Raiders skate past Tornado
KITTANNING — Butler's hockey team found itself in a perfect situation to come back against Seneca Valley, but that opportunity vanished very quickly.
Trailing 3-1 with 12 minutes remaining in the third period, penalties on the Raiders' Brandon Platt and Rich Schutte gave the Golden Tornado a two-man advantage for two full minutes.
Nineteen seconds into the power play, however, a bounce off the boards turned into a 2-on-1 Seneca Valley breakaway.
Mike McChesney then fed Nick Jones on a perfect pass in stride to give the Raiders an insurance goal that sent them to a 4-2 victory at the Belmont Ice Complex Thursday.
Butler did score with the two-man advantage when Zach Pennington recorded a goal with 10:42 remaining, but that proved to be the game's final tally.
"That was definitely a momentum changer," said Seneca Valley coach Mike Schall. "We got a nice bounce off the board and our defenders made a great play on the puck."
"It was anybody's game at that point," said Butler coach Joe Honzo. "That was a turning point in the game. Once again, we let ourselves get in the position of getting too many penalties.
"We were in the box for 28 out of 45 minutes. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We're not great enough of a team to overcome that," he added.
Seneca Valley (7-5) jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead 3:58 into the game when Andrew Tang slipped a Matt Jarrett helper past Butler goalie Kris Rhodaberger.
The Raiders doubled the lead with 1:49 left in the period on a goal by Jones. His shot from the side trickled past Rhodaberger with one second left on a power-play opportunity.
"It's nice to play with the lead, especially when you get out to a two-goal lead," said Schall. "Then, we got comfortable. We definitely had some chances and we didn't finish it."
The Raiders took a 3-0 lead with 8:59 left in the second period when McChesney scored on a power play in front of a crowded net, and Jones and Tang tallied assists.
Butler countered 59 seconds later with a goal by Pennington off a deflection by Seneca Valley goalie Nick Miller.
At that point, the Tornado (2-8) looked like they were beginning to take charge in the game.
"We felt we had momentum midway in the second period," said Honzo. "Unfortunately, we had a lot of penalties."
Butler's Justin O'Donnell played the entire second and third periods for Butler, making 13 saves while Rhodaberger made 12 in the first period. Miller made 17 stops for the Raiders.
The win shows what the Raiders are capable of accomplishing if they play as a unit, according to Schall.
"We get wins when we play as a team," said Schall. "When we do that as a group of five, it's special. We need to work together as a line. We've gotten better, but we need to keep it going and make a solid run."
Both teams will return to action Monday at the Delmont Ice Arena. Seneca Valley will face Gateway and Butler will square off against Penn-Trafford.
