In-season coaching change sparks Mt. Lebanon’s run
With less than a month remaining in the regular season, Mt. Lebanon was not on a trajectory to make it to the PIHL Class 3A Penguins Cup championship game.
In fact, the Blue Devils were in the midst of a 0-7-1 skid that had them on the precipice of missing the postseason tournament altogether.
That’s when the board got together and made a rare and drastic decision. It replaced coach Gary Klapkowski with Jeremy Church with only six games left.
Things didn’t start off well as Church lost his first game, 3-0, to Canon-McMillan. That was also the last time the seventh-seeded Blue Devils lost in regulation.
“It’s interesting in that I played for Mt. Lebanon in the early 90s before I went away to prep school,” Church said. “It’s been interesting to be a part of this run.”
Following that loss to the Big Macs, Mt Lebanon (11-9-2) has reeled off wins in six of its past seven games — the only loss coming in a 13-round shootout against North Allegheny in the final game of the regular season — including upsets of No. 2 Canon-McMillan and No. 3 Pine-Richland to make it to the Penguins Cup final for the first time since winning it all in 2006.
Against Canon-McMillan, Sam Falbo and Conner Ribstein scored first period goals after being shut out twice in the regular season by Big Macs netminder Mario Eafrati and held on for a 2-1 win. Pine-Richland had an opportunity to break open a 2-2 game with a power play to open the third period, but the Blue Devils killed it and got one of their own with the man-advantage when Marcus Simmonds got the eventual game-winner at 5:53.
“All the credit to the kids because they bought in, they knew they were better than their record and they wanted to be held accountable to each other in terms of reaching their potential and they’re doing that,” Church said. “It’s been a thrill to see them put it all together.”
Mt. Lebanon is the lowest seed to make it to the Class 3A Penguins Cup championship game since 2010 when No. 8 Canon- McMillan defeated Seneca Valley in overtime to win its first title. The Blue Devils previous title came in 2006 when they defeated North Allegheny on their way to a state championship and a 26-0-0 record.
Mt. Lebanon is far from perfect. But if it wants to win its first championship in 15 years, it will once again have to get past the Tigers.
And, considering the two regular-season games the teams played, those in attendance at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center will get to see a full 51-minute game. And then some.
Both of the two regular-season matchups between North Allegheny and Mt. Lebanon went to overtime. The Tigers won the first on a Connor Chi goal in the extra frame and the second went to a shootout. Chi, a junior forward, also scored the game-winner 30 seconds into overtime to eliminate Peters Township in the semifinals.
“I think it all comes down to what we do,” Chi said. “We control if we’re going to win the next game and we’ve just got to keep playing the way we’re been playing.”
North Allegheny is looking for a bit of its own history. The Tigers won the most recent Penguins Cup in 2019 — the COVID-19 shutdown ended the Class 3A playoffs in 2020 hours before the semifinals — and no team has repeated in the highest classification since Bethel Park won three in a row from 2000-02.
“I thought, at the end of the year, Mt. Lebanon was playing as good as anybody,” North Allegheny coach Mike Bagnato said. “We beat them the last game of the year in that (13) round shoot out and, I like that team, I like the kids and, I think they’re a really good group of kids and really good competitors.”
Class 2A
Baldwin was all ready to take the ice against Latrobe and vie for its first Penguins Cup title since 1988. Then the lockdown happened.
Now, a year later, the Highlanders are back on the precipice of winning their first Cup in more than three decades. And they’re doing it by imposing a lockdown on every team they face.
A lockdown spearheaded by goaltender Eddie Nowicki.
“Eddie’s probably the most talented goalie in Double-A from the games that I’ve seen and I’ve mostly seen those teams,” Baldwin coach Justin Glock said. “He’s the backbone of our team and, when you have a good goalie it can make a huge difference and can make your team really good.”
Nowicki was stellar during the regular season, but in his two playoffs games, he has taken it to another level. In addition to his 1.50 goal- against average, he has stopped 61 of 64 shots for a save percentage of .953.
That bodes well for top-seeded Baldwin (19-1-0) as it prepares to take on upset-minded Franklin Regional, which is the first No. 7 seed ever to make it through to the Class 2A championship game. The puck drops in the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.
“That’s going to be the tough one because he’s an extremely tough goalie to play against,” Franklin Regional coach John Winebrenner said. “You’ve got to get traffic in front and work hard.”
It sounds easy. Franklin Regional tried it in the regular season against Baldwin and fired 48 shots at the Highlanders net, but Nowicki stopped 47 of them and pulled out a 2-1 win on an overtime goal from Don Trimbur.
But don’t think Baldwin is just Eddie Nowicki, despite the fact the team has only given up 23 goals in 21 games including the playoffs.
Keith Reed, who had two goals against Thomas Jefferson in the semifinals and scored the only goal for Baldwin in regulation against Franklin Regional the first time around, was in the top five in the classification with 23 goals and 33 points in the regular season.
Franklin Regional has shown it can put the puck in the net as well as it hit the back of the net as many times (88) in the regular season as Baldwin. Chase Williams was also right behind Reed in scoring overall as he led the Panthers with 14 goals and 32 points.