Central Bucks West Bucks

HARMARVILLE - The Franklin Regional Panthers are back in the race for the PIHL East division just one game behind the Plum Mustangs in the standings. Central Catholic has its own battles with surprising Shaler, who defeated the Vikings before the half way break. Jimmy Daugherty gave the Panthers the lead at 9:39 on the first period. Central Catholic got a huge break on a delayed penalty after Russ Hefner was pulled for the extra attacker and a pass to the point headed toward the empty net only to glance off the post at 6:40. Mike Roth extended the Franklin lead to 2-0 on a slapshot, which beat Hefner to the short side. Chris White picked up a Roth rebound just a minute later and beat Hefner to make it 3-0. The Vikings countered just 24 seonds later as John Chmiel found a loose puck and beat Brandon Stallard to make it 3-1. Then with 49 seconds left in the opening period Jeff Race danced around the Panther defense and beat Stallard on the far side and all the sudden in less than a minute a 3-0 advantage had evaporated for the Panthers into a one goal game. In the second, with the fans just settling into their seats Thomas Grossman took a beautiful feed from Chmiel at 14:35 and beat Stallard to tie the game at 3-3. Back came the Panthers as Chris White tipped in a Mark Gigliotti shot at 12:33 and took a great pass from Roth, who set him in all alone to beat Hefner and give the Panthers a 5-3 lead at 12:33. After some undisciplined Franklin penalties, Jeff Race scored at 9:45 on a feed from Chmiel. Then Chmiel on what looked like a harmless shot trickled one by Stallard through a screen and we were now tied at 5-5 at 9:15. It took just 39 seconds later as Chris Niznik sent Stallard to the showers and gave Central its first lead 6-5 on a wrist shot at 8:36. Chris Zeleznik replaced Stallard and made some nice stops to keep the one goal game intact. With 1:31 left in the middle period, Hefner stoned Mike Mirzabegi's effort to tie the game. In the thrid period, Mike Roth tied the game with a little over four minutes remaining and it remained tied 6-6 through overtime.