action in the opening minutes resulted in limited chances for both teams, the best coming off the stick of Kyle Misour, who nearly scored on a shot that just went wide. Early in the season is usually a time of mental mistakes and NA made the first one being caught for too many men at the 8 minute mark. Another penalty at 6:19 put the Tigers down two men for 20 seconds. Fortunately for NA, coach Damp has not had much of a chance to work on the power play and the Tigers methodically killed off the disadvantage. Then the Tigers settled in a started their assault and with 1:25 remaining in the first Chris Simanic was the recipient of a nice doorstep pass from Chris Gilson for a tap-in and a 1-0 NA lead with 1:25. Fox Chapel came right back with 30 seconds left in the opening period as Chris Hughes blistered a shot from the left face off circle to tie the score. The Foxes were not done yet as Andrew McCoy chipped home a Josh Balicki rebound past Max Richards with just 4 seconds left top give the Foxes a 2-1 lead sending the spirited Fox Chapel student section into a tizzy.
Eric Thiessen stood tall early in the second as the shots reached 14-6 with just a minute gone and the Foxes clinging to a 2-1 lead stopping Wes Waldschmidt at 13:14. NA Goaltender Max Richards made a nice save on Kyle Misour at 12:41 from point blank range. Joey Budz extended the Fox Chapel lead at 4:43 on an unassisted goal to give the Foxes a 3-1 lead. North Allegheny continued its onslaught with 13 shots to the Foxes 4, but they could not beat Eric Thiessen.
On to third we went and North Allegheny was still trying to solve Thiessen outshooting them 26-12. The chances ….were plenty …first it was Chris Simanic hitting the post early in the power play. Then Ian McGlumphy from point blank range. Then another power play came and Wes Waldschmidt was stopped by Thiessen at 8:15 from the slot. The Tigers pelted Thiessen with shots but could not score as they were only able to score once in 36 shots. As fate would have it Fox Chapel would have the final say in this one as Alex Haak picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and made a nifty move to side-step an NA defenseman at the blue line and then unleashed a blistering wrist shot high over the glove side of Max Richards 1:24 to wrap up a 4-1 FC victory and the 3rd St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off championship since the tournaments inception in 1993. These two teams will meet again October 31st at Harmarville as they open the 2005-2006 season.
Consolation Game – October 13, 2005
Pine Richland 6 North Hills 5
The nice feature about the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off event is that it matches mostly teams from North and East of the city against each other, so many of the players, parents and coaches know each other through years of hockey in playing in Amatuer and High School Hockey. Pine Richland coach Jimmy Black, for instance, coached at North Hills a couple of years back so this game would have a little meaning to him, which hopefully he can relay to his players. The other item at stake is that I am sure the Rams would like to sport two wins heading into the regular season, a mere two weeks away with the lone blemish, a tough 2-1 loss to Penguins Cup AAA finalist North Allegheny.
The Indians of North Hills and their head coach Matt Hansen have high expectations coming into this season, especially with last year’s strong finish and a core group of that team returning. A win over Penguins Cup AA finalist Pine Richland, will help the confidence level of a team heading for an opening four games of the regular season which includes AAA powers Penn Trafford and North Allegheny twice in November.
The Rams dominated the first period outshooting NH 16-3. Phil Trombetta converted a Geoff Bagnato pass to give PR a 1-0 lead with 11:30 left. The Indians returned the favor less than a minute later as David Hansell raced 120 feet and beat the Ram defense and Stoney Hildreth low to the glove side to knot the score at one apiece at 10:26. The game seemed pretty even at this point, but the Rams turned up the offense late in the period. After Dylan Trombetta was stopped on the breakaway with 3:18 remaining in the opening period, Brian Miller cashed in with just 52 ticks left for a 2-1 PR lead and Drew Lilly closed out the period scoring with just 1.6 seconds left for a 3-1 advantage for the Green and White.
On to the second period we went and the Indians had an opportunity on the power play and converted on their 5th shot as Jeremy Kubit poked a rebound past Stoney Hildreth at 9:46 to cut the gap to 3-2. Did I say momentarily ? Well I utter something because as fast as I looked up freshman sensation Dylan Trombetta combined with his linemate and brother Phil and Brian Miller to regain the two-goal lead at 4-2 at 9:26. PR continued its dominance and opened up a 5-2 lead as Jordan Yoklic scored at 4:05. The Indians closed the gap to two goals as Drew Stein tallied with 2:32 left and the Rams went to the ice cut with a 5-3 lead.
With 13:27 remaining in the 3rd, Georg Saad outmuscled the North Hills defense and poked the puck past NH netminder Zaid Alzaid to make it a 6-3 count. NH’s David Hansell picked up his 2nd goal on a blistering shot from the top of the circle to bring the Indians within two at 6-4 . The Indians then took advantage of a poor clearing attempt with 2:58 left as Jared Waters kept the puck in the zone and David Hansell beat Hildreth to the puck and shipped it over the fallen goaltender to make it a 6-5 game. The Rams would hold on for the win outshooting the Indians 30-18.
Comments
There are no comments for this announcement.
