Bishop Canevin Beats Mars for 8th PIHL Penguins Cup AA Title

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, March 15, 2016 | 12:59 AM

Two quick goals early in the second period were the difference as Bishop Canevin claimed their 8th Penguins Cup championship in program history by defeating Mars 5-1 in the Class-AA Penguins Cup title game.

A near capacity crowd was on hand at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry to watch these two Western Conference foes battle for the Penguins Cup.  On the regular season these teams met twice.  Mars defeated Bishop Canevin 9-3 in both teams second regular season game and the two squads battled to a 3-3 tie in the rematch in January.

Through the first period, this game looked a lot like that second regular season matchup, with each team getting on the scoreboard once. The Crusaders struck first at the 7:15 mark. Daniel Tkac was sandwiched by two Planets defenders between the circles as he broke towards the Mars net, but Tkac was able to drop a pass back to Jacob Ondrejko, who ripped a wrist shot past Tyler Spreng to give the Crusaders the early 1-0 lead. Mars would answer just 1:12 later with a power play goal, as Beau Heakins buried the rebound of Michael McCann’s point shot behind Crusaders goaltender Neko Borghini to tie the game 1-1, which is where the score would stay until the period’s end.

Early in the second period is when Bishop Canevin would take control, scoring twice in the first 40 seconds. Off the first rush of the period, Jacob Kuzma took the puck from the Crusaders zone and skated end to end before blasting a rising shot from the top of the right circle that beat Spreng to make the score 2-1 Bishop Canevin just 19 seconds into the second period. The Crusaders would strike again just 20 seconds later. This time, Ondrejko would win an offensive zone faceoff to Tkac, who’s shot went off the glove of Spreng and dropped into the net, giving Bishop Canevin a 3-1 lead.  

With Lukas Krukovski in the box for hooking at 5:39, the Planets thought they had gotten an answering goal, but that wasn’t the case. Heakins backhanded a shot that got behind Borghini and crossed the goal line, but the net was also coming off its moorings at the same time. The officials ruled the net was off before the puck crossed the line, and the goal was waved off. 

If not getting that goal wasn’t bad enough, Bishop Canevin would then score late in the period, and in the process, take the wind out of the Planets’ sails for good. Kuzma again used an end to end rush to set up the play, sending the puck behind the Mars net where Samuel Hrabcak picked it up and scored on a wrap around to put the Crusaders up 4-1 with 1:39 left in the second period. The only goal of the 3rd period came with 1:34 left in regulation, as Tkac scored for the 2nd time on the evening, this time into an empty net to give the Crusaders the 5-1 lead. 

Despite the loss, it was a successful season for Mars (17-6-2), who made the jump from Class A to AA. The Planets won the Class A Penguins Cup last season and were looking to become the first team since Pine-Richland in 2007 and 2008 to repeat as champions in different classifications. Instead, it was the Crusaders who raised the Penguins Cup for an 8th time, putting Bishop Canevin just one Penguins Cup win behind Meadville for the most titles in PIHL history. 

Bishop Canevin improved to 18-6-1 with the win and will take on Central Bucks South for the Class AA Pennsylvania Cup on Saturday in a rematch of the 2014 state title game that was won by the Titans. Faceoff is 2:30pm from the Pegula Ice Arena at Penn State University. 

Scoring Recap

1st Period: (7:15)  Jacob Ondrejko (Daniel Tkac)  1-0 BC

1st Period: (8:27)   Beau Heakins (Michael McCann)/PPG  1-1

2nd Period: (:19)  Jacob Kuzma (Tkac. Patrick Bane)  2-1 BC

2nd Period: (:39)  Tkac (Ondrejko)  3-1 BC

2nd Period: (15:21) Samuel Hrabcak (Kuzma)  4-1 BC

3rd Period (15:26)  Tkac (Unassisted)/EN   5-1 BC

Scoring By Period

BC         1   2    1

Mars    1    0    0

Shots On Goal

BC        12     6   7 — 25

Mars   16   16   9 — 41        

Management Science Associates 3 Stars of the Game

1)  Daniel Tkac — 2 Goals & 2 Assists

2)  Neko Borghini —  41 shots/40 saves

3)  Jacob Kuzma  —  1 Goal & 1 Assist

Interview with Alec Bosnic and Thomas Krivak:

Tags: Bishop Canevin