Peters Township tries for repeat in Class 3A
PIHL will crown first-time champ in Class 1A final
Heading into the PIHL semifinals last week at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center, all three 2022 Penguins Cup champions were alive and on the cusp of having an opportunity to repeat.
Afterward, there was but one.
Peters Township will be the lone team heading into the finals on Monday and Tuesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry with an opportunity to make it two in a row. The Indians will be attempting to become the first team to repeat in consecutive years since Bethel Park won three straight from 2000-02.
North Allegheny won consecutive titles in 2019 and 2021, but it wasn’t a repeat because of the 2020 COVID19 shutdown that halted the playoffs the day of the Class 3A semifinals.
Here is a complete breakdown of the finals:
Class 3A
Upper St. Clair has been in this position before, but that was a long time ago.
The Panthers were in the 2019 Class 2A final when they lost to Pine-Richland, but when they take the ice Monday at 6:15 p.m., it will be the first time they will compete for a championship in the highest classification since winning the Penguins Cup and state championships in 2011.
“I think, at the end of the day, I have a senior-laden team and they’ve been doing this since they were 4 years old,” Upper St. Clair coach Dave Stock said. “It’s a hockey game. There’s hype going into it, but it’s a different week for them, There’s tickets to get and grandmas are coming, but when the lights turn back on, they just need to go play hockey, and they get it.”
Upper St. Clair (13-8-1) has had a topsy-turvy season with a three-game losing streak and a five-game winning streak along the way that led to a No. 7 seed in the tournament. But the one thing the Panthers did well was play No. 1 Peters Township tougher than any team in the league.
Both times the teams squared off this year, it was a one-goal game, but neither was remotely similar.
In their first meeting on Jan. 17, it was a run-and-gun affair with Peters Township blowing a two-goal first-period lead and the two teams trading goals back and forth in the third period, until Colin Ruffner scored his third of the game at 2:05 of overtime to give Upper St. Clair a 6-5 win.
Ruffner has four goals in his two postseason games, including a hat trick in the semifinals against PineRichland.
Their rematch on Feb. 9 was more of a goaltending battle between Peters Township’s Kyle Thomas and Upper St. Clair freshman Timothy Cottrill. Ryder Mertens decided it for Peters Township on an unassisted goal at 9:57 of the second period in a 2-1 decision.
“They’ve got some elite players the same as we do and I think we’ll have a good game plan knowing what they want to do with the puck,” Stock said. “To be honest, I think our game plan needs to be centric to this room and we need to go out and play our game.”
While Upper St. Clair gets most of its scoring from its top line as Ruffner and Aaron Stawiarski were the leading scorers in the classification during the regular season, Peters Township is more diversified. The Indians roll four lines and all four accounted for a goal in their 4-0 victory against North Allegheny in the semifinals.
Class 2A
Armstrong (19-3-0) and South Fayette (17-3-2) were the top two teams in the classification during the regular season and appeared destined to play in the title game (Tuesday at 6:15 p.m.).
But of the two, only South Fayette has really faced a challenge this postseason. That came in the opener when Franklin Regional had a 2-1 lead heading into the third period before Trevor D’Alessandro tied it up and Robert Chiappetta won it with 1:17 remaining to pull off the 3-2 victory. In their second game, South Fayette got a surprise when Latrobe was awarded a forfeit against Bishop McCort when the Crimson Crushers used an ineligible player against the Wildcats. South Fayette took advantage, as leading scorer Wes Schwarzmiller had two goals and three points in the 4-1 win.
Armstrong has had its game on cruise control from the start and glided into its first final since winning the 2018 championship in dominating fashion.
In its opener, the River Hawks crushed Hempfield at Belmont Ice Complex in a 12-1, running-clock rout. They didn’t take it much easier on defending champion Thomas Jefferson, as they dealt the Jaguars a 7-2 beatdown in the semifinals.
Caleb Hoffman has been the big gun for Armstrong with four goals and five points in the two postseason games. Goaltender Dylan Morris has also been solid, allowing three goals on 40 shots for a 0.925 save percentage. Scoring 19 goals in two playoff games doesn’t happen often, but Armstrong probably won’t have that kind of night against South Fayette. At least not if the two regular season games are any indication.
Although the two teams split their regular season meetings, both were onegoal affairs. Schwarzmiller had two goals, including the eventual game-winner, in a 3-2 Lions victory on Oct. 31, while the River Hawks won the second, 4-3, in a shootout.
Class 1A
No matter which team wins when Fox Chapel (20-20) and Kiski Area (18-5-0) meet Monday at 8:15 p.m., one thing is certain: The PIHL will crown a first-time champion.
Fox Chapel made the Class 1A final in 1990 and lost to Ringgold, and also in Class 2A in 1997 when it was beaten by Cathedral Prep. But despite having a program since 1972-73, this is only the Foxes’ third final appearance.
Kiski Area, meanwhile, doesn’t have quite the storied history and has never been to the finals.
If the two regular season meetings are any indication, this might be Fox Chapel’s championship to lose.
Fox Chapel won the two prior meetings against the Cavaliers, 5-2, in the opener for both on Oct. 3 and a resounding 10-2 running-clock win Feb. 13.
In that second game, Mason Heininger had a hat trick and five points, while goaltender Joe Rattner stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced.