North Allegheny winning, as usual, but with offense, too

North Allegheny has been one of the staunchest defensive teams in the PIHL for nearly a decade.

Their outstanding goaltending and sold defensive corps had the Tigers at or among the top teams in Class 3A and, subsequently, a perennial favorite to contend for a Penguins Cup title.

Things have changed a bit this year.

Oh, sure, North Allegheny still has a stellar defense – its 2.00 goals allowed per game is second in the classification behind Pine-Richland’s 1.83 – but this season’s squad has shown an offensive capability it had not recently showcased.

“That’s a fair statement knowing us in the past,” North Allegheny coach Mike Bagnato said. “We lost five senior defensemen last year and we had the best goalie in the league (Richard Karapandi). We had scorers, but a lot of those guys were juniors last year and are seniors this year and are playing really well thanks to the addition of a couple of guys.”

After dispatching secondplace Seneca Valley on Monday to complete the first half of its schedule, North Allegheny (9-0-1) is the only school in the classification that does not have a regulation loss this season. Its only defeat was a 2-1 shootout loss to Butler.

Over their last five games since, the Tigers have scored 29 goals and averaged 5.80 goals per night. The Tigers have already scored five or more goals seven times in their first 10 outings this year. Conversely, they scored only 63 times the entire 2018-19 season, averaged 3.50 a game and scored five or more goals seven times in 18 games.

What has helped is the consistency shown by the team’s top line of Tyler Lamark, Connor Chi and Tyler Putnam, who have combined for 31 of the team’s 48 goals this season. Lamark (8 goals, 15 assists, 23 points), who only had four goals and 15 points last season, and Chi (7-10-17), a sophomore playing his first season with the Tigers, are 1-2 in the classification in scoring.

“Chi has a really good chemistry with Lamark,” Bagnato said. “We’re doing a lot of good things like going to the net and finding a lot of ways to score right now.”

Of course, just because North Allegheny is young on defense doesn’t mean the team forgot how to play on the back side. Tigers defenders have helped out immensely as goaltenders Tyler Boyles and Josh Bailey have rotated well between the pipes.

Bailey was 2-1-0 as the backup to Karapandi last year while Boyles is a sophomore seeing his first varsity action. So far both have done well. Bailey is 3-0-1 with a 2.20 goalsagainst average and Boyles is 6-0-0 with a 1.83 GAA and a .942 save percentage.

West Allegheny

This season was supposed to be something of a transition year for West Allegheny after the Indians moved up to Class 2A from Class 1A.

It appears they have made a pretty smooth transition and are already looking to move into the Penguins Cup championship conversation.

West Allegheny, coming off a 15-3 regular season and an appearance in the Class 1A semifinals, is 7-2-2 and tied with Baldwin (7-0-0) atop the Southwest Division.

Shane Nolan is among the leaders in the classification with 10 goals, while Nick Bandi leads the team – and is third in the classification – with 15 assists, and his 20 points are fifth overall.

It helps that the Indians have a veteran goaltender back in Joshua Ferry, who is 7-2-0 with a 2.00 GAA and a 9.26 save percentage.