The sting of losing in a championship game two years ago never left Steve Stepanian.

As a member of this year's Armstrong Arrows Midget U-16 AA hockey team, Stepanian scored four goals in the Arrows' 5-2 victory over Mon Valley in the recent USAHockey Mid-Am District Tournament championship game, which was held at BladeRunners in Warrendale.

The win gave the Arrows the Pennsylvania State championship crown, something they lost two years ago as members of the U-14 team.

"I just kept telling myself, 'This is it.' We went there two years ago and lost. It was a horrible feeling,"Stepanian said.

"I didn't want to repeat the past. I wanted to come out with everything I had."

Apparently, the entire Arrows team did the same as they won all four games to grab the title.

Steve's father, Leo, coached the team. Two season's ago, he shared the duties with John Ford.

"It was the same pool of kids and we took second," said coach Stepanian. "Last year, we kind of laid off, but this year we decided to do it."

The team had 15 players, including six from Butler County. Stepanian, Zach Carben, Aaron Hobaugh, Tanner Master and Warren Schultz attend Butler High School and Cam Lang is from Knoch.

The rest of the squad includes Cory Beers, Evan Blodgett, Dieter Koster, Steven Phelps and Brian Smith (Kittanning), Ian Ferguson and Tyler Smith (Ford City), Keifer O'Neil (Rural Valley) and Dustin Schrecongost (Kiski Area).

"To give you an idea of our team, it's kind of a conglomerate," said the elder Stepanian. "On average, physically, we're smaller than teams we were playing and we had the smallest number of kids."

That didn't seem to slow the Arrows, who faced a tough Erie Lions squad in the first game of the round-robin tournament, pulling out a 5-4 win. The Lions (15-2-1 before the tournament) averaged more than a five-goal winning margin per game over its opponents.

A 3-2 win followed over the Pittsburgh Predators, who were the 2005-06 PAHLplayoff winners. Next, came a 4-3 win over the North Pittsburgh Wildcats.

That win propelled the Arrows to the championship final against the Mon Valley Thunder, the PAHLregular-season champions with a 16-2-2 record. Mon Valley defeated the Southpointe Rink Rats, Allegheny Badgers and Pittsburgh Aviators to reach the finals.

Steve Stepanian, an assistant captain, scored a natural hat trick in the first period. He added a fourth goal in the third period for a 4-1 lead and Smith, the team's captain, closed out the scoring with an unassisted goal.

Stepanian finished the four-game tournament with five goals, while Carben added three goals and three assists. Lang, the team's goalie made 118 saves out of 129 shots, a .915 save percentage.

"Zach was the captain for Butler High School and he and Steve played together," said coach Stepanian. "Zach has a great shot and scores a lot. He and Steve assist each other.

"Cam had a 93 percent save average throughout the season, which was phenomenal."

Schultz never played AA hockey, but by the end of the season had developed into a very good defenseman. Hobaugh was one of the team's top scorers during the season and was coming back after a recent injury.

"(Hobaugh's) a good stickhandler, a good passer and he can score," said coach Stepanian. "Tanner Master is about 5-foot-3, 115 pounds, and he'll hit anybody."

With the win, the Arrows advanced to the district tournament in Columbus, Ohio, which was played last weekend.

The Arrows dropped a 9-0 decision to the Ice Diggers of Toledo 9-0 and defeated Fort Wayne (Ind.) Komets 4-3.