Central Region

MONROEVILLE - December at the Golden Mile, a place where anyone with sanity would love spending a Tuesday evening watching or possibly coaching a game. Witness Meadville coach Jamie Plunkett, of 'House of Chills' fame in attendance to coach his Bulldogs against a Plum Mustangs team locked in a battle for supremacy in the PIHL AAA East division. Coach Stu Relnick's club was looking to defeat a team ahead of them in the overall standings, which failed to happen in the Mustangs losses this season to South Division leader Bethel Park and North Division leader Shaler. The Dawgs are trying to keep pace with North Allegheny in the West Division. Bottom line ...this was an important game in the standings for both clubs. The first period was scoreless and as even as the shots on goal at 8-8. Plum's B.J. Schreib and Meadville's Dan O'Sharuk were not tested with many quality chances. In the second, Tim Newhook showed quick hands as he manuevered around the Plum defense in tight and beat Schreib to make in 1-0 with 8:22 left. Exactly three minutes later, D.J. Craven scooped up a Brian Bahurinsky rebound and deposited the puck behind Schreib to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead at 5:22. The next goal would be pivitol to start the third and Meadville's Christian Nickerson got it just 22 seconds into the final frame on a rebound. The Bulldogs Newhook tallied his second of the evening at 10:11 and Meadville was well on its way to victory. Plum's Travis Senchur broke the shutout on the penalty shot with 7:23 remaining, but any Plum hope was quickly erased as Ricky Thomas scored with 3:24 left. Senchur closed out the scoring as Meadville picked up its 7th win in its past eight games to close out the first half of the season at 8-2-1.