Peters Township is only defending champion left
Chartiers Valley is the only team still unbeaten
Only two 2023 Penguins Cup champions qualified for the playoffs this year.
Now, Peters Township stands alone as the only team with a chance to repeat.
Or, in the Indians case, threepeat.
There were several upsets in the first round of the tournament, but none in Class 3A where the top four seeds — Pine-Richland, North Allegheny, Seneca Valley and Peters Township — all made it through the first round.
But things only get tougher from here as all games move to Robert
Morris University Island Sports Center.
Here is a complete breakdown of the semifinals in Class 1A through 3A that will be played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday:
Class 3A
Pine-Richland (16-4-1) is the No. 1 seed and has been on a roll in the past two months. Not only have the Rams put together an impressive eight game winning streak, they are 9-0-1 in their last 10 and 2-0-1 in one-goal games in that time.
But here’s the thing: They haven’t played Peters Township.
That may not seem like a big deal, but in reality, the Indians are a matchup nightmare for PineRichland. In their two games this season, Peters Township is 2-0-0 and has outscored the Rams, 9-4, including a 6-2 drubbing in their last meeting on Dec. 19.
What should make Pine-Richland even more wary when the two teams meet Monday at 7:15 p.m. at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center is that the Rams never held a lead in either game and it was only tied for 18 minutes, 44 seconds, including the first 11:14 of the season before Luca Maietta scored the opening goal in the Indians’ 3-2 victory in the Oct. 5 opener.
Senior forward Camden Martin was a thorn in the Pine-Richland’s side in both meetings. He had seven points in the two games, including a four-goal outburst in their second meeting.
Martin is also the reason why Peters Township is in this game. The Indians got taken to overtime in their postseason opener against Upper St. Clair and Martin scored the game-winner – his second of the game – at 4:57 of the first extra frame to move the team forward.
Pine-Richland will likely start Brett Sudac in goal, as he has had slightly better success against Peters Township than Nathan Dembowski.
In the other semifinal, No. 2 North Allegheny (15-4-2) gets a third shot at No. 3 Seneca Valley (16-5-0) on Monday at 9:15 in one of the more evenly matched games between two teams in the postseason.
Not only did the two teams split their season series, both teams scored the same number of goals (6) and both teams won one-goal games against each other.
This game will likely come down to goaltending as North Allegheny junior Camden Junker and Seneca Valley senior Cenzo DiTullio will likely square off for the third time this season. DiTullio has one of Class 3A’s best goalsagainst-average at 2.47.
Class 2A
Penn-Trafford pulled off the biggest upset of the first round when it knocked off top-seeded defending champion South Fayette. This will be the eighth-seeded Warriors second trip to the semifinals in three years and they will be hoping for a better outcome than the 62 loss they were dealt in 2022 by eventual champion Thomas Jefferson.
This time, however, Penn-Trafford (8-9-4) won’t just be taking the ice Tuesday at 7 p.m. for a chance to make it into the Penguins Cup final. The Warriors will also have the added incentive to slam the door on the title hopes of their closest rival.
Norwin (12-7-2) has been here before. When PennTrafford was losing to Thomas Jefferson in 2022, the fourth- seeded Knights skated off with the Class 1A crown for the first Penguins Cup title in school history. Although things have been a little tougher in this their first season in the higher classification, they are still in the semifinals for the third consecutive year.
Expect a barnburner this time around. Norwin and Penn-Trafford went beyond overtime in their two previous meetings as each team won shootouts.
Junior forward Marco Ferraccio had five goals and seven points in the two games to lead the Warriors while PIHL scoring leader Alex Thomas had five goals and an assist in the two games for Norwin.
Thomas Jefferson, the 2022 champion and the No. 2 seed, will face a foe with retribution on its mind when it takes on No. 6 Franklin Regional (11-7-3) in the 9 p.m. game.
When these two teams last met in the playoffs, the Panthers took a 5-1 lead into the third period of the 2022 Penguins Cup final and watched as the Jaguars stormed back to tie it, 5-5, before Nick Stock scored the title-winner 46 seconds into overtime.
Nick Stock has graduated, but his brother, Jake, is a pretty good scorer in his own right. Thomas Jefferson (19-2-0), in fact, has several key players back from that championship team who contributed mightily as sophomores.
Thomas Jefferson won both regular-season meetings with Franklin Regional by a combined score of 14-6.
Class 1A
Chartiers Valley remains the lone undefeated team in the PIHL. That being said, the Colts (21-0-0) may get their toughest opponent of the season when they take on Indiana (16-3-2) on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m.
Because of the PIHL scheduling in Class 1A – and the fact there are 23 teams – the two divisions never crossed over and South Fayette and Indiana haven’t played each other. But if past is prologue, it may not go well for Blue Division champion Chartiers Valley.
So far in the playoffs, Blue Division teams are a combined 1-4, with the only victory a preliminaryround win by fifth-place Moon against Gold Division fourth-place finisher Mars. Chartiers Valley beat Moon in the quarterfinals, so this will be the first time the team sees a team from the other division.
Indiana can say the same thing. It has not played a Blue Division team as of yet as its quarterfinals opponent, Gold Division sixthplace finisher North Catholic, beat Blue Division No. 3 Blackhawk, 5-3, in their preliminary-round game.
While the first game on Wednesday will be a meeting of strangers, the 8:45 start between Shaler and Greensburg Salem will pit very familiar foes. Maybe too familiar. Shaler already beat the Golden Lions twice this season and in blowout fashion both times. In the first, Jacob Kunc had a hat trick and a pair of assists while Jacob Skerlong chipped in five helpers in an 8-4 win on Oct. 12.
Their second meeting was worse for Greensburg Salem. Kunc hit the back of the net himself with a par of goals and three more assists to give him 10 points in the two games between the schools and Brendan Fitzgerald added four assists in an 8-1 win on Jan. 18