Peters peaks to win title
No. 1 seed Central Catholic becomes latest to fall in Indians’ postseason run
Peters Township did not win a regular-season game against the three opponents it faced in the PIHL Class 3A playoffs.
That didn’t matter. The Indians took care of business when it counted the most.
Peters Township (13-8-2) capped off an improbable run to its sixth Penguins Cup title and first since 2014 with a 5-2 victory against top-seeded Central Catholic (18-5-0) Wednesday night at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. The sixth-seeded Indians also defeated Canon-McMillan and North Allegheny on their way to the final. They were 0-5-1 against the teams they played in the tournament before it began.
“From the standpoint of, if you had asked me after the last game of the season then, yeah, it was a surprise, but if you’d have asked me at the beginning of the season, I’d have said we’d do well,” Peters Township coach Rick Tingle said.
“This may be the worst or second-worst record of any Peters team I’ve had and we were fairly mediocre, so we came together at the right time.”
Junior forward Conrad Deemer scored two goals to kick-start the offense in the first two periods, and helped keep Peters Township in the game against the highest scoring attack in Class 3A. He also took a key penalty that turned into a tying goal with less than a minute to go in the second period.
“The first one was on a shot by Ryan Luppe and it felt amazing to tip it in,” Deemer said.
“On the second, I was just in the right place at the right time and it felt amazing.”
For Central Catholic, the drought continued. The Vikings last won the Penguins Cup in 1998 and had not played in the final since 1999, but this was supposed to be the team that broke the string.
Instead Central Catholic took several critical penalties in the third period, including a minor/10-minute misconduct on Ryan Haag and Jake Tepe, two of the team’s top forwards, that helped Peters Township maintain its attack and stunted any hope of the Vikings generating enough momentum to come from behind.
“It wasn’t the ending that we expected, but it was the game we expected it to be,” Central Catholic coach William Connelly said. “We expected them to push.”
Peters Township will play Holy Ghost Prep, the Flyers Cup champion, in the Pennsylvania Cup championship game at 5 p.m. Saturday at Island Sports Complex.
The Firebirds last won the Class 3A title in 2015.
“I’m already done celebrating,” Tingle said. “There’s plenty of time to celebrate in the summer and we’ve got three days to get ready.”