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BETHEL PARK - Bethel Park coach Jim McVay knew his team would face a tough opponent in Meadville. Jamie Plunkett's Bulldog's needed a win to win the West/Lake Division and position themselves for the upcoming playoffs. The Blackhawks on the other hand were 22-0 and playing for a perfect season. There was also another record at stake, which will mark Bethel as a team for the ages, but lets talk about the game first. The Bulldogs came out flying in the first and pressured the Hawks. Brian Bahurinsky took a Jeff Holabaugh cross ice pass and buried it upstairs past Matt Feige to give the Dawgs a 1-0 lead at 12:39. Then Bethel settled in and began to swing the momentum late in the first, but could not beat Danny O'Sharuk, who made nice stops on C.J. Strauss and Lee Volensky in the middle of the opening frame. Then the turning point of the game took place as Justin Glock, working like a surgeon flagged down a great keep in by Tom Starkey, and proceeded to turn to Meadville defenseman inside out and use him as a screen to beat O'Sharuk with just :19 seconds left in the 1st to make it 1-1. Meadville tried to regain thelead as Bahurinsky walked around the BP defense, but Feige cam up big. Bethel's Tom Starkey found Jason McLean behind the Dawg blueline and McLean was stopped by O'Sharuk. Seconds later, McLean found Tony Sands, who chipped the puck past the Meadville goaltender to give BP a 2-1 lead at 9:15. Then a little controversy, as an apparent tying goal by Rick Thomas was waived off by the officials in favor of a delay of game penalty for moveing the net and the score remained 2-1. On to the third and Bethel Park came out flying as the Hawks outshot Meadville 11-3. O'Sharuk kept his team in the game and kept the score 2-1 late including a stop on McLean again at 5:30. Then Meadville was whistle and BP went on the power play and capitalized as Tom Starkey scored on a backdoor pass from Brandon Hanley to ice the game 3-1. Bethel Park finished the season with a perfect 23-0-0 record and erased a 20 year old AAA goals against record of 18 set by North Catholic in 1981, by allowing only 14 goals in 23 games.

The night began with a lot of questions and ended with an unbelievable finish .... as in AAA Bethel Park regained its # 1 form by defeating Meadville. A great finish in Erie as Prep scored with 2:30 left, to knock off NA and hand the West Lake Division title to Meadville. And Gateway finished strong with Dave Himes shutting out Plum, who celebrated a division title, 3-0. In AA, Pine Richland scored late to defeat Greensburg CC. Beaver knocked Canevin out of the playoffs 3-2. And in a shocker at Nevin, Norwin beat Latrobe 4-3. The upset of the year came in the 11th hour as Ian Episcopo stoned # 1 Peters Township with 38 saves and helped South Park win a big game 3-0. In Class A, the Hilltoppers of Westmont pounded # 2 seed Mars 8-1. And in nailbiting fashion, Deer Lakes held off Forest Hills 5-3, in a one goal game with an empty netter, as on the other side of Western Pa, Center was upsetting Blackhawk 6-4 in another one goal game with an empty netter to knock the Cougars out of the playoffs ! The craziest part was the ongoing conversation with Earl Bugaile between 10:30 PM and 11:30 PM with each call bringing, "you are not going to believe this one" as a preface to each score update. A great night for Pa Hockey and maybe a prelude to some real excitement in the upcoming playoffs ....... Good Luck to all of teams and see you all at the rink because the fun is just beginning ! So after seeing over 100 regular season games and seeing 60 of 68 varsity teams play this year, I can honestly say the playoffs are now open or should I say wide open !

CORAOPOLIS - Quigley and Quaker Valley is quickly becoming one of the best rivalries in Class A and the entire PIHL for that matter. Add the fact that Quaker goaltender Nick Signet transferred back to QV and was playing against his former teammates and that some significant playoff positioning was on the line, then you have the makings of a classic. What was to be a duel of goaltending between Signet and Quigley's Luke Belsky quickly turned into something a little different before a pack house at the Airport Arena. The Spartans Ken Lytle opened the scoring at 13:28 on the games first shot beating Signet through the five hole. Quaker Valleys Michael Pederson then scored on a long slapshot just 22 seconds later to knot the game at 1-1. The Quakers Ben Herring turn outside the blueline after stripping the Quigley defense of the puck and raced in to beat Belsky and give QV a 2-1 lead at 9:54. Signet failed to control a rebound at 8:07 and Ken Lytle scooped up the puck and deposited it to tie the score again at 2-2. Then at 2:43 of the first, QV's Sam Hairston caught the Quigley D sleeping and got a breakaway to deke Belsky to put the Quakers ahead 3-2. The second period brought more of the same as Adam Kostial put a rebound upstairs to extend the QV lead to 4-2 at 10:00. The goal that turned Quigley's fortune came at 9:23 as Mike Haney scored through the 5-hole again to cut the lead to 4-3. Quaker Valley regained the two goal advantage, as Kostial scored again on a rebound bang bang play at 8:22. Quigley now started to pressure and the line of Haney, Lytle and Chris Cummings was doing the damage. Lytle redirected a Mike Haney pass at 6:38 past Signet to cut the lead to 5-4 at the break. Quigley's Jason DiVito made a great play, when he kept the puck alive in the Quaker zone and fed Chris Cummings who backhanded home the tying goal at 9:30 of the final period and the score was now 5-5. At the other end, Luke Belsky regained his Team Pittsburgh form and was stoning QV on several chances. Then a mental mistake by Quaker Valley, a too many men on the ice call put the Spartans on the power play with just 5:13 left. Off the faceoff, DiVito lofted a wrist shot through traffic which Signet never saw and sailed over his shoulder to give Quigley the 6-5 lead at 5:10. Quaker Valley could not get the equalizer and Quigley won a huge game to give itself a home game for the first round of the upcoming playoffs.

MONROEVILLE - It was Senior Night for Woodland Hills, which could be the last hurrah for the Wolverines varsity hockey club. Goaltender Greg Haduch shutout Woodland Hills and the Cougars scored eight straight to win 8-0.

GREENSBURG - Indiana and Latrobe, in a battle of division leaders. Indiana, who has already clinched and was looking to nail down the # 2 seed behind Peters Twp. Latrobe was looking to clinch the elusive PIHL AA Eastern Division crown. The Wildcats capitalized in the first as a weak clearing attempt by Indiana found its way on to Kevin Lace's stick in the slot and he beat Mike Lady for a 1-0 lead. Indiana on the power play tied the game at 2:45, as Casey Haines walked out of the corner and snapped a shot high on the glove side of Matt Bloom. The game picked up pace in a hard hitting second period and Indiana apparantly grabbed the lead as Haines rung a shot off the post, which was originally called a goal and then waived off at 6:51. The Indians came back just 25 seconds later as Clint Pizarchik used a 2 on 1 as a decoy to beat Bloom with a shot on the stick side for a 2-1 advantage. On to the third and Casey Haines scored twice at 14:44 and just 12 seconds later at 14:32 to break open a one goal game and to complete the hat trick for a 4-1 Indiana lead. Corey Schaffer completed the scoring at 6:58 of the final period as Indiana outshoot the Wildcats 23-11 and went on to a 5-1 victory.