Plum struggling, but looking forward to getting off to a new start

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Plum and Mt. Lebanon made the difficult jump this season from Class 2A to Class 3A and, for much of the early part of the season, it appeared both would be mired in or near the basement.

Then their paths diverged.

While Mt. Lebanon (5-5-10) has strung together a three-game winning streak, including a 6-5 win against Butler on Monday to move into the thick of the postseason chase, the reigning Class 2A champion Mustangs are mired in last place at 2-8-0-0, a point behind the team with the best regular-season record in Class 3A in 2016-17, Central Catholic, and four in back of Canon-McMillan (46-0-0) for the eighth and final playoff spot.

“The good news is we can only go up from here, so that’s a good thing,” Plum coach Vincent Somma said. “And the way the Triple-A playoff format is set up, only two teams don’t make the playoffs, so we’re only two games away from that spot.”

Though Plum has an allstar goaltender in Sergio Benitez, the senior netminder is facing a lot of rubber. The Mustangs are giving up a classification-worst 33 shots per game, their power-play is converting at only 4.1 percent and they are only killing 76.9 percent of opponent man-advantages.

All of those factors easily explain why Plum is allowing 5.2 goals per game and has scored 33 fewer times than its opponents. But the Mustangs are also showing some signs of improvement as they are 1-3-0 in their past four games, but only a minus-4 goal differential, all of which is a result of a 5-1 loss to Seneca Valley their last time out.

“I know we have a team capable to win, but it’s just about getting back out there and winning some hockey games,” Somma said. “I’m looking forward to a fresh start even though we start out with the best team in the league.”

Plum will resume play Jan. 2 at the Iceoplex against Peters Township (9-0-0-1). The Indians’ 6-1 victory in the opener marked what may have been the first time two reigning Penguins Cup champions ever met to open the following season.

Hampton

If there were a team that had anything negative to say about the PIHL adoption of its revamped overtime rules for this year it would have to be Hampton.

On Oct. 16, the Talbots were involved in the first regular-season shootout in league history and ended up losing a 1-0 decision to Mars. Though goaltender Jacob McGee is still officially credited with a shutout against the Planets, it’s still a tough way to lose a point to a North/West Division rival.

Hampton also became the first team with two shootout losses when it dropped a 4-3 decision to Pine-Richland on Nov. 27. And to make it something of an ignominious hat trick, the Talbots finished this side of the holiday break with a 3-on-3, 4-3 overtime loss to Shaler on Monday.

Despite the disappointing finishes, however, Hampton (5-2-1-2) is still in third place in the division and is just one point behind secondplace Quaker Valley (7-5-0-0) with two games-in-hand on the Quakers. The Talbots could also be a formidable team down the stretch as they have the lowest goalsper-game average (2.70) and second-best penalty kill (89.7 percent) of any team in the classification.

Indiana

Coming out of the gate, Indiana did not look like a team that played in the 201617 PIHL Class 1A Penguins Cup championship game.

Losing by four goals to a Meadville squad that had just come up from the Division 2 developmental league will do that.

Since that time, though, the Little Indians have put together a solid run and have moved back among the favorites to make a run to the title.