WARRENDALE— John Raymus had his stick in the right place at the right time Tuesday night.

The Seneca Valley winger had only four goals all season, but he scored three times in the third period to help the Raiders post a 6-3 hockey victory over Butler.

The Golden Tornado (3-17-1) ended their regular season with a seven-game losing streak, but they rallied to tie the game at 3 on a pair of Gereme Hensel goals.

Hensel jammed the puck behind Seneca Valley goaltender Nick Miller during a scramble in front of the net with 3:37 left in the second period. The Tornado captain then knotted the game with a power-play goal 2:15 into the final period.

"There's no quit on our team,"Hensel said. "We've missed the playoffs for three years now, but it was so much easier to play this year because of the attitude of everybody."

Unfortunately for Butler, the score didn't stay tied for very long.

Raymus was camped to the left of the Butler net and deflected in a cross-ice pass from Matt Jarrett only 50 seconds after Hensel evened the contest.

With Butler's Rick Double in the penalty box for roughing, Raymus had an open net to the right of goaltender Kris Rhodaberger and deflected home a pass from Nick Jones, who delivered the puck after faking a shot from the point.

"Those passes were perfect,"Raymus said. "There's no way I score either of those goals without Jarrett and Jones. They put the puck right on my stick."

Raymus completed his first high school hat trick by shooting into an empty net with 1:24 left in the game. His last hat trick occurred with the North Pittsburgh Wildcats three years ago.

Butler coach Joe Honzo moved his most talented players up to forward in an effort to generate more offense Tuesday night. The move proved effective as the Tornado scored three goals for the first time in seven games.

"We were right in this game, even after we fell behind 4-3," Honzo said. "Why they would call a penalty with four minutes to go is beyond me. That kind of took the game away from us.:

Double scored Butler's first goal of the game shorthanded.

Brandon Platt, Jones and Kaleb Schwab scored second-period goals for the Raiders (12-9-0), who begin WPIHL playoff action next week.

"We went through the motions during those first two periods,"Seneca Valley coach Mike Schall said. "The positive thing is our kids found a way in the third. We played much better. We played together."

Winning goaltender Miller improved to 8-2 by stopping 17 of 20 Butler shots.

Justin O'Donnell and Rhodaberger combined to stop 34 of 40 Seneca Valley shots.

Butler 1 1 1 — 3Seneca Valley 0 3 3 — 6First PeriodButler-Rick Double 5 SH(unassisted) 6:51

Second PeriodSeneca Valley-Brandon Platt 11 (Nick Jones) 1:09;

Seneca Valley-Jones 17 PP(Mike McChesney, John Raymus) 6:45;

Seneca Valley-Kaleb Schwab 1 (Tyler Mesisica, Richard Schutte) 7:24;

Butler-Gereme Hensel 6 (Steve Stepanian, Zach Carben) 11:23

Third PeriodButler-Hensel 7 PP (Zach Pennington, Beau Bechtel) 2:15;

Seneca Valley-John Raymus 5 (Matt Jarrett) 3:05;

Seneca Valley-Raymus 6 PP (Jones, McChesney)12:00;

Seneca Valley-Raymus 7 (unassisted) 13:26

Shots on goal-Butler:5-8-7-20, Seneca Valley 11-14-15-40

Power play opportunities-Butler 1 of 4, Seneca Valley 2 of 5