PIHL Penguins Cup Playoff Recaps for Tuesday, March 13th

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 | 1:04 AM

Blink and you missed it. The First Round of the high school hockey playoffs is over and three more opening round contests on Tuesday night with the first defending champ falling. Unlike Monday when all five home teams won, the road warriors claimed two of the three games as AAA #10 State College and A #9 Thomas Jefferson busted through the Elite Eight while 2011 AAA champ Upper St. Clair is ousted. Here are the recaps from all three Penguins Cup First Round games on Tuesday.

A special thanks to Matt Vandriak, Josh Rowntree, Ken Laird and Steve Nagler for their help on these recaps.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS AAA FIRST ROUND:

State College Little Lions 5 – Upper St. Clair Panthers 2
In this battle of the "cats" at the Ice Castle in Castle Shannon, it was the Little Lions who roared loudest by coming back to defeat the Panthers in this Class-AAA opening round matchup.  Upper St. Clair jumped out to a 2-0 lead early, as Jake Puccetti and David Penkrot scored within the first 3-minutes of the opening period.  But it in the 2nd period, it was State College who would strike quick.  :41 seconds into the period Danny Moscone scored, than added a second goal 1:06 later.  Feeling momentum changing sides, and given the opportunity to get it back, USC used their time out prior to their first full 2-minute power play of the night.  But the State College penalty killers were equal to the task and held USC off the board.  USC goaltender Mike Ambrose was strong as well in the 2nd period.  Ambrose made two unbelievable saves in the period, robbing State College's Stefan Horgas on two great scoring chances.  As the zamboni hit the ice and the teams hit the locker rooms, the score was tied at 2-2 after the 2nd period.  The early period scoring continued in the 3rd period.  Horgas finally broke through, jamming a loose puck past Ambrose to give State College a 3-2 lead just :49 seconds into the period.  Dalton Bown struck at 4:22 of the period to give the Little Lions a 2-goal lead, and Hargas found the net again at 9:10 to put State College ahead to stay.  Both Mascone and Hargas had 4-point games for the Little Lions with 2-goals and 2-assists each.  State College outshot USC on the night by a count of 35-19 as well.  The #10 Little Lions improved to 12-10-1, and now move onto the quarterfinals, where they will face top-seeded Penn-Trafford on thursday night at Center Ice in Delmont.  USC, who were the defending Penguins Cup and Pennsylvania Cup champions, finished 2011-12 with a record of 11-10-2.

Norwin Knights 7 – Pittsburgh Central Catholic Vikings 2
RECAP #1:  Norwin has been looking for a statement win all season. They got it and boy, was it swank. The #8 Knights scored three goals in a 3:40 stretch in the first period and blasted #9 Pittsburgh Central Catholic 7-2 in a AAA first round game at Center Ice in Delmont. Norwin's Marc Swankler scored the first of his three goals 4:08 into the game. Timmy Palmer and Dan Merz would follow up with goals only 1:22 apart, stretching the Knights' lead to 3-1. Kevin Kline would score at 9:10 for the Vikings, cutting the lead to 3-1 after one period of play. But Swankler and the Knights would take over from there. Swankler would score the first two goals of the second period, stretching the Norwin lead to 5-1 before Dante Youhon would make it 6-1 with a shorthanded goal. Timmy Palmer notched his second goal of the night, pushing the lead to 7-1 after two periods of play. Chris McCambridge would score late for PCC, but it was too little too late. Three Norwin skaters finished with 3 points, including Palmer (2G,A), Swankler (3G) and Kevin Saksa (3A). Scott Cromling was terrific in net, stopping 34 shots on 36 attempts. No Vikings players recorded more than one point. Kevin Dziubek stopped only 18 shots on 25 attempts as the freshman was forced to play the whole game due to an injury to Brian Burger. The Knights, now 12-9-2, will move on to face #2 Canon-McMillan in the Quarterfinals. Central Catholic's season comes to an end at 11-10-2.

RECAP #2: The Norwin Knights defeated the Pittsburgh Central Catholic Vikings on Tuesday night by a score of 7-2 in PIHL 1st Round Penguins Cup playoff action at Center Ice in Delmont.  Norwin jumped out to a 3-0 lead just 7:48 in on goals by Marc Swankler, Tim Palmer, and Dan Merz.  Central regrouped after a timeout and pulled within two on Kevin Kline’s tally with 5:50 left in Period 1.  However, Norwin put the game away in Period 2 with two more goals by Swankler as well as a shorthanded breakaway score by Dante Youhon and Palmer’s second of the night on a rebound off the back wall.  Norwin’s senior goaltender Scott Cromlin was solid throughout the night as well, as PCC outshot Norwin but played catch-up all evening.  It was the third meeting on the season between the 8th-seeded Knights and the 9th-seeded Vikings, and the first blowout of the bunch as both previous meetings had been decided by one-goal.

PIHL PENGUINS CUP CLASS A FIRST ROUND:

Thomas Jefferson Jaguars 9 – South Fayette Lions 1
The Thomas Jefferson Jaguars showed that, despite a relatively down year, they have the South Fayette's number in this 2011-2012 PIHL season. The Jaguars got three first period, two 1:20 apart, from Zac Uhlyar, Robert Deliman and Kyle Miller. Uhlyar, Deliman and Miller all scored again in a 4-goal 2nd period. Jaguars forward Nicholas Tamburi also scored in the middle stanza for TJ. South Fayette's lone goal came late in the 3rd period as Joe Testa beat Jaguar goaltender Toni Piccioni. Piccioni was stellar between the pipes all night as he turned aside every shot in a very busy first period. With the Jaguars holding a narrow 2-goal lead, Piccioni stoned Lions standout Nick Schultz on a short-handed breakaway. With the loss, South Fayette's season ends with an 8-11-1 record. TJ now advances to face the top-seeded Quaker Valley in the Quarterfinals of the PIHL Class A Playoffs.