Central Bucks West Bucks

MONROEVILLE - The Gateway Gators and the Franklin Regional Panthers are rivals. The players and coaches know it and their fans know it. With two points seperating each team in the PIHL East division, alot was on the line for the second half of the season. Franklin struck first as Mark Gigliotti jammed a puck on the power play past David Himes to give Frankin a 1-0 lead early in the first. Mike Roth scored again on a partial break on another power play to extend the lead to 2-0. Gateway struck back as Matt Kopaczynski scored to cut the Franklin lead on the Gator power play late in the first. On to the second and this time it was Mark Gigliotti scorching a wrist shot past Himes to regain the two goal advantage for the Panthers. Franklin had a great chance to go ahead 4-1 on the power play, but Roth was stripped of the puck by Steve Daniels, who took the heat out of the kitchen. Gateway has been tied or had the lead going to the third period in three of their last four games and was winless. This time the Gators were behind by two and coach Dennis Shannon must have given a hell of a Knute Rockne speech, because Gateway came out flying in the third. With a little less than three minutes gone, Zach Flora beat Brandon Stallard to make it 3-2. Gateway maintained the pressure but could not score and with goaltender Himes pulled, Flora fed Ken McCleary with just 1:29 remaining and McCleary beat Stallard on the stick side to tie the game. With the momentum in their favor Gateway was on a roll and it was Flora feeding McCleary again right in front who put the Panthers on ice and the Gators now led 4-3 with just :45 seconds left. Zach Flora then scored a 120 footer into an empty cage and capped off a great comeback victory for the Gators. The win put Gateway in a tie with Plum for first place.

MONROEVILLE - Plum coach Stu Relnick made the trip last friday night to watch North Allegheny help his Plum team by defeating Gateway. The Mustangs took to the ice to try to seperate themselves from Gateway and Franklin Regional in the standings. Travis Senchur put the Mustangs on top at 10:23 of the first period. Then late in the opening period, Robbie Tunon added a goal to make it 2-0 Plum at 1:37. Life was good on the Mustang side and coach Relnick's team outshot NA 11-6. The game opened in the 2nd period and was fast and furious at both ends. NA got on the board as Dan Lobas scored at 12:37. With the teams tied the paced picked up again as the Mustangs outshot NA 17-16. But the Tigers tied the game with a goal by Joe Smarto with just :37 seconds left. NA wasn't done as Lobas emerged from a wild scramble to bang home a rebound to put the Tigers on top 3-2 with only 10 ticks left on the clock. On to the third and Plum's John Kalichuk scored on a shot from the point that eluded Mike Logoyda. The Mustangs regained the lead when Travis Senchur took advantage of a NA turnover and beat Logoyda on the slapshot at 5:50 and all the sudden Plum was back on top 4-3. North Allegheny is 11-1 this season and showed why as they mounted a furious rally in the final five minutes, which resulted in a Plum penalty. With Logoyda pulled and the extra attacker on Plum could not clear the zone and the puck found its way onto Tyler Haldane's stick and he fed Lobas witha beautiful cross ice pass and Dan buried it past B.J. Schreib to tie the game with just 41 seconds left in regulation. NA outshot Plum 35-28.

Members of the American Hockey League

MONROEVILLE - For the Penn Hills Hockey Club, a regime that started back in 1993 under Tom Deery and continued through the guidance of Jerry Bass and Brian Errigo in their ninth season came to an abrupt end on a cold Sunday afternoon at the Golden Mile. I guess a regular season record of 103-61-17 over eight seasons wasn't good enough. A 61.6% winning percentage, equalling some of the best Class AAA programs in Western Pennsylvania including Bethel Park, North Allegheny and Mt Lebanon, throw out through politics and overzealous parents, who are unqualified to run a hockey program, let alone coach it. So now a new era begins for Penn Hills hockey and the question is what lies ahead for the Indians. Could the players, who had their best showing ever in the Scholastic Showcase less than a week ago, put a strong effort together against Central Catholic. Kevin Zielmanski's squad came out playing physical against the Indians and took it to them from the get go. Matt Grabowski drilled a wrist shot from the right point at 5:26 of the first period for the 1-0 lead. The Vikings welcomed back Zach Roberts to the lineup, as he scored on a long wrist shot from the left point with just 8 seconds remaining in the first period. In the second period, Jeff Race scored at 6:27 to extend the Central lead to 3-0. Penn Hills got its only score as 'Action' Jimmie Jackson scored on the rebound with 1:32 left. Central Catholic was looking for the knock out punch and John Chmiel's long slapshot put the Indians on ice. Joe Coulter and Rob Donatucci added goals late in the third in a purely one sided performance including the shots as the Vikings dominated Penn Hills 42-18 and won the game convincingly 6-1.

After extensive search...one of Pa Hockey's first features was the National Rankings of the Interscholastic Hockey Teams of Pennsylvania against the schools across the United States. I caught up with my old pal Mitch Hawkers, who is the professor of High School Hockey from Minnesota and he is gettings the scores from both Eastern and Western Pa for 2002-2003 ! See how we ranking according to Mitch and see how Pa Hockey ranks nationally ! It is a fun look at how we stack up.