Armstrong continues its hockey turnaround as playoffs near
Armstrong could have been the first team in the top three classifications to have clinched a spot in the Penguins Cup playoffs.
There was just this one thing …
“We should be 9-5 and we should have won our first game against Moon, 9-0, but there was a roster hiccup and it caused a 1-0 forfeit after the fact,” first-year Armstrong coach Eddie Germy said. “We weren’t aware of it.”
It might not have been the most auspicious start to the season for the River Hawks, but things have certainly improved.
Coming into the week, Armstrong (8-6-0) had taken control of the Class 2A Northeast Division and had extended its lead over secondplace Shaler (3-9-1) to nine points. With at least one point in any of its final four games, the River Hawks will clinch
at least a share of the title and their second consecutive postseason berth.
It has been a tremendous turnaround, not just from that one loss, but from where the team was at the start of the year. At one point Armstrong was 2-5-0, had blown a
three-goal lead in a loss to Shaler, dropped a one-goal game to Hampton (2-8-0) and got shellacked by undefeated Baldwin, 8-1.
Every one of those games came in 2020. What the River Hawks needed was a calendar change
“When we lost to these guys, we were like, this isn’t our team and we’re not anywhere near what we’re capable of,” Germy said. “You go to when we played these teams again, we’ve won so I think that, when you look at some of the teams that beat us that we might see in the playoffs, we can surprise a few people because we’re starting to get our stride at the right time.”
It would be hard to argue with the results.
Over its past six games, Armstrong is 5-1-0 and has scored 42 goals, an average of 7.0 per game. And in rematches of two of the games they lost — against Hampton and Shaler — the River Hawks won each rematch by four goals.
Though Armstrong missed the playoffs in 2019 and got knocked out in the first round by eventual finalist Latrobe last year, there are still a few players on the squad who saw ice time for the team when it won the Class 2A Penguins Cup and lost a five-overtime heartbreaker to Downingtown East in the state final.
Senior Ethan Pugh is one of those players remaining from that squad and he has certainly made his presence felt with 14 goals and 18 points. He is also tied for the PIHL lead with three shorthanded goals.
He’s not the only sniper on the team as Maddox Rearick leads the team with 16 goals and 30 points in 13 games and Lance Quinnell has been the setup guy with seven goals and 14 assists. Those top three scorers have combined for classification-leading six short-handed goals.
“When I coached with Alain Lemieux, he always preached an aggressive penalty kill,” Germy said. “He said, ‘if you don’t give them time, especially at this level, they’re going to make mistakes’ and we have that skill up front with that speed that, if they shoot it into their shin pads, it’s off to the races.”
Bethel Park
Every team has had a crazy schedule this year, but Bethel Park might be weirder than most.
After its showdown Monday night against Pine-Richland, the Black Hawks had played 18 of their 20 regularseason games. It is, by far, the most in Class 3A.
In contrast, Upper St. Clair (3-6-1) came into the week with only 10 games under its belt and would have to play half its schedule this month.
Ironically, Bethel Park will finish its slate on March 15 against the Panthers, then will have to wait and see whether it will qualify for the playoffs.
Tommy Eiler came into the week leading the team with seven goals, while Nick Massari and Jadon Tietz each had five. Massari is the only player on the team with double-digit assists with 12.