Peters Township vs. North Allegheny matches four of past five Class 3A champs
After a quarterfinal round filled with upsets and surprises, the PIHL moves forward to the semifinals, all of which will be held at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center, Monday through Wednesday.
All three reigning champions — Peters Township in Class 3A, Thomas Jefferson in Class 2A and Norwin in Class 1A — are still alive to defend their titles. They also will face very strong competition before the finals take place March 20-21 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Here is a breakdown of the semifinals:
Class 3A
Peters Township and North Allegheny have won four of the past five Penguins Cup titles that were contested and are anything but postseason strangers to each other. In the past 10 seasons, the two have met in the tournament six times, with North Allegheny holding a 42 edge against Peters Township. The two will rekindle their postseason rivalry in the first semifinal game Monday at 7:15 p.m.
Top-seeded Peters Township (17-3-1) swept No. 4 North Allegheny ( 13- 5- 3) with a 4-1 win Nov. 8 and 4-3 overtime victory Jan. 9. In both games, The Tigers scored the opening goal, but the Indians were able to pull it out late.
Forward Ryder Mertens led Peters Township with three goals and two assists in two games. Trey Gallo had a goal and two assists in the two games for North Allegheny.
While Peters Township and North Allegheny are old postseason acquaintances who were favored to be in the semifinals, Pine-Richland and Upper St. Clair will face off at 9:15 p.m. in a matchup of two of the biggest quarterfinal upset winners.
For No. 6 Pine-Richland (11-8-1), its win against No. 3 Seneca Valley was somewhat predictable. The Rams were the hottest team in the PIHL down the stretch, went 9-1-0 in their final 10 games during the regular season and beat every team in front of them in the standings.
Upper St. Clair (11-8-1), meanwhile, dusted Central Catholic in its postseason opener using its No. 1A goaltender, Louis Liberatore, but USC may have to make a decision if freshman Timothy Cottrill is back after suffering a concussion in a tournament last weekend.
Both teams won against each other during the regular season, but Upper St. Clair’s victory came in the season opener Oct. 3, while Pine-Richland won an 8-2 blowout Jan. 26. Brady Wilson and Haden Snyder each had two goals for the Rams and Liberatore gave up the eight goals on 33 shots in their most recent meeting.
Upper St. Clair is seeking its first title since 2011, while Pine-Richland won its most recent title in Class 2A in 2019. The Rams have not won a Class 3A championship since 2008.
Class 2A
Strange things are normal in the Penguins Cup playoffs, but what happened in Class 2A is bizarre even by hockey standards.
Bishop McCort won a hard-fought, 2-1 overtime decision against Latrobe in the quarterfinal. But then the crazy part came to the forefront. A team — neither Bishop McCort nor Latrobe — reported the Crimson Crushers for illegal use of an ineligible player who did not play the required 50% of their regular season games.
So, instead of a Bishop McCort-South Fayette battle in the semifinals, it’s now No. 2 South Fayette (16-3-2) and sixth-seeded Latrobe (127-2) in the 9 p.m. game on Tuesday.
And this one has all the makings of a classic.
South Fayette, which has never won a Penguins Cup title, took both meetings during the regular season, but it was not like it blew Latrobe off the ice either time. The Lions got a Brayden Imler power play goal at 7:56 of the third period to break a tie in a 3-2 victory Dec. 12. Then Noah Guidos scored the game-tying goal at 2:56 of the third period for the Wildcats in what turned out to be a 5-4 shootout victory in the regular season finale for South Fayette.
While crazy may reign in the nightcap, the early game at 7 p.m. has its own intrigue, as defending champion and No. 5 seed Thomas Jefferson (13-8-0) eyes a return to the finals against topseeded Armstrong (18-3-0), which is seeking its first championship in five years.
Armstrong took both regular season games against Thomas Jefferson, 2-1 on Dec. 1 and 7-4 on Feb. 23. Armstrong (109 goals) and Thomas Jefferson (103) had the two best offenses in the classification during the regular season, even though neither had a player in the top 10 in scoring.
Armstrong is coming off a 12-1 running-clock quarterfinal defeat of Hempfield in a game that saw three players — Jameson Yackmack, Caleb Hoffman and Alex Bardyguine — each net two goals. Goaltender Dylan Morris has been one of the best in the classification all season and stopped 14 of the 15 shots he faced.
Thomas Jefferson got goals from five different players in its upset win against No. 4. Penn-Trafford.
Class 1A
If there was one thing that was made very clear in the quarterfinals, it’s that the Blue Division is head and shoulders better than the Gold Division.
All four Class 1A semifinalists are from the Blue Division and, unlike the quarterfinals, all have two games under their belts against their opponents.
Fox Chapel (19-2-0) won the division and will get a shot at defending champion Norwin (17-4-1). Of Norwin’s four regulation losses, two were against the Foxes by an aggregate score of 16-5.
Mason Heininger didn’t score for Fox Chapel in their first meeting but had a seven- point night ( three goals) in their second goround. Junior Joe Rattner was the goaltender of record in both games for the Foxes.
Fox Chapel, which has never won a Penguins Cup title, led the PIHL with 146 goals scored this season, while Norwin was No. 2 at 127. This game will also match the top two scorers in the classification in the Knights’ Alex Thomas (38-3270) and Heininger (29-33-62).
Like Fox Chapel, Greensburg Salem (18-3-0) is also looking for its first championship and won both regular season matchups against semifinal opponent Kiski Area (17-5-0).
Greensburg Salem didn’t quite dominate Kiski Area the way Fox Chapel did against Norwin — it won the two games 7-1 and 5-2 — but the Golden Lions definitely had the upper hand.
Greensburg Salem’s Owen Tutich was fifth in the classification in scoring with 25 goals and 53 points.