MEADVILLE - A banner hanging at Meadville's George S. DeArment Ice Arena reads: "Nobody beats us in our house".

The Butler hockey team almost made the Bulldogs eat their words.

With the score tied 1-1 after the first two periods, Meadville tallied two goals within a 62-second span of the third period and held on for a 3-2 victory and a PIHL Class AAA playoff win Monday night.

With his team down 3-1, Butler's B.J. Tipton took a deflection off his own shot and beat Meadville goalie Danny O'Shurak with 2:35 left in the game. It was Tipton's second goal of the game.

Needing one more goal to tie the Bulldogs (23-2-1), Butler failed to challenge O'Shurak in the final minutes.

"I think if Butler would have scored that second goal with five or six minutes left, the game could have been different," said Meadville coach Jamie Plunkett.

"We knew we had to be patient the last few minutes," said Butler coach Bob Hoehn. "We tried to throw the puck to the net and get a rebound."

The Bulldogs, the defending Class AAA state champions, wasted no time taking the upper hand in the game.

Just 36 seconds into the first period, Meadville's Christian Nickerson thwarted Butler's attempt to clear the puck.

Nickerson spotted an open Phil Siverd to the left of the net and the latter beat Butler goalie Bucky Holt for a quick 1-0 lead.

"Not exactly the way you want to begin a game," said Hoehn. "But I thought we rebounded well from it."

Indeed, Butler (17-9) managed several solid scoring chances in the first period. The Golden Tornado hit O'Shurak with 10 shots in the first period, with Spencer Crouse feeding Tipton at 2:44 of the first period to pull Butler even with Meadville.

Holt, who stopped 49 of 50 shots in a first-round win over Franklin-Regional, turned in another clutch performance to keep his team in the game.

At no time was this more evident than in the second period when the Bulldogs pelted Holt with 16 shots, none of them reaching the net. He ended the game with 42 saves.

"He's been incredible all season," said Hoehn. "And he played well again tonight."

"Their goalie kept them in the game," said Plunkett. "He made one big save after another and the next thing you know, it's 1-to-1 going into the third period."

That score didn't last long, however.

The Bulldogs opened the final period with 1:41 left on a power play that began at the end of the second period.

Seconds after Butler returned to full-strength, Dave Moyer gathered in a pass from Anthony Scarpino and his slap shot gave Meadville a 2-1 lead with 13:17 left to play.

Just over a minute later, Luke Killagan and Justin Wilkinson teamed up in much the same fashion, with Killagan scoring to make it 3-1.

Hoehn left the arena knowing his team stood toe-to-toe with the Bulldogs, who have eight state titles to their credit.

"You come in here and face the flag for the national anthem, and there's all those state title banners right there," said Hoehn. "But I thought the kids did an excellent job handling the pressure.

"I couldn't be more proud of the team," added Hoehn. "We surprised a lot of people this year. We weren't an easy game for anybody."

O'Shurak finished with 21 saves for the Bulldogs, who will meet Mt. Lebanon in the Penguin Cup semifinals.