Raise the Cup
Full coverage of the PIHL champhionships on Monday.
All night long Mt. Lebanon made an effort to shadow North Allegheny center Connor Chi all over the ice, preventing him from having an opportunity to decide the Penguins Cup game.
Mt. Lebanon only lost him one time. And that one time was enough to give the Tigers a championship.
Chi, the only North Allegheny player to score in double-figure goals during the regular season, ripped his third goal of the playoffs over the right shoulder of Mt. Lebanon netminder Austin Martin for what turned out to be the game-winner at 8:04 of the third period.
That goal, along with a stalwart 33-save effort from senior goaltender Josh Bailey, propelled the fourth-seeded Tigers (16-5-2) to a 4-1 victory over No. 7 Mt. Lebanon (1110-2) in the PIHL Class 3A Penguins Cup final at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.
“The one thing in a game like this is your goalie has got to play well,” North Allegheny coach Mike Bagnato said. “Conner did score the goal, but Josh kept us in that game.”
It was the fourth title overall for North Allegheny, which became the first school to successfully defend a championship since Bethel Park won three in a row from 2000-02
The Tigers won in 2019 and were alive in the semifinals when the COVID-19 shutdown stopped the playoffs in the semifinals in 2020.
“It gives me satisfaction every time as many times as I’ve been here now,” Bagnato said. “I tell my kids all the time, this is the greatest time.”
That might not have happened had Chi not broken a 1-1 tie with his goal.
Chi took the puck off the left wing boards, wheeled between the circles and snapped a wrist shot from 15 feet past Martin for the goal.
“The one thing in a game like this is your goalie has got to play well. Conner did score the goal, but Josh kept us in that game.” — Mike Bagnato, North Allegheny coach
It was eerily reminiscent of the goal he scored 30 second into overtime against Peters Township in the semifinals to get the Tigers into the championship game.
“It felt awesome and, it wasn’t in overtime, but it felt good to get us ahead and our team, altogether, we pulled it off in the end,” Chi said.
“I just tried to rip it on net and see what happens.”
It also wouldn’t have happened were it not for Bailey and the 19 shots he stopped in the second period.
“We kind of gave them the outside defensively and there were a lot of outside shots and they just chipped in the little stuff,” Bailey said.
“It was terrible [in the second period]. We couldn’t get it out, we gave up a lot of shots, a lot of hard shots, but we fought through it, we came back in the third and we got the win.”
With a one-goal lead on a Nathan Spak goal at 3:04 of the first period, North Allegheny clamped down defensively and made moving the puck a nightmare for Mt. Lebanon.
Despite taking three minor penalties, the Tigers executed their game plan to perfection until Sam Mtchell tied it, 1-1, at 10:51 of the second period.
“In a game like this, special teams makes all the difference and we were 0 for 3 on the power play and had a lot of golden opportunities in the second,” Mt. Lebanon coach Jeremy Church said. “I don’t blame the players for that because special teams starts with coaching and I should have made some more adjustments.”
Class 1A
Tanner Agnello notched a natural hat trick in the second period and goaltender Seamus O’Connor made it stand up with 12 saves as top-seeded Indiana (20-0-0) defeated No. 3 Chartiers Valley (14-5-1), 3-2, to win the school’s first Penguins Cup title.
Indiana has won 25 consecutive games dating to last season when it qualified for the final before the game was canceled because of the pandemic.