Shaler edges Penn-Trafford to earn spot in PIHL Penguins Cup playoffs

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, February 26, 2018 | 9:51 PM

Previous Next

Previous Next

Desperately seeking a tying goal late in the third period, Penn-Trafford threw everything it had at Shaler, keeping the puck in the zone for more than a minute with an extra attacker, but the Titans refused to break defensively.

Shaler kept the Warriors to the edges, limiting any real scoring chances and combined with a strong first period it was enough to advance in the PIHL Class AA Penguins Cup playoffs.

The Titans scored four times in the first period and held off a late push by the Warriors to win 5-4 in the South/East division fifth-place tiebreaker game at UPMC Lemieux Complex in Cranberry on Monday.

Shaler advanced to play Quaker Valley, the fourth-place team in the North/West Division, in the first round Monday at a time and site to be announced.

Penn-Trafford (10-10) swept Shaler (10-8-2) in the regular season, but both teams tied for fifth place with 20 points, thus forcing a one-game playoff to get into the tournament.

After Jack Hughes struck on the power play with 12 minutes remaining in the third period, Penn-Trafford had a couple of opportunities for a tying goal, but came up empty. The Warriors pulled the goalie with a minute and a half remaining, but couldn't generate a prime scoring chance.

“It's a little nerve-racking clinging to a one-goal lead knowing they have some guys who can score, but we put our guys out there who we thought could defend and they did it,” Shaler coach Stephen Stayduhar said. “All we were trying to do is protect the slot area. A shot's a shot, but some are a lot better than others.”

Nathan Boch opened the scoring for Shaler with a rising wrist shot with nine minutes remaining in the first. Mitchel Fuchs followed with a power play goal that he fired low from the blue line and it eluded several skates before finding the back of the net. Boch's second goal came a minute later to make it 3-0.

“This is my first year coaching, and we're finally all on the same page,” Stayduhar said. “Our forecheck has been really good. It took a while. We played (Penn-Trafford) on opening night, and our guys weren't too interested in playing defense. These last four games we've played defense every night.”

Gavin Patrick got Penn-Trafford on the board with a power play tally with 2:34 remaining in the first, but Mitchell Werry answered 25 seconds later with a goal on a rebound to push Shaler's lead to 4-1.

“In the first period I don't know if our kids were mentally prepared for how hard it was going to be, and the scoreboard indicated it,” Penn-Trafford coach Rob Baker said. “Fortunately, we were able to get it back to a one-goal game. Not that you ever like to lose, but we had an opportunity to tie it up in the last minute and a half.”

Penn-Trafford started its rally five minutes into the second when Vincent Passante took a crushing check into the boards to make a pass up ice to Max Lauffer, and Lauffer slipped the puck around a defenseman before shoveling it past Wolf to make it 4-2.

Patrick scored his second tally a little over a minute later to cut the deficit to one, but Shaler got a late goal from Cameron Wycich to make it a 5-3 advantage through two periods.

Penn-Trafford graduates 11 seniors, but many of them were in their first year playing at the varsity level. The Warriors have had 29 players graduate from their program in the last two years.

“It's never easy to swallow a loss, but I am really proud of this group of kids,” Baker said. “We had a lot of new guys this year whose only experience was junior varsity. They stepped up and battled through a lot of adversity.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn-Trafford, Shaler