PIHL Penguins Cup Recaps – Thursday, March 6th

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, March 6, 2014 | 10:42 PM

Four hectic days of high school hockey postseason play came to an end, as did the Quarterfinals Round on Thursday evening. The final three contests of the week were Round of Eight contests in Class AAA, where a new champion will be crowned after the 2013 champs fell in their playoff debut. here are the summaries from the three PIHL Penguins Cup Class AAA Quarterfinals played on Thursday.

Thanks to Josh Rowntree, Randy Gore and Matt Vandriak for their help on these recaps.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS AAA Quarterfinals:

Peters Township Indians 4 – Seneca Valley Raiders 1 
Adam Alavi scored a pair of goals, including a spectacular and eventual game-winner, lifting No. 2 Peters Township (17-4-0) to a 4-1 win over No. 9 Seneca Valley (12-10-0) in the AAA Quarterfinals at IceoPlex at Southpointe on Thursday night. The win puts the Indians into the PIHL Semifinals for the fifth straight season. Jonathan Dagnal started the scoring at the 9:06 mark, banging home a rebound after several deflections and redirections around Seneca Valley goalie Tanner Pfeffer. The game would remain at 1-0 for another seven minutes when, at 16:07, Alavi would take an outlet pass from Sam Barnes. The rest was simply spectacular. Alavi brought the puck into the offensive zone and split two defensemen by putting it through the legs of a Raiders player. He would then deke Pfeffer and pop the water bottle on a backhanded shot, giving Peters Township a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. Seneca Valley would get a huge opportunity midway through the second period, as they would have 1:15 of a two-man advantage. Despite failing to score, the Raiders were able to notch their lone goal on a breakaway minutes later, as Andrew Gagnon would pick up his fourth goal of the postseason. But the Indians would respond in a big way, as Alavi would score his second of the game just 59 seconds later. Jake Dachille would cap the scoring just 1:06 after Alavi’s goal and with six seconds left in the period on a rebound goal, giving Peters Township the 4-1 lead after two frames. Seneca Valley would have three more powerplays in the third period, but were unable to capitalize, finishing 0-for-6 on the night with the man advantage. The Indians will next play No. 5 Penn-Trafford on Wednesday at Robert Morris University’s Island Sports Center in the AAA Semifinals. Peters Township will look to make it to Consol Energy Center for the fourth straight season. The Indians have lost the last two AAA Championships since joining the Classification and fell in the 2011 AA Championship as well.

Pine-Richland Rams 4 – Butler Golden Tornado 2 
Pine-Richland recorded a hat-trick of victories over their North Hills rival, as the #6 seeded Rams defeated the #3 seeded Golden Tornado for the 3rd time this season at Ice Connection in Valencia. The Rams got the only goal of the opening period, as Nicholas Jenkins one timer from the left point at the 6:51 mark put them up 1-0.  Jenkins goal came 8-seconds into the first power play chance of the night. Butler got the equalizer at 7:21 of the 2nd period, when Jacob Campbell buried a great feed from Jordan Krajnikovich.  Pine-Richland would take the lead back just over four-minutes later, when Andrew Vislosky found the net.  The 2-1 Rams lead would be the score at the end of the 2nd as well. Matthew Cole would score for the Rams at 8:05 of the 3rd period to put the lower seed up 3-1.  But Connor Scott kept Butler’s hopes alive, netting a power play goal at 12:20 of the 3rd.  The Golden Tornado pulled their goalie for the extra attacker in the final 80-seconds and generated a couple of scoring chances, but it was the Rams would score last.  A great individual effort from Matthew Cole led to his set up of Andres Binotto’s empty netter with :14 seconds left in regulation. Isaac Stephen stopped 27 of 29 shots for the Rams, including several big saves in the first two periods when the Rams were outshot 22-12. Pine-Richland now heads to the Semi-Finals where they’ll take on top-seeded Bethel Park.  Last season while competing in Class-AA, Pine-Richland upset #1 seed Bishop Canevin in the semi’s before losing in the Penguins Cup title game to Latrobe.  The Class-AA semi-finals will be Wednesday night at the RMU Island Sports Complex, and both games can be heard here on the MSA Sports Network.

Penn-Trafford Warriors 5 – North Allegheny Tigers 4 in Overtime
Jacob Miller’s hat trick, including the game winning goal in overtime, lifted the fifth-seeded Penn-Trafford Warriors over the fourth-seeded North Allegheny Tigers, 5-4, in the PIHL Class AAA quarterfinals on Thursday night. Miller led Class AAA in scoring during the regular season and posted a four point night for the Warriors in their triumph over the defending PIHL champions. In the see-saw affair, Penn-Trafford opened a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Patrick Cortazzo and Miller. Late in the opening stanza, NA’s Marty Hubert let loose a slap shot that trickled off the glove of PT goalie Eric Phelps and leaked into the net to cut the score to 2-1, Warriors, with 32 seconds left in the period.  The bleeder by Hubert swayed the momentum as North Allegheny grabbed a 3-2 lead in the second period on markers by Dawson Richard and Joe Zappia. However, the Warriors Jordan Eisenstat answered with a game tying goal with 16 seconds remaining in the period sending both teams to intermission in a 3-3 deadlock.  In the third, Miller struck for his second goal of the night with just 5:12 left in regulation to push the Warriors ahead, 4-3. In desperation mode, the Tigers pulled goalie Bradford Thornburgh in the final minute of the game for an extra attacker and the strategy paid off as Hubert evened the score with a wrist shot to force overtime. North Allegheny seemed poised to survive and advance but the Warriors staved off an early Tigers power play and numerous scoring chances in the first five minutes of the extra session. With 4:02 left in OT, Miller notched his third and final goal of the night to vault the Warriors into the PIHL semifinals for a meeting with the second-seeded Peters Township Indians.