Chicago Interscholastic Showcase

CASTLE SHANNON - The Carrick Cougars had a great season in 2000-2001 making the playoffs in its first season in Class AA. Meanwhile, tonights opponent was the # 1 ranked Peters Twp Indians, who came in with a perfect record, a ton of depth and good balance across three lines. Cougar goaltender Greg Haduch found out quickly within the first five minutes of the game as the Indians pelted Haduch, who was equal to the challenge with some spectacular saves to keep the game scoreless. Finally, Mike Papciak found Matt Clackson parked alone in front of the Carrick goal, who made no mistake and gave PT a 1-0 lead at 8:24. Then it was younger brother freshman Chris Clackson showed great poise as he shielded of a Cougar defender and flipped a backhander past Haduch to make it 2-0. Carrick mounted its only offense of the evening as Brian Micklovich's wrist shot beat Tim Hirsch to cut the lead to 2-1. Peters outshot Carrick 18-3 in the 1st period. A mark of a great team is that it gets stronger as the game grows and has the killer instinct to put a wounded duck away. The Indians dominated the second period in an onslaught that yielded 26 shots on Haduch, who continued to sparkle. Peter's Corey Bovalana and Jordan Torok built the lead to 4-1 as PT enjoyed a 44-7 shot advantage through the second. Any hope Carrick had in the third was quickly erased as a pair of Christians, Minella and Hanson, closed out the scoring for Peters, who won impressively 6-1. The shots in the third period were 18-2, giving the Indians a 62-9 advantage on the evening.

INDIANA - Two of the 2001 PIHL AA Division champions squared off at the Indiana Ice Center in a rematch of an early season battle won by South Park, who went on the reach the Penguin Cup Semi-Finals. Indiana coach Ron Hellen knew that this Thanksgiving eve game would be huge in the AA playoff picture in March. The first period was sloppy as both teams mounted very little offense. In a harmless two on two sitution South Park's Matt Slogan tried to move a pass cross-ice, the puck glance off a Indiana defenseman's skate and behind Mike Lady to give South Park the opening goal. The period featured some fine goaltending by the Eagles Ian Episcopo, who thwarted several Indian chances. On to the second and while the Eagles maintain a 1-0 lead, Episcipo continued warding off a lot of Indiana opportunities. Then South Park made a mistake, as Corey Schaffer caught the Eagle defenseman pinching, he poked the puck past him and it was off to the races and beat Episcipo and the game was tied at 1-1. Then Bryan Schlemmer scored a goal to give Indiana the lead back on a shorthanded tally with 1:16 remaining. Coach Ron Hellen had rolled the dice by using four forwards to kill of the penalty. The Eagles made Indiana pay for the gamble and tied the game at 2-2 on a powerful snap shot by Justin Juha with just 11 seconds remaining in the 2nd. Early in the third period, both teams had odd man breaks but could not capitalize. Then, a little over half way through the period, Indiana's Aaron Smith made a nifty play forcing the puck off of the stick of the South Park defenseman and right onto the stick of Schlemmer, who whistled a wrist shot past Episcopo to give the Indians the lead 3-2. At the 1:16 mark, impressive freshman Casey Haines took a pinpoint pass from captain Nicko Speilman, and Casey made no mistake burying a wrist shot upstairs to seal the victory for Indiana in front of a festive crowd of over 600 at the 'House of King Samuel'. Indiana outshot South Park 33-21 on the night.

Click to see the CC Invitational Schedule and Results of all games played ! Semi-Finals Central Catholic 8 Upper St Clair 3 Bethel Park 3 Mt Lebanon 1 Final Bethel Park 2 Central Catholic 1 Congratulations to the Bethel Park Blackhawks - 2001 Central Catholic Invitational Champions !

CRANBERRY - Cathedral Prep coach Nels White likes his chances with his Rambler squad this season, because of the young talent and depth he has to work with. Seneca Valley was the opponent tonight and improving under 2nd year coach Brian Cersosimo. The Raiders struck quickly in the games first 2:15 as Trevor Kuhlmann and John Zegarelli tallied to give Seneca a 2-0 lead. The Ramblers stormed back with four unanswered goals by Bob Trunasky, Dan Sweeney, Jon Marriott and Justin Duchini to take a 4-2 advantage to the locker room. Duchini added to the Prep lead with 4:05 left in the second and the Ramblers seemed to be in control. The quick strike of Duchini and Jon-Marc LiVorio with a pair closed the gap to 5-4 at the end of two. In the third period, Prep scored three goals by Ryan Stadler, Marriott and Duchini to put the game on ice and give the Ramblers a four goal lead and Prep wnet on to win 8-5.

CRANBERRY - Indian coach Jimmy Black has heard all of the hype regarding NA this year, but the coach had a score to settle. North Hills hadn't beaten North Allegheny in several years and Black wanted to put a stop to it. In fact, it may have been before the 8th grade picnic for some the Indians. Would this be the night ? NH Forward Mark Keyser recieved a gift when he collected his own rebound and backhanded the puck past Michael Lagoyda to secure a 1-0 lead. Then it was offensive machine Jake Congalton's turned as he picked up a loose puck and scored on he rebound to put North Hills on top 2-0. With their backs to the wall early NA pressed but could not score on two power play opportunities late in the first. On to the second period and the Indians capitalized on their power play as the opportunistic Congalton backhanded a rebound past Michael Logoyda and all the sudden it was 3-0. A minute later, the Tigers got on the board as Jeff Hall poked a Will Thayer rebound past Casey Dudt-Mulzet to make it 3-1. Back came North Hills late in the period as Dave Reinhart scored on a quick shot at 2:53 and Derek Stein tallied on a breakaway making it look easy at 1:59 and all the sudden the rout was on or so it seemed. With the North Hills fans filling the air with overrated chants to start the third, coach Black knew better. With 8:40 to go NA went on the 5 on 3 power play and it was the freshman goalie Dudt-Mulzet stopping chance after chance to keep the 5-1 advantage. Jeff McConnell and Dan Lobas finally cracked the NH armor, but it would prove to be to little too late and North Hills would relish its 5-3 victory. Each team had 22 shots on the evening before a decent late game crowd.